What are Avios Only flights?Popular summer destinations get a handful of Avios Only flights
BA seem to be happy with the performance of Avios Only flights. They’ve launched eight new flights to four destinations, all in August 2025. This is on top of the flights already announced for 2025.
What are Avios Only flights?
They’re regular BA flights with a difference. Instead of a limit on the number of seats available for Avios redemptions, every seat is up for grabs. These flights are still bookable using cash.
BA promises that on any given flight, there will be a minimum of eight economy seats, two premium economy seats, and four business class seats (either Club World or Club Europe) bookable using points. However, there is no guaranteed availability in the first-class cabin.
Flights designated as Avios Only turns that on its head. It’s a free-for-all, which means you need to act quickly. BA has picked popular destinations.
It’s a great way for travellers to be guaranteed seats on a flight. It’s also a good way for BA to reduce the number of Avios waiting to be redeemed.
The announcement of new Avios-only flights will increase the number of flights in 2025 to sixteen (eight outbound, eight inbound). The schedule covers eight destinations, including Abu Dhabi, Barbados, Geneva, and the new flights listed below.
What’s been announced?
(You can see an updated list of all the Avios Only flights here)
| From | To | Dates (In / Out) | Prices From |
|---|---|---|---|
| London City | Ibiza | 8th Aug 2025 (2:45pm flight), back 15th Aug (11:25pm flight) | Euro Traveller: 25,500 return Avios + £1 Club Europe: 44,500 Avios return+ £1 |
| London City | Palma de Mallorca | 15th Aug 2025 (3pm flight), back 22nd Aug (11am flight) | Euro Traveller: 25,500 Avios + £1 Club Europe: 44,500 Avios + £1 |
| Heathrow | Corfu | 23rd Aug 2025, back 29th Aug | Euro Traveller: 30,500 Avios + £1 Club Europe: 54,500 Avios + £1 |
| Heathrow | Split | 23rd Aug 2025, back 29th Aug | Euro Traveller: 25,500 Avios + £1 Club Europe: 44,500 Avios + £1 |
All the above flights are short-haul, so the seat options will be Economy or Club Europe (Business). Club Europe means economy seats, but on the A319/A320/A321 the middle seat is blocked out. You don’t get any extra legroom but you do have more space to your left or right.
However, the flights from LCY are on smaller Embraer planes. These have two seats on either side of the aisle, so there is no difference between Economy and Club Europe seats on these flights. There will be a different food offering for the business class ticket holders.
The dates for the new Avios Only flights are peak dates.
Can you use a companion voucher for Avios Only flights?
Yes, it works the same way as a non-Avios-only flight. You have a greater chance of having two seats available to book than a regular flight.
You can also use a Barclays cabin upgrade voucher to move from Euro Traveller to Club Europe for the same points as an economy seat costs.
What’s the future for Avios Only flights?
British Airways is clearly happy with running Avios-only flights. The scheme is entering its third year. Whilst there’s a reasonable number of destinations and flights in 2025, it’s not significantly bigger than 2024, although 2025 brought long-haul destinations into the mix.
What Avios collectors really want is more availability. That means either more Avios Only flights (which does not seem to be on the cards) or an increase in available seats on every flight. In BA’s defence, their guaranteed availability across the Economy, Premium Economy and Business Class cabins is better than most other airlines.
The Premium Plus companion voucher can be used to get access to increased availability, although that process is not transparent. There’s no way to predict if a flight will have extra seats for you. Instead you need to carry out a dummy booking and see if there’s availability.
Avios availability tools can’t give you a view of how a Premium Plus voucher will impact seats. That means if you set up alerts within one of these platforms, they won’t take into account the additional availability shown to you.
