Sometimes the best way to hide is to not hide at all, just letting others take the attention. Hidden in plain site, right on British Airways’ own website, lies a chart which can save you miles, money and even give you some extra stopovers and flights without any additional miles. You see, it was useless before April of last year, when British Airways devalued, but post devaluation, it could be the golden ticket, or at least a business or first class one…

a screenshot of a screen

What This Forgotten Chart Offers

For every cabin this chart offers the potential to use less miles, travel more and gain free stopovers on great partners. When British Airways devalued their chart, they made business class three times the price of economy in peak pricing, whereas in this hidden, forgotten chart it’s just double and first is three times. The key element is that unlike British Airways’ main chart for its own flights, this is not based on each segment, but rather an overall distance. That means you can fly a lot more than you can with the standard chart, without paying more miles. Enlarge the chart HERE.

a bed in a room

How You Can Use Distance To Your Advantage…

You’re not paying by the segment. You’re paying by an overall distance and this works worldwide, yes, even from London. For example, I’m flying from New York to Tokyo this year, returning from Hong Kong to New York. The trip clocks in at just over 14,000 miles, using two partners Cathay Pacific and Japan Airlines, which puts it in the 14,000-20,000 mile bracket on the two partner “forgotten” chart, fetching 200,000 miles per person. If I booked this award without using two partners, flying on just British Airways, I’d pay 210,000 miles per person during peak travel, no extra flight included. 10,000 more miles for less flying. By booking this flight with two or more partners, not only do I save 10,000 Avios (frequent flyer miles), but I get to add on flights, since I’m nowhere near the 20,000 miles of actual flying distance I have allotted at this rate. Since I’m only using 14,000 actual miles flown presently, I have 6,000 actual flying miles of free business class to play with. That means I can add in destinations and stops like Hong Kong to Bangkok, to Singapore, back to Hong Kong or Tokyo at no extra cost in miles. 6,000 miles of additional flights would run me at least 100,000 more miles per person! That means major savings in miles, not to mention less in taxes! AMAZING.

a tray of food on a tray in an airplane

Ok, So How Do I Book?

This will do you absolutely zero good for short trips or basic one destination flights. If you want to plan a mega trip, splashing out through Asia, Africa, Middle East, Australia or all of the above, this is your ticket. Add in as many stops and destinations as you could possibly enjoy, find availability on at least two carriers that aren’t British Airways and book over the phone, by spoon feeding the flight numbers and dates to the (friendly?) rep. Of course, you’ll want to comparison shop to see if you’ll save miles, but the crazier and longer the routings, the more likely the answer is a resounding yes…

a map of the world with numbers and arrows

This Is A Game Changer…

Why pay a ton of miles for a simple two flight round trip, when you could add an incredible array of destinations, extra flights and gorgeous first or business class cabins for nothing, just for knowing to fly on partners.

HT: HeadForPoints

Gilbert Ott

Gilbert Ott is an ever curious traveler and one of the world's leading travel experts. His adventures take him all over the globe, often spanning over 200,000 miles a year and his travel exploits are regularly...

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1 Comment

  1. I’ve been planning to take advantage of this – do you have any tips on how to find availability on the various one-world partners?

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