British Airways Avios points become easier to use for Alaska Airlines with Oneworld integration

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British Airways is a member of the Oneworld airline alliance. There are 14 airlines in this alliance, and you can use British Airways Avios points to fly on these partner airlines. That means you can get just about anywhere with British Airways Avios!

Another airline has just joined Oneworld — Alaska Airlines. It’s since made the British Airways points you’ve earned from the best travel credit cards way easier to use. I’ll show you why.

Book Alaska Airlines flights on the British Airways website

British Airways and Alaska Airlines have been partners for a long time. We’ve been able to book Alaska Airlines flights with British Airways for many years. The only problem is that these flights have not been visible online; we’ve had to actually phone the British Airways call center to book flights — much like cavemen reserved their award seats during the Paleolithic Era.

Now that Alaska Airlines has joined the Oneworld alliance, we’re now seeing Alaska Airlines award seats on the British Airways website! This makes finding and booking Alaska flights much easier.

At full strength, Alaska Airlines was making 1,200 flights per day pre-coronavirus — this after acquiring Virgin America to expand their fleet. COVID-19 has reduced this number, but when travel returns to normal, you’ll see many thousands of award seats you can book online that once were not there.

Alaska Airlines is based in Seattle and largely focused on serving the West Coast. You can find great deals with British Airways Avios, including flights to Hawaii for as little as 13,000 points. That’s one of the best options for award flights to Hawaii.

The Alaska Airlines website is still a must

The British Airways website is one of the best tools for viewing the true inventory of Oneworld airline award seats. The problem is that the desktop version doesn’t search for flexible dates. You can’t view an entire month at once like you can with many other airline search engines. The British Airways mobile app actually has this feature, so you can use that — although it frequently gives me errors.

If you want to book an Alaska Airlines seat with British Airways Avios, it’s still a good idea to start your search on the Alaska Airlines website. You can quickly find saver award seats for your desired route with their calendar view.

Example: Below, I searched for flights from Los Angeles to Costa Rica on the Alaska Airlines website. The flights that cost 15,000 Alaska miles + $23 in taxes are saver awards that I can find on the British Airways website. Through British Airways, these flights cost 13,000 points and $23. So you’ll save 2,000 miles each way by using British Airways Avios. Plus, you’re much more likely to have access to Avios than Alaska miles.

Using British Airways points whenever you can to book flights like this on Alaska Airlines is a good idea not just because it’s cheaper, but also because Alaska Airlines miles are extremely valuable and difficult to earn — while British Airways Avios aren’t difficult to earn at all. You can transfer the following flexible points currencies to British Airways:

• Chase Ultimate Rewards
• Amex Membership Rewards points
• Marriott points (you can also transfer these to Alaska Airlines)
• Iberia and Aer Lingus Avios

Save your Alaska Airlines miles for things like business class flights to Asia that cost thousands and thousands of dollars. You can read about the best ways to use Alaska Airlines miles for all the great ways to use your rewards.

Bottom line

Alaska Airlines flights are now bookable online with British Airways Avios points. That’s great news, as we now don’t have to call British Airways to reserve our flights any longer. We always love to see carriers streamline their award booking process!

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