How Many Avios To Fly First Class?

If you are new to collecting Avios you may be wondering how many Avios to fly first class on holiday or a honeymoon. Whilst it is certainly an attainable goal I would argue that most people are better off saving for Business Class (see our article on How many Avios to fly Business Class?) But more on that later…

How to find how many Avios to fly First Class?

There a few ways you can check the amount of Avios points needed for a First Class flight. They are…

1. Using British Airways’ reward flight calculator located here – https://www.britishairways.com/travel/avios-calculator/public/en_gb?eId=199006
2. By logging in and going onto book flights with Avios – https://www.britishairways.com/travel/redeem/execclub/_gf/en_gb?eId=106019
3. Using reward flight finder – https://rewardflightfinder.com/ – here you can put in your origin/destination airport, how many people, what travel class and whether you want a single or return ticket. The site will then at the top show you the cost in Avios, taxes due and a calendar where you can see all the availability for your tickets without having to search for individual dates.
4. You can also reference the table below which we have made up based on flights from London. Check what zone your destination is in then reference the chart to see the Avios cost.

Zones

Zone 1

Aberdeen, Amsterdam, Basel, Belfast, Bergerac, Berlin, Bilbao, Billund, Bordeaux, Brussels, Chambery, Cologne, Copenhagen, Dublin, Dusseldorf, Edinburgh, Frankfurt, Friedrichshafen, Geneva, Genoa, Glasgow, Gothenburg, Grenoble, Hamburg, Hannover, Innsbruck, Inverness, Jersey, Leeds Bradford, Limoges, Luxembourg, Lyon, Manchester, Marseille, Milan, Munich, Nantes, Newcastle, Nice, Paris, Prague, Quimper, Rotterdam, Salzburg, Stuttgart, Toulouse, Turin & Zurich

Zone 2

Algiers, Alicante, Almeria, Barcelona, Bari, Bologna, Brindisi, Budapest, Cagliari, Dubrovnik, Faro, Figari, Florence, Gibraltar, Granada, Helsinki, Ibiza, Krakow, Lisbon, Madrid, Malaga, Menorca, Naples, Olbia, Oslo, Palermo, Palma, Pisa, Porto, Pula, Rome, Seville, Split, Stockholm, Valencia, Venice, Verona, Vienna, Warsaw & Zagreb

Zone 3

Athens, Bucharest, Catania, Chania, Corfu, Dalaman, Funchal, Gran Canaria, Heraklion, Istanbul, Kalamata, Kefalonia, Kiev, Lanzarote, Larnaca, Malta, Marrakech, Moscow, Mykonos, Paphos, Reykjavik, Rhodes, Santorini, Skiathos, Sofia, St Petersburg, Teneriffe, Thessaloniki, Tirana & Zakynthos

Zone 4

Abuja, Amman, Baku, Beirut, Cairo, Jeddah, Kuwait, Sharm El Sheikh, Tbilisi, and Tel Aviv.

Zone 5

Abu Dhabi, Accra, Almaty, Bahrain, Baltimore, Bermuda, Bishkek, Boston, Chicago, Dammam, Doha, Dubai, Freetown, Khartoum, Lagos, Montreal, Monrovia, Muscat, New York, Philadelphia, Riyadh, Toronto and Washington.

Zone 6

Antigua, Atlanta, Austin, Bangalore, Barbados, Beijing, Bridgetown, Calgary, Cancun, Cape Town, Chengdu, Chennai, Colombo, Dallas, Dar Es Salaam, Delhi, Denver, Entebbe, Grand Cayman, Grenada, Houston, Hyderabad, Johannesburg, Kingston, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Luanda, Lusaka, Male, Mexico City, Miami, Montego Bay, Mumbai, Nairobi, Nassau, New Delhi, Orlando, Phoenix, Port of Spain, Providenciales, Punta Cana, San Diego, San Francisco, San Juan, Seattle, St. Kitts, St. Lucia, Tampa, Tobago and Vancouver.

Zone 7

Bangkok, Hong Kong, Mauritius, Rio De Janeiro, Sao Paulo, Seoul, Shanghai and Tokyo.

Zone 8

Buenos Aires, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore.

Zone 9

Sydney.

Chart

Benefits of using Avios to fly First Class…

Now, unfortunately, BA does not fly a First Class cabin on any short-haul routes. This means the cheapest First Class flight you would be able to get would be to a Zone 5 location which includes places such as Dubai, New York & Toronto and will set you back 136,000 Avios for an off-peak return, 36,000 more than an off-peak Business Class return.

If you are considering flying First Class you probably already know the benefits… but if not take a look at British Airways’ website here – https://www.britishairways.com/en-gb/information/travel-classes/first/first

Why stick to Business Class over First Class?

Whilst First Class will certainly be a great experience I’m not sure if the increased Avios cost and time to collect over Business Class is worth it, at least for new collectors. Particularly as the cheapest First Class return will set you back 136,000 Avios!

The core benefits are similar too with a bed, lounge access, increased luggage allowance and food/drink etc! (Just a slightly higher standard and a few more benefits flying First Class depending on where you fly from.)

I would recommend trying Business Class on a short-haul route which you can get for as cheap as 15,500 Avios & £50 ‘taxes & fees’ as it’s a lot more attainable/quicker and will get you hooked! Once you’ve sampled this you can aim for bigger things. Take a look at our article on How many Avios to fly Business Class?

Remember…

Avios flights aren’t ‘free’ British Airways charge so-called ‘taxes and fees’ on redemptions. Taxes and charges on British Airways long-haul redemptions in Club World and First Class are around £600 per person.

If you are looking to kick-start your Avios with a huge 200,000 haul don’t forget to take a look at our guide to fast track yourself to a rather cool 200,000 Avios points – https://pointsuncovered.com/american-express/fast-track-yourself-to-2000000-avios-points/