Disclosure: We get a commission for links on the blog. You don’t have to use our links, but we’re very grateful when you do. American Express, Barclaycard, Chase, and US Bank are Million Mile Secrets advertising partners. Opinions expressed here are the author's alone, and have not been reviewed, approved or endorsed by our partners. Here’s our Advertiser Disclosure.Don’t forget to follow me on Facebook or Twitter! Via The Points Guy, US Airways is not charging fuel surcharges on award redemptions on British Airways. This can save you thousands of dollars over the normal rate! This may be a glitch or oversight and may be fixed soon. So if you have US Airways miles and want to book British Airways flights, you should act fast! In March, US Airways left the Star Alliance and joined oneworld, an alliance that includes partners like British Airways. You can use British Airways Avios points, American Airlines miles, or Alaska Airlines miles to fly on British Airways.
But you will pay high fuel surcharges. These fuel surcharges can range from hundreds to even thousands of dollars! Say you want to fly round-trip in British Airways World Traveller (coach) from New York to London on July 22, 2014, to July 29, 2014. You would pay 40,000 British Airways Avios and ~$708 for fuel surcharges, taxes, and fees! You also pay high fuel surcharges even if you use American Airlines or Alaska Airlines miles. For example, you could use American Airlines miles to fly round-trip in British Airways Club World (Business Class) from New York to London on May 7, 2014, to May 14, 2014. You would pay 100,000 American Airlines miles and $1,181 in fuel surcharges, taxes, and fees! The high fuel surcharges usually makes using miles on British Airways expensive, because you have to pay miles and hundreds of dollars in fuel surcharges for your ticket. Since joining the oneworld alliance, US Airways hasn’t yet added fuel surcharges to British Airways award flights.
You could save 60% to 80% if you don’t pay fuel surcharges. But you still have to pay international taxes and fees. This is likely an oversight or glitch, so this might not last! Fuel surcharges vary for each flight. Here are some examples of fuel surcharges. For example, fuel surcharges, taxes, and fees on a round-trip British Airways Business Class ticket from Austin to London are ~ $1,270! However, when we see the breakdown, $904 are fuel surcharges. While British Airways and most other partners like American Airlines would charge ~$1,270, US Airways is only charging $366 in taxes & fees! That’s a 72% savings! You could also save a lot on coach tickets. For example, for a round-trip coach ticket on British Airways from Boston to Johannesburg, South Africa you pay ~$714 for fuel surcharges, taxes, and fees. However, when looking at the detailed list of taxes and fuel surcharges, we see that US Airways would omit $500 of fuel surcharges.
So an award ticket on British Airways from Boston to Johannesburg in coach would cost only ~$214 in taxes & fees, which is a 70% savings! Link: US Airways Award Chart US Airways has a region-based award chart, so you would be charged based on the regions of your origin and destinations. You can route through London on British Airways to get to destinations in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, India, and Asia! US Airways only allows you to book round-trips, so you cannot book 1-way flights (if you do, you still pay the round-trip price). You are allowed 1 stopover in a oneworld hub city (like London, since that is British Airways hub). From the USA or Canada to Europe, you would pay: From the USA or Canada to North Asia (China, Hong Kong, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Macau, Mongolia, South Korea, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan), you would pay: From the USA or Canada to South & Central Asia (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Brunei, Cambodia, Chagos, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Vietnam), you would pay:
From the USA or Canada to the Middle East, you would pay: From the USA or Canada to Africa, you would pay: British Airways flights are useful for getting from North America to London, and connecting to Europe, Africa, the Middle East, India, and Asia! British Airways flies to the following cities in the United States and Canada: , British Airways flies hundreds of routes all over the world, so you connect to many destinations! You can also fly British Airways across the Atlantic Ocean from the US to London, then connect to other oneworld partners to complete trips elsewhere. Other oneworld partners do not charge any fuel surcharges. These partners can include: US Airways will not allow you to route via Europe to the South Pacific region. However, British Airways also operates a separate flight between Singapore and Sydney that you can redeem miles on. US Airways allows you to fly from the US to South Pacific via Asia, so you can use partners American Airlines, Cathay Pacific, Japan Airlines, and Malaysia Airlines to fly to Singapore and connect to Sydney on British Airways.
The best ways to search for British Airways flights would be to use the British Airways website. If you want to connect to other flights partners, you can also use the British Airways website to search partners, like You cannot book US Airways awards online, you must call in. The best ways to book with US Airways miles is to find award availability using online tools, and then call in at 1-800-428-4322. US Airways charges several fees just for booking award tickets, including You must book round-trip awards and US Airways will not allow changes to your award once you fly the first flight. Also, even though US Airways and American Airlines are in the midst of a merger, you can NOT transfer American Airlines miles to US Airways miles yet. * If you liked this post, why don’t you join the 16,000+ readers who have signed-up to receive free blog posts via email (only 1 email per day!) or in an RSS reader …because then you’ll never miss another update!