If you’d prefer to book with AA, the Citi® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® World Elite Mastercard® is offering a sign-up bonus of 50,000 bonus miles after spending $2,500 on purchases in the first three months of account opening, meaning you could earn quite a large chunk of the miles you’d need to book this flight through American just with the bonus. If you’re low on BA Avios, there’s currently a 30% bonus from Chase Ultimate Rewards. Considering tickets on this route consistently sell for anywhere from $3,000 to over $5,000 round-trip, you’re still coming out ahead by using miles and paying the steep fees. Another good option is to use 70,000 Alaska MileagePlan miles for the flight.Īside from the miles required, flights to/from London are subject to high surcharges and taxes, in this case about ~$580, regardless of which program you book with. It’s also bookable through American Airlines’ AAdvantage program - there a ticket will cost 85,000 miles. You can book through BA’s own Executive Club, where a seat will run you 68,000 Avios off-peak or 80,000 peak. Bookingīooking a British Airways flight like this is relatively easy to do with miles. I am never one to say no to first class or an A380, so I pushed the button.

A search of award availability using British Airways Avios threw Chicago O'Hare (ORD) up as a possible destination, with a seat on the very same plane back to London Heathrow (LHR) two hours later. With a huge amount of preparation for the launch of TPG UK underway in London, it was going to be a very quick trip. I flew the previous first-class product a number of weeks ago and had a fantastic experience, so I was eager to try the new soft product, which launched on March 31 and rolled out across the fleet within a matter of days. There was a huge amount of noise across the aviation world with the introduction of the new British Airways Club Suite, leaving poor first class and its new soft product a little in the shadows. Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available.

First class a380