Avios Reward Flight Search Now Shows Connecting Flights

If you've ever priced a reward flight from Manchester, Edinburgh or Glasgow on avios.com, you'll know the search only showed direct flights. That has now changed. The Find Reward Flights search on avios.com now shows connecting itineraries on British Airways, Iberia and Aer Lingus - the feature Avios promised when it launched the tool in August.

For anyone who doesn't live near Heathrow, this is the most useful change to the Avios website this year. Here's how it works, what it still can't do, and the routing I'd check first.

WHAT // The Find Reward Flights tool launched in August 2026 as a calendar of direct reward seats on British Airways, Iberia and Aer Lingus. Type in an origin and a destination and it now also returns one-stop itineraries on the same airline. Manchester to Orlando can show BA via Heathrow or Aer Lingus via Dublin. London to Tokyo can show Iberia via Madrid as well as BA direct.

There's a "Show direct only" box if you want the old view back, and the calendar now covers the full booking window. Avios releases reward seats 355 days before departure, so you can scan the whole year in one go rather than month by month.

WHY IT MATTERS // Until now, a free month-wide view of reward seats only worked if you started in London, Madrid or Dublin. Everyone else had to piece together two searches and hope the times lined up. Now one search does it - and it puts the three airlines side by side. That matters because each airline prices its own flights on its own chart, and they are not the same.

Aer Lingus prices reward flights by zone on its own Avios chart, and a hop from a UK regional airport to Dublin is cheap. I searched Manchester to Orlando for 2 February 2027, and the new search showed both routings for the same day:

To be fair to BA, it doesn't charge extra from Manchester. The BA routing via Heathrow came up at 33,000 Avios in economy, 52,250 in premium economy and 99,000 in business - the same as BA's off-peak price from London, because the UK flight is included. So the saving isn't about where you start. It's that the Aer Lingus chart is cheaper: 12,750 fewer Avios in economy. The Aer Lingus business price is from its chart, so check that date in the search. The same pattern works to the north east of the US: Dublin to New York or Boston is 13,000 Avios in economy and 50,000 in business off-peak, against 27,500 and 88,000 on BA. You can check BA prices for any city with our how many Avios for a flight tool.

Two more reasons I like the Dublin routing. You clear US immigration in Dublin before you board, so you land in the US as a domestic arrival. And you can pay for Aer Lingus reward flights with the same Avios you collect with BA - you just move them across first. Taxes and charges differ by routing, so always compare the total at the booking step, and use our minimum connection time calculator if you're building a connection yourself.

It's a big step, but it isn't the finished article yet:

You can still filter on a Companion Voucher, which shows the extra BA seats for voucher holders. I covered that in my first look at the Avios reward seat finder.

For years, "Avios" has really meant "Avios from Heathrow". The most seats and the easiest searches all started in London, and regional flyers had to piece trips together by hand.

This update chips away at that. What I like most is that Avios is now showing you its cheapest airline even when it isn't BA. Aer Lingus via Dublin is often better value than BA via Heathrow, and a lot of people never look because it was a pain to search. Now it sits in the same results.

I'll still use other tools - Award Travel Finder (which we built) covers more airlines and sends alerts when seats open up - but for BA, Iberia and Aer Lingus, avios.com is now a very good first stop.

A free, clear and long-overdue upgrade. If you start your trips outside London, try it on your next search - especially to the US, where Dublin can save you thousands of Avios.

Short of Avios for that trip? The American Express Platinum Card is offering 80,000 Membership Rewards points (plus a £150 Selfridges eGift Card) when you spend £6,000 in 3 months, until 12 January 2027. Points convert 1:1 to BA Avios. The card has a £650 annual fee, representative 685.3% APR variable. See the Platinum offer.

I'll update this piece when mixed-airline trips go live or connections reach the app. Follow along on Instagram for more.

That's all from me for now. Any questions, just hit reply - I read every email.

Safe travels,
Jack