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When Avios reward seats are released
| Programme |
Released |
What to know |
| British Airways (The BA Club) |
355 days |
Seats load ~355 days ahead, around midnight GMT (01:00 during BST). BA guarantees a baseline of reward seats per flight at release — typically 12–14 across cabins. |
| Virgin Atlantic (Flying Club) |
331 days |
Booking window opens ~331 days out. Cheapest "Saver" reward seats are released in tranches, not all on opening day, so keep checking. |
| Qatar Airways (Privilege Club) |
361 days |
Opens ~361 days ahead for Privilege Club and Avios (BA) members — one of the longest horizons of any Avios carrier. |
Reward seats work on a different clock to cash fares
- Cash fares follow a pricing curve: they tend to be lowest in a mid-range window and climb as the flight fills up close to departure. That's what the booking window above is based on.
- Reward (Avios) seats don't follow that curve at all. Airlines load a fixed batch of award seats when the schedule first opens — around 355 days out for BA, 331 for Virgin, 361 for Qatar — so for reward flights the winning move is usually to book as early as the window opens, not to wait for a price dip.
- For popular routes and premium cabins, the best-value reward seats are often gone within hours of release. Set a reminder for the release date rather than chasing a cash-fare-style sweet spot.
- Cash prices can still fall after you book a reward seat (or vice versa) — the two markets move independently, so compare both for your dates.
- Building up Avios first? Compare the best UK Avios credit cards.