With the changes to the BA miles program and launch of Avios miles, there are now some great possibilities to redeem miles for short trips with BA to / from the UK.

Closer destinations have been grouped into several zones, with fixed Avios points required to book flights to  each. In addition, BA has introduced an option where you pay a fixed price in addition to the Avios points and they then pay the required  taxes and charges. This is fixed for an economy award ticket at £27 for a return trip, and with taxes and charges on a normal purchased european ticket often reaching £100, this is a fantastic deal.

As an extra bonus, they will also allow you to include connecting flights to / from any uk domestic airport they serve, meaning this really is a very effective way for anyone in the uk to make affordable short trips to europe. A real great addition to the new Avios scheme from BA!

The following  European destinations can be reached for just 9000 Avios return:

Amsterdam, Basle, Berlin, Bordeaux, Brussels, Copenhagen, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt,  Geneva, Genoa, Gothenburg, Hamburg, Innsbruck, Jersey, Luxembourg, Lyon, Marseille, Milan, Munich, Nice, Paris, Prague, Salzburg, Stuttgart, Toulouse, Turin, Zurich

And the following slightly further cities for only 15000 Avios return:

Algiers, Barcelona, Bari, Belgrade, Bologna, Budapest, Cagliari, Dubrovnik, Faro, Gibraltar, Helsinki, Ibiza, Lisbon, Madrid, Malaga, Naples, Oslo, Palma, Pisa, Rome, Stockholm, Tunis, Venice, Verona, Vienna, Warsaw

If you are short of miles, they also allow an option to pay 50% in miles and 50% in cash, which also represents a very affordable way and still makes tickets much less expensive for Avios collectors than the purchase of normal fare tickets in most cases.

We really advise Avios collectors to look at this, as it presents some great value travel options!