Avios for short trips in Asia

cboss3

Level 2 Member
I've read how Avios are great for short trips and I wanted to transfer some points from Chase Ultimate Rewards to book a trip as I haven't used Avios before. Specifically I'm looking for flights from Seoul's GMP or ICN airport to Osaka (KIX) airport on July 12th. There are nonstop flights on Asiana, Korea, and JAL all of which come out to around 30K points for 2 people as a one way flight and $300 per person without using points. Since JAL is in oneWorld it seemed like this would be a great use of Avios to spend only 4.5K points. However when I search British Airways site it will not give me back any flights for trips between Seoul and Osaka or even Seoul and Tokyo. The site gives an error with several options one of which is that they don't fly that route. I thought British Airways was supposed to be good at searching for partner award availability. Should I instead search JAL award space and call BA to see if they can help me on the phone? Are Avios no good in Asia?
 

Barb

Level 2 Member
Avios are awesome for trips in Asia. I searched ICN-NRT on July 12th and there are four seats in Y and four seats in J on JAL 0954. Y is 7500 Avios plus $40. Unfortunately the flight NRT-KIX is the next day at 7:15 am for another 4500 Avios in Y. There is no direct flight.

I have recently been searching with ba.com a lot for Asia flights (for Christmas!) and I find that it doesn't always pull up JAL.
 
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Maverick17

Level 2 Member
Some of this might be the confusion in that JAL has codeshare agreements outside of Oneworld, and Korean is one of those partners they have. So if you look on ITA Matrix for example, it will list a JAL flight GMP to KIX on 12 July. However, if you look at the details it is operated by Korean. So Avios would not work for that.

If you have a stopover, you can do as above, or I think AA is only 10k for North Asia to North Asia, and SQ is 12.5, so they might be a good choice if you have miles for those programs or that could be transferred to those programs.
 

TheBOSman

Moderator
Staff member
The major issue that JL no longer operates GMP-KIX nonstop after March 28th, and it goes only to a Korean Air operated flight with a JL codeshare, and unfortunately this cannot be booked with Avios. So, there is no nonstop flight that can be booked with Avios on that route after March 28th :(.
 
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