Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Use Avios on the new AA Birmingham and Edinburgh to New York routes

Links on Head for Points may pay us an affiliate commission. A list of partners is here.

In a major boost for anyone looking to use Avios points for long-haul flights from regional airports, American Airlines has announced new routes from Birmingham International and Edinburgh to New York.

Flights will launch on May 8th next year and will operate daily.

From Birmingham, the outbound will leave Birmingham at 10am to arrive in New York at a convenient 12.55 whilst the return will be an overnight flight at 7pm, landing at 7.10am.

From Edinburgh, you will depart at 9.15am to arrive at 11.50am.  The return will depart at 7.10pm to arrive at 7.15am.

The bad news is that both flights will be operated with an older single-aisle Boeing 757.  This will have 22 business class and 160 economy class seats.

These are unlikely to be fully lie-flat seats in business, albeit for a day flight that will not be a major issue.  I am assuming it is the ‘angled’ lie flat version. I think if I lived near Birmingham or Edinburgh I would be happy to fly this 757 outbound rather than waste hours connecting at Heathrow purely to get a fully flat seat on a twin-aisle plane.  Coming back overnight is a different matter although the convenience may still outweigh the poorer product.

I ran the numbers on Birmingham.  There are plenty of economy seats at 40,000 Avios return plus £335 of tax and spurious charges.  If you have any American Airlines miles, the cost would be 60,000 AA miles plus £98.

Business class redemptions seem to be restricted to Saturdays for much of the time – the easiest way to see what is available is to search at aa.com (you don’t need to log in) and then plug the dates into ba.com.  American wants 100,000 AA miles and £169 whilst British Airways wants 80,000 Avios and £512.

It is not clear if the Edinburgh service will be a replacement for the existing US Airways flight (US has now merged with American) from Philadelphia to Edinburgh which usually runs during the Summer.

If you have Star Alliance miles, remember that United also flies from Edinburgh and Birmingham to Newark.

In other route news, American is adding a service from Frankfurt to Miami from May 14th.  This will offer another redemption option for anyone struggling to find seats on the existing BA and AA services. 

American is also adding a second Los Angeles to Heathrow service from late March, taking the combined total of BA and AA services to LA to four per day.

How to earn Avios points from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (December 2021)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways BA Amex American Express card

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up, no annual fee and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending ….. Read our full review

British Airways BA Premium Plus American Express Amex credit card

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the UK’s most valuable credit card perk – the 2-4-1 companion voucher Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points, such as:

Nectar American Express

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & two airport lounge passes Read our full review

American Express Platinum card Amex

The Platinum Card from American Express

30,000 points and an unbeatable set of travel benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital On Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios:

Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa

The most generous Avios Visa or Mastercard for a limited company Read our full review

You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus:

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express card

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.

(Want to earn more Avios?  Click here to visit our home page for our latest articles on earning and spending your Avios points and click here to see how to earn more Avios this month from offers and promotions.)

Category

American Airlines and AAdvantage, oneworld alliance partners

Comments (31)

This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.

  • Chan says:
    13 Nov13 November 07:08

    Between oct 15th and may 15th of each year, it will only be 40k rt AA miles instead of 60k in economy. Also, the same 20k each way will take you all the way to Hawaii.

    • Trevor says:
      13 Nov13 November 15:47

      A shame the stopover option in NYC or wherever has now been stopped 🙁

    • Nick says:
      16 Nov16 November 21:43

      40k points to Hawaii?? Wow.
      Raffles- is there a post on how to transfer into an AA points account? Can it be done from Amex membership rewards?

      • Rob says:
        16 Nov16 November 21:49

        No. That is why I don’t discuss AA much. The only easy ways to earn miles in the UK is a) flying of course (BA or any oneworld), b) the AA credit card, c) Starwood Amex transfers. They are not an Amex MR partner – you could go via SPG, of course, but you lose a lot of value that way (2 Amex = 1 SPG = 1-1.25 AA).

  • Simon says:
    13 Nov13 November 07:09

    United are starting a new route from Newcastle to Newark next year as well between May 23 and September 7.

    There was talk the Bristol – New York flights were going to start again also, I filled in a survey about it. The route was dropped because there weren’t enough business class passengers flying on it from what I read.

  • Paul says:
    13 Nov13 November 07:15

    If the fare is massively reduced then these routes might be worthwhile in business class. In economy it’s probably fine.
    AA operate these ageing aircraft on the zhNL run from LAX and I can assure you that the experience is ghastly. They are just about acceptable on a day time flight but overnight will be painful and unpleasant. So either the fare needs reducing or some other incentive required. The option of heading to LHR for their 777-300 and direct aisle access business class is a far better option, indeed even cramped world would be a better option than a 30 year old 757.

  • Eshaq Choudhury says:
    13 Nov13 November 07:38

    Its a start but Birmingham needs more Oneworld airlines. I’m thinking airlines that fly eastwards e.g. Qatar, Malaysian, Cathay would be ideal. Even BA offering a connecting flight would be great.

  • Chris says:
    13 Nov13 November 07:56

    The EDI flights are apparently in replacement of Philadelphia which was always a strange one considering they operate it from GLA and have done for a long time.

    Incidentally EDI/JFK still hasn’t been announced by AA officially yet but it is bookable.

  • Lloyd says:
    13 Nov13 November 07:57

    Also add that United also fly to Newark from BHX.

  • Alex says:
    13 Nov13 November 09:15

    It’s the same seats that until recently serviced LHR on the 772 (and still service a multitude of European destinations together with the 763 product). Not cutting edge or full flat but hardly unbearable for the time savings.

  • anon says:
    13 Nov13 November 09:21

    “This will have 22 business class and 160 economy class seats.”

    I don’t think this information is correct. AA’s international config 757’s have 16 seats, and the seat maps for these new flights show 16 seats also.

    • Rob says:
      13 Nov13 November 09:28

      I agree. I looked at the seatmaps before I wrote the article and saw 16 seats. The press coverage for the launch was adamant it was 22 though so I copied that!

This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.

New to Head for Points?

Welcome!  We’re the UK’s most-read source of business travel, Avios, frequent flyer and hotel loyalty news. Let us improve how you travel. Learn more on our About page.

VAA

Latest comments

Latest Forum Posts

Get 30,000 points bonus with American Express Platinum

Amex Gold

Check reward flight availability instantly for free!

See a whole year of reward seat availability on one page at SeatSpy.com

Booking a luxury hotel?

Our luxury hotel booking service offers you GUARANTEED extra benefits over booking direct. Works with Four Seasons, Mandarin Oriental, The Ritz Carlton, St Regis and more. We've booked £1.3 million of rooms to date. Click for details.

Get 20,000 bonus points and your first year free with American Express Gold

Amex Gold