If you want to fly London Heathrow to San Francisco how many Avios do you need?

Avios overview

Flying between London Heathrow and San Francisco will mean using 30,000 (off-peak days) or 35,000 (peak days) in Avios.

Want to upgrade to premium economy? You can do that for an extra 17,500 Avios. Premium economy pricing will cost you a minimum of 47,500

Club World (Business Class) will require either 90,000 (off peak) or 100,000 (peak) Avios.

First Class seats will cost you between 90,000 (off peak) and 100,000 (peak) Avios. One thing to note is that First Class tickets are the only ticket type with BA that allows you to select your seats for free.

Find out which dates are peak, or off-peak in 2025 and 2026.

San Francisco Avios needed table

Cabin	Avios Needed (Off-Peak)	Avios Needed (Peak)
Economy	30,000	35,000
Premium Economy	47,500	67,500
Business	90,000	100,000
First	85,000	100,000

How to make your Avios go further

If you're based in the UK then there's a way to make your Avios go even further, and that's through a Companion Voucher. I've written extensively about these amazing vouchers. They're not free in that you have to spend at least £15,000 on an Amex Card, but they're absolutely worth it. Read my guide on is a BA companion voucher worth it? to understand how to use a 2-4-1 voucher. On top fo that, you can also use a Barclays Cabin Upgrade voucher to reduce the number of points needed. You can get these by either being a Barclays Premier customer, or by hitting a spend level on a Barclaycard.

How can you search for reward seat availability?

BA offers a number of ways to search for reward seats: their "Reward Flight Finder", their in-app "Reward Flights" section and just making a dummy booking. There are also third party tools that you can use, although I've managed to find plenty of seats without having to pay for a platform. I wrote about the best (and worst) ways to search for Avios availability. If you're looking to book seats to a popular destination then planning ahead is critical: seats become available 355 days before the flight date.

Using Avios on San Francisco flights

San Francisco is a key destination for BA, and they fly direct twice daily. One of those flights is usually an A380, which means more seats in First and Business Class and a greater chance of reward seat availability. The A380 flight is typically the earlier flight of the day, taking off around mid-day. As you might expect, SFO is a popular route, so whilst there are plenty of seats, those that are bookable using Avios can go quickly. There are a limited number of First seats available at the time of writing, and most are in the next three months. Business class availability is better, but remember that the A380 has the oldest style Club world seats. That will change in 2026 as BA refurbishes that plane and upgrades them to the new Club Suite. If you're looking to holiday on the West Coast, there are other options that could work for you such as San Jose, Phoenix or Seattle. All three tend to have more availability, and they have the new Club Suite. They are also great if you plan on doing a driving holiday as they can link in to a San Francisco visit.

London Heathrow to San Francisco Avios Frequently Asked Questions