One of the most useful tools for searching for British Airways Avios seats is the excellent BA Redemption Finder.
I’ve written about BA Redemption Finder numerous times before, including when they launched their innovative “I don’t know where I want to go” feature which shows you all available destinations using Avios on any given date. A very useful feature for people with annual leave + spare Avios but no firm holiday destination in mind.
BA Redemption Finder has now become Reward Flight Finder with an extremely handy new addition.
Reward Flight Finder now supports Virgin award searches
Let’s not beat around the bush. The Virgin Atlantic website is downright awful isn’t the easiest to use when it comes to searching for reward flight availability. In fact, sometimes it becomes practically unusable. The monthly reward availability calendar used to be one their best features, but their website refresh a while ago seems to have largely ruined that. My most recent workaround when putting together an article last week (and pulling my hair out in frustration) was to search for availability using ExpertFlyer and then feed that data into the Virgin website.
Thankfully, Tim at Reward Flight Finder seems to have provided the answer to my prayers. When you visit the Reward Flight Finder homepage, you’ll now be offered a choice of options.
Selecting the Virgin Atlantic tab will offer you the ability to easily view Economy Classic, Premium and Upper Class miles availability.
Here’s the availability for 2 passengers in Premium to San Francisco this summer:
The “I don’t know where I want to go” feature is also available for Virgin Atlantic miles, but like the Avios version is only available for Elite (see below) subscribers.
How much does Reward Flight Finder cost?
Using Reward Flight Finder is free.
If you want email alerts when availability on certain routes/dates becomes available you have two options:
You can stick with the free plan but that will only check for changes to availability once a day.
Alternatively, Elite membership costs £3 a month and Reward Flight Finder will check hourly for changes to Avios/Virgin availability and send you an email with any changes. If you’re waiting on some availability to open up on a popular route and don’t fancy checking manually multiple times a day, that £3 a month is a very reasonable deal.
Verdict
Reward Flight Finder is a very useful tool and I continue to be impressed by the enhancements that Tim has added to the service.
Support for Virgin miles reward availability comes as an enormous relief as it will mean I can avoid using the Virgin website for a while!
It’s not perfect – I’d love the ability to search by airport e.g. only flights from Gatwick/Heathrow rather than just by city for example. But if you’re looking for a straightforward and easy-to-use tool to search for Avios/Virgin miles availability, Reward Flight Finder has you covered.
The Reward Flight Finder website is here
Do you have a preferred way to search for Avios/Virgin miles availability?
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