Genuine last minute British Airways bargains as it launches #helloweekend

British Airways has launched a new promotion called “Hello Weekend”, although they are trying to be funky and are referring to it as #helloweekend!

What they are doing, basically, is offering special deals every Wednesday for travel on the current or next Friday, for a 2-night stay. These include hotel accommodation.

You can see the current offerings here.

To be honest, my gut feeling was that these ‘special deals’ would turn out to be not so special after all.

I decided to look at a couple of examples, priced on Wednesday afternoon and using the link above to search pricing.

Option 1 – Stockholm in a 3-star hotel, 19-21 April

Seats WERE available at the headline price of £179 per person, based on 2 sharing.

11.30am out of Heathrow on Friday, leaving Stockholm at 12.30pm on Sunday. 3-star hotel with breakfast (better hotels are available at a supplement). Total cost £358 for two.

For comparison, booking the flights alone via ba.com currently shows a price of £409 for two people with NO accommodation. This is a genuine bargain via #helloweekend.

Option 2 – Paris in a 2-star hotel, 19-21 April

The headline price was shown as £159 for 19th April. However, on clicking through, I had to depart on Saturday and do a Saturday to Monday break to get this price.

12.40pm out of Heathrow on Saturday, leaving Paris Orly at 3.45pm on Monday. 2-star hotel with breakfast (again, better hotels are available at a supplement). Total cost £318.

For comparison, booking the flights alone via ba.com currently shows a price of £337 for 2 people with NO accommodation. Again, this is a good deal via #helloweekend.

It is certainly worth keeping an eye on this to see how it develops, especially as seat availability for last-minute deals will presumably get tighter as Summer arrives.

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How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (April 2024)

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

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

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

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

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.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 12th May 2024, the Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa card is offering a bonus of 30,000 points, convertible into 30,000 Avios. You must have a Limited Company to apply. Click here to learn more and click here to apply.

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.

There are also generous bonuses on the two American Express Business cards, with the points converting at 1:1 into Avios. These cards are open to sole traders as well as limited companies.

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