British Airways relaunches “Hello Weekend” for 2014

British Airways has brought back its “Hello Weekend” offers for 2014.  These offer (sometimes) very good short-notice deals on flight and hotel packages.

In a new development this year, you can now book for the coming weekend and the two weekends after that.  Last year, you had to book on Wednesday for travel on Friday, which presumably limited the market quite a bit.

You can see the current offerings here.

Some deals are great, some are not so great.

I decided to look at a couple of examples, priced as of yesterday afternoon.

Option 1 – Barcelona in a 2-star hotel, Sat 29 – Mon 31 March

The “Hello Weekend” site was offering a headline price of £133 per person, based on 2 sharing.  I was able to find this rate at a 2-star hotel.

7.20am out of Gatwick on Saturday 29th, leaving Barcelona at 22.40 on Monday 31st.  2-star hotel, room only (better hotels are available at a supplement). Total cost £266 for two.

For comparison, booking the flights alone via ba.com showed a price of £198 for two people on a ‘hand baggage only’ fare.  You are effectively paying £34 per night for the hotel – probably an OK deal, but better deals may be available at the 2-star level.

Option 2 – Vienna in a 4-star hotel, Fri 21 – Sun 23 March

This was not my first choice.  I tried to find deals for Nice and Amsterdam, but the flight times for the cheapest prices quoted were laughable – leaving Saturday evening and returning Monday morning.

The headline price shown for Vienna  was £155.  I was able to get a Heathrow departure for this price.

7.15am out of Heathrow on Friday, leaving Vienna at a (pointlessly early) 11.30am on Sunday. 4-star hotel, room only.  Total cost £310 for two people.

For comparison, booking the flights alone via ba.com showed a price of £552 for 2 people with NO accommodation. This is a good deal via #helloweekend.

“Hello Weekend” is not a guarantee of a good deal.  However, as the Vienna offer above shows you can get lucky and do very well.

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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.

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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.

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