When a British Airways ex-Europe trip goes to plan
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Last August, I ran a story about British Airways offering Club World tickets to Australia for just £2,050. The snag was that you had to start and end your journey in Oslo.
Reader David booked one of these tickets. As readers often tell me that they are nervous about booking such tickets because they are worried about what might happen if things go wrong, I asked David to give me a quick run-down of how it went for him and his wife.
His routing generated a total of 640 tier points each, giving them British Airways Executive Club Silver status, and 40,000 Avios points!
A couple of days after I asked David to write this, reader Mark also got in touch to tell me about an ex-EU flight which went wrong. I am also running that story today in a separate article.
GETTING TO OSLO AND BACK
“We booked two single economy flights from Manchester to Oslo, outbound with SAS and inbound with Norwegian. Our luggage could not be booked through with either flight.
At Manchester we had our one and only disappointment of the holiday, we were declined entry to either of the lounges offered via Priority Pass as they were busy.
The SAS flight was mid morning, arriving in OSL early afternoon local time. Immigration was straight forward (Norway is not in the EU) as was luggage collection and customs, with most of the locals still in the duty free shop. It probably took us 40 minutes from leaving the plane to clearing customs.
Once landside, we were an hour early for check in for our British Airways flight so took the time to check out the airport and the hotel we had booked for the return leg. There is free wifi in the terminal building, a few fast food outlets and a Starbucks, a large coffee was around £2.50. Alcohol prices were eye watering.
British Airways check in was quick and easy, with luggage checked through to Sydney. We made to the security gates expecting to use the fast track lane, but were told BA did not pay for the privilege and were directed to the general queue. This not an issue and proceeded though with minimal delay.
Lounge access was via the main Oslo lounge. It was quiet and there was a reasonable selection of drinks and food available.
We then flew to Heathrow to pick up the flight we could have taken in the first place, had we been willing to pay an extra £1,400 each!
OUR RETURN FLIGHT
We started our return from Alice Springs. The timing of our return flights gave us 23 hours in Sydney. We expected that our bags would be checked through but as it was an overnight stop we had to collect our bags. We spent the night at the InterContinental on an ‘Into The Nights’ reward night.
Our return flight was otherwise uneventful apart from the dreaded internal security check at Terminal 5 in Heathrow which lived up to expectations. We were held for about 15 minutes at the X-ray machine whilst four staff just stood around as the operator ran one bag of another passenger backwards and forwards through the machine discussing the picture with a supervisor.
We landed in OSL around 10.30am. Again, we had a smooth journey through immigration and then joined the locals in the duty free shop, buying a bottle of wine to drink later in the hotel. Our luggage was already on the carousel and then we were through customs and on the way to our hotel for the night.
Whilst same day flights were available back to Manchester, we decided to spend the night in Oslo anyway.
There are two hotels within the airport. We stayed at the Park Inn which was about 300m away via a covered walk way. I had booked the hotel via HotelClub, we checked in prior to noon and I mentioned that I had Club Carlson Gold (via Amex Platinum). The receptionist said I would not get points but did upgrade us to a corner room which was very comfortable and quiet. Again the price of alcohol was staggering – the cheapest house wine was £40 a bottle, a beer was nearly £10.
We did look at travelling into Oslo for the afternoon – the train runs directly from the airport and the journey is 20-30 minutes and about £17pp each way – but in the end just chilled at the hotel.
The next morning we flew back to Manchester with Norwegian. Check in and security were smooth. Even though the ticket was under £40 we had an allowance of two checked bags. The flight was on time. Norwegian have free internet on board – there were some issues with it on our flight, but online browsing was possible. Inflight entertainment was available via the wifi on your own devices – it was quite strange watching the flight map on my iPad.
To sum up, we found that travelling ex Oslo was a smooth experience. The extra flights and hotel cost less than £125 per person compared to a saving of £1400 per person over flying from Heathrow – and that ignores the cost of travelling to London from Manchester. A little snow is expected in Oslo (we were there in March) and the airport operations are there to cope. We would not hesitate to book via Oslo again.”
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:
Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard
Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review
Barclaycard Avios Mastercard
5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review
There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:
British Airways American Express Premium Plus
25,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review
British Airways American Express
5,000 Avios for signing up and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending £15,000 Read our full review
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.
American Express Preferred Rewards Gold
Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review
The Platinum Card from American Express
40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable 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.
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.
Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa
Huge 30,000 points bonus until 12th May 2024 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
30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review
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.
American Express Business Platinum
40,000 points sign-up bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review
American Express Business Gold
20,000 points sign-up bonus and FREE for a year 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.
Simon Bostic 
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