British Airways Club World ex-Dublin bargains for Christmas 2016 – from £678

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• James says:

  11 Jan11 January 06:50

  Orlando is definitely included (as is Tampa etc) but requires AA flying for the cheap routes… Look at the end of November for the orlando deals

• RK says:

  11 Jan11 January 07:24

  Ex Dub TATL Business class now only about £200 above the cost of TATL economy class from the UK. Can’t believe how cheap these fares are…

  Definitely no logical reason to book CW using avios to these destinations, with or without a 241 voucher, unless flying from Dublin is not an option for you or you need to be able to cancel.

• Boi says:

  11 Jan11 January 07:27

  OT but BA related.

  We have achieved one 241 voucher but struggling to get the next quick (5K to go). Currently BA has CW availability to where we want to go at the time we want to go for all 6 of us- now this is rare and I wouldn’t want these seats to go…..

  Is there a way we can generate that spend (eg booking expensive refundable hotels to cancel afterwards)? I definitely know we will make up that once taxes are paid plus our REAL hotel booking. Will BA chase after us or it should be ok?
  I hope I am making myself clear…

  • allan says:

    11 Jan11 January 07:39

    buy 5k avios for £95. 2p point is generally rubbish but when used to get 6 CW redemptions locked in seems like a pretty good value to me.

    • Boi says:

      11 Jan11 January 07:52

      Sorry I meant we still need to spend £5K. We have enough Avios for the redemption

      • Jason says:

        11 Jan11 January 09:17

        Book a hotel via Expedia.

  • bill says:

    11 Jan11 January 07:40

    Can you buy gift vouchers from amazon?

  • Rob says:

    11 Jan11 January 07:44

    Buy a refundable BA flight and cancel it for £15 fee

    • Enigma368 says:

      11 Jan11 January 07:51

      Hotels.com bookings are 100% refundable, as are AA refundable bookings. Are these not better options than paying an unecessary £15 fee ?

      • Enigma368 says:

        11 Jan11 January 07:53

        I should clarify that not all hotels.com (or AA) bookings are 100% refundable, although many/most are, you need to make sure you book one of their refundable rates when doing this!

    • neil says:

      11 Jan11 January 07:52

      or buy an AA flight and cancel it for no fee.

  • Enigma368 says:

    11 Jan11 January 07:49

    Lets say you spend £1k a month on the card on average. Book 5k of fully refundable hotels in chunks of £1k on hotels.com far off in the future. This will trigger the voucher. Then each month, after you have spent a genuine £1k on the card, cancel £1k of your hotels.com bookings which will pay off your balance . Do this until all hotels.com bookings are cancelled and you are home free. You will not have cost BA/Amex anything extra as you would have earned the same amount of avios and certificate anyway, you just got them earlier that you would have if you had done nothing.

    If you have the £5k to invest and don’t mind the faff, I would be astonished if Amex care. You are costing them nothing and you can probably make it look like you just cancelled some genuine hotel bookings.

    • Boi says:

      11 Jan11 January 07:56

      That’s exactly what I wondered and you have answered my question. We do spend more than £1K a month and I do have £5K right now…..so it would just be bringing forward spending that we would have done in the next 3-4 months.

      Thanking you all for the replies.

      • Enigma368 says:

        11 Jan11 January 08:02

        I’ve done similar many times before, mostly to make sure I qualify for the signup bonus within 3 months. Never done it for as large an amount as this but ultimately Amex are a nice company and they don’t get upset about minor things like this especially when it does not cost them anything. TBH I’d be surprised if they even noticed.

        • Gavin says:

          11 Jan11 January 10:17

          This sounds like the perfect way to get my SPG points from the minimum spend.

        • Polly says:

          11 Jan11 January 12:00

          We also have bought two fully refundable far out J class return tickets also. And cancelled them about three months later… So yes you have a few choices, but get moving, as it takes a couple of days to convert that spend . Enigma has the best solution though. It does work. Brilliant fares tho, trying to see if we can benefit from them too…

  • harry says:

    11 Jan11 January 07:49

    More MS ideas in yesterday’s thread https://headforpoints.com/2016/01/10/royal-mint-coins-avios-airmiles-frequent-flyer-miles/

• GazTodd says:

  11 Jan11 January 07:50

  After reading this article about ba cancelling flights. I have a concern if anyone could help me

  I have a flight booked for July to mco me my wife and two small children.

  I have a Heathrow to Manchester flight and then less that 2 hours to get to Gatwick.

  I don’t think it’s possible with the children. If I don’t take the Manchester to Heathrow flight and drive to Gatwick will my flight be cancelled to Orlando.

  Thanks in advance for any replies.

  • Enigma368 says:

    11 Jan11 January 07:58

    Sounds like you are saying you have a MAN-LHR and then LGW-MCO flight. If its all on one booking, then you 100% need to take the MAN-LHR leg or the whole thing will be cancelled, almost never any exception to this.

  • Cheshire Pete says:

    11 Jan11 January 08:07

    This is hard to believe! I can’t see this being 1 booking as I don’t think BA would allow this connection time as a thru tickets. Given u need to check bags 45 minutes before I don’t see how 1 hour 15 assuming no delays to your incoming flight to Heathrow is in Any way feasible!

    • harry says:

      11 Jan11 January 08:19

      BA would insist on a minimum 3 hour connection time LHR —> LGW, so it is clear GazTodd has booked this himself (is that right?)

      In which case, the tickets are not linked/ on one booking (or need not be, if he has linked them, unlink them). Then yes: drive to LGW or get an earlier flight to LHR.

      You stand to lose the Orlando flight simply by turning up too late to board.

    • rich says:

      11 Jan11 January 08:19

      Are we talking 2h before the minimum 45min check in? If so and 2h is just for time between airports. Its loads of time.. Book a pre booked taxi. 4 seater is about £50

      • Lady London says:

        11 Jan11 January 13:57

        @rich sorry on that road 2hrs is not loads of time.
        There are frequent holdups, accidents and persistently continuing roadworks.

        I wouldn’t even dream of taking a flight out of LGW any less than 5 hours after I’m scheduled to land at LHR. TBH I’d only be comfortable with like a lot more hours than 5.

  • Rob says:

    11 Jan11 January 09:43

    Yes, it will be cancelled if on the same ticket.

    BA should not have booked this for you though.

    (This assumes the depature is 2 hours later. If check in closes 2 hours later then you should be ok. You will be panicking about traffic delays and you need a driver waiting for you in Heathrow arrivals but you should be OK.)

  • Andrew H says:

    11 Jan11 January 10:15

    National Express runs a service from Heathrow to Gatwick every 15 minutes. It avoids London and the journey time is 45 minutes. The coaches are usually less then half full in my experience. May be an option.

• Paul Irving says:

  11 Jan11 January 08:06

  Anything to Hawaii?

• Will says:

  11 Jan11 January 08:22

  Wil oil at $33 per barrel surely cheap flights are set to return once the forward buying drops out.

  • harry says:

    11 Jan11 January 08:30

    That’s in about 3 years then 🙂

  • Jason says:

    11 Jan11 January 09:22

    Forward buying oil is still in the $70 range 🙁

    • will says:

      11 Jan11 January 10:50

      The price a particular airline might have locked in at will be different for every airline.

      The current futures price for a December 2016 delivery is $40.

      Even December 2017 is only $45.

      I read somewhere that Airasia will unwind all future buying during 2016, they are paying $85 a barrel on some of their futures.

      • harry says:

        11 Jan11 January 13:55

        But the point is: many airlines will have locked in December 2016 in December 2014 or even earlier – @ prices c. $90-100

• GazTodd says:

  11 Jan11 January 09:03

  The Manchester Heathrow arrives at 08:10 and the Orlando flight is 11:20am out of Gatwick

  Saturday morning private taxi from Heathrow is this do able with baggage and children.

  If there was a problem in Manchester would BA look after us on another flight.

  I booked the flight altogether as a Avios redemption through ba exec

  • Jason says:

    11 Jan11 January 09:24

    I don’t have any experience regarding this dilemma, but I would have thought BA would look after you in the event of any delay, however I’m sure Raffles will know the correct answer 🙂

  • Rob says:

    11 Jan11 January 09:41

    Tricky if you have a case coming off the Manchester flight but it should be possible. You need a car waiting for you though. Bit close for comfort for me though.

  • Waribai says:

    11 Jan11 January 09:43

    Yes, loads of time unless there are problems on the M25 then it is surprising how quickly the time disappears as your flight time approaches!
    As it is all on one booking, I am also fairly certain BA would look after you. However, personally with small kids involved even though we live 40 minutes drive from Gatwick on a morning flight, I prefer to fly down the night before and stay at the Sofitel. In holiday season there’s always a bit of an evening buzz with quite a few families there and the children get excited. Everyone gets up has breakfast and we then take a leisurely stroll into the North Terminal. You also arrive much more refreshed and you minimise the risk of your holiday getting off on the wrong foot because of the M25!

    • Rob says:

      11 Jan11 January 10:04

      BA will look after you, definitely. That doesn’t help if the next flight is 24 hours later and is full.

  • Andrew H says:

    11 Jan11 January 10:18

    As I said above, coach is an option as well as taxi. It’s a rapid journey and I’ve done it myself. I have no idea on taxis though

  • GazTodd says:

    11 Jan11 January 11:02

    Thanks guys.

    Think I will pay the fee and change the Manchester leg to the night before

    Don’t want to lose the Orlando flights as you all know how precious a 4 seat redemption in the school holiday is !

    I spoke to BA and they said it’s possible

    • Lady London says:

      11 Jan11 January 14:05

      If the gap between your arrival and LHR and your departure from LGW has narrowed even by a small amount you could have a case to get the rescheduling of the first flight done free of charge. Just ask. Often flights reschedule after the clocks change in March.

• Martin says:

  11 Jan11 January 09:14

  OT – Sorry to sidetrack the conversation.
  How long does it take for the Groupon Avios to land at Iberia?

  Thanks

  • harry says:

    11 Jan11 January 10:53

    Under 15 days. You have an issue of non-arrival?

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