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British Airways launches new route to Fort Lauderdale – Avios seats wide open

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Following on from the very recent news of a new Heathrow to New Orleans route for 2017, British Airways confirmed another rumour yesterday by announcing a new route from Gatwick to Fort Lauderdale in Florida.

Located on the Atlantic coast in south east Florida, Fort Lauderdale is a city of 166,000 people which sits 45km north of Miami.  BA tell me that it is famous for its sunny beaches with an average year-round temperature of 24c and 3,000 hours of sunshine.

Miami unsplash

Here is the key information:

The route launches on 6th July 2017

There will be three flights per week all year on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday

An additional Sunday flight will operate from 16th July to 3rd September

The aircraft used will be a Boeing 777 in a three class configuration, which means no First Class

Seats are now available for booking at ba.com.  More importantly, Avios availability is wide open.

With at least four World Traveller and two Club World seats available on every flight, and with flights only becoming available for booking from yesterday, there is a great chance here to get yourself to Florida on Avios on peak dates next Summer.

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

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 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 card

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.

Category

British Airways and Avios

Comments (74)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Nick says:
    28 Oct28 October 08:54

    OT (sorry)
    Does anyone know if you can get airside at CDG between 2D and 2A? I’m flying BA but without status and the only (open) lounge with PP is in 2D. Air Nacada is out as I’m flying late afternoon. I can switch to Orly but not sure there’s any PP lounge there anyway?

  • Dave says:
    28 Oct28 October 09:11

    Flew into Miami on Virgin upper a few weeks ago, the airport was empty, like a scene from the Walking dead, zero queue at immigration either.

    • Kipto says:
      28 Oct28 October 09:24

      O/T but walking dead related, what a great season opener that was last week !

    • Stelondon says:
      28 Oct28 October 14:18

      I might be wrong but virgin use an empty terminal. You have to walk almost a mile to immigration

  • ankomonkey says:
    28 Oct28 October 09:56

    OT: IHG Pointsbreak for next 3 months bookable from next Monday. List of hotels are on the ihg blog ‘preview’. They look like the worst list yet…

  • Tammy says:
    28 Oct28 October 09:57

    OT: Loyalty Lobby has just published IHG Point Break list preview. Pretty poor bunch of European and U.K. hotels.

    • Rob says:
      28 Oct28 October 10:03

      Yes, will run tomorrow. I could use the HIX Rotherham as need to be there but not hanging out on an industrial estate even for 5k points!

      • Gavin says:
        28 Oct28 October 15:05

        Holiday Inn Express Cambridge (Duxford) is very close to the branch of the Imperial War Museum in that area

      • Nick says:
        28 Oct28 October 17:32

        Wrong ….I would say more you don’t want to hang out looking at the M18, a chain pub car park, McDonald’s, bannatynes health club, or morissons car park…I don’t understand what your point is rob ha ha

        • Rob says:
          28 Oct28 October 22:11

          We’re in the Holiday Inn Sheffield for 15k which, as it is walkable from the station, will be cheaper overall than a cab to the HIX Rotherham anyway!

  • Squirrel says:
    28 Oct28 October 10:12

    Rob, just wanted to leave a comment to say thanks. After lots of reading here and various Avios accumulation moves including 241, HSBC / HMRC, groupon.es and the Sunday Times Travel Magazine, I’ve just booked our family holiday for next year including first class return flights to Denver for my wife, (by then) 21 month old son and me. Without this site there is no way we would be doing that!

    The bad news: LHR – DEN goes from T3 not T5, so no Concorde Room for us. Is the T3 lounge good?

  • JP says:
    28 Oct28 October 10:23

    For comparision Avios cost is 200,000 Avios + £1200 taxes for a family of four!

  • Alan says:
    28 Oct28 October 11:24

    That is a great deal. They were doing some ridiculously good Fly Drive deals to MCO for next summer a couple of months back as well, although they got booked pretty quickly.

    Definitely not worth using your Avios for the £50 saving!

  • JK says:
    28 Oct28 October 11:52

    Grrr they have just slashed the availability to the useless 4 WT & 2 CW! There were 4 CW and even WTP on the inbound legs. Missed out, too slow 🙁

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

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