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Get 15% off a British Airways flight to the USA and Canada

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British Airways is running another money-off promotion with one its partners.  Following the recent Hilton and Avis offers, it is now partnering with Shell.

The new offer is a discount of 15% on any Economy BA flight to the USA or Canada.

British Airways BA 777X 777 9X

You need to book at ba.com before November 14th, with a minimum spend of £450 per person.  You can travel at any point up to 14th April 2014.

All flights must depart from London Heathrow, according to the rules.  This is a bit lame, frankly – I tried booking a flight from Manchester, changing in Heathrow, and the code was rejected.  Tough luck if you live in the regions.

You need to enter British Airways promotional code ShellnovZH at ba.com when booking.

Full details can be found here at ba.com.  The webpage is all over the place, and even says that the discount is 20% in a couple of places – it isn’t – and that the partner is Hilton and not Shell.

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 (21)

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

  • Adam Fernie says:
    6 Nov6 November 08:29

    The website is conflicting – it mentions must depart from Heathrow but is valid from all UK airports.

    “The Promotional Code is valid from all UK airports but cannot be used for internal domestic flights, or on City Flyer.”

  • What's the Point says:
    6 Nov6 November 08:39

    I used the code successfully for an economy flight departing from Heathrow. It didn’t work if you selected Gatwick or any other cabin class.

  • dave says:
    6 Nov6 November 08:47

    Looking at booking for 2adults/2kids. the price for the kids is under the £450 threshold but an adult flight is just over. Is it possible to book an adult seat for the kids?
    With the discount it saves over £200 for the 4of us.

    • Rob says:
      6 Nov6 November 10:03

      Yes, that isn’t usually a problem. I’ve done it before. You can still go into Manage My Booking and select a kids meal.

      One other benefit of booking them as adults is that the tickets will count for On Business points, if you have an OB account.

      • dave says:
        6 Nov6 November 21:03

        Just tried to book as 4 adults but an error message comes up when i have to enter DOB.
        It recognises dob as under 12years old.
        Do I just change DOB to make them over 12 ? or is that too risky.

        • Rob says:
          6 Nov6 November 21:20

          If the month and day are OK I might risk it. If you add their BAEC number later the date of birth in the profile may override it.

  • richie says:
    6 Nov6 November 09:05

    i personally think this is a good deal. it brings a ba flight in jan to april down to £375 to new york. Even on dreamliner to newark. toronto becomes £450. People were saying that the dreamliner flights with norweigen were a game changer (with bags and food they were £330) id much rather fly ba out of t5 than gat north on norweigen and get £130 worth of avios on a return.

  • Matt says:
    6 Nov6 November 09:29

    Does anybody know if once you’ve booked using a code you could use miles to upgrade these fares?

    • Rob says:
      6 Nov6 November 10:00

      No, but using the code is not the problem. The problem is that you can only upgrade World Traveller / Economy fares if they are the hugely fully flexible tickets. A non-refundable Economy ticket cannot be upgraded with Avios at all, whether or not you use a code.

    • What's the Point says:
      6 Nov6 November 13:47

      You can upgrade with cash.
      We have booked 2 return Economy LHR – LAX for £988 (inc the 15% saving). Manage My Booking says I can upgrade both legs to WTP for £603 each = total cost £2,194
      Start again and cost of booking the 2 originally in WTP is £2,053
      So it makes no sense to upgrade via cash. Hardly a great selling tool if that’s what BA are trying to do!
      Would rather go Economy on my first flight on the A380, as I have read a couple of reviews saying that WTP is not worth the extra on this new plane?

      • Rob says:
        6 Nov6 November 15:36

        You may get offered a WTP upgrade via Manage My Booking at some point, probably around £199 per person each way. Depends how busy the flight is looking.

        • What's the Point says:
          6 Nov6 November 20:46

          Hi Raffles – Would they normally email you this type of offer, or do you have to keep checking Manage my Booking?

          • Rob says:
            6 Nov6 November 21:18

            Never emailed. Shows when you look at the MMB page for your booking. Recently they also appear when you start online check in.

  • Ian says:
    6 Nov6 November 09:46

    Damn it. Booked a flight to Toronto 48 hours ago for £525. £445 with this offer. Grrrrrr.

  • pazza2000 says:
    6 Nov6 November 10:31

    Does not seem to be available from the regions, unfortunately.

  • Dominic says:
    6 Nov6 November 10:47

    A great pity it is only in economy….!

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