Very aggressive BA Club World Christmas sale – £1,000 return to various destinations

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• Tim says:

  2 Dec2 December 18:23

  Raffles, do you not ever pinch yourself in the bottom and think ‘reality’. £100 would be worthy of a post. £1,000??? Who ever pays that????

  You are probably bored of my lectures on how to obtain real hotel value.

  I have not yet met in my life a person who has or would ever stay at these hotel chains of yours.

  I always report from the hotels I stay in. The next, as some others have already commented on, will be ‘The Colours West’ in four week’s time. This is £7.90 per night for sole occupancy on an all-inclusive basis.

  T.

  • Janeyferr says:

    2 Dec2 December 18:47

    When i first saw this post I did chuckle to myself about how I live in a different world to the target demographic of this blog. Reading the details makes it even more amusing, as if I did have a spare months wages to spend on a flight I can just imagine trying to get last minute cover over the holiday period at work.

  • CV says:

    2 Dec2 December 18:58

    You should set up a separate budget blog, would be fun to read. If you read some of the comments on here you will see that in this case, with this offer, there is a drastically reduced difference between economy and business. Although its possible to get a cheap ticket to Turkey trying to get one for long haul is nigh on impossible, but when they do appear it’s on here i can read about them e.g. Norwegian Air.

    Its always good to write reviews about hotel experiences, i do it too to share with others – good and bad. I see you have already written a comprehensive review of Colours West on Tripadvisor after a brief visit, and yet before staying there – that’s a novel and inventive approach.

  • danksy says:

    2 Dec2 December 19:56

    Tim, I think you might be being a tad harsh! Thanks to raffles I bagged a night in the melia grand (madrid) for free, now I am on the way to 250,000!

    Would you care to point me to some of your links on hotel value I’d be interested to save a few quid !

    Cheers
    Danksy

    • danksy says:

      2 Dec2 December 19:57

      correction 250,000 Avios

  • Rob says:

    2 Dec2 December 20:52

    Well, as of the time stamp of this comment, about 2,260 people have voluntarily chosen to read that post (ie clicked on it from the home page) plus the 1,600 who had it emailed to them regardless …

    Given that this site logged 69,000 unique visitors in November, it appears that there is a market!

    If you look at the Quantcast profile of Head for Points (https://www.quantcast.com/headforpoints.com) you will see that, compared to the UK average, a HFP reader is substantially more likely to earn £70,000+ and a lot more likely to earn £50,000-£70,000.

    And, of course, as per the top comment, you would have paid £900 for a Christmas flight to Brazil in Economy if you booked a year in advance, so £1000 for business seems a decent deal.

    • CV says:

      2 Dec2 December 21:08

      Raffles i have thought a few times that you should do an article and let everyone post what they have achieved/accrued this year in reading your blog, perhaps the year end would be a good excuse?

      What i have gained this year, and more importantly, what is planned ahead makes me a happy man! I would struggle to remember it all as its a diverse list (i.e. Achica free stuff, Redspotted hanky vouchers, as well as the 250,000 avios and 180,000 IHG points)!

      • Volker says:

        3 Dec3 December 08:30

        I like the idea of the achievements article. It could be a nice opportunity to say thank you to Raffles as well. I am not (yet) one of Britain’s top earners, but thanks to Raffles I sit in the same lounges and premium cabins and sleep in the same suites like many of them.

  • Mike says:

    2 Dec2 December 21:21

    Tim, I think you’re being a bit harsh too! You may not have met anyone who stays in these hotel chains but that doesn’t mean they aren’t out there. I work away. I stay in them regularly. So do lots of my colleagues. Presumably too so do the thousands of people reading Raffle’s blog. There’s lots of different groups in the world different to the one we’re in!

  • Calchas says:

    2 Dec2 December 22:46

    Hi Tim, not to lay into you for your dismissal of the value of Raffle’s blog(!), but a quick look at your profile suggests you were or are an academic? If so, surely you are often staying at Marriotts, Crowne Plazas and so on on research trips and conferences—certainly I stayed at more than a few during my PhD. Plus I’m sure you are aware that if your travel dates are inflexible you can pay a lot more than £1000 even for a deep discount restricted economy ticket. 🙂

    • susan says:

      3 Dec3 December 08:13

      Calchas, whilst I strongly believe that Tim was incorrect I am gobsmacked at your suggestion that academics regularly stay in Marriots and Crowne Plazas – and as for PhD students! Perhaps you are in a discipline with lots of dosh (medicine, civ eng?) but my experience of UK academe (humanities) is that cheap B&Bs and the odd travellodge (more often student halls of residence) is the lot of me and my colleagues. Hence why I love HfP so that, just occasionally, I can de-slum and travel in the pointy end!

      • Calchas says:

        3 Dec3 December 09:04

        I was in the physical sciences, which does seem to attract a little more funding than humanities, and my particular project involved a lot of travel to work on particular facilities with international collaborators. Also my advisor had begun to hate travelling by this point so he preferred to send his students to represent him at conferences and international meetings rather than go himself.
        I had more than my fair share of down-in-the-dump hotels and guest houses but the big American science conferences were usually hosted in very upmarket places. Always economy class flights though.

  • Mummy55 says:

    3 Dec3 December 09:06

    I guess that’s not your boat your on in the picture???

  • craig says:

    3 Dec3 December 10:41

    £1,000 rtn to get to Brazil is fantastic value – it’s normally £4,000 rtn to go business class. This price puts it around the same price as economy class.

• Rob says:

  2 Dec2 December 21:38

  The MBNA / BMI credit card 10% discount also seems to work with these fares! It knocks 10% off the base fare, so about another £40 off the ticket.

  • MBX says:

    3 Dec3 December 19:33

    What discount is this?

    I have an MBNA BMI card but not aware of it attracting a BA discount?

    • Mbx says:

      4 Dec4 December 20:00

      Does this work on the free card too?

• James67 says:

  2 Dec2 December 21:51

  Raffles has to post according to his own experience and interest, and personally I am happy with that. It would be unreasonable for us to expect him to cover every angle and devote time to developing new expertise in different areas such as budget hotels that have little interest to him. That said, I feel it is unfair to suggest that he needs a reality check or fails to address topics of lower earners. Raffles has frequently posted on good options and strategies for beginner point collectors to enable them to get otherwise unattainable tastes of vetter flights or hotels. He has posted on getting free, virtually free, abd heavily discounted hotels fro budget through premium chains. Likewise, he has posted on discounts and promos for economy flights as well a premium flights. He has posted also on how to save money on standard rail fares. Postas have also addressed saving a few.quid here and there on FX and high street spening, and on best use of credit cards to save cash or collect points and miles. All of this is relevant across the whole income spectrum. It is true there is emphasis on business class reward flight but reason for this is largely because that is where the best value with redemptions.are found. For example longhaul economy or short haul redemptions.are often more expensive than their revenue equivalents. I now am able to work only part time and have income under £30pa, however, thanks first to FT friends including Raffles on BMI forum, and latterly to HFP on avios I have flew all my longhaul flights in business or first class since 2001. Currently I am in Hong Kong staying in HIE that usually vosts around £100/night but it cost me £100 for 7 nights – £100 for black visa and the other 35k points were free from the picture game last year. Next year I will stay in Japan for 6 nights for free in £300+/night hotels for nothing except meeting target spend on spg and gold cards. So all I can say to Raffles and others like him is thanks a million for making it all possible for me.

  • Will says:

    2 Dec2 December 22:08

    Couldn’t have put it better myself James 🙂

    • Alan says:

      2 Dec2 December 22:10

      Ditto! If not of interest then no need to follow the blog – personally I really appreciate all the effort Raffles puts into the site.

  • andy l says:

    2 Dec2 December 23:32

    Well said James. I enjoy all of Raffles posts even when many are not directly relevant to me….. My friends might benefit if I tell them or I might find the post helpful at a later date, more likely though it will inspire me to think differently about my travel, spending and collecting habits. Again thank you Raffles.

    • Boi says:

      3 Dec3 December 07:26

      I can’t imagine life without HFP

      • Will says:

        3 Dec3 December 08:23

        Haha, that made me laugh. I think its part of many peoples morning routines now!

    • susan says:

      3 Dec3 December 08:18

      Even the ones which don’t directly help me I enjoy as it’s very pleasing to think that other HfP readers (and Raffles himself) are getting some benefit.

      • andy l says:

        3 Dec3 December 11:06

        Agree Susan, it seems we belong to a decent community of HfPers who value others…. Here’s hoping the growing community continue to value each,other eh?

        • Janeyferr says:

          3 Dec3 December 19:26

          I love HfP, I read it every day, but I’ll always be a 20 clubcard points on cabbage than a £20k credit card spending threshold kinda person.

• Global Ranger says:

  2 Dec2 December 21:59

  Just booked a Vancouver – appreciate the midday alert ! Travel between Christmas and NY can also lead to 5 star properties offering low rates. I booked a BA Holiday which includes the sale price airfare in Club + low 5-star hotel rate with discount and 2500+ bonus avios.

• Polly says:

  3 Dec3 December 07:30

  Agree with all the positives above, thanks to raffles advice we are currently on club/first return to Hong Kong on the the new A380, can honestly say its was his advice which helped us reach various targets, so thanks again Raffles!

• Zoe says:

  3 Dec3 December 12:25

  I found Raffles first on Paid to Shop and he has always been brilliant for advise.
  As a family we now have upgraded holiday experiences with relatively modest cash expenditure. Our only problem now is the speed at which we can burn Avios!
  Just recently 200,000 for 4 of us business class to Boston, 250,000 for economy out premium economy home for October half term in Barbados (got 3 free upgrades to Club coming back 🙂 ). Recently booked Club to Sri Lanka for next summer (using 241’s) and premium economy out club home for Barbados next October.
  I collect the points/miles my husband provides the cash! He does moan when I’m running around after a glitch but loves it at holiday time.

  • Boi says:

    3 Dec3 December 14:20

    Lol, my husband thinks I am obsessed, I tell him it’s a hobby

• Ironbark says:

  3 Dec3 December 13:38

  Another ‘Thank you’ to Raffles, we’re now off to Banff for the New Year, and my 40th birthday, and have paid £1000 less to travel in Club than the same package with Virgin Holidays in economy! We’d struggle to find a week somewhere in France for the price, so are very grateful for your posts 🙂

• Ed E says:

  3 Dec3 December 19:22

  They are now promoting this on the BA.com website (no mention of the Indian routes for this 2014 promo though).

  • Ed E says:

    3 Dec3 December 19:23

    Offer ends midnight 5 December 2013

    2 seats for £2014 in Club World (business)

    Experience Canada or South America in business class for only £2014 for 2 people.

    Book your tickets for outbound travel between 22 December 2013 and 01 January 2014. Travel must be completed by 12 January 2014.
    Offer is also applicable to single seats sold at £1007 per person

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