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All six avios.com sale offers revealed early

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My earlier article today said that the first avios.com sale offer would be revealed at lunchtime.  However, you don’t need to wait, as I have them all for you here!

These are the headlines – I have no idea what the terms and conditions are, whether deals are limited to various routes etc.

50% off Avios required for long-haul flights – noon Mon 6 to noon Wed 8

25% off car hire – noon Wed 8 to noon Fri 10

50% off hotel bookings – noon Fri 10 to noon Mon 13

Reward Flight Saver tickets reduced to £1 – noon Mon 13 to noon Wed 15 (see image above!)

50% off hotel bookings (again, a mistake?) – noon Wed 15 to noon Fri 17

40% off Eurostar – noon Fri 17 to noon Mon 20th

The first offer – 50% off long-haul redemptions – goes live at noon.  I don’t know yet if it will be just for economy flights or for all classes, and if all routes are included.

What this list does tell us is that ba.com cannot be offering exactly the same deals as avios.com, because they do not allow Eurostar bookings.

Meanwhile, over at ba.com ….

The first ba.com sale flights have been loaded in the system.

New York, for instance, is coming up at 20,000 Avios in World Traveller.  Unfortunately, all other flight classes are still showing at full price.  Given that taxes are £353, this is still a pretty poor deal unless you are booking for peak season or need the flexibility to cancel which a cash ticket wouldn’t give you.

The full destination list is Boston, Chicago, Dubai, Denver, Shanghai, New York, Toronto, Washington. World Traveller (economy) only for travel by 31 May. It says you must depart from London but its worth trying with a regional connection.

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Category

British Airways and Avios

Comments (139)

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

  • Will says:
    6 Jan6 January 15:22

    following with lots of interest in £1 RFS

    • squills says:
      6 Jan6 January 16:07

      Same here but limited fly-by date would make it completely useless AFAIAC.

      • Janeyferr says:
        6 Jan6 January 16:47

        Oh gosh, I’m so worked up by the prospect of getting a good deal that I’ve had to take a beta blocker. Was going to book a night in a hotel in April and had a vague notion of returning to Prague at some point this year. Hopefully one of these will work in my favour so I can get a bargain. Oh, I do love a bargain.

      • Louie says:
        6 Jan6 January 16:51

        I know it’s valid at least until October….

        • squills says:
          6 Jan6 January 17:50

          I must say I’m not too hopeful of getting our Xmas flights. No point exchanging Tesco points actually.

  • liam says:
    6 Jan6 January 18:18

    I’m assuming the answer is no, but I assume this 50% off won’t apply to reward bookings made via Aer Lingus on the Boston to Dublin route, as refrenced in an earlier post raffles…?

    • Brendan says:
      6 Jan6 January 18:38

      I think its only on BA flights, and only from London. So a big no. Pity for those of us in the Emerald Isle.

      • Rob says:
        6 Jan6 January 19:16

        Seems to work for UK connections in practice

      • Brendan says:
        6 Jan6 January 23:59

        I’ve a bad feeling it wont be around for too long with this merger. Hard to collect them too. Wish could convert CC points to AA miles. And unfortunately I’m not eligible for the SPG card based on income

        • Brendan says:
          7 Jan7 January 00:06

          btw you are also allowed a free stopover each way so you could make a little tour of the US and do something like DUB->JFK->LAS->ORD->DUB for the same price!

    • Rob says:
      6 Jan6 January 19:16

      No. And, arguably, those are still a better deal (given the £75 tax) than using BA at half price and paying £350 tax.

  • Jamie says:
    6 Jan6 January 18:45

    will the RFS discounts be extended to CE bookings?

    • olybeast says:
      6 Jan6 January 19:12

      I hope so. Lining up a trip to Paris

      • Jamie says:
        6 Jan6 January 20:04

        sounds like a good shout!! I am lining up a trip to PRG from MAN with some friends from uni. we will make a day of it in the T3 lounges! been really pleased with CE lately. However, with this sale doubt there will be a conversion bonus. Could do with those miles to take the gf somewhere nice.

  • squills says:
    6 Jan6 January 19:41

    avios.com back online

  • squills says:
    6 Jan6 January 19:48

    And just transferred BMI —> BAEC

  • ShoNuffHarlem says:
    6 Jan6 January 22:11

    Avios.com is UK only right, no luck for us Yankees?

    • Rob says:
      6 Jan6 January 22:58

      You can make up a UK address, but at present the deals are being duplicated at ba.com so you don’t need an avios.com account.

      This may or may change for other ‘sale’ deals.

  • Lady London says:
    6 Jan6 January 22:20

    Hm…. thinking more strategically, what will this do for BA? Follow up the recent “Avios for everyone and everything not just for flights” by issuing a World Traveller-only offer? Move a good chunk of Avios liabilities off their balance sheet?

    • Rob says:
      6 Jan6 January 23:09

      Usually these sales are about generating cash via the taxes with the Avios liability down the list. Which is why the RFS £1 deal is interesting.

      • squills says:
        7 Jan7 January 07:16

        As an optimist, I see it as BA coming out fighting. They already showed plenty of this in the recent past with the taking on Ryanair/ EasyJet hand luggage only fares in Europe – which were/ are genuinely competitive. Now BA is offering decent value on long haul for many flights (OK not all) – and £1 RFS is surely enough to prove attractive to many would-be European ‘jaunters’ who just need an excuse to go away for a city break. (Surprised in a way they didn’t send out an email to Tesco points holders telling them to get their ducks in a row ready for next week…).

        And as an optimist, aggressive marketing is not usually on-off – but more a continual planned strategy. So I reckon a Tesco bonus convo is definitely on the cards.

      • pauldb says:
        7 Jan7 January 09:51

        Maybe we’ll see a short tactical list of just-over-the-boundary-line destinations in the sale. For example. BCN/or VCE currently cost 15k avios and £35, compared to 9k + £35 for TLS/NCE. Cutting the former to 15k+£1 for a few days doesn’t seem particularly painful for the P&L.

  • Londonbus says:
    6 Jan6 January 23:43

    the first ba.com deal is poo. 50% off cattle. Really? £1 RFS is of interest.

    Now 50% avios off J/F to those destinations.. game on 😉

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