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British Airways relaunches ‘Hello Weekend’ flight deals for 2014

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British Airways has brought back its “Hello Weekend” offers for 2014.  These offer (sometimes) very good short-notice deals on flight and hotel packages.

In a new development this year, you can now book for the coming weekend and the two weekends after that.  Last year, you had to book on Wednesday for travel on Friday, which presumably limited the market quite a bit.

You can see the current offerings here.

Some deals are great, some are not so great.

I decided to look at a couple of examples, priced as of yesterday afternoon.

Option 1 – Barcelona in a 2-star hotel, Sat 29 – Mon 31 March

The “Hello Weekend” site was offering a headline price of £133 per person, based on 2 sharing.  I was able to find this rate at a 2-star hotel.

7.20am out of Gatwick on Saturday 29th, leaving Barcelona at 22.40 on Monday 31st.  2-star hotel, room only (better hotels are available at a supplement). Total cost £266 for two.

For comparison, booking the flights alone via ba.com showed a price of £198 for two people on a ‘hand baggage only’ fare.  You are effectively paying £34 per night for the hotel – probably an OK deal, but better deals may be available at the 2-star level.

Option 2 – Vienna in a 4-star hotel, Fri 21 – Sun 23 March

This was not my first choice.  I tried to find deals for Nice and Amsterdam, but the flight times for the cheapest prices quoted were laughable – leaving Saturday evening and returning Monday morning.

The headline price shown for Vienna  was £155.  I was able to get a Heathrow departure for this price.

7.15am out of Heathrow on Friday, leaving Vienna at a (pointlessly early) 11.30am on Sunday. 4-star hotel, room only.  Total cost £310 for two people.

For comparison, booking the flights alone via ba.com showed a price of £552 for 2 people with NO accommodation. This is a good deal via #helloweekend.

“Hello Weekend” is not a guarantee of a good deal.  However, as the Vienna offer above shows you can get lucky and do very well.


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Comments (8)

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

  • Alan says:

    Presumably as was the case last year this is London-only departures again and of little use for those outside the SE? Or have BA finally seen sense and included connection options?

    • Pete says:

      I’d noticed these deals earlier in the week. 2 nights Jersey £99 pp. Add Manchester went up to around £289pp same flights and hotel. Plus then add on your Heathrow / Gatwick connection.

      Bargain hey from our national carrier that has always said the regions would never be disadvantaged. Cough…..

      • Pete says:

        I should add coming from Manchester does have some advantages now and again. Had a CE flight booked London to Paris recently for a special weekend. When adding Manchester the total return only went up by £99. Even more it booked as Business Uk on the Domestic earning 40 tier points for the domestic return. Good if your trying to collect them!

  • Thunderbirds says:

    Off topics:
    1. Recently the Crowne Plaza St James reverted to Taj Hotels. This morning I got a Gold Card through from Taj Hotels presumably because they knew I was a IHG Platinum and had stayed at the hotel. Did anyone else staying there get one. Are Taj Hotels any good…??

    2. I been having problems booking avios flights through the BA site using the worldwide map. I rang to find out why and was told the last update of the BA web-site introduced a problem to this method of booking Avios flights. The normal route from the BAEC main page selecting Book with Avios does work.

    • Rob says:

      Taj have some very, very good properties, albeit not much in Europe. CP St James is probably the worst by quite a way!

  • Needroos says:

    Sorry, an OT question. I have the Amex Plat card and referred my partner for a Preffered Gold card and got a supplementary card for myself. I wanted to confirm that my spending would also recieve MR points? I ask as on my online account there isnt an option to see MR earning.

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

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