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‘50% off’ Avios redemption sale now on – city list revealed

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As I revealed exclusively on Head for Points last week, British Airways and avios.com launched their ‘50% off’ Avios redemptions sale yesterday.

This will only apply to World Traveller flights (long-haul economy).

It will only apply to tickets which start in the UK.

Full taxes and charges will still be payable.

The booking period runs until 13th July.

You must travel between 1st October and 28th February, excluding the Christmas period of 18th December to 10th January.

Here is the full list of routes:

Reduced from 40,000 to 20,000 Avios

  • Baltimore
  • Boston
  • Chicago
  • Dubai
  • New York
  • Philadelphia
  • Toronto
  • Washington

Reduced from 50,000 to 25,000 Avios

  • Austin
  • Dallas
  • Delhi
  • Denver
  • Houston
  • Johannesburg
  • Los Angeles
  • Mexico City
  • Mumbai
  • Phoenix
  • San Diego
  • Vancouver

Reduced from 60,000 to 30,000 Avios

  • Sao Paulo

Whilst these are all economy redemptions, don’t write them off as poor value.  I’m pretty sure that you will be getting a good deal if you head down to South Africa during their Summer (our Winter) and over 1p of value should be available on other routes as well.  Cash tickets are not as cheap as they used to be ….


How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (April 2025)

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

Get 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

30,000 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 – 30,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

80,000 bonus points and great travel benefits – for a large 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, and the standard card is FREE. Capital on Tap cards also have no FX fees.

Capital on Tap Visa

NO annual fee, NO FX fees and points worth 1 Avios per £1 Read our full review

Capital on Tap Pro Visa

10,500 points (=10,500 Avios) plus good benefits Read our full review

There is also a British Airways American Express card for small businesses:

British Airways American Express Accelerating Business

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

50,000 points when you sign-up 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.

Comments (36)

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

  • Tim Rogers says:

    It’s a real shame – I’d be in the market for going to almost any of these places, but want to go in September rather than waiting til October.

    • pauldb says:

      You could always try booking it and then immediately changing to September (for a £30 fee I think). If it won’t let you just cancel within the 24hr cooling off period.
      This has worked in previous sales I think, simply because the online change function does have the ability recalculate the avios required; it can only recalcualte the cash element (probably because it only allows date changes which normally don’t require different avios amounts).

  • Andrew (@andrewseftel) says:

    JNB is a good deal, shame that CPT isn’t included though.

    • Raffles says:

      Plenty of budget flight down (or use Avios on Comair) – even if was on the list you might struggle for availability to CPT anyway

      • Andrew (@andrewseftel) says:

        There’s actually some decent availability from CPT in WT. Would have been a great open jaw.

  • Ian says:

    If you check Iberia you can fly to many destinations now with a similar promotion. 3 cities in the USA and many more in South America. More or less the same Avios as BA but less taxes!

    • Tobsw says:

      Indeed, it’s 35% discount, still not bad at all bearing the reduced taxes you have to pay.

    • Tobsw says:

      I’ve just had a quick look, even the avios+cash is at very good value: MAD-NYC rtrn 13000 avios + 217£; full amount of avios 26000 + 120£

  • Oly says:

    Iberia really is the way to go for economy!

  • Oly says:

    LHR-JFK early feb 2015
    20000 avios + 361 or 585 cash money. Not all bad

  • squills says:

    Rubbish for us 😉

  • Rich. S says:

    Cheaper from JER?

  • Peter says:

    Is it possible once booked to upgrade to WT using Avios?

    • Rob says:

      You mean upgrade a WT Avios booking to WTP? No – it would involve cancelling and rebooking at the full WTP price. You cannot make a saving on a WTP redemption this way.

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

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