British Airways extends ‘hand baggage only’ fares to all short-haul fare classes

The ‘hand baggage only’ experiment is clearly working.  This was initially trialled at Gatwick, offering a £10 discount each-way on non-flexible economy tickets to a handful of destinations.

Over the course of the last year British Airways has gradually been extending its coverage.  From July 17th, it is now available on ALL short haul departures in ALL fare classes:

From Heathrow and City airports, you can now save £10 each-way on semi-flexible and flexible tickets in the following fare buckets – L, M, K, H, B, Y.

From Gatwick, you can now save £10 in B and Y  – it was already available in the lower classes.

These tickets are only available for point-to-point trips and will not be offered if you are connecting to another flight.

Whilst this does simplify the BA ticketing structure, I’m not entirely sure it makes financial sense.  Business travellers on flexible tickets are unlikely to be price sensitive to the tune of £10.  It will also require a lot of telephone calls back and forth between corporate travel agencies, PAs and travellers over whether the passenger intends to take any checked luggage or not.

For clarity, a British Airways Silver or Gold member CANNOT buy a ‘hand baggage only’ fare and then try to check in a bag for free on the basis of their BA status.  You are effectively required to give up your right to an additional free checked bag in return for buying one of these tickets.

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How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (March 2023)

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.

SPECIAL OFFER: Successfully apply for either of the Barclaycard Avios credit cards by 2nd April 2023 and you will be entered into a free draw to win ONE MILLION AVIOS! Full details are on the application forms here (free) and here (paid). This competition is exclusive to Head for Points readers. T&C apply.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points.

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.

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.

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.

Until 30th March 2023, the sign up bonus on American Express Business Platinum is increased to 120,000 Membership Rewards points – click here. The bonus on American Express Business Gold is increased to 60,000 Membership Rewards points – click here. T&C apply, see the application forms for details.

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.