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NEW: British Airways launches ‘flash’ £1 taxes and 50% fewer Avios sale

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British Airways gave me a bit of a surprise this morning by launching a ‘flash’ redemption sale via an announcement on the ‘offers’ page of ba.com.

This is a very quick post as I am due at an event at World Travel Market in 5 minutes!

The short haul deal covers 10 European routes.

Club Europe British Airways

You need to book your seat before midnight on November 17th and travel before January 31st.

You will pay the usual Avios price but the taxes charge is reduced by £34 to just £1.

The list of participating routes is here.  They are all in the 15,000 to 20,000 Avios per seat band which means they are generally ‘Winter sun’ routes.  Only economy seats are available.

The long haul deal covers 35 routes.

The number of Avios required for World Traveller (ie economy) seats is reduced by HALF on 30 routes and by a quarter on the remaining five. The taxes figure is unchanged, however.

The booking and travel dates are the same as for the short haul offer.

The list of routes is here.  Dubai and Abu Dhabi are included if the Winter weather is getting you down this week.

Not sure if these can be booked via avios.com or if you need to move your points over to British Airways Executive Club first.

Seats are available for booking now.  Full analysis tomorrow. Right, off to my meeting ….

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How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (July 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 Card

30,000 Avios and the famous annual Companion Voucher voucher Read our full review

British Airways American Express Credit Card

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 Credit Card

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

50,000 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 points worth 0.8 Avios per £1 on the FREE standard card and 1 Avios per £1 on the Pro card. Capital on Tap cards also have no FX fees.

Capital on Tap Visa

NO annual fee, NO FX fees and points worth 0.8 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 Card

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.

The American Express Business Platinum Card

50,000 points when you sign-up and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

The American Express Business Gold Card

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.

Category

British Airways and Avios

Comments (36)

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

  • Stuart says:
    6 Nov6 November 12:01

    Interesting – A very quick, side by side comparison to BCN for 3 days in December nets a fairly normal value of 0.6p per avios. The same 0.6p per avios you get when applying avios for cash saving. I think I’d rather pay the 90 quid and get the tier points 🙂

    • AndyGWP says:
      6 Nov6 November 13:12

      Thanks for highlighting / reminding me of this – in the excitement of saving a few quid and utilising avios, it hadn’t crossed my mind that prices to some destinations are usually cheaper through January

      • idrive says:
        6 Nov6 November 13:14

        that’s the problem,. with cash tickets generally so cheap as they are now, it oftenmakes no points.

        • Rob says:
          6 Nov6 November 13:17

          Dubai etc will presumably be relatively pricey, or at least not as low as mid-Summer. Although the Middle East is not boiling in January, we were in Dubai in February a few years ago and it was only warm enough for sunbathing between, say, 10 and 2. Albeit that is 4 hours more sunbathing than you will be doing in London!

          • C77 says:
            7 Nov7 November 00:02

            The lowest fare in Jan to Dubai on ba.com is £43 + £341 in taxes.
            The avios on offer deal is 20,000 avios + £341 tax.
            I value 20,000 avios at more than £43. Plus for that additional outlay I would earn 6806 additional avios and tier points for doing so. I could also use 3,000 avios and have the fare reduced by £20 and still be richer in avios from when I started to the tune of 3806. So its important to weigh up (like anything) how good a deal REALLY is

          • Rob says:
            7 Nov7 November 08:50

            Is it really so cheap? I’m surprised.

  • idrive says:
    6 Nov6 November 12:28

    i will be busy this weekend!

  • Zoe says:
    6 Nov6 November 16:18

    I neither speak or read Spainish so I could be wrong but it looks like Iberia are including some business class seats?

  • Brendan says:
    6 Nov6 November 16:59

    Its annoying how Dublin is never included in any of Iberias deals

  • Eleanor says:
    6 Nov6 November 21:05

    Mmmm…arrived in Alicante today, 6th November, on a RFS booked last week…so missed out there, no chance of a retrospective I guess!?!

    Also, have used a 241 for a trip to Washington in December….so the 50% deal looked good for a cancellation / re-booking, until I saw it was in World Traveller only. Think I’d rather keep my CW booking at full avios and 241. Unless it might be extended across all classes????

    I too had to forego a planned visit to WTM, look forward to your WTM post Raffles!

    • Rob says:
      6 Nov6 November 22:09

      I am not a fan of WTM but was invited to a blogger networking event today. Met one useful trade person and 10 less useful ones but, if that one comes to something, it will have been worth it.

  • Max says:
    6 Nov6 November 21:23

    Need some help here guys as I have not booked any RFS before.
    Just tried Venice in Dec/Jan on BA, however, it’s still showing 15,000 Avios + £35 tax (not £1)

    • squills says:
      6 Nov6 November 21:40

      Just did a dummy flight for you LHR-VCE 9-17 Dec.

      Loads of availability then & each side.

      Use the links above.

      • Max says:
        6 Nov6 November 21:58

        Thanks…just saw some Avios+£1 flights
        Not sure what I was doing wrong earlier

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