Short haul Club Europe bargains from £175 in the British Airways sale

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

• PGW says:

  21 Dec21 December 06:00

  Useful list there.

  I hope you’ll forgive me for making the point that they’re much less attractive to those of us who don’t live within reasonable travelling distance of those departing airports. That’s particularly so for LCY & LGW departures where there aren’t any regional connections into those airports.

  Not a criticism just an observation – Merry Christmas!

• MilesFromBlighty says:

  21 Dec21 December 06:38

  I am not seeing all of those offers on the BA web site. For example cheapest Alicante is £219, Barcelona £220, … unless you are using an additional trick which I’m missing.

  • Rob says:

    21 Dec21 December 18:22

    I wrote that article on Thursday for publication on Friday but it got pushed back, Mark. Hands up – I did not double-check the fares again last night before it ran.

• JQ says:

  21 Dec21 December 07:38

  Quimper. How on earth do you find out that BA flies there. I didn’t even realise it had an airport.

  • Nick Burch says:

    21 Dec21 December 08:51

    It’s a very pleasant if short flight from city! Airport is just outside of town, there is a bus which leaves from by the mini roundabout at the entrance to the airport, but timings are a bit sporadic. Hire cars available. Airport is very small, with the plane only just fitting, but quite friendly all the same, eg if you’re waiting an hour for the bus… Works well for seeing a nice bit of Brittany!

    • Fenny says:

      21 Dec21 December 23:07

      Would have been exceptionally handy when I used to work for my previous employer and I had to go to Quimper for audits. But I think the extremely adorable Finance Manager has moved to another location, so no point in a quick trip!

  • Rich says:

    21 Dec21 December 16:07

    Very useful for those of us that want to get to Brittany quickly…..

• poincianakings says:

  21 Dec21 December 09:18

  It would appear that since Rob wrote the article all the fares have jumped up slightly.

  Bilbao in CE is, for example, now £220.00 return and £73.00 for ET.

  There, of course, is no getting away from the fact that the prices are very competitive. Either the fare rises are just a bit of bad luck combined with the timing of this article, or BA revenue management saw the article and raised prices (highly doubtful!).

  • Rob says:

    21 Dec21 December 18:20

    That is a bit tight – you either have a sale or you don’t. I actually wrote that piece on Thursday based on the rates showing then, it ended up getting pushed back a few days.

    • poincianakings says:

      21 Dec21 December 22:21

      Sorry didn’t mean it to come across as “tight”.

      • squills says:

        21 Dec21 December 23:02

        Tight of BA to use dynamic pricing during a ‘sale’, even if it is moderated.

• Cheshire Pete says:

  21 Dec21 December 15:44

  The Alicante route in CE has been cheap for some time since their last luxury sale. I already have 2 sets of flights books for February and September both at £98 each way. You’ll get that back in champagne if nothing else!

  • Richie says:

    21 Dec21 December 16:55

    Iv noticed Malaga used to be priced higher then Alicante but recently is about the same. I prefer Malaga for a short few rays in the sun

• Imbruce says:

  22 Dec22 December 10:36

  I wish the airlines would offer cheap deals for Xmas instead of the high fares they charge. That’s why we are staying in the UK, could not justify £996 for two return airfares to Spain adding in cost if a villa & car it was going to cost £2000 before anything else. One ov the low cost carriers wanted over £1000 for flights. Such a rip off!

  • squills says:

    22 Dec22 December 11:17

    You have to get in early. We fly out to Europe every Xmas, Easter, summer holidays, usually half terms in June & October as well. 5 of us and never failed yet to get either Avios RFS flights or cheapo BA or EJ/RA tickets for the required dates. But I don’t hang about.

    5 of us 😉

    I’ll be looking to book Xmas 2015 outward in about 12 or so days’ time just as soon as December gets released lol.

    Not always a brilliant idea to book ahead so far as RFS availability can often improve as time goes by. But with Xmas / school holidays you need a bit of certainty. And of course you need to avoid falling into the trap of paying through the nose by leaving it too late. Our 7500 Avios + taxes flights this Xmas are now priced at £850! Some years I’ve seen £1000+!

    • Richie says:

      22 Dec22 December 11:21

      I booked this years christmas flights to Warsaw in March. Flying out on ba for £90 each in economy. And then skiing for new year I booked in feb . £290 all in for 2 people with a passsat size car hire.

      Christmas you need to book early.

      • Richie says:

        22 Dec22 December 11:22

        Both these flights were peak weeks 20/12-27/12 and 28/12-4/01

    • Rob says:

      22 Dec22 December 15:25

      Or, of course, befriend a BA Gold and get them to book you a Gold Priority Reward.

      We have some flights booked for half-term in February when BA wanted £500 per person in economy. (Feb half-term is horrendous because everyone wants the same few flights to the same few places, and they all want to leave on Friday night or Saturday to get a full weeks holiday in.) 18,000 Avios per person on a Gold Priority Reward was a steal.

      • richie says:

        22 Dec22 December 15:53

        Iv never done this before. Is it possible for every flight? And is there a time period? I’m guessing I cant do it 24h before? seems a very good use of avios for emergency situations. I’m In a kind of emergency situation now where hotels.com have just cancelled my weeks accommodation over ny in Andorra. Cant find anywhere to stay in any of the Pyrenees major resorts close to a ski lift and for a decent price. Luckily ba changed the flight time last week by 2h 25m on the outbound which allowed me to cancel the flights and car hire today. Anyway. Now I need to find somewhere else to go however flights to Swiss, Austria and Italy are all £600pp.

        • Alan says:

          22 Dec22 December 17:39

          You need to book more than 30 days in advance for a Gold Priority Reward.

• Singing Dwarf says:

  23 Dec23 December 15:05

  [Off Topic] Removal of children from Household Account

  I know this has been discussed before, but I emailed BA recently to ask what would happen if I removed the childrens accounts from the Household account. The website warned me that their accounts would be deleted if I tried this, so I emailed, asking what would happen to their Avios, earned in their own names.

  I was informed that “If you delete your children from your Household Account profile, the Avios balance lying in their respective account also will be deleted.”.

  Can anybody confirm if this is a change, as I have elsewhere (possibly FT?) that removing a childs account causes the Avios to be credited to the head of household account?

  • Polly says:

    23 Dec23 December 17:35

    If indeed that is the case, I wouldn’t risk it. Just do what I did….Transfer their ba avios quickly into a family avios account, then separate it out again, with the kids avios being credited to your account. Just make sure each form is signed with 100% of their avios to go to the head account holder or wherever you want them. Bingo saved, not lost. It’s a faffle but works. They have to mail you the forms or print them out, send by post, very snail mail etc.. But at least in the end they are not lost. Am sure they are very hard earned too!

    • squills says:

      23 Dec23 December 17:53

      Or just use up all the Avios first, before deleting the kids.

      • Rob says:

        23 Dec23 December 19:34

        Or, move Avios from your account to a personal Avios.com or Iberia account. Leave just enough so that the kids plus what you left behind is exactly what you are redeeming. It will zero all the accounts and you can then move your personal points back.

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