New British Airways Club World (£1,500) and First sale – travel until September 2016

British Airways launched its Autumn premium cabin sale yesterday. Flights are bookable until 12th November.

What is interesting about the sale is that you can book until September 2016 on many routes – a substantially larger window than usual.  The absolute latest date is 15th October 2016 for Tampa, Orlando and Lima.

It is important to note that there are black-out days on many routes – see the terms and conditions on the offer page.  These are generally based on specific days of the week being blocked off rather than continual periods of time.

Full sale details can be found on ba.com here.

The key question, of course, is “are the prices any good?”.

In some cases, the answer is definitely “yes”.

It isn’t often you find Club World fares at £1,500 from London, but this price is available for:

• Boston
• Calgary
• Chicago
• Miami
• Montreal
• New York
• Philadelphia (£1,353)
• Toronto
• Vancouver
• Washington
• Cancun
• Kingston (£1,291)
• Punta Cana (£1,290)
• San Jose Costa Rica
• Abu Dhabi
• Amman (£1,320)
• Bahrain
• Beirut (£1,229)
• Cairo (£1,351)
• Dubai
• Lagos
• Tel Aviv (£1,125 – but First is better value at £1,187)
• Bangalore
• Chennai
• Mumbai
• New Delhi

Other routes are also available – albeit for more than £1,500 – with South Africa being the major destination to be excluded completely.  First Class is generally available for an additional £1,000 return.

Before you book, you should try two additional things which may make your trip even cheaper:

Price the same route starting in Dublin.  It will occasionally be cheaper, although you need to factor in the cost of getting to Dublin and back.  Shanghai, for example, is just €1,200 (£866) over Christmas and New Year.

Try using the ‘flight and hotel’ or ‘flight and car’ option on ba.com.  If you don’t need a hotel, only get a quote for a hotel or car for one night and pick the cheapest one possible.  Due to the way BA prices these products, it can work out cheaper than just booking a flight.  You are under no obligation to pick up the car or stay in the hotel – your return flight won’t be cancelled!

One other benefit of booking a ‘flight and hotel’ or ‘flight and car’ package is that you don’t need to pay for your trip now.  You can pay a small deposit, from £150, and settle the balance nearer to your travel date.

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How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (April 2024)

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:

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. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

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.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 12th May 2024, the Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa card is offering a bonus of 30,000 points, convertible into 30,000 Avios. You must have a Limited Company to apply. Click here to learn more and click here to apply.

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.

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