Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Club World from £495 + 30,000 Avios – exceptional British Airways Black Friday deals

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My attempts to make Black Friday go away by putting my fingers in my ears and going ‘nah nah nah nah’ (a trick I picked up from my 4-year old) have failed as the articles today show.  The good news is that British Airways is running a fantastic Club World deal over the Christmas period which makes it well worth pulling out your credit card.

Full details are on ba.com here – but they do not tell the whole story.

Last year BA offered Club World flights for £1,007 return over Christmas.  This year the prices are higher and the range of destinations is narrower – you won’t be getting any deals to South Africa this year, for example.

British Airways 350 3

However, there is one twist this year which makes the deals far better than in 2014.  You can use ‘part pay with Avios’, at a hugely advantageous rate, to discount your ticket even further.

Here are the discounts available.  Note that these savings only apply to departures from the UK.

  • £700 off for 30,000 Avios
  • £350 off for 15,000 Avios
  • £260 off for 11,250 Avios
  • £175 off for 7,500 Avios
  • £105 off for 4,500 Avios
  • £35 off for 1,500 Avios

Here are the destinations and prices for a Club World return flight in the Black Friday sale, assuming you redeem the maximum of 30,000 Avios.  Add back £700 to get the headline ‘cash only’ price.

  • Toronto £597 + 30,000 Avios
  • Chicago £649
  • Vancouver £683
  • Calgary £683
  • Washington DC £689
  • New York £685
  • Boston £689
  • Miami £698
  • Las Vegas £1,120
  • San Francisco £1,149
  • Los Angeles £1,163
  • San Diego £1,189
  • Seattle £1,189
  • Dallas £1,189
  • Phoenix £1,189
  • Chennai £494
  • Delhi £495
  • Bangalore £495
  • Mumbai £495
  • Hyderabad £515
  • Dubai £573
  • Bahrain £695
  • Chengdu (China) £501
  • Hong Kong £800
  • Kuala Lumpur £895
  • Seoul £2,135
  • Sydney £2,197

You will definitely earn Avios and tier points for your flight even though you have used ‘part pay with Avios’.

Here are the travel rules:

  • Book by Monday 30th November
  • Travel outbound between 21st December and 3rd January
  • Travel inbound before 10th January

There are also some good deals available out of Dublin.  I will take a look at these tomorrow, although the downside of the Dublin fares is that you cannot use ‘part pay with Avios’ to reduce them.

You can see full details of the British Airways Black Friday deals here.

PPS.  There are also Black Friday deals on World Traveller and World Traveller Plus fares as well.  You can use part-pay with Avios to reduce these even further with discounts of up to £200 available.  This means, for example, a £400 return flight to Boston can be booked for as little as £200.  Details here.


How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

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:

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

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

25,000 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 – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a 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, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios.

Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa

Huge 30,000 points bonus until 12th May 2024 Read our full review

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.

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

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

40,000 points sign-up bonus 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 (73)

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

  • Liz says:

    OT does BA offer cash and points for Avis car hire. I know car hire is not a great redemption but I just worked out our car hire next year is going to be a crazy £670 for 15days because there is a $300 surcharge for picking up in one USA state and dropping off in another. I know Avios.com does this but their price is about £50 more than BA.

    • Mark says:

      Surely you must be able to get a better deal than that by shopping around!?! Try the comparison sites on http://www.moneysavingexpert.com

      • Liz says:

        Still all round the same price – it’s the $ 300 surcharge for dropping off at a different state – our next 4 USA trips will all be long fly drives across different states. Any advice would be appreciated!

        • Lady London says:

          It depends on your direction of travel and time of year, but in the past month or so Hertz was practically giving you the car if you drove the vehicle one way from New York or near, to Florida. ‘From” and :”To” states to qualify for these deals were listed. They were pretty close to peanuts cost. So that they could position their cars for the holiday season, I imagine. I’ve heard it works in the spring in the other direction as well.

        • Ian says:

          I believe national do not charge.

          However I always use Hertz as much cheaper than Avis or anyone else.

          • Liz says:

            Hertz was coming out at £1100! Will have a look at National – thanks. We are starting in Chicago and finishing in Texas.

          • Liz says:

            Just tried National and they are charging $400 one way fee! It gets worse!!

  • Brian says:

    Hi, quick question re the BA calcellation policy. At the below link it indicates cancel for a full refund if done with 24 hours.

    I’m guessing this 24 hour rule also applies to the part pay with Avios option as well?

    Basically, I’m going to book Monday night before the deal ends as it’s saving quite a fair compared to what i was going to be paying. I’ll then check on the Tuesday if I can advance book for definite the annual leave. If I can’t, I just plan cancel.

    Thanks

    http://www.britishairways.com/en-gb/information/customer-service-and-contingency-planning

    • Rob says:

      I would assume it applies, yes.

    • Alan says:

      I’ve done the <24h cancellation with a non-refundable cash ticket before without a problem, can't see why it wouldn't work with the part-pay with Avios option too but if in doubt might be worth givine them a buzz/Tweet to confirm but would seem unusual for them not to offer it.

  • Ian says:

    I thought you were looking at Dublin flights today?

  • JC says:

    Amazing deal! Bagged a Toronto break with the husband (first time in 787!) £600 rtn in J is hard to say no to plus it will get us to silver status! That how I sold it 😉

  • where2travel says:

    It works with the BMI discount too, which knocked about £100 of the fares I was looking at (business class to either YVR or MIA).

    • Tony M says:

      How do you get the bmi discount?
      Also do you still get double points for booking on ba with diamond club credit card?
      Thanks

      • Alan says:

        You click through from your daimondclub.org account and they removed the double points earlier this year I think

        • Tony M says:

          Thanks Alan.
          I booked within the last 24hrs so will try and cancel and then rebook through the diamond club.
          I do recall something about them stopping the double points, wasn’t sure.

          • Alan says:

            Just double-check first to make sure you can get it OK at the discounted price!! Sometimes it seems to charge more than without the discount although that shouldn’t be the case given the reports of it working on here but best to play it safe!

          • Tony M says:

            Thanks. Just tried, apologies if silly question where does it show the discount?clicked through the diamond club, entered flight details, but doesn’t show any discounts

  • Gill says:

    How can I check how many TPs these flights will earn?

  • BG says:

    Anyone know how long it takes to get back Avios if I cancel within 24-hour period?
    I am waiting for some Clubcard avios to arrive, so was thinking of booking it now with less Avios, if they arrive tomorrow I would then cancel and rebook with more avios…

  • Umberto says:

    Guys, I’m going to book Bangalore. Was wondering. If I want to upgrade with avios to first class can I just upgrade the outbound? Would that cost 22,500 avios? Thanks

    • Rob says:

      Yes, that’s not a problem. The online system lets you select which legs you want to upgrade.

      The cost will be the difference between a Club World and First redemption on the day you are travelling so the Avios needed will depend on whether it is a peak or off-peak date.

      • Umberto says:

        I have tried but it doesn’t seem to be working. It says that I am already travelling first. Will call the call centre and see what they say.

        • Umberto says:

          Just to update you all on this. For this fare upgrades are not permitted.

          • Umberto says:

            Yet, I have just realised that there is no first class on the flight to Bangalore so not sure if the lady on the phone had just made this up.

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

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