Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

British Airways Club World to North America from Dublin from £785 (AA from £732)

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British Airways launched its Winter sale yesterday.  This is valid in all classes for departures from the UK, for bookings until 2nd February.

I am currently looking through the various prices and will have a full article tomorrow.

In the meantime, I want to draw your attention to some amazing Club World fares to North America which have been loaded out of Dublin.

British Airways 350 2

These are only valid for travel over the key holiday periods:

Book by 2nd February 2016

Fly outbound between 19th March and 18th April 2016

or

Fly outbound between 1st July and 31st August 2016

These are some of the prices available:

Dublin to New York – €1,009 (£732) on American direct (a little more on BA via London).  Expedia can route this via Philadelphia on AA for extra tier points.

Dublin to Miami – €1,057 (£767) on AA with a US connection (a little more on BA via London)

Dublin to San Francisco – €1,236 (£897) on AA with a US connection (a little more on BA via London)

Dublin to Chicago – €1,135 (£823) on AA direct (a little more on BA via London)

Dublin to Honolulu (Kahului, Kona also available) – €1,302 (£945) on BA / AA (more creative routings for extra tier points may be available if booked on aa.com)

Other destinations are also available.  There are also some good First Class fares for prices you would usually expect to pay for Club World.

The Honolulu price is especially interesting and could lead to a substantial tier point haul with the right routing.  This article shows how reader Ian got 1,390 tier points for a return business class trip to Hawaii.  For well under £1,000, you can fly to Hawaii and get yourself to within touching distance of British Airways Gold.

If these prices look interesting I suggest clicking through to ba.com and having a look around.  It is also worth searching via Expedia or aa.com as this is more likely to show you odd routing options to maximise tier points.

Remember that you MUST take the first flight from Dublin.  You cannot hop on the plane at Heathrow and skip the first leg – your flight will have been cancelled by then!  You should also try to take the final flight back to Dublin, especially if you have checked baggage.  British Airways is clamping down on allowing passengers to ticket their bags through to London if their flight is ticketed to Dublin.


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 (119)

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

  • Ben says:

    Hey everyone, loving the tips on this site – bagged a bargain trip to Rome in February and one of those ex-Copenhagen trips to NYC in July, so thanks a lot! Getting tempted now by the ex-Dublin deals to either Vegas or Miami in August. The best deals I’ve found so far are ~€1060 and ~€1160, respectively, with AL and AA. Are there any particularly good routes to look out for to get the best aircraft and maximise avios/TPs? cheers.

    • Clive says:

      Im seeing only 747s on both routes via LHR so if I was heading to MIA I may be tempted to take the AA 777

    • Rob says:

      The key with tier points is that flights over 2000 miles are treated as long haul. This means that UK New York Vegas gets you 4 x 140 tier points return (plus 80 return for the Dublin connection). Flying UK LA Vegas would only be 140 + 40 for the connection each way as it is sub 2000 miles.

  • harry says:

    O/T The Tesco bonus conversion, sorting out the wrong 480 points

    Not sure where I saw the comment earlier but I transferred my wife’s 480s to Avios.com & she’s now -2880 on BAEC (ie minus figure)

  • Kim says:

    I booked CW DUB-LHR-SFO for August during the last BA sale and to avoid price increases I quickly booked our Cardiff- DUB flights with Aer Lingus (paying as much for our luggage as the flights!).
    I have now been notified of a time change of 15 mins on the return from SFO which has resulted in them putting us on a later flight from LHR – DUB and subsequently in us missing our flight home to Cardiff!
    BA are obviously willing to work with us on different flights but compensation is like a swear word to them- they have however said we can offload in LHR – and cancel the final leg! Awaiting an email from the ticketing office to confirm. Interesting option given the discussions above.

  • Steve says:

    Errrr – looks like the deals on DUB – HNL have gone! Prices are now at £1295.

  • Nuno says:

    Sory for the question but i can’t found a proper answer.

    What is the best route to Honolulu to win tier points? And should i book a AA flight or a British airways flight?

    I can’t see anymore that prices from dublin. Now only in United airlines

    • Rob says:

      The key is to maximise the number of 2,000 miles sectors because 2,000 miles is the trigger for long haul tier points. The example I referenced in the article is about as good as it gets.

  • Ian says:

    Cheap flights to HNL have now gone.

  • oyster says:

    Rob, either you have a time machine or you’re in New Zealand!

    Today is the 19th 🙂

  • Jaz says:

    I understand from comments above that making a business class booking through AA and crediting to BA Exec will attract First class Avios and Tier points for the internal US leg (on two-tier flights.) However, how does base earning rate work – the BA site indicates that AA business class earns 125% of miles flown whereas BA is 150%. If I book an AA flight through BA do I get 150%, but if I book direct with AA I only get 125%?

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

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