Is the British Airways UK Winter Sale worth a look?

British Airways launched its Winter sale on Thursday instead of waiting for the main post-Christmas travel rush.  Yesterday I looked at some great deals to North America from Dublin over Easter and Summer 2016.  Today I want to look at the best deals out of the UK.

The home page for the new sale is here.

Here are the summary terms:

Book before 2nd February 2016

Travel dates vary by destination.  The deals appear to run throughout 2016 for most destinations although prices move around by season.

The easiest way to check out the best prices to a specific destination is with the British Airways Low Fare Finder tool on ba.com. This will show you the cheapest price on any route, in any class, on month by month basis.

If you can be flexible with dates, there are some decent fares available.   Here are some major destinations, priced as World Traveller / World Traveller Plus / Club World / First:

New York £362 / £797 / £1,391 / £2,416

Miami £432 / £872 / £1,534 / £2,535

Abu Dhabi £374 / £715 / £1,339 / £2,061

Mumbai £453 / £664 / £1,945/ £2,879

Bangkok £491 / £1,074 / £1,941 / na

Tokyo £509 / £969 / £2,033 / £3,677

The US and Middle East Club World and First fares are very aggressive compared with usual sale prices out of London.  £1,391 Club World to New York is very, very cheap – in fact, I’m not sure I’ve ever seen it cheaper on BA in a mainstream sale.  Abu Dhabi, note, is £300 cheaper than Dubai in Club World on certain dates even though they are only a short cheap taxi ride apart.

The Caribbean is looking OK – Barbados is down to £1,692 on some dates in Club World.  Kingston and Punta Cana are a shade under £1,300.

In general, the £2,000 Asia fares I quote above are as good it gets, apart from perennial dog Chengdu!  This is £1,698.  Similarly, Africa doesn’t have any standout deals – Cape Town never gets below £3,000 whenever you book.

There isn’t much happening on the short-haul front.  I couldn’t see a single destination under £200 return in Club Europe which is rare, although there are a few places around £225.  Perhaps the recent flash sales, offering seats for as low as £150, have sucked out much of the excess capacity already.

The best thing to do if you are interested is to pop over to ba.com and have a look around.  The home page for the sale is here.

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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.

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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.