BA sale Part 1: ‘Part Pay With Avios’ at 1p is back, Club Europe from £52 return

British Airways launched a new sale yesterday.  

Full details can be found on this page of ba.com.  This is the page for Club World flight and holiday deals but you can navigate to the other sale pages from there.

You need to book by 12th July. 

‘Part Pay With Avios’ is also back on special offer

Running alongside the sale, BA is promoting ‘Part Pay With Avios’ again.  As with the sale in May, this has led to some crazy prices appearing such as Club Europe flights from £52 return.

British Airways introduced ‘Part Pay With Avios‘ back in 2013.  This allowed you to pay part of the price of a cash ticket using Avios points.

At the time, a lot of people felt deflated by the product.  BA had been making noises for a long time about allowing Avios points to be used for revenue fares, but the actual implementation was a damp squib with a maximum saving of just £30.

BA has been constantly tweaking (or fiddling, depending on your view) with the scheme since then.  The current offer, which is running alongside the BA sale but is valid on sale and non-sale fares, is not bad.

Until 12th July, you can get the following discounts using ‘part pay with Avios‘ to reduce the price of a cash ticket:

Club Europe – maximum saving of £150 for 15,000 Avios

Euro Traveller (short haul economy) – maximum saving of £150 for 15,000 Avios

World Traveller (long haul economy) – maximum saving of £150 for 15,000 Avios

Club World and First – maximum saving of £300 for 30,000 Avios

All of these deals are offering you 1p per Avios point which is a decent deal.  Remember that, because you are buying a cash ticket, there are no availability issues and you will receive Avios and tier points back when you fly.

This is not as generous as it was in March when you got 1.33p.  Under this deal, which is the same as the Easter one, you only get 1p.  However, the total saving allowed this time is bigger than it was when the discount was 1.33p.

As with the last time this offer ran, there are still some silly prices available. 

I was able to get a Club Europe return to Palma down to £52 return after spending 15,000 Avios points.  This is a cheap way to pick up 80 tier points if you are chasing status, and you will earn at least 2,000 Avios back.

Here are the key points to remember when using Part Pay With Avios:

You cannot part-pay Air Passenger Duty or any equivalent foreign tax. What this means, in practice, is that the maximum discount offered will be reduced if the fare is too low to not cover the taxes.  This is only likely to be an issue on short haul tickets.

Only BA operated flights are valid, not codeshares (so, for example, only BA flights to Madrid can be discounted, not the ones flown by Iberia with a BA flight number)

Any itinerary with a non-BA flight on it will not be offered ‘Part-Pay With Avios’ even if it also contains a UK or short-haul flight

You can only book at ba.com or via the BA call centre

It cannot be combined with promotional discount codes or ‘flight plus car’ / ‘flight plus hotel’ packages

It CAN be combined with Hotlines (discounted staff tickets)

It works OK on the ‘hand baggage only / Basic’ fares

It works OK on open jaw tickets

If you are in a Household Account, you will be allowed to use Avios to part-pay flights for people who are outside the Household Account

The Avios are deducted from the account of the person making the booking, even if the other passengers have their own BA or avios.com accounts

All travel must be completed by 21st June 2017 for non-premium cabins and 24 May 2017 for premium cabins.

The official ‘Part Pay With Avios’ website is here.  Click on the ‘Find Out More’ button to see the special promotional rates – the rates shown on the home page are the normal ones.

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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.