LAST DAY for the BA sales – BA Holidays, ‘Part Pay With Avios’ and Club/First

The three special sales that British Airways has been running side by side over the last couple of weeks are all ending tonight.  It has been a bit confusing with so much going on, but it is worth ploughing through it because there are some good deals to be had.

You will recognise some of the examples used here from earlier articles – no point reinventing the wheel …..

SALE ONE:  BA Holidays

The best deals are available if you book a ‘flight & hotel’ for Thanksgiving and Christmas in Club World.  Click here to take a look at some of the excellent deals available with Club World flights.

These are the ‘lead in’ flight and hotel offers based on Club World flights:

New York – £1,177 including three nights in a 4/5* hotel

Toronto – £1,154 including three nights in a 4/5* hotel

Washington – £1,149 including three nights in a 4/5* hotel

Boston – £1,149 including three nights in a 4/5* hotel

Chicago – £1,149 including three nights in a 4/5* hotel

Las Vegas – £1,472 including three nights in a 4/5* hotel

Los Angeles – £1,599 including FIVE nights in a 4/5* hotel

Vancouver – £1,616 including FIVE nights in a 4/5* hotel

Dubai – £1,152 including three nights in a 4/5* hotel

Hong Kong – £1,511 including FOUR nights in a 4/5* hotel

Other destinations are available.  These prices are based on two people sharing.

You don’t even need to pay that much though.  If you want to organise your own accommodation, booking the cheapest ‘flight and car’ package can get you a cheaper package and you can forget to pick up the car. For example, for a seven night holiday in Dubai from 1st to 8th January:

Club World flight only:  £1,379 per person

Flight plus 7 nights in their cheapest hotel you may not use:  £1,209 based on two sharing

Flight plus 7 nights at Crowne Plaza Festival City (very nice, I’ve stayed):  £1,614 based on two sharing

Flight plus 7 nights car hire which you may forget to collect:  £1,062 based on two travelling

It is pointless booking just the flight in this scenario.  Remember that with BA Holidays, you don’t even have to pay now!   You can pay a deposit and then settle the balance in the Autumn.  You also earn 2 Avios per £1 for booking with BA Holidays on top of the Avios you will earn from the flights and from your credit card.

You must book by midnight tonight for travel between 22nd to 29th November (Thanksgiving Week) or 18th December to 9th January 2017.

The BA Holidays Club World sale page is here.

SALE TWO:  Get 1p per Avios when you use ‘Part Pay With Avios’

BA is experimenting with new variants of ‘Part Pay With Avios’ again. Until TONIGHT, 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.

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) and presumably the MBNA Diamond Club credit card 10% discount

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

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 30th September.

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.

SALE THREE: Club World and First Class bargains

Finally, we have the ‘flight only’ sale.  The home page for the sale is here.

On most routes you can travel up to 27th April 2017 which is 10 days after Easter Monday.  It varies by route so take a look at the small print at the bottom of the sale website.

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.

In general, the deals are on a par with the previous sale in March.  However, there are some excellent First Class offers to North America.  In general, these are priced at roughly £400 above the equivalent Club World fare.  You will be paying £700 – £1,000 less to fly First Class than you would have in the pre-Easter sale.  World Traveller Plus fares to the US are also down on the previous sale.

Here are some major destinations, priced as World Traveller / World Traveller Plus / Club World / First:

New York £380 / £773 / £1,469 / £1,897

Miami £391 / £870 / £1,995 / £2,472

Abu Dhabi £348 / £698 / £1,238 / £1,838

Mumbai £450 / £723 / £1,427 / £2,027

Bangkok £499 / £1,018 / £1,711 / na

Tokyo £549 / £1,049 / £2,041 / £3,779

There are also some deals on European short-haul flights with some destinations under £200 return for 80 tier points. I spotted Angers, Amsterdam, Bergen, Berlin, Billund, Dublin, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Geneva, Gothenburg, Hamburg, Madrid, Munich, Palma, Paris, Quimper, Rotterdam and Stuttgart for £200 or less on certain dates. There are plenty more under £225 return as long as you stay away over a Saturday night.

Remember that ‘Part Pay With Avios’ can be used with these fares at the enhanced rate of 1p per point.  The best thing to do if you are interested is to pop over to ba.com and have a look around.  The full sale details are here.

All three of these sale BA sale options close at midnight tonight, Tuesday.

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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.