Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Book Business Class to Las Vegas on BA, Virgin or American for £1,150 this Summer

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Via Flyertalk comes this very interesting fare from Dublin – and possibly other places in Ireland – to Las Vegas this Summer.

£1,150 return, give or take, will get you from Dublin to Las Vegas in Business Class.

There are a few routing options available.  You can route into London on Aer Lingus and connect to Virgin Atlantic or British Airways.  Alternatively, you can fly directly to the US on an American carrier and then make a connection to get you to Las Vegas.

I was able to price Dublin to Las Vegas on British Airways at €1,547 on ba.com.

For British Airways routes, you should book at ba.com to avoid any booking fee.  Virgin Atlantic options require you to book via a third party – try Expedia or Opodo – because the Virgin website does not accept Dublin as a starting point.

Remember that, from Las Vegas, you can pick up connections to California.  Anything on American Airlines may be available as an Avios redemption or you could use Virgin Atlantic miles for Virgin America or Delta.

I don’t know how long these fares will be around – they may disappear as quickly as they appeared.  It seems to be bookable until September-ish.

If you have never booked a fare like this before, I need to stress that you MUST travel to Ireland to take the first flight.  Under no circumstances can you turn up at Heathrow and jump onto the second leg without first travelling to Dublin and coming back.

Remember that Virgin is currently offering double tier points and double miles on transatlantic routes.  Meanwhile, Iberia has a generous promotion if you credit a business class flight on BA to Iberia Plus.

If you need a hotel, don’t forget this generous offer for the two InterContinental Alliance properties in Las Vegas.


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 (43)

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

  • Ross Parker says:

    Can I be the first smartarse to point out that “other parts of California” isn’t right? Vegas is in Nevada.

    • Peter K says:

      Ha ha. That’s the first thing that jumped out at me from the post!!!

    • dps says:

      It doesn’t say from Las Vegas “to other parts of California”, it says “from Dublin – and possibly other places in Ireland – to Las Vegas”; so it’s geographically impeccable (as well as very good value).

      • Andy says:

        It used to say “las Vegas and other parts of California” but the text has been changed by Raffles

  • Cheshire Pete says:

    Surely the “must start in Dublin” would only apply if it is a thru ticket with BA? How could a flight with Virgin from LHR to Vegas be cancelled if you didn’t take an incoming from Dublin on a Separately ticketed BA or Aer Lingus shuttle into LHR?

    • Genghis says:

      Indeed. But then you wouldn’t be getting those prices LHR-LAS direct!

    • Brendan says:

      They are not seperately ticketed. It is one itinerary so in all likelihood, your ticket would be cancelled if you don’t take the first flight from Dublin.

  • Alan says:

    I’ve been looking to get some tier points as I’ve not travelled one world much since my TP renewal date last October. I need 230 TPs to retain silver

    Had a quick look this morning and routing DUB-PHL-PHX-LAS-JFK-LHR-DUB you’d earn 640 TPs?

    That seems like a fairly decent return for a TP run for £1155.77 and you get a night or two in Vegas to win your fare back!

    Any thoughts of a quicker way to get silver from a standing start for less from the UK/ROI?

    • Ralph says:

      Ex EU on Qatar. Eg. Copenhagen to Bangkok 4-11 October pricing now at <£900 Rtn gets u 560TPs if I'm not mistaken, plus 787 and a380 without long layovers.

    • Philip says:

      The SecretFlying website is advising of real bargain Business Class fares from Scandinavian cities to a host of Far East destinations with Qatar.

      Their headline offer is €1039 (£790) Oslo – Bangkok, which would earn you 140 + 140 + 140 + 140 = 560 Tier Points. Not quite standing start to silver in one fell swoop. but pretty close.

  • Gary O says:

    Returning back from las vagas to Dublin via Heathrow, can we jump off at Heathrow and keep tier points and miles ?

    • Will says:

      You wouldn’t get the TP and miles for LHR-DUB as you wouldn’t have flown it. You would need to travel back HBO as your bag would be through tagged to DUB, unless you can convince the check in agent to short check to LHR but there have been reports on FT of agents refusing to do that.

      There has not been any evidence of BA taking all the miles and TPs away for dropping the last leg but one travel agent who was selling a lot of ex-EU did get in a lot of bother because his customers weren’t flying the last leg. Also they could come after you for the higher fare.

      To my mind for the price of the fare the sacrifice you have to pay is that you have to fly the last leg it’s only a short hop. The concern is if people keep dropping the last leg then these fares may go over time.

      • Gary O says:

        Thanks Will, this makes sense

      • Alan says:

        +1 – I always go for the simplicity of taking the final leg and enjoying the extra 40 TP! Plus depending on timing you can make it a mini-citibreak too and squeeze in a mattress run 🙂

  • Mark says:

    yes if they only check your baggage as far as lhr, eg make sure the last leg is from lgw, and if they dont come after you later for the higher fare.

    • Billy Buzzjet says:

      Hi
      if you’re flying BA.com , sometimes it returns the option of picking an ex. LGW departure to DUB on Aer Lingus or occasionally LCY -DUB on BA if you play with different dates. If not, try the AA website and try the advanced multi city search and do arrival into LON then LON to DUB within 24 hours of arrival and it usually comes up with the same fare and options from LCY and LGW . Make sure you tick the box that says ‘all airlines’ in the search. You’re bag will be routed to LHR then off you skip . I’ve never had a problem . The AA site also lets you mix and match first and WTP or WT fares which BA doesn’t easily offer.

  • JamesWag says:

    That’s superb. I need May 2017 to Vegas for a wedding so fingers crossed similar crops up for that time frame.

    Am surprised it seems to work for both BA and Virgin. They’re not in alliance so is one just copying the other’s deal or is this an unusual tie-up ??

    • Mikeact says:

      My son got a strange one last year. Virgin ,Heathrow to New York, back on BA to Heathrow, but ticketing finished in Oslo (he jumped off in London ) £231from a French travel agent.

    • James says:

      Virgin tickets a lot of connecting short haul sectors on BA, it’s very common.

      • Mikeact says:

        But UK to US is hardly a short haul connection.

        • James A says:

          No, in this instance one world (BA) have matched virgin. This is also common

    • James says:

      NYC from DUB is £900 on select dates in mid summer on EI.

  • Clive says:

    OSL to BKK in Qatar business is pricing at £800

    • polly says:

      Mmm wondering if we should.jump on board again and cancel our 241 in BA F to KUL in jan and grab a couple.of those J.seats…think a lot if them.end in December tho…love a mini break on Oslo too.

  • Alex W says:

    LHR to Vegas in July is ridiculous at over £900 in Economy!!

    Finally managed to use my Lloyds companion voucher for just over £300 each instead, getting about 2.8p per Avios value. Couldn’t convince the wife to spend the extra to go business via Dublin!

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