Flight deals: Qatar to Tokyo for £795, British Airways Club and First deals ex-Europe

Here are a couple of interesting flight deals if you are spending your weekend wondering what to do over the Summer.

More Qatar Airways bargains from Pisa

Qatar Airways is pushing its Pisa route again with some further very heavy discounting to Asia.

You see Qatar’s special Pisa fares here.

Pisa to Tokyo is a ludicrous €1,015 (£795) in Business Class.

Other standout deals are Kuala Lumpur (€1,205 / £945), Phuket (€1,125 / £882) and Bangkok (€1,030 / £808).

From Pisa, you are on a short-haul A320 to Doha but this still has flat bed seats in Business Class.  These Asia routes will earn you 560 British Airways tier points which is over 90% of what you need for a BA Silver card.  You can connect to Pisa on British Airways via Gatwick or Heathrow.

You need to book by Monday for travel at any point until March 2017, although at peak times you might not find the fare available.

PS.  Readers who booked the recent Pisa to Auckland deal on Qatar, who hit trouble when the Auckland service was delayed, have come up trumps.  Qatar has rebooked them Pisa – Heathrow (BA, Club Europe) – Hong Kong (Cathay Pacific, Business) – Auckland (Cathay Pacific, Business).

British Airways First Class deals out of Europe

British Airways is, for some odd reason, selling cheap First Class tickets out of the Netherlands and Germany at the moment.  There may be other starting points available as well.

How cheap?  First Class to Johannesburg is €2,684 (£2,105) from Frankfurt or Amsterdam.  Cape Town, oddly, is not reduced.

Hong Kong is around €2,850.  Manila, which involves changing to Cathay Pacific in Hong Kong, is €3,000.  All of these prices are freely available, including over Christmas for those I checked.  A Saturday night does seem to be required.

These are clearly not pocket money prices but they do represent very good value for money if you are prepared to spend £2,000 on a return flight.

Good Club World deals are also available.  Johannesburg is €1,844 from Germany for example, and I found that fare easily available over Christmas.

Note that, whilst these fares are theoretically ‘refundable for a fee’, the fee is high.  Under the new BA cancellation rules, the cancellation fee is PER SECTOR.  That would be 4 x €300 for Amsterdam to Johannesburg which wipes out much of what you paid.

Have a play around at ba.com and see what you can find.

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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.