Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

British Airways launches a big new sale in all classes

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British Airways launched its latest World Sale yesterday with discounts on long-haul and short-haul flights in all classes.

Full details are here.

Bookings must be made by 26th September.  Travel dates vary.

One interesting quirk is that First Class is priced at a fixed £400 return above Club World on many North American routes, which will be tempting purely from an Avios and tier points perspective.  This is for departures between 21st November 2017 and 6th August 2018.

A380 1

Sao Paulo is an interesting deal at £2199 return in Club World, as is Buenos Aires at £2240, given that you rarely see Latin America heavily reduced.  Kingston at £1127 is the cheapest Club World deal, closely followed by Punta Cana.

As usual, the best way to find a good deal is via the BA Low Fare Finder website.  This lets you see the lowest price, on a month by month basis, for any route in any class.   It is one of the most customer friendly bits of BA IT.

Here are some headline prices:

Club World

  • New York from £1503 return
  • Las Vegas from £1629 return
  • Los Angeles from £1679 return
  • Hong Kong from £2297 return
  • Barbados from £1749 return
  • Punta Cana from £1196 return
  • Kingston from £1127 return
  • Tel Aviv from £1327 return
  • Bangkok from £1698 return
  • Singapore from £2045 return
  • Buenos Aires from £2240 return
  • Sao Paulo from £2199 return

Club Europe

  • Paris from £99 one-way
  • Malaga from £99 one-way
  • Rome from £119 one-way
  • Vienna from £148 one-way

There are many more Club Europe offers – use the Low Fare Finder site to see them quickly.

North America in World Traveller:

  • New York from £398 return
  • Miami from £409 return
  • Boston from £339 return
  • New Orleans from £549 return
  • Chicago from £509 return
  • Orlando from Gatwick from £455 return
  • Tampa from £430 return
  • Las Vegas from £568 return
  • Fort Lauderdale from £378 return
  • Calgary from £466 return

Europe in Euro Traveller:

  • Tenerife from £40 one-way
  • Malta from £35 one-way
  • Dubrovnik from £45 one-way
  • Paphos from £40 one-way
  • Funchal from £40 one-way
  • Fuerteventura from £40 one-way

There are many more European economy offers – use the Low Fare Finder site to see them quickly.

Elsewhere in World Traveller:

  • Barbados from £465 return
  • Tokyo from £648 return
  • Muscat from £349 return
  • Dubai from £359 return
  • Mauritius from £610 return

BA Holidays

There are also deals on BA Holidays packages, home page here.

Unlike ‘flight only’, you can secure a BA Holidays package with a deposit as low as £150 per booking, not per person, with the balance only due five weeks before departure.

Remember that it is often cheaper to book a ‘flight and hotel’ or ‘flight and car’ package than just a flight on its own.

The examples below – which are all in economy – were provided by the British Airways press office and are not my recommendations!

Las Vegas – three nights at the 3* Circus Circus Hotel, Casino & Theme Park / Excalibur, from £499 per person, travelling January 1 to January 31

New York – three nights at the 3* The Gallivant Times Square, from £469 per person, travelling January 7 – January 31

Barbados – seven nights at the 3* All Seasons Europa/Rostrevor, from £529 per person, travelling April 23 to June 29

Tobago – seven nights at the 3* Grafton Beach, from £669 per person, travelling May 1 to June 29

Nice – two nights at the 3* Comfort Suites Cannes Mandelieu, from £99 per person, travelling November 1 to February 28

Abu Dhabi – three nights at the 5* Le Meridien Abu Dhabi, from £379 per person, travelling May 1 to May 31

Dubai – three nights at the 3* Hilton Garden Inn Dubai Al Muraqabat, from £399 per person, travelling May 1 to May 31

Hong Kong – four nights at the 3* Best Western Plus Hotel, Hong Kong, from £509 per person, travelling January 2 to February 15

If you are looking for a Club World holiday deal, you will find those here.

Conclusion

With both short-haul and long-haul, and all travel classes from economy to First, included in the sale – plus BA Holidays – it is impossible to pick out everything.

The best thing to do is to visit the sale page of ba.com here or the BA Holidays home page here and have a play around.  You might find something you like.

You must book by 26th September.  Travel dates vary by class and route.


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 (42)

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

  • shd says:

    How do these “Sale” prices compare with cheaper (?) ex-EU prices, starting in DUB or wherever?

    I was looking at DUB-LON-NYC-LON-DUB for next June and it came out at £1313 r/t.

    This didn’t exactly feel like a great deal…

    • John says:

      The article says NYC is from £1503.

      If you have a reason to go to Dublin twice (e.g. tier points), then by all means go. But if you don’t, then £200 extra is a pretty good deal. LON-NYC is only 6-7 hours, and going to Dublin and back will take at least 4 hours so personally don’t see the point for shorter flights;

      Also there are several options for getting to east coast US direct from DUB

    • Leo says:

      I once did a long weekend in NY going via Dublin – it saved me a bout £1K at the time. The rigmarole however of a separate flight to Dublin, hotel overnight at the airport and the stress of connecting at Heathrow was considerable. I’d definitely cut all of that out for an extra £200.

      • Andrew says:

        Saved £1000 per person by flying from GLA two weeks ago along with visits to Scottish family on departure and return.

        The benefit of understanding ticket allocation to regional airports and “back to school” dates that are a fortnight ahead of England.

        • Rob says:

          If you’re off to Dublin, get an American Airlines flight from there. Same Avios / TP. For a day flight the seat should not be a major concern. Aer Lingus is even better (and better than BA in business).

          • Wivus says:

            Also look at Aer Lingus BHX to NY via Dub if Midlands based or time rich.
            At the moment in Oct Dub-NY on AA is only £97 less than BHX-DUB-NY so probably a few £ less than booking separate BHX-DUB flights and you not bag collection/check in in Dublin. Also a lot cheaper than LON-NYC on virtually any other airline. Get all the points too.

  • Mike says:

    Pretty decent pricing, booked F to SFO during the holiday period at the end of the year. Return flight looked almost full from the F seat map, so surprised it was still only £1k for that leg.

  • Courtster says:

    Love that with the new holiday portal you can really mix things up and still only pay a deposit till 5 weeks before departure. You can even select just a hotel for the night before travel at LHR/LGW and it still kicks in.

    • Rob says:

      Did this give you the cheaper flight price though? BA told me – and some tests seemed to confirm – that you now need a car or hotel for EVERY night in order to get the cheaper flight.

      • Courtster says:

        I don’t think so, but for some including myself it’s useful to defer a payment till nearer the flight time but still take advantage of earlier booking prices and get the bonus avios.

  • Jon says:

    Is the sales for new bookings only or is it possible to do cash upgrades on existing flight bookings as part of the sale?

  • Jay says:

    OT: What are your views on a couple with seats in different cabins swapping places halfway through the flight? To save money we’ve sometimes bought one economy and one club ticket and then swapped seats at some point so both of us could get some sleep. I feel a bit guilty about it and am mindful not to disturb others, but never had any problems. Not sure what BA policy is on this. Any thoughts?

    • HK says:

      I say go for it Jay! as long as you aren’t disturbing anyone then you can use your seats how you like. In fact, I’ve even seen parents do this on long haul trips – 1 parent back in economy and one in business, switching out to give the other one a few hours of sleep on a flat bed.

    • Polly says:

      Jay, we used to do that years ago too…everyone around you usually sleeping anyway!

  • Rashad says:

    I have located a price of €1,054 via Google Flights VCE-DXB in J, however if you make search on BA search on BA Holidays price goes up to €3,355.87 per person – just an observation here

    • Polly says:

      Rashad, that’s a really good price, coupled with a pleasant visit to beautiful Venice….

  • Ted says:

    For the last couple of years, they’ve run a triple Avios campaign in September. Does this sale replace that or is it worth holding out?

    • Rob says:

      If they did, it would presumably still apply even to a sale ticket, unless the rules said ‘book and fly after 1 October’ or whatever.

  • Tom says:

    If you booked WTP seats each on the holiday would the ticket allow you to upgrade one way to CW or would the ticket be inflexible in that sense?

    • Tilly says:

      I thought all WTP tickets were eligible for upgrade and it was only a few of the cheap classes in WT that couldn’t? I might be wrong and misunderstood the rules.

      • Rob says:

        Sometimes deeply discounted WTP sale tickets, which used to be marked with a big ‘S’ on ba.com – could not be upgraded. Not sure if they still sell these.

        If you do the upgrade at time of booking it will be clear anyway.

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