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British Airways launches new route to the Seychelles – more Avios seats released

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British Airways has confirmed the rumours we discussed yesterday about a possible (re)launch of a direct flight from London Heathrow to the Seychelles.

It was lucky that we were able to post the rumour yesterday, as much of the Club World reward availability was snapped up immediately – judging by the emails we received, many went to our readers.

The key information is:

launch date is 24th March 2018

there will be two flights per week from 24th March until October

the aircraft used will be a brand new Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner which will include First Class

BA is the only airline offering non-stop flights from the UK to the Seychelles.  If you’ve not been, it is a group of 115 individual islands in the Indian Ocean and a popular honeymoon and holiday destination.

The flight time will be 10 hours, instead of 13 hours when connecting in the Middle East, the most popular routing at the moment.

Here is the timetable:

As the flights are on Wednesdays and Saturdays they are perfect for a 10 day holiday.

If you are paying cash, return fares start from £699 in World Traveller, £999 in World Traveller Plus, £2499 in Club World and from £3499 for First.

Seats are now available for booking at ba.com. More importantly, so is Avios availability.

Unfortunately, with under 60 flights scheduled, there are under 60 pairs of Club World seats available for Avios under the guaranteed availability rule.

Many of these were snapped up yesterday.  It is worth having a search to see what is left but it may not be much.

You have better luck in World Traveller, with at least four World Traveller seats available on every flight, but the taxes generally make these poor value redemptions.

If you are interested in the route keep an eye open, especially for signs of any First Class Avios seats coming available.  There will also be Club World seats for September 2018 and October 2018 released every few three or four days under the ‘355 days in advance’ booking rule.

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How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (July 2025)

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

Get 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 Card

30,000 Avios and the famous annual Companion Voucher voucher Read our full review

British Airways American Express Credit Card

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 Credit Card

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

50,000 bonus points and great travel benefits – for a large fee Read our full review

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital on Tap for limited companies. You earn points worth 0.8 Avios per £1 on the FREE standard card and 1 Avios per £1 on the Pro card. Capital on Tap cards also have no FX fees.

Capital on Tap Visa

NO annual fee, NO FX fees and points worth 0.8 Avios per £1 Read our full review

Capital on Tap Pro Visa

10,500 points (=10,500 Avios) plus good benefits Read our full review

There is also a British Airways American Express card for small businesses:

British Airways American Express Accelerating Business Card

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.

The American Express Business Platinum Card

50,000 points when you sign-up and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

The American Express Business Gold Card

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.

Category

British Airways and Avios

Comments (58)

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

  • Lee says:
    20 Sep20 September 11:48

    Great stuff! Managed to get a couple of Club World flights for April using my 2-4-1 thanks to Head For Points. Just missed out on First sadly by dilly-dallying over dates, but hey-ho it leaves some Avios in the bank.

    Now to find accomodation!

    • TripRep says:
      20 Sep20 September 18:30

      Many on here agree that whilst First is a treat, a lie flat bed in CW is the biggest bang for your Avios.

  • Chris says:
    20 Sep20 September 13:02

    Managed to book in First for May, used an Amex 2-4-1 and a GUF2, 125k Avios and approx £1200 for two pax, looking forward to our first first trip.

    • Mark says:
      20 Sep20 September 13:11

      Good result.
      We booked 25Apr to 6May in CW yesterday afternoon using an Amex 241.
      Called BA in New York at 1am this morning to rebook into First which (except for a little haggling over the correct calculation of the 45k avios difference) was surprisingly quick and painless.

  • GavT says:
    20 Sep20 September 15:10

    Anyone know why the tax/charges change quite a bit between flight selection and summary? Seems they jump from £916 to £1166 between the two page – this is for two people in first or biz using a 241 voucher (the taxes for both cabins are broadly the same)

    thanks

  • scott says:
    20 Sep20 September 19:07

    o/t ive just upgraded my ba amex to premium plus and now my spending progress for the companion voucher has dissapeared does anyone know how i can check my progressonline short of ringing them ?? thanks

    • Anna says:
      20 Sep20 September 19:47

      I find it comes and goes on the BAPP, maybe down to them updating the system? It’ll probably reappear in a couple of days. I’ve just triggered the spend on the blue card though, and progress bar never appeared at all, but it only took a few weeks so I just kept track of it myself.

    • Genghis says:
      21 Sep21 September 05:49

      If you click on “View Earned Avios” is your progress logged there?

      • Scott says:
        21 Sep21 September 07:29

        That option wasn’t there either but I’ve just logged in and it’s back – happy days only £900 to go!! Any ideas how to trigger it early with a refundable spend somehow? I need the 2-4-1 ASAP thanks

        • Polly says:
          22 Sep22 September 08:19

          Scott,

          The only and best way is by a fully refundable well advance biz class flight into Europe somewhere. Your 241 will be banked and used! By the sound of things. The credit will come back into your downgraded BACC and sit there. When you finally cancel the card after your refer your OH, then ask Amex to send you a cheque.

          Or set up this new Billhop to prepay your OH and then pay the bills. I did, just this week, as l needed to complete our BAPP target spend quickly. Def worth the few £ in fees to Billhop to get our spend bonus. Couldn’t risk the 26k avios lost! Billhop is probably the better option for you in this scenario. This is probably the one place it proves its worth to us avios collectors and spenders.

  • Tilly says:
    20 Sep20 September 19:34

    Gutted I haven’t got a 241 yet …. likely won’t trigger until the end of the year. Very envious of everyone who have managed to get tickets.

    • Anna says:
      20 Sep20 September 19:49

      I’ve already booked my hols for next year, pleased with my 2 4 1 CW deal but yes, well jel of those going to Seychelles!

      • Tilly says:
        20 Sep20 September 20:46

        I’m very new to this so well be my first 241 and avios redemption when i do finally get there. Only took out the BAPP in July so not doing too bad. Also got the gold amex. So far in 3 months I’ve managed to collect around 32k avios and 44k MR points to add to the 30k avios we already had in our household account.

        • Genghis says:
          21 Sep21 September 05:51

          I remember getting going in this hobby can take a while. Once you’re rolling, things seem to happen much more easily.

          • Tilly says:
            21 Sep21 September 09:42

            I hope so. Would be nice to have one long haul hol a year that is in club or first rather than WT or WTP like we normally do. I seem to be finding WT more uncomfortable the past few years.

        • Polly says:
          22 Sep22 September 08:11

          Tilly,

          Once you start referring each other, the avios and MRs roll in. It’s surprising how quickly they add up. So you will have enough for your first LH in J in no time. Remember when you do achieve your 241 and its banked in your baec account, do drop down to the free card BACC for your pro rata to fee refund. You will still get 9k avios when you refer Your OH for their BAPP later on. Also, with your PRG Gold card, if you do achieve the £15k spend you will get the extra 10k MRs at the beginning of the 2nd year. After they are banked probably you will pay one month fee, do the PLAT upgrade to earn another 20k avios. Refer your OH for their PRG, a further 9k for you, then cancel your plat. It’s a fun hobby…

          • Tilly says:
            22 Sep22 September 08:20

            Thanks Polly. I’ve already done the referral for the husband and got the 9k bonus. A friend of mine also did on my referral so got 9k from that. Will try remember to do the BAPP downgrade or would it be better to refer husband, get referral 9k and then cancel my card?

          • Polly says:
            22 Sep22 September 08:33

            Hi Tilly,

            Your OH will have had to have his BAPP already cancelled for over six months for him to benefit from the new BAPP spend bonus of currently 26k avios. No point in wasting a referral unless he can benefit from the new spend bonus. So check your timing on both cards, and wait a bit if ness. We usually downgrade to our BACC whilst waiting out the cancellation period of the OH. We do approx a 10/12 month rotation so as not to push it. But often, we only need one 241 a year, so quite often we drop down to the BACC very quickly once the spend bonus avios are earned. We put all spend on either GOLD , BAPP, or BACC, at any one time.
            If you travel a lot short haul, might be worth having the PLAT, for lounge and other great benefits. It’s fun actually, so we try to keep it that way.

          • Tilly says:
            22 Sep22 September 18:58

            Thanks Polly. OH doesn’t have a BAPP card yet? Only the gold. The BAPP is my account and he has a supp card. Good advice about 10 month cycle though. We also have the Hilton card which I’ve had for around 7/8 years now I think so put spend on that too. We do 2 LH trips a year some years and only 1 other years bit if the voucher on the BAPP lasts 2 years I’m hoping we’ll be fine.

  • Maria says:
    21 Sep21 September 07:14

    I managed to get 2 tickets last night. I’m well excited:)

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