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

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 (September 2021)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

There are two official British Airways American Express cards. Both have increased sign-up bonuses until 2nd November 2021:

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points, such as:

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:

You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies. This card has a limited time offer of 60,000 Avios when you sign up:

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.

(Want to earn more Avios?  Click here to visit our home page for our latest articles on earning and spending your Avios points and click here to see how to earn more Avios this month from offers and promotions.)