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Free champagne on British Airways this Christmas if you sit in 25D

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British Airways has fully embraced the Christmas spirit this year.  Not content with giving 2,000 Avios to everyone travelling between 22nd and 27th December, it is also now giving out free champagne.

Everyone sat in seat 25D (geddit?) on a short-haul flight between 22nd and 27th December will be offered a free glass of champagne.  The offer will be extended to everyone travelling with the person in 25D.

To guarantee your champagne, you want to be sitting in 25D on the outbound flight from Heathrow or Gatwick.  Staff have been given leeway not to offer it on the return flight if the Club Europe champagne supply – from where the champagne will come – is running low.

If you’re really lucky, you will get a ‘From me to you’ card as well, signed by the crew.

There is also an opportunity to get lounge access at Heathrow and Gatwick.  One customer per hour, plus travelling companions, seated in 25D will be offered free lounge access.  It isn’t clear how this will be arranged, especially if you are not checking in any luggage at a desk.  However, your odds of getting this if you are sitting in 25D are pretty good, especially at Gatwick which has fewer short-haul departures.

Is it worth moving down to 25D for a free glass of champagne?  Potentially yes.  However, pick your aircraft:

The A319-100 does not even have a 25D, only a 25ABC, as it is the last row.  If you are on one of these, forget about it.

On an A320-200 there are 28 rows, so you are close to the loos but not right at them.  The queue probably won’t snake back to your seat.  Probably OK. 

An A321-200 is your best bet, as with 35 rows you are nowhere near the back.

I don’t think the offer is running out of London City. Even if it was, the Embraer 170 fleet does not have a row 25.  The newer Embraer 190 fleet does, but it is the very last row and you are next to the loo.  Give it a miss.

You can check out all of BA’s short-haul seat maps on this page of ba.com.


How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (April 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

30,000 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 – 30,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

80,000 bonus points and great travel benefits – for a large fee Read our full review

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We recommend Capital on Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, and the standard card is FREE. Capital on Tap cards also have no FX fees.

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

British Airways American Express Accelerating Business

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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

50,000 points when you sign-up 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 (75)

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

  • Flyingscots says:

    Aaah. 25th December! Took a minute. Nice gesture BA.

  • shd says:

    Re: the 2000 “Christmas” Avios, I booked on the 15 Dec for travel on the 24 Dec, no Avios yet.

    Any idea when the next sweep will be done?

    • Nick says:

      Should be the 20th according to the T&C, but give it a couple of days to hit your account. The first was only for bookings made before the 13th.

    • Richard says:

      Same here. Flying on the 21st and no points 🙁

  • Sandra says:

    Sat?

  • Sussex Bantam says:

    I’m sorry – I try to stay away from the anti-BA rants on here – but one free glass of champagne per flight hardly qualifies as “getting into the Christmas spirit” and isn’t worthy of a whole HfP article !

    • Andrew says:

      It’s a bit of fun.

      But, even if I end up on seat 25D on my domestic Northbound trip this Christmas, I will pass as I will be picking up a hire car at Edinburgh.

      The Scottish drink-drive breathalyser limit is 22mg, means that an average bloke could be limited to just under a pint of beer or a large glass of wine, and average lassie to half a pint of beer or a small glass of wine. My licence is more important to me than some fizzy wine.

  • ankomonkey says:

    Just moved myself to 25D for a flight on 27/12. Why not?!

  • Nick M says:

    Saw that last night and checked a random date… 95k/night for up to 2 adults/2 children. If I clear out my MR and pool them with my HH I’ll nearly have enough for 4 nights… Can anyone lend me another 380k to make it a 10 night stay?

    • TripRep says:

      4 nights or 5 nights for the price of 4?

      See if you can work an arbitrage with Rob, he must have the potential to be a HH millionaire! 😀

      • Rob says:

        My balance is 37k at the moment! Seems too risky to do a big Amex transfer – who wants to be stuck with 750k Hilton? (Says a man with 750k IHG across the family and over 750k Marriott ….)

  • Carl says:

    Knowing BA’s service this will presumably result in my wife and I getting no champagne on our Club Europe flight back home for Christmas.

  • Catalan says:

    Isn’t it strange. Rob posts something positive about BA and people still get on here to rubbish his post.
    Had he written the same thing about KLM or Lufthansa we’d be witnessing all the ‘great gesture’ and ‘caring airline’ responses.
    SMH.
    There’s nowt queer as folk!

    • Genghis says:

      🙂 I thought I loved a good whinge but…

    • Tim Larkin says:

      You’re 100% right Catalan BUT I think it’s just the fact that BA have a looooong way to go to regain the faith of some travellers. Good to see them starting to make an effort though and it should be applauded. 🙂

    • TripRep says:

      Agreed, I’m trying to be more level headed with BA, I thought if Virgin had done this we’d all think it was pretty cool.

    • Nick says:

      And isn’t it ‘strange’ how not so long ago it would have been the opposite……

      Let’s face it BA have really pissing off its customer base over the last couple of years.

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

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