Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Get £50 off all British Airways long-haul flights until Monday night

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British Airways has launched a decent deal, valid in all travel classes.  The best value is clearly for Economy flights which, I admit, knocks out a large percentage of our readership.  There are some decent World Traveller Plus prices at the moment though – Oman, at around £550, has been flagged in the comments below – which should be upgradable with points to Club World if there is Avios availability.

Until midnight on Monday 23rd April, you will save £50 per person on any British Airways long-haul flight booking which begins in the UK.

You can book for travel between 21st April and 27th October.

BA 747 retirement

There is NO minimum spend (well, there is, £51, but I doubt BA has any long-haul flights for that …..).  You need to be a member of British Airways Executive Club to book, but that is hardly likely to be a problem for a HfP reader.

You cannot mix this with ‘part pay with Avios’ and you can’t use it on an Avios redemption to reduce the taxes.  The discount is per person, not per booking.

Flights must be BA marketed AND BA operated.  Codeshares, eg the American Airlines flights to the United States which carry a British Airways flight number, do not qualify.

How to book

Bookings can only be made on ba.com.  Here (click) is the special booking page – it says that you need to use the links on that page for the code to work.

In theory you need to use code BAMember50 during the booking process for the discounted prices to show.  However, when I tested it via the main ba.com home page the code failed.  It ONLY seems to work if you book via the booking box on this page which automatically applies the discount code.

The code is applied AFTER you have selected your flights.  If you do need to enter it manually, in VERY tiny print on the flight summary page it says ‘Promo code or e-voucher’.  Click that and a box appears where you can input the code.

To maximise your miles when paying, your best bet is the British Airways American Express Premium Plus card which earns double Avios (3 per £1) when you book at ba.com or via BA Holidays.  You do not get double Avios if you book with the free British Airways American Express card.  Another option is American Express Preferred Rewards Gold which offers double points – 2 per £1 – when you book flight tickets directly with an airline.

Remember you cancel a flight booked yesterday for FREE ….

British Airways has a 24 hour (timed to the minute) cancellation policy.

If you booked a long-haul flight yesterday which would qualify for the discount, you can call BA and cancel it.  There are no fees at all.  You can then immediately rebook and claim the £50 saving.  Obviously check the price has not gone up though ….


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.

  • CountryKerry says:

    Grabbed two seats MAN-LHR-SFO for a friend and me in October half term for £300 each. Can’t complain!

  • AG says:

    Anyone having trouble with this? I’m clicking through the link and logged in for London to Beirut but can’t see a discount or anywhere to enter the code. Any ideas?

  • W says:

    I booked a 700 pound WT+ fare gatwick-oakland last week. Flight was about half full or less, but it made for a really cheap upgrade to world traveler on the way back. For anyone wanting to visit SF, might be worth a look – but the plane is rather tired looking.

    • Ali says:

      do you mean upgrade from WT+ to club world? I can’t imagine you’d want to upgrade to world traveller… how much was the upgrade?

      • W says:

        Correct – club world. 50 pounds and 30k avios for the return flight.

        • W says:

          Bad phrasing here on my side, ‘inbound leg’ was 50 pounds / 30k avios.

  • Samuel Russell says:

    OT
    If i have spent 11k on BA Amex then upgrade it to premium will I get a 241 voucher immediately?

    • KevMc says:

      Yes. But judging by previous comments from people who have done this, it will only be valid for 12 months, and not 24

      • Ali says:

        I did this last year and I got one that was valid for 2 years, so unless terms have changed since then, you should get 24 month validity

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

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