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The British Airways ‘upgrade to First’ offer is back

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British Airways has brought back its regular ‘upgrade to First’ offer.

Until 7th October, any Club World flight you purchase which is ticketed in semi-flexible R, D, or C class, or a fully flexible J class, will receive a free one-way upgrade to First.

This is subject to availability and requires A class cash tickets to still be available for sale in First.

British Airways free first class upgrade

The deal is also available on American Airlines services to the US, Canada and Mexico when you book under a British Airways codeshare.

You need to book by 7th October for outbound travel before 23rd October.

Participating destinations are:

United States, Mexico and Canada – Albuquerque (ABQ), Anchorage (ANC), Atlanta (ATL), Austin (AUS), Bradley International (BDL), Birmingham (BHM), Nashville (BNA), Boston (BOS), Baltimore (BWI), Chicago (CHI), Cleveland (CLE), Charlotte (CLT), Cincinnati (CVG), Denver (DEN), Dallas Fort Worth (DFW), Detroit (DTT), Fort Wayne (FWA), Honolulu (HNL), Houston (HOU), Indianapolis (IND), Memphis (MEM), Mexico City (MEX), Miami (MIA), Minneapolis St Pauls (MSP), New Orleans (MSY), New York (NYC), Omaha (OMA), Philadelphia (PHL)), Pittsburgh (PIT), Raleigh Durham (RDU), Richmond (RIC), San Diego (SAN), San Juan (SJU), Salt Lake City (SLC), St Louis (STL), Washington (WAS), Montreal (YMQ), Toronto (YTO), Vancouver (YVR), Calgary (YYC).

Rest of the World – Abu Dhabi (AUH), Abuja (ABV), Accra (ACC), Bahrain (BAH), Beijing (BJS), Cape Town (CPT), Dubai (DXB), Durban (DUR), Hong Kong (HKG), Jeddah (JED), Johannesburg (JNB), Kuala Lumpur (KUL), Kuwait (KWI), Lagos (LOS), Moscow (MOW), Nairobi (NBO), Riyadh (RUH), Seychelles (SEZ), Shanghai (SHA), Singapore (SIN)

Full details are on ba.com here.


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 (137)

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

  • Tom1 says:

    O/t – can you book an open jaw redemption ticket on Iberia?
    Or a multi city?
    Thinking mad-jfk-ord-mad.
    Thanks

    • roberto says:

      Check the price for two one way fares MAD-JFK and ORD-MAD. You may find its the same as a return.

      Also price up MAD-JFK and ORD-UK ( if the UK is your final destination )

    • Rob says:

      Should not be an issue although may require a call. Only restrictions I know of are ‘no one ways’ on partners and ‘no refunds’ on partners.

      • Paul says:

        What about open jaw returns with partners? Was thinking MAD->JFK on IB returning JFK-LHR on AA…

  • Alan says:

    Interesting table – explains why there are so many MEL-SYD flights – they were like buses in frequency, but when there’s so much cash on that route I can understand why Qantas so that!

    • Michael Jennings says:

      They are the two biggest cities in Australia, and the quickest alternative way of getting from one to the other is a nine hour drive (without stopping, so in reality it will be longer). There isn’t really much competition in domestic air travel in Australia, so yes, it will be a very frequent and very lucrative air route.

      • John says:

        You can do it in 6 hours (depending on where exactly you are going) if you speed in NSW 🙂 You can’t speed in VIC as hidden cameras are everywhere.

  • gavlar says:

    I am one of those new account holders for IB who registered for the promotion with a view to transfering to BAEC to help with a 2 for 1 so will happily take a refund rather then spending the points ‘just because’

    As yet all I have is radio silence from IB having sent in my booking receipts and passport to them.

    • Yuff says:

      I would have thought/hope genuine new accounts will get the points.
      Having had iBeria accounts for several years I would not have tried to open fake accounts to participate in this promotion.

  • Roger says:

    Yes.

  • Roger says:

    OT-
    Do you jave to register for priority pass online account for each new card (every time you churn Amex Platinum)?
    Question really is do you need to activate any card, or once you get it in post it is good to go?
    Ofcouse with the online account you can use digital pass, so more useful.

    • Genghis says:

      No need to register

    • Rob says:

      It seems to arrive alongside the card so does not require activation – BUT the PP will not work if it doesn’t have a valid credit card ‘behind’ it, and until your Amex is activated it would presumably be rejected.

  • JS says:

    Does JFK – LHR mean in that direction too? Or just all airfare between those two cities?

    I assume there is roughly equal traffic going one way as the other, but I suppose that may not actually be correct…

    • Rob says:

      Guessing they mean return. Wonder what adding in Newark and the Gatwick NYC flights would add?

  • John says:

    Anyone knows the best hotels in the UK for Marriott mattress run ? Sorry for off the topic.

    • BJ says:

      Aberdeen, alternate Moxy, Marriott and Courtyard over a weekend Friday to Monday and make a weekend break out of it. Book the right weekend at the rightbtime and you could be looking at under £130 total.

    • Rob says:

      Cheapest around London are MOXY Excel, which I did and easily accessible if in London, and MOXY Heathrow. As the run is STAY based and not night based, you need somewhere near your house or office though.

  • PhilW says:

    OT I have been trying to book Iberia car rentals for the past 3 days on various combinations of dates locations and browsers/computers with cookies cleared etc. Has not been working. Iberia agent I spoke to yesterday said their system is broken atm and they’re not taking car rental bookings via avios over the phone also. I ended up booking with cash for one booking yesterday instead of my 90k avios.

    • The better Kevin says:

      Interesting. Got my Iberia car rental booked with Avios on Thursday evening without issue. Nice saving compared to the cash price. Glad I got in there when I did. Now looking for hotels.

    • Lady London says:

      Is this the second dirty trick perhaps being played by Iberia? are they blocking use of the promotional avios for car rentals? after trying to change the conditions after the fact, which is illegal certainly in the UK as a buying country, is Iberia now sneakily disabling use of the avios earned on this promo for car hire?

      • PhilW says:

        I hope not and that it’s isolated to my account . Maybe someone else who’s looking for a car rental could confirm?

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

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