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British Airways increases Sao Paulo services – good Avios availability if you book now

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British Airways has added two new weekly flights to Sao Paulo.  It has not been officially announced yet as far as I know but the flights are available for booking.

As usual, the guaranteed two Club World seats and four World Traveller economy seats are available for Avios redemptions on the new services.

If you have previously tried to get Avios seats to Sao Paulo and not found availability, look again today.

The new flights start on 1st November:

Heathrow to Sao Paulo

Thursday – BA 241 – departs 18.40, arrives 04.50 Friday

Sunday – BA 241 – departs 19.05, arrives 05.15 Monday

Sao Paulo to Heathrow

Monday – BA240 – departs 16.20, arrives 06.15 Tuesday

Friday – BA 240 – departs 16.20, arrives 06.15 Saturday

These new services will use a Boeing 787-9, if BA still has any in working order.

The existing daily service on a Boeing 777 will continue to be available.  You may want to consider swapping any existing redemption to the new 787 service as it is a far more attractive option in Club World or First Class.


How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (September 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

10,000 Avios (to 26th September) 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 – 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 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 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

10,000 points bonus – plus an extra 500 points for our readers Read our full review

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

British Airways American Express Accelerating Business

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

Up to 80,000 points when you sign-up and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

Get up to 40,000 points as a sign-up offer 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 (15)

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

  • CountryKerry says:

    Remember, anyone looking to do a one way flight from Sao Paulo; phone up and make the booking as the BA website *might* try and charge you a fuel surcharge (roughly £200.00)!

    Otherwise the taxes should be circa. £30.00.

    • signol says:

      I’ve just looked at a one way GRU-LHR in Y and the app is quoting £153 in taxes and charges… Looking at taking the family to Rio next year but this does seem expensive.

  • The Lord says:

    Yet to fly CW so can someone explain how it is more attractive on a 787? I assumed it was identical across the fleet

    • Frankie says:

      Newer. Smaller cabins. Fewer seats abreast. Look at Seat Guru to compare.

    • John says:

      The 787 is nicer on every airline… Except that they tend to squash too many seats into economy

    • twoclicks says:

      If traveling with OH else I prefer the old ones son you can sit side by side, otherwise I am actually a fan of the yin yang configuration, even when just friends. But yes, 787 nicer generally!

      • Roger says:

        I prefer A350/A380 in almost all airlines as well as 777s. In most 787 I have flown in Y it is always too cramped. Not comfortable at all.

  • O2diy says:

    Don’t seem to be loaded yet unless January is already sold out!! Fingers crossed as m7 Iberia booking in cancelled and they seem very unwilling to rebook me!

  • Henry says:

    O/T: what’s the best way to use the Lloyds avios upgrade voucher now? Is there any way to do it without calling. Space has opened up on a flight I want, but don’t want to wait until avios call centre opens

    • Jovanna says:

      Go to MY ACCOUNT>VOUCHERS and USE THIS. Enter the flight details that you want and search. It will return an error message.

      Return to the home page and hit the FLIGHTS tab. Search again and it should say ‘XXXX Avios using your voucher’ on the results page.

      I found it would only pick up and apply the voucher on my first search, so try to identify availability on ba.com first.

    • Anna says:

      I almost hope they do get rid of the voucher, it’s a real pain to use. Anything other than a straightforwardly return and you have to call avios to book it, and their operating hours are quite restricted. Endless error messages at the moment and I can’t understand how they will be able to access a BA account to use points once the changeover is complete. I’d be quite happy to sack the Lloyds card and move my non-Amex spending to HH.

      • Anna says:

        I need to book 2 x one way flights with a domestic connection at T-355, which is when we are on holiday. Because the avios.com booking system is so limited, I am going to have to call them at 2 a.m. on Skype. I’m not even sure this is possible as their local landline number doesn’t appear to work any more! Even BA make it a lot easier to book redemptions ????

      • the_real_a says:

        I have got insane value from the voucher for the past 4 years. The only improvement in my eyes is to make the voucher two separate 1 way upgrade vouchers that can be used on different PNRs to account for the (sometimes) poor availability.

  • Memesweeper says:

    Yup , seems that 2019 not loaded yet … or just not working (no availability on the previously existing flights either)

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

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