Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

British Airways Holidays launches short-haul and long-haul luxury sale – cheaper than just a flight

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British Airways Holidays has launched a special luxury promotion, valid for both short haul and long haul departures.

There are some decent prices here but you need to book by Tuesday 24th July. The prices are not quite as good as we saw this time last year but they are still very good value for what you get.

You can see the deals available with Club World flights here.

The short-haul Club Europe holidays are here.

BA Holidays

The ‘lead in’ flight and hotel offers are:

New York from £1,449 per person – three nights at the 4* Moxy Times Square from £1,449 per person, travelling August 3 – August 28, 2018, with Club World flights from London Gatwick

Seychelles from £2,219 per person – seven nights with breakfast at the 4* Coco de Mer Hotel and Black Parrot suites, Seychelles, travelling 31 October – 15 December, 2018, with Club World flights from London Heathrow

Dubai from £1,389 per person – three nights at the 5* Hyatt Regency Dubai from £1,389 per person, travelling 1 September – 30 September 2018, with Club World return flights from London Heathrow 

Barcelona from £269 per person – three nights at the 4* Ilunion Bel Art, Barcelona, travelling 1 November – 9 December 2018, with Club Europe return flights from London Gatwick

Thessaloniki from £599 per person – seven nights with breakfast at the 5* Anastasia Resort & Spa, Thessaloniki, travelling 5 October – 15 October 2018, with Club Europe return flights from London Gatwick

Amsterdam from £269 per person – three nights at the 4* XO Hotels Park West, Amsterdam, travelling 1 January 1 – 31 January 2019, with Club Europe return flights from London Heathrow

Orlando from £1999 per person – seven nights at the 4* DoubleTree by Hilton Orlando Seaworld, travelling 3 September – 20 September 2018, with Club World flights from London Gatwick

These prices are based on two people sharing.  Travel dates vary by destination.

As usual with BA Holiday you don’t have to pay in full when booking. Apart from a small deposit, you only need to pay the balance five weeks before departure.  This is a substantial extra benefit compared to just booking flights.

Remember that you also earn a bonus 1 Avios per £1 for booking with BA Holidays on top of the Avios you will earn from the flights and from your credit card.  Details of this offer are here.

One minor downside is that BA Holidays packages do not earn On Business points in BA’s small business loyalty scheme for the flights.  You WILL earn the usual Avios and tier points.

The BA Holidays Club World promo page is here and the Club Europe short-haul page is here.

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.


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 (50)

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

  • TimM says:

    I cannot imagine that BA holidays will ever come on radar – unless desperate to pick up points. Even then, sanity must be questioned. Similar for a fraction of the price always available elsewhere.

    • Fiona says:

      Tim that isn’t always true. I do a lot of research for my holidays and BA have beaten everything else several times.

      • Rob says:

        If you are going to buy a BA premium cabin flight, it is obviously a good deal if the flight and hotel price comes out lower than the flight itself!

    • John says:

      Hostels are always available for £5 to £50 per night so why pay £1000??

    • Leo says:

      Yep I’m with Fiona – you are just wrong. I got my hotel in Crete this September at a massive discount booking with a BA flight – I just checked again today as it happens, against what is being charged today for the room I still got a very good price.

    • Joan says:

      We had a brilliant time in January for 4 nights in Valencia -club Europe flights and a really nice central apartment for £300 each which we found on one of these BA holiday sales . The sun shone and it helped my partner to keep his silver status into the bargain….and I had a lovely birthday treat ????

  • Alex Sm says:

    The Thessaloniki one would be PERFECT for my annual birthday trip which my partner and I do every year in mid-October going to southern seas

  • Thewiseone says:

    OT but I have been given the option to take the new Virgin cards with the added bonus i.e. 11k for the free card and 33k for the £160 card. In general what are peoples feelings about this offer? I am tempted to take it as I am starting to move away from BA as I know a big devaluation is coming and their product is poor. However, I also think the £160 is steep when the voucher is useless as I am never going to get status with them.

    Thanks for any help in advance.

    • Mark2 says:

      I think that you have answered your own question.
      Do you know that there that a big devaluation is coming or do you just ‘feel it in your water’?

    • Rob says:

      As no-one knows what 60k will get in terms of KLM and Air France redemptions no-one knows. However, in the worst case scenario 62,500 is £250 of Virgin Group vouchers so you are £90 up on that ….

      • Thewiseone says:

        62,500? I thought the deal was 33,000. Am I missing something?

        Mark2, it is widely rumoured that an Avios deval is coming next year. Hence, my decision to run those miles down now as my gut feeling on that is that it will be brutal.

        • Rob says:

          Yes, there are two versions on the Virgin Reward+ promo. Customers seen as more valuable got 60k.

  • Adam says:

    Just to give everyone a heads up, it would appear that BRU-LHR-DXB in club world is coming in at £1485 return. This includes Christmas.
    Just booked mine via Expedia. On my card it states British airways, so hoping I’ll also get my 3 avios to the pound. You of course have to get a position flight however these are only £133 return in economy at Christmas.
    Been rolling this price for a few weeks now. They started as low as £1417.

  • Thomas says:

    Hi all, quick question, whilst booking BA flights my wife was silver. Now she is bronze. She did manage to select seats for free at the time as silver perk. If she wants to change them now, will she gets charged?

    • Adam says:

      Doubt you will be able to change them now for free. Works the other way too, when you qualify for silver you can suddenly reserve for all bookings, even if you didn’t have that tier when they were booked.

  • Paul says:

    Not always cheaper to book as a ‘holiday’ package. Just booked club returns to Hawaii and £250 cheaper to book as just flights rather than add a car or hotel in any combination. Even called BA and very helpful CA spent half an hour trying to make the prices match but couldn’t. Does mean I have to pay up front rather than deposit plus balance later, and miss out on extra avios from cost, but still cheaper…

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