Here are the best Business and First Class deals in the new British Airways sale

British Airways has launched a new sale, with deals in every class from First to World Traveller and Euro Traveller.

The home page for the premium class part of the sale is here.  You can book until 25th September.

Travel dates are all over the place and it would take me a full article just to list all the permutations.  On most routes you can travel until March 2019 but that statement hides a lot of variability.  Advance purchase restrictions also vary and can be as high as 50 days, so don’t plan on a last-minute getaway to New York JFK ……

You should take a look at the small print at the bottom of the sale website for all the travel date details.

We will look at Premium Economy deals in a separate article soon.  We won’t focus on Economy deals, but you can see what is available via this sale page of ba.com.  The headline fare to New York is £317 return.

The easiest way to check out the best prices to a specific destination is with the British Airways Low Fare Finder tool on ba.com. This will show you the cheapest price on any route, in any class, on month by month basis.

If you can be flexible with dates, there are some decent fares available.

In general, fares in First and Club World are similar to what we saw in the January sale although this masks some route by route variation.  I picked out in Club World:

• Atlanta £1,475
• Boston £1,335
• Chicago £1,350
• Las Vegas £1,624
• New York £1,343
• Philadelphia £1,297
• Antigua £1,696
• Kingston £1,197
• Punta Cana £1,150
• St Lucia £1,497
• Amman £1,100
• Abu Dhabi £1,600
• Dubai £1,699
• Cape Town £1,966
• Johannesburg £2,011
• Seychelles £1,932
• Lima £1,796
• Tel Aviv £1,232
• Delhi £1,749
• Bangkok £1,763
• Shanghai £1,808
• Tokyo £2,245

In First Class, I spotted:

• Boston £1,976
• Chicago £1,901
• New York £2,006
• San Francisco £2,391
• Tel Aviv £1,632
• Singapore £2,781
• Seychelles £2,663
• Johannesburg £2,832

There are also deals on European Club Europe short-haul flights with some destinations at £225 return or less for 80 tier points. I spotted Alicante, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Bilbao, Billund, Bologne, Bordeaux, Cologne, Dublin, Dusseldorf, Genoa, Gibraltar, Gothenburg, Hamburg, Hannover, Limoges, Luxembourg, Lyon, Malaga, Marseilles, Milan, Nice, Nuremberg, Palma, Paris, Prague, Seville, Stuttgart, Tallinn, Toulouse, Turin, Valencia, Venice and Zagreb. These fares will require a Saturday night stay.

One to note is Helsinki from £238 return.  This is a ‘160 tier points’ route (80 tier points each way) which means that a weekend break here is a cheap way to get your nearer Bronze, Silver or Gold status.  I list all the 160 tier point Club Europe routes in this article.  If you’re in Scotland, Glasgow to Helsinki (via Heathrow) is £341 return for 240 tier points.

Remember that ‘Part Pay With Avios’ (details here) can be used with these fares.  Think twice before using this, however, as you generally get little more than a poor 0.5p per Avios at the higher levels.

BA Holidays is also running deals

It is well worth pricing up BA’s ‘flight and hotel’ or ‘flight and car’ options.  Adding a hotel, even a one-star one, or a small car can bring down the cost to less than the flight itself.

I strongly recommend popping over to BA Holidays here and doing a test booking before booking anything as ‘flight only’.

Another benefit of booking your flight as a holiday is that you only pay a deposit now with the balance due five weeks before departure.  To top it off, you get a bonus 1 Avios per £1 spent when booking via BA Holidays.

Here are a few examples of BA Holidays pricing:

Palma –  Club Europe flights and 3 nights at a 4-star hotel from £238 per person

Venice –  Club Europe flights and 2 nights at a 4-star hotel from £259 per person

New York – Club World flights and 4 nights at a 4-star hotel from £1,536 per person

Dubai –  Club World flights and 3 nights at a 4-star hotel from £1,632 per person

Las Vegas –  Club World flights and 5 nights at a 4-star hotel from £1,752 per person

Barbados –  Club World flights and 7 nights at a 4-star hotel from £1,865 per person

Club World holiday deals are here and Club Europe holiday deals are here.

The best thing to do if you are interested is to go to ba.com and have a look around.  The full BA premium sale details are 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.

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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:

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

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.

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.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 12th May 2024, the Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa card is offering a bonus of 30,000 points, convertible into 30,000 Avios. You must have a Limited Company to apply. Click here to learn more and click here to apply.

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.

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.

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.