What are the best World Traveller Plus deals in the British Airways sale – and how to upgrade?

On Friday we looked at the best Business and First Class deals in the new British Airways sale.  That article is here.

Today I wanted to take a look at some of the deals in World Traveller Plus (Premium Economy).

You can see what is available via this sale page of ba.com.  You must book by 25th September.

Travel dates are all over the place and vary by route and by travel class – see the small print at the bottom of the sale website.

Why book World Traveller Plus?

British Airways is due to announce a revamp of World Traveller Plus very soon although this will be primarily food and amenity related.  Note that the pictures in this article are of the new World Traveller Plus seat which is going onto refurbished Boeing 777 aircraft out of Gatwick.  You won’t necessarily get a TV screen that big.

Whilst clearly better than World Traveller, you are substantially better off with Norwegian Premium (which we reviewed here).  This is closer to being a genuine half-way house between an Economy and Business seat and also comes with lounge access at selected airports.

We also did a comparison recently of British Airways World Traveller Plus vs Virgin Atlantic Premium, which you can find here.  In almost all respects, the Virgin Atlantic product is better.  (Virgin Atlantic has a page dedicated to Premium on their website here.)

The real reason to book World Traveller Plus is to upgrade it to a flat-bed Club World seat using Avios.

Look at some of the sale prices below.  They are often not much more than the £550ish of taxes and charges which BA wants for a Club World Avios redemption.  You can save a lot of Avios by upgrading a World Traveller Plus seat instead.

Another popular strategy is to just upgrade any overnight legs, eg when returning from the US, since World Traveller Plus is more acceptable on shorter day flights.

Club World seats for upgrade come from the same ‘pot’ as standard Club World Avios redemption seats.  If there is not a Club World seat showing for an Avios booking, you won’t be able to upgrade a World Traveller Plus seat.  ba.com has a Book and Upgrade’ tab on the main ‘Book with Avios’ page which you can find here.

An added upside of this method is that you earn Avios and tier points back, based on the World Traveller Plus rate.  A downside – which is important to note – is that, unlike a normal Avios redemption, a World Traveller Plus sale ticket upgraded to Club World with Avios remains non-refundable and non-changeable.  If you value the flexibility of Avios redemptions the upgrade route is not for you.

The cost to upgrade is the difference between a Club World and World Traveller Plus ‘100% Avios’ redemption.  New York, peak dates, is 120,000 Avios for a Club World return flight and 80,000 Avios for World Traveller Plus.  An upgrade from World Traveller Plus is therefore 40,000 Avios return or 20,000 Avios one-way.

What World Traveller Plus sale deals are available?

In general, World Traveller Plus pricing in the new British Airways sale seem a bit higher than usual but it varies route by route.

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.

Here are my picks:

• Boston £759
• Fort Lauderdale £663
• Las Vegas £794
• New York £757
• Orlando £779
• San Francisco £825
• Barbados £735
• Punta Cana £613
• Rio de Janeiro £868
• Abu Dhabi £612
• Muscat £698
• Seychelles £955
• Mumbai £633
• New Delhi £609
• Beijing £844
• Shanghai £733

BA Holidays is also running deals

As I always say, 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.

The main home page for the September sale 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.

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How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (October 2023)

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.

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.

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.

EDIT: Applications for this card are temporarily suspended due to IT issues with the British Airways On Business SME loyalty scheme.

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.