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British Airways news: £1150 Club World to Cape Town, Muscat suspended, Phoenix reduced

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We have three pieces of British Airways news to cover today:

£1,150 Club World fares to Cape Town

British Airways is running special deals to Cape Town and Johannesburg from several European cities.

The best deals are from Amsterdam.  Cape Town is £1,155 return and Johannesburg £1,227.

The fare rules are:

  • Book by 27th September
  • Travel between 20th November to 11th December, or 6th January to 30th January, or 18th February to 3rd April

Various other European capitals are available for around €1400-€1500. Try Athens, Brussels, Frankfurt, Lisbon, Milan, Munich, Vienna etc.

Before booking, I strongly recommend looking at BA Holidays (the Club World holidays page is here).  Price up a ‘Flight & Hotel’ or ‘Flight & Car’ package and see how it compares.  You may find it is cheaper than just booking a flight.

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.

British Airways drops Muscat flights

British Airways has announced that it is dropping the Muscat service for Summer 2019.

The last service will depart on 30th March 2019.  Flights are expected to resume with the Winter 2019 timetable in late October.  No rebooking guidelines have been published yet.

Phoenix services reduced

It has also emerged that BA is dropping three Phoenix services per week from 31st March 2019.

The service will drop back to one flight per day (14.45 outbound, 19.45 return).  This is in parallel with American Airlines launching its own Phoenix to Heathrow service.  It is not clear if impacted passengers will be moved to the other BA flight or offered the AA service instead.

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How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (April 2025)

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

Get 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

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.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on the ‘free for a year’ American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card is increased from 20,000 Membership Rewards points to 30,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (30,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on American Express Platinum is increased from 50,000 Membership Rewards points to a huge 80,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (80,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 30,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

80,000 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, and the standard card is FREE. Capital on Tap cards also have no FX fees.

Capital on Tap Visa

NO annual fee, NO FX fees and points worth 1 Avios per £1 Read our full review

Capital on Tap Pro Visa

10,500 points (=10,500 Avios) plus good benefits 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

50,000 points when you sign-up 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.

Category

British Airways and Avios

Comments (71)

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

  • gosty says:
    6 Sep6 September 11:18

    Why weren’t the 700 pound deals on QR from EDI – PNG highlighted on here?

    • Genghis says:
      6 Sep6 September 11:27

      PEN?

      • Rob says:
        6 Sep6 September 11:32

        I was on holiday and channelling my inner Theresa May on top of a mountain in the Dolomites!

    • BJ says:
      6 Sep6 September 12:03

      Totally missed that and I wasn’t chanelling anything! Bad summer, first I mess up on LH amex and now this 🙁

      • Jonathan says:
        6 Sep6 September 20:20

        Almost certainly not a legit fare & was only available briefly. Very few on the BA Flyertalk board managed to get on it & they are normally very quick off the mark.

  • rams1981 says:
    6 Sep6 September 11:36

    OT Monzo to no longer accept debit card top ups from 2 Oct. Shame. Got good usage out of that £3750 monthly limit

  • Londonbus says:
    6 Sep6 September 11:50

    Fortunately Oman Air is double daily to MCT. Although I suspect they will increase their fares.

  • Mark says:
    6 Sep6 September 12:25

    O/T Amex plat insurance, currently due to fly in osaka on tuesday from seoul and was wondering where I would stand if that flight was cancelled? would they fund another flight to maybe tokyo and then an internal flight down? or bullet train? what about if I miss any prepaid hotel stays? would they refund them? thanks in advance. I tried calling and the agent didn’t really know what would happen.

    • the_real_a says:
      6 Sep6 September 14:04

      Liability is to get you to your destination, or by mutual agreement another destination or refund your money. Since the cause for disruption is typhoon rather than BA scheduling your insurance will need to cover prepaid hotels and alternative connections.

  • Yawn says:
    6 Sep6 September 12:57

    OT: Is anyone else here affected by the closure of Osaka Kansai Airport? I’m meant to fly out to Seoul with a Korean budget airline (Jin Air) this coming Tuesday. There was no business class Avios redemption to Tokyo, so flying to/from Seoul seemed like a good plan at the time. Trying to assess my options, but thought I’d canvass the communal HfP hive mind first.

    • Peter K says:
      6 Sep6 September 13:04

      I’m surprised you’re not going YAWN YAWN as per your usual comments.

    • Young L says:
      6 Sep6 September 15:14

      I flew Jin Air From ICN to KIX earlier this year, very happy about it. I’d wait until Sunday and see if things gets better. Japan Times reported KIX would partially open on Friday.

      • Yawn says:
        7 Sep7 September 15:06

        Thanks! Looking on their website, it seems the flight might have been cancelled but haven’t heard anything yet. I’m going to give them a ring tomorrow!

  • Mark Smith says:
    6 Sep6 September 13:22

    O/T any tips for flying club from T5 with a 7 month old? We would like to take a buggy and online BA suggests checking in at the “family zone” in zone A…if I just go to the club check in desks with a buggy will they send me away or let me check in there? Also if any HFP readers happen to be sitting next to us and our little darling starts to scream then apologies in advance!

    • Pid says:
      6 Sep6 September 13:38

      Checked in with a 1 month old at the club check in desks in Jan and there were no issues.

    • New Card says:
      6 Sep6 September 13:46

      Completely your choice whether to use the family zone or go to Club check in. You may find that the Family check in has a shorter queue…

      • Andrew says:
        6 Sep6 September 14:06

        +1 – the family zone was more tranquil, the staff were VERY friendly and helpful when we travelled with a 3 year old and a 3 month old. Our 3 year old even got to push the button to send the suitcase into the abyss. A very happy family.

        You’ll then be nearer North security which sometimes has a faster fast track, too.

    • Simon says:
      6 Sep6 September 15:35

      Check in at club area. Take the buggy on to the plane. No leaving it at the door nonsense. Fold it up and ask cabin crew to put it in the cupboard. Smile nicely. We have done this 6 or 8 times no problem. *Avoid annoying looks when you land and walk straight off with child in buggy….

    • Canuck says:
      6 Sep6 September 17:23

      Nearly 2 yrs ago, I used T5 checkin with a 4month old. Normal desk lines were quite short but was ushered over to family checkin. Big line, lots of families, all taking a while to get all their bags and children checked in. Yes staff were very friendly but it took at least 30mins. Next week, I plan to avoid these desks and use the regular checkin desks, now with a 2yr old and a 2 month old.

    • Scallder says:
      6 Sep6 September 22:50

      Mark – if you haven’t already got one would highly recommend a travel buggy. We’ve got the Joie Pact Lite which is by far the best thing we’ve bought since our little one arrived 10 months ago. £120 at John Lewis but we got ours second hand off eBay for roughly half that. Just got back from NZ and it’s small enough to fold up and put in the overhead lockers plus thin enough to wheel down the aisle of a plane (both long and short haul ones). Really can’t recommend it highly enough and would mean you wouldn’t have to worry about checking the buggy in at all…

  • Dave says:
    6 Sep6 September 15:25

    OT – How long does it normally take for an Amex Platinum supplementary card to come through?

    • Neil Donoghue says:
      6 Sep6 September 17:25

      I’ve been waiting 6 working days and was beginning to wonder the same. I’ll call them tonight and report back.

  • Oliver says:
    13 Sep13 September 15:47

    Help! If I accidentally missed my connection in London on the way back from CPT, what would happen. Do BA have a means of trying to claw back the bargain reduction? Obviously I would have to start in AMS and not miss the outbound connection via LHR. It would mean ensuring my bags are not routed through…conveniently it comes up with stupid connections from LGW or LCY!
    Cheers, Oliver

    • Rob says:
      13 Sep13 September 17:47

      Fine as a one off. Do it regularly and your BA account will be closed.

      And never do it if booking via a TA as BA will bill the TA.

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

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