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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

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.


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 (71)

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

  • Ian H says:

    Re Phoenix flights, I had two first class seats booked for April and was offered the later BA flight on the same day. I chose to cancel as circumstances have changed and an April holiday no longer suits. Ian

    • DANIEL MACDONALD says:

      Similar here.. booked on a 2-4-1 next April on the noon service in 1st..moved to the later service on the same day….

  • Ian H says:

    Ps, thanks for the advice the other day. I eventually got my points and companion voucher back, after my third phone call. First two involved India, after no success I asked to speak to a supervisor and was transferred to UK. Issue then sorted out quickly and efficiently.

  • Adam says:

    I had 2x first class returns (2 for 1) booked for April as well. I got an email last week confirming that the return flight had been cancelled and that they had rebooked me on an old bone shaker American Airlines 767 leaving earlier that day, business class.

    I call up BA and they moved the return flight to Vegas for me, still first class which is actually where I wanted to go from originally but this route was not showing any 2 for 1 availability. When I logged in to change my seats we were the only seats in the cabin that had been booked….. so this actually suited me.

  • Neil says:

    Friends were booked on Muscat flights and had several hours on the phone to BA yesterday trying to sort things out….

    Not the smoothest process. As they cancelled outbound and inbound flights several hours apart. By SMS – whilst dealing with inbound friend asked. Is the outbound flight affected? No sir outbound fine.

    Two hours later SMS saying outbound cancelled.

    • John says:

      I think in this situation it’s worth waiting 24 hours and checking on flyertalk before calling BA unless the flight is really soon.

    • pauldb says:

      Definitely wait for formal options. I’m sure they’ll either be able to pick another ME destination (change holiday or overland from DXB), or be rerouted onto QR.

  • Edmund Johnston says:

    My wife and I were booked on club world (2-4-1) to Phoenix in May. Received emails from BA transferring us initially to AA, then back to original flights, then to later BA.. Had to call BA as return connecting flight to Edinburgh then had an extremely short connection and involved transfer from terminal 3 to 5. Took a long time to get that agreed and, after much discussion, they.agreed that they would waive the amendment fee.

  • BJ says:

    Bad news on Muscat, the good fares on Oman Air will now likely disappear, at least from London.

  • Genghis says:

    OT as expected my avios e store purchases are now crediting to BAEC directly.

    • Alex says:

      I’ve had one post this week about a purchase I made 6 weeks ago. I’d almost forgotten about it.

      Does anybody know what “up to 4 Avios per pound” means? Looking at John Lewis, I guess exclusions apply?

  • Andrew says:

    O/T as (sort of) bits: Shell Pump Challenge (bonus points for spot-on-to-nearest-£10 of vPower fuel +/-2p) is back until 31 October

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

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