Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Fare alert: British Airways Amsterdam to Cape Town (Club World) for £1,113 return

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For some reason, Club World flights from Amsterdam to Cape Town are selling for €1275 (£1113) return on ba.com at the moment.

The ONLY dates I can find going out at this price during peak season are Thursday 6th December, Monday 10th December, Tuesday 11th December, Sunday 6th January, Thursday 10th January, Thursday 24th January, Thursday 21st February and Thursday 28th February.  There is more in March – 5th, 6th, 7th, 9th etc.

Christmas Day outbound is available for an extra €300.  This is the only cheap day over the festive period.

Coming back, there is a lot more flexibility.

You might be able to get the price down further by using BA Holidays, although this won’t be possible if your trip involves a Comair connection between Johannesburg and Cape Town.  Find a cheap date where the flights work and then plug the same dates into the BA Holidays website here and see if adding a car or hotel brings the price down further.

Remember that you MUST fly to Amsterdam to pick up the first leg, otherwise your entire booking will be cancelled. Coming back, if you are on hand baggage you won’t – as a one-off offender – have any issues if you skip out at Heathrow. This won’t work if you have a checked case however.

If you don’t have a credit card with 0% foreign exchange fees, your best bet to maximise your miles when paying is with the British Airways American Express Premium Plus card.  This 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 triple points – 3 per £1 – when you book flight tickets in a foreign currency, because it triggers both the ‘double points for airline spend’ and the ‘double points for foreign spend’ bonuses.


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 (38)

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

  • Paul says:

    If you have bags simply book a long layover (up to 24hours at LHR) or choose to route LGW AMS if that is allowed. I have never had an issue with short shipping my bags.

  • Graham Walsh says:

    I’m looking at LHR > JNB later this month and prices have rocketed. I did find going via OTA and the price is 1/2. Why do they (BA/Virgin) think they can charge so much directly?

    • Richard says:

      Because people will pay for a direct flight to SA when it makes the difference between a jet-lag free 11 hour overnight flight vs. a three hour stop in the middle of the night (especially if travelling for business or a short getaway).

      JNB and CPT direct are very lucrative routes for BA and they know how to price them.

      • Rob says:

        SA is probably the worse route to do indirectly via the Middle East vs direct, especially as flights are overnight with minimal time difference. I did a weekend break in Cape Town once – with no jet lag and the chance for 8 hours sleep both ways it is easy.

    • Richard says:

      It’s the perfect length too. At 11.5hrs or so you can have the first two hours for a nice meal, then 8 hours of sleep and then at least 45 mins to do breakfast before the cabin is locked down for descent.

  • Nick says:

    Hi,

    Has anybody managed to book this ? I can see it on Google flights and for occasional dates the outbound price on ba.com matches google flights but having tried many date pairs I can’t get this to price at all on ba.com

    Any suggestions?

    • Rob says:

      You might be late to game now. There were only a handful of dates when I wrote about it and those may well have gone now.

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

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