Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

British Airways has released more than 50,000 extra Avios seats in Club World

Links on Head for Points may support the site by paying a commission.  See here for all partner links.

British Airways has launched a special Avios promotion adding more than 50,000 extra reward seats in its Club World cabin.

Until 2nd December there will be increased Avios business class availability on a number of BA’s long-haul routes.  The extra seats are available for travel from mid December through to the end of March 2019.

It is well worth taking a fresh look at what is available, especially if you previously drew a blank when searching for seats.

Avios wing 5

The routes included are:

London Gatwick:

Fort Lauderdale, Tampa, Orlando, Las Vegas, San Jose (Costa Rica), New York JFK and Mauritius

London Heathrow:

Abuja, Accra, Amman, Atlanta, Austin, Bahrain, Baltimore, Bangalore, Beijing, Beirut, Boston, Buenos Aires, Cairo, Calgary, Cape Town, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Dubai, Durban, Houston, Jeddah, Johannesburg, Kuala Lumpur, Kuwait, Lagos, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Mexico City, Miami, Montreal, Moscow, Nairobi, Nashville, New Orleans, New York (JFK), New York (EWR), Philadelphia, Phoenix, Rio de Janeiro, Riyadh, San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose, Santiago, Sao Paulo, Seattle, Seoul, Seychelles, Shanghai, Singapore, Tel Aviv, Tokyo (NRT), Toronto, Vancouver and Washington

The extra 50,000+ seats are available either for direct Avios bookings or for ‘upgrade using Avios’ seats upgraded from World Traveller Plus to Club World. Seats are  not allocated by route.

British Airways Gatwick Airport

BA’s Club World taxes, fees and recently increased carrier charges will apply.

Carolina Martinoli, British Airways’ Director of Brand and Customer Experience, said about this promotion:

“It’s exciting to be able to make more than 50,000 extra reward seats available, giving more members a chance to travel paying just taxes, fees and carrier charges, or upgrade their cabin. With these seats spanning a vast array of long-haul routes across a number of continents, we’re hoping it will give members plenty of options for their next getaway.”

More information and full T&Cs are here.

You must book by 2nd December and best availability is for flights between 16th December 2018 and 31st March 2019.

To maximise your miles when paying the taxes, 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.

PS.  Alongside this deal, British Airways is also offering a bonus of up to 45% when you buy Avios between now and 25th November.  The ‘buy Avios’ page is here.

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.

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.

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.

Category

British Airways and Avios

Comments (84)

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

  • Derek says:
    14 Nov14 November 19:37

    I’m checking daily for a potential First seat appearing for a Canadian outbound flight… it’s undersold so far so fingers crossed… hope they extend the extra seats to First… please!

    • Chris says:
      14 Nov14 November 22:43

      They’re usually pretty generous, last year I was looking to book Vancouver in CW and they all of a sudden started releasing multiple F seats on every LHR flight for the period we were looking at. Turned out I had just enough avios to book it so looking forward to my first F experience in January!

  • Alan says:
    15 Nov15 November 00:23

    BA-related. Just had my IHG card blocked and a phone call to say a new one being issued due to BA data breach – apparently my card number on a list they were provided with by Mastercard.

  • ChrisC says:
    15 Nov15 November 03:31

    No thanks. it looks like a spam link to me.

    You could always just tell us what the offer is though.

  • Max says:
    15 Nov15 November 06:18

    Just a shame that the BA product is so poor in business. I hate the poor Yin Yang style, especially when compared to AAs offering.

    • Lady London says:
      16 Nov16 November 21:05

      Someone called the British Airways seat layout in Club “reverse sardine” today! It reminded me of how they stack sardines in a tin… Oh, wait….!

    • Chuck says:
      2 Dec2 December 07:12

      I just did LHR to DFW on AA, 3a, in theory it’s better than BA Club with a more private seat. In practice I found the seat uncomfortable despite multiple set ups. Food, drinks were poor, crew were awful. IFE was good. Overall I prefer BA even with the stranger danger view at take off and landing…

  • Paul says:
    15 Nov15 November 06:38

    “It’s exciting to be able to make more than 50,000 extra reward seats available, as we havnt been able to flog them by any other route. This gives more members a chance to be ripped of paying just taxes, fees and the highest level of carrier imposed charges of any airline. They can also pay these charges when flying on other airlines who do not impose them at all. With these seats spanning a vast array of long-haul routes across a number of continents, we’re hoping it will give members plenty of options for overpaying their next getaway. To be treated badly onboard, in the air and by customer relations. And, as a bonus to members, should we lose your data, compromise you credit card or just …k in any other way we will set our lawyers on you. It’s the way we make you fell that is British Airways.

    • Polly says:
      15 Nov15 November 07:02

      Love it!

    • Thywillbedone says:
      15 Nov15 November 07:23

      Easy to spot the loyal customer!

    • Lady London says:
      15 Nov15 November 14:25

      I am going to print this out and frame it !

      Re the ‘carrier charge’ aka the ‘British Airways got sued in court in the USA for calling it a YQ fuel charge when it wasn’t’ charge. So far as i can tell British Airways has kept charging and increased those same charges. So why dont we just call it the CG charge instead ‘carrier greed’.

      • Polly says:
        2 Dec2 December 07:21

        I have done, still think its brilliant. Laughing again just reading it.
        Re AA seats above, tend to agree…centre 2 seats in J always worth going for, if possible. Or F, so worth it…
        LL, see you at da party…

  • nigel whitehouse says:
    15 Nov15 November 07:01

    can anyone help me with this issue ? i have paid top $ for business class Qatar flights to Oz for Xmas, and i have just been moved to BA for 1 of the legs; obviously im not happy as i selected the specific QR flights on booking, but can i do anything about it ? i booked thru an agent. thanks in advance. N

    • Polly says:
      15 Nov15 November 07:06

      Nigel
      You don’t have to accept the change. Maybe the agent can get a different flight for you that suits better. The crew in q suites have deteriorated quite a bit it seems, so it may not be all that it’s geared up to be. Presume it’s on of the london sectors. It’s a shame, but you will have are on 3 other sectors. See how you go.

      • nigel whitehouse says:
        15 Nov15 November 10:25

        thanks polly
        you say i dont have to accept the change which is good news but why ?
        my original QR7 flight has moved 3 hrs later, but there are other QR operated flights. can i insist they put me on 1 of these ?
        thks again N

    • CV3V says:
      15 Nov15 November 08:02

      Question is, who moved your flight? Was it Qatar or the travel agent? From experience some travel agents will take your cash for a flight and not actually complete the flight booking until later on and then will try and put you on different flights (which i assume are cheaper), in one case a relative had a nightmare trying to get either the airline or the travel agent to accept responsibility and change it back to the original (but it did get done).

  • Richard says:
    15 Nov15 November 07:58

    Thanks Rob, picked up some Dubai flights for March with much better days / times than available before.

  • Paul says:
    15 Nov15 November 09:04

    I think many of the extra seats may have been loaded on Monday. I’ve been looking to change a 241 return flight from DUR to JNB but there were only 2 seats available in the entire month, until I checked Monday morning, and low and behold any day, any flight suddenly open. Very handy.

    • Rob says:
      15 Nov15 November 10:36

      They were. BA had IT issues with the associated ‘buy Avios’ bonus so the notification was pulled back despite seats being loaded.

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

New to Head for Points?

Welcome!  We’re the UK’s most-read source of business travel, Avios, frequent flyer and hotel loyalty news. Let us improve how you travel. Got any questions? Ask them in our forums.

Latest Forum Posts

Get 40,000 bonus points (worth 40,000 Avios) and £300 dining credit with The Platinum Card

Check reward flight availability instantly for free!

See a whole year of reward seat availability on one page at SeatSpy.com

Get £10 when you spend £150 on your free Currensea card

Booking a luxury hotel?

Our luxury hotel booking service offers you GUARANTEED extra benefits over booking direct. Works with Four Seasons, Mandarin Oriental, The Ritz Carlton, St Regis and more. We've booked £1.7 million of rooms to date. Click for details.

SME? SPECIAL OFFER TO 12TH MAY EARN POINTS WORTH 30,000 AVIOS WITH CAPITAL ON TAP

Get 20,000 bonus points, four airport lounge passes and your first year free with American Express Gold

The UK's biggest frequent flyer website uses cookies, which you can block via your browser settings. Continuing implies your consent to this policy. Our privacy policy is here.

Got it!