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British Airways selling long haul Economy seats at £100 each way for its 100th birthday

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If you were wondering why Virgin Atlantic brought back its £1 ‘Golden Tickets’ game on Monday (see this article), it seems to be a spoiler for a new British Airways offer.

As part of its 100th birthday celebrations, British Airways will be selling 100 long-haul Economy seats each day for £200 return, ie £100 each way.

Different routes will be offered each day between Monday and Thursday at noon.

There will be two different destinations each day, to include the USA, Africa and South America over the course of the week.

Tickets will be made available at noon exactly.  ba.com will collapse at around 12.00:05 ….

Destinations will be listed on this special page of ba.com.

On Monday the destinations were New York and Cape Town.  On Tuesday it was Abu Dhabi and Boston.  On Wednesday it was Pittsburgh and Rio.

Travel dates have varied by destination so it is impossible to predict what will be offered on Thursday.  The window is generally about four weeks.

These tickets have booked into ‘M’ class in general but this is not guaranteed.  This means that you can upgrade them later to World Traveller Plus if Avios reward seats open up.  Do note, however, that this will trigger the higher rate of Air Passenger Duty plus additional BA surcharges so it won’t be cheap.

As an Avios earning opportunity, this is surprisingly good.  A BA Blue member would earn 6,020 Avios and 80 tier points return from the Cape Town offer.  A BA Gold would have earned a whopping 18,060 Avios return plus 80 tier points for their £200 outlay – and they got to visit Cape Town.  Although 2 x 12-hour overnight flights in Economy is not exactly an easy way of earning cheap Avios ….

The promo page for BA’s 100th birthday sale offer is here.

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Category

British Airways and Avios

Comments (308)

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

  • Doug says:
    21 Jan21 January 17:42

    Any tips on Miami in spring break? Will spend 4 nights (arriving at 10pm and leaving 5pm), got a car and some reservations, but I guess I will keep first two night at the beach and next 2 nights with marriott points on W Miami, I don’t want to do 100% beach time. RC Coconut Grov. is about £450 a night, crazy! I was planning to burn on Hong Kong later in the year, but better pay cash there.

    • SimonW says:
      21 Jan21 January 18:11

      We have had similar thoughts for an April trip to Miami. Have ended up getting round the mad room rates by booking via airbnb. You can find apartments/studios in the Four Seasons, Mondrian or Fontainbleau hotels for around £200 a night or less. There were loads of flats in the W Miami too. Maybe save your points for another trip, and pay cash for airbnb in Miami.

      • Doug says:
        21 Jan21 January 19:16

        Yes, seen airbnb, for 2 night is not totally worth usually as people tend to add extra fees, guess i need to keep digging

    • Roberto says:
      22 Jan22 January 08:03

      Stay at miami airport on the first night? Its about £100 , pick the car up next morning and head for the beach then…

      Plus can drink on the plane.

    • Karen says:
      22 Jan22 January 12:07

      I’ve spent Spring Break in Miami for 4 nights for the last 4 years for work.
      I always book Air BnB, stayed in The Grand DoubleTree for £120/nt, and Uber’d everywhere.
      Stayed in 1 Bed private apartment for £90/nt, on 15th Street
      For £200/nt you could have beachfront condo and pool around Ocean Drive.
      Actually stayed in Courtyard Marriott South Beach last year, it’s ok, on the beach – but not worth the money compared to renting condo on Air BnB imo.
      If you want to burn your points, W Miami South Beach is a great spot, I’d stay there for 4 nights and travel from there. Avoid W Miami / JW Marriott etc in Brickell, pretty dull area
      My fave places are cocktails at Delano’s, Osteria Del Teatro for Italian on Washington Ave, Maccialina at 820 Alton Road. You MUST book ahead, like now! Enjoy

  • Dale says:
    21 Jan21 January 22:54

    o/t but down in London and BA have cancelled 6.20pm flight LHR to EDI tomorrow..huh? Having to reroute via gatwick at a later time – what compensation is due for this? BA make it sound like they are doing m a favour by not charging me to rebook…are you kidding me?

    • Rob says:
      21 Jan21 January 23:11

      Nothing unless you are 3 hours late. This discussion came up the other day with another reader, but I think technically all London airports are treated the same (hence the LON airport code) so BA doesn’t even need to pay to get you to Heathrow if your car is there.

      • Allan says:
        21 Jan21 January 23:24

        I thought that if the cancellation was less than a week before it’s rerouting and not more than a 2 hour delay before compensation is due? Anyway if you’re on the 19:15 from LGW, diddly squat.

      • Cam says:
        22 Jan22 January 07:41

        I concur with Rob’s statement. BA moved me from LGW-JFK to LHR-JFK a few days before departure (times within 30 min), and declined to pay compensation even after going to arbitration. Never mind that LGW had been much more convenient for my schedule that day.

    • Marcw says:
      22 Jan22 January 08:22

      Regulation is very messy in these situations. Essentially, if you arrive within 2 h from the scheduled arrival (original flight) you get nothing (as long as your departure is not more than 2 h before compared to original flight). If you arrive within a 2-3h “delay” you get 50% as compensation. If it’s longer than 3h, you get 100% comp.
      Once I had a London-Rome via Zurich flight, where the first sector was cancelled. I was rebooked into Lufthansa via MUC. Flight left 30 minutes earlier than my original flight, but got there only 45 minutes later than planned. I didn’t get anything.
      But it is worth checking the regulation.

  • LewisB says:
    22 Jan22 January 08:59

    I’m hoping today’s offer has alternative travel dates, zero annual leave left until the beginning of February!

    • Andrew says:
      22 Jan22 January 09:25

      You’re not the only one!

      Holiday year ends 31st March. I’m down to 4 days left.

    • Voyage says:
      22 Jan22 January 10:19

      Hi Lewis,

      So these promotional seats aren’t available for a year in advance?

      Do you recall what destinations were included yesterday?

      Thx

  • Pritesh says:
    22 Jan22 January 10:23

    OT – how long have people typically had to wait for their BA 241 voucher to be issued when upgrading from the blue to the black BA Amex cars having already spent over 10k on the blue Bala Amex card?

    • Pritesh says:
      22 Jan22 January 10:24

      *blue BA amex

    • FC99 says:
      22 Jan22 January 10:40

      Mine took at least two months of going back and forth between BA and Amex. I wasn’t planning on using it imminently and I ended up essentially getting two months of validity so it wasn’t really a big problem for me

  • James says:
    22 Jan22 January 11:03

    Is it possible to have already selected a route and dates and be just about to pay at ~11:59, then click through to get a revised £100 price? This seemed the only way to actually get a hotel in the recent 90% Expedia app discount free for all.

    I acknowledge the challenge of not knowing which city pair to have selected beforehand.

  • Keith says:
    22 Jan22 January 11:46

    O T :

    Does anybody know if there is an arrival lounge at Johannesburg Airport, will be arriving BA First Class early in the morning.

    Also has anyone got any experience of Comair business? Is it worth an extra 3,750 avios each?

    • James says:
      22 Jan22 January 13:11

      There is a paid for arrivals lounge, or one for South African airlines arrivals. Neither are much to write home about, as is the case for nearly all the lounges at JNB except perhaps the Slow lounge..

      Comair business is fine, better than CE. Whether it is worth it depends how far your flight is, how tired you’ll be, etc.

      • Keith says:
        22 Jan22 January 17:09

        Thanks very much. Am flying in BA First Class so had thought there might be something BA wise. Just have a few hours to kill before I travel on to Port Elizabeth. Looks like I’d get access to the SLOW lounge with a Comair business so think I’ll book that. Thanks for your help.

  • LewisB says:
    22 Jan22 January 12:01

    Neither destinations interest me today, but interesting to note the date difference for Abu Dhabi. Hopeful for a South American / Asia destination between September – October. Maybe too wishful 🙂

    • LewisB says:
      22 Jan22 January 12:05

      I managed to easily get flights in my basket by 12.02 for Abu Dhabi though, either BA have fixed their IT or the interest has dropped after yesterdays blunder.

    • marcw says:
      22 Jan22 January 12:06

      Wishful thinking. I expect all destinations will be feb-march. Middle east early super.

  • Boris says:
    22 Jan22 January 12:02

    Boston and Abu Dhabi today

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