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British Airways launches new Luxury Flights and Holidays sale

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British Airways has launched a new sale offering savings on both premium flights and holiday packages which include a First or Business Class flight.

There are some decent prices here and you have until 19th March to book.

You can see all deals available here.  This article focuses on the flight-only offers and we will look at the BA Holidays packages on Sunday.

First and Business Class flight-only deals

You can find a number of good sale fares flying First or Business Class to Vancouver, Lima and Dubai amongst other places.

Here are some ‘lead in’ prices for Club World or Club Europe return flights:

North America

Fort Lauderdale – from £1,555 return in Club World

Nashville – from £1,396 return in Club World

Tampa – from £1,562 return in Club World

Vancouver – from £1,420 return in Club World

Latin America and Caribbean

Buenos Aires – from £1,850 return in Club World

Grand Cayman – from £1,800 return in Club World

Lima – £1,695 return in Club World

Nassau – from £1,799 return in Club World and from £3,499 return in First

Santiago – from £1,999 return in Club World

Sao Paulo – from £1,799 return in Club World

Europe

Athens – from £199 each way in Club Europe

Barcelona – from £111 each way in Club Europe

Basel – from £118 each way in Club Europe

Belfast – from £87 each way in Club Europe

Billund – from £98 each way in Club Europe

Budapest- from £160 each way in Club Europe

Copenhagen – from £139 each way in Club Europe

Gothenburg – from £109 each way in Club Europe

Hamburg – from £109 each way in Club Europe

Krakow – from £140 each way in Club Europe

Lisbon – from £139 each way in Club Europe

Marseille – from £119 each way in Club Europe

Paris – from £99 each way in Club Europe

South and Central Asia

Bengaluru – from £2,189 return in Club World

Mumbai – from £1,859 return in Club World

Middle East and Africa

Abu Dhabi – from £1,448 return in Club World

Amman – from £1,309 return in Club World

Dubai – from £1,698 return in Club World

Johannesburg – from £1,986 return in Club World

Nairobi – from £1,775 in Club World and from £2,400 in First

Far East and Australia

Hong Kong – from £1,983 return in Club World

Sydney – from £3,794 return in Club World

Tokyo – from £4,298 return in First

You will typically need to stay for a week or over a Saturday night to get the prices above.

Lima at £1695 is a good fare given the distance and the fact that this isn’t a route which is often heavily discounted.

Barcelona at £111 each way is a good way to pick up 80 BA tier points and get a well-priced short break.  We reviewed the impressive 5-star Hotel Arts (managed by The Ritz-Carlton and part of Marriott Bonvoy) recently – see here.

Belfast, Luxembourg or Inverness at around £170 return seem the cheapest way to pick up 80 tier points if you want a quick mileage run.  Malta, Catania and Funchal are 160 tier points return routes and are £240-£250 return.

If you are looking at Dubai, note that Abu Dhabi is £250 cheaper and only a £40 taxi ride away.

‘Part cash, part Avios’ is available with these sale fares but do the maths and work out the ‘pence per point’ before you book.  If it is substantially under 1p then you may get a better deal by paying 100% cash in this sale and saving your Avios for a 100% Avios redemption in the future.

The BA luxury flights and holidays promo page is here.

Remember that you need to book by midnight on Tuesday 19th March.

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.

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 (102)

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

  • Sarah says:
    8 Mar8 March 20:39

    I have 2 BA 2-4-1 to use up to Sep 2020. There are 3 of us so I’m thinking of using for a one-way Club World long haul (prob Middle East) and a RFS for the other one as I only have around 110,000 points which I’ll keep saving up. Does anyone know if there is ever a Avios sale for paying fully with Avios and if there is, when it’s likely to be as that will help a lot? Thanks

    • Jake Mc says:
      8 Mar8 March 22:11

      Avios sale for redeeming Avios with BA – Not that I have seen for years (happy to be corrected though).

      In terms of Avios sales – sometimes Avios partners do offer a sale (like robs Iberia post) but can’t use 2-4-1 and sometimes there are reverse sales where the Avios within an Avios and cash fare are worth “more”. There was one a couple of months ago. These tend to be 1-2 per year. Have a search for “part pay with Avios” across the site and you will be able to work out the pattern (if there is one)

  • Clarence says:
    9 Mar9 March 06:45

    Being trying to find F flights to use with my 241 but there seems to be virtually nothing available. Is this because the sale was coming up ?

    • Anna says:
      9 Mar9 March 09:28

      When and where are you going? Looking at T-355 and the preceding week there are plenty of F seats to the US. I’m waiting to hopefully swoop for Easter 2020 so been checking availability.

      • Clarence says:
        9 Mar9 March 09:43

        My 241 expires in October and been looking at USA west coast

        • Anna says:
          9 Mar9 March 10:34

          You may have to be a bit flexible then. You could fly to East coast on your 2 4 1 and get a cheap (or avios) connection to the West, for example.

        • Evan says:
          9 Mar9 March 18:27

          Don’t forget San Diego – although the lounge there isn’t fantastic.

    • Darren says:
      9 Mar9 March 09:37

      Sign up to rewardflightfinder for your desired routes and dates. Money well spent.

  • Max says:
    9 Mar9 March 08:16

    OT.

    Does anyone know of a debit card that works if buying a car? They seem to want a debit rather than a credit card, but wondered if anyone had gained points of any description by spending a lot of money on a car. Any success stories? Seems like a lot of points to potentially miss out on.

    • Shoestring says:
      9 Mar9 March 08:58

      A lot will depend on your car seller & what they accept. Most dealers are used to people wanting to put ‘something’ on a credit card to get S75 protection, then typically want the rest by bank transfer (or cash!). Just ask your seller if you can pay the rest by debit card. As to which debit cards will work…Tesco debit card from current a/c will give you Clubcard points – or Curve linked to points-earning credit card.

    • Spurs Debs says:
      9 Mar9 March 09:11

      Surely tesco bank current account you can earn points doing this? But I would think carefully before giving up credit card protection.

      • Shoestring says:
        9 Mar9 March 09:13

        You can have both, just pay at least £1 on the credit card & you get full protection from S75 (assuming the car is worth between £100-£30,000

        • Spurs Debs says:
          9 Mar9 March 10:47

          Don’t you have to pay a minimum of £100 to kick in credit card protection?

        • Shoestring says:
          9 Mar9 March 10:59

          No, it’s £1 minimum to get the ‘jointly & severally’ liability/ cover from the credit card co. The item itself must cost over £100 and less than £30K.

          So you can pay £1 on the credit card, the rest in cash or whatever, and the S75 protection kicks in.

          Grossly unfair to the credit card cos of course – but just part of the cost of doing business.

    • Ikaz says:
      9 Mar9 March 10:22

      This will depend on the dealership you choose. I could pay the £5000 deposit entirely on Credit card, but no Amex. I have read of dealerships taking Amex, and others not taking credit cards at all. Best to ask this directly to them. Curve might be an option, depending on the limits that you have

    • Genghis says:
      9 Mar9 March 17:13

      Paying on credit card is one of the last bits of the negotiation. Pretend you’re interested in the finance first and get a price set for the car. I paid in full on credit card earlier this year.

      • Alan says:
        10 Mar10 March 17:31

        Indeed – be prepared to walk away and it’s amazing how they’ll find a way to take the card 🙂

    • the_real_a says:
      9 Mar9 March 17:49

      I have always found “i want to buy it all on the credit card”… “oh, i cant do that…” “ok i will need to think about it then”… results in a phone call within a week offering to go ahead.

    • Pid says:
      9 Mar9 March 22:21

      Allowing us to use a credit card was why we chose the dealer we did. Split between 2 cards was very useful for maximising points. Just ask around and if your local dealer does not allow credit cards, ring up another one in the next local town.

  • Lee says:
    9 Mar9 March 08:28

    If I am Gold on BA and do not fly or earn any points this year, what level will I be next year?

  • Titus Adduxas says:
    9 Mar9 March 10:13

    £3800 to Sydney is still at least 50% more than I can pay now with AF or KLM albeit that other airlines are involved, China, Korean or Japan to name but three.

    • Rob says:
      9 Mar9 March 11:08

      Never pay more than £1999 to Sydney. You can always get it ex-EU for that.

      • Dawn says:
        9 Mar9 March 14:40

        Will I find it using One World airlines? I try to just keep to one group as I don’t fly a lot. Also is there a way to find a cheap flight by doing multi-city? London – Joburg – Sydney – Perth – London? I have to do this every couple of years and end up booking with a round the world type agency for about £5K. ?

        • Rob says:
          9 Mar9 March 14:54

          Qatar ex Sweden is currently about £2100 I think? Etihad ex-Sweden was close to that recently. Less likely in general to be oneworld though – China Southern or China Eastern ex-Amsterdam are often the cheapest options if there are no sales on.

      • Alan says:
        10 Mar10 March 17:32

        Indeed – ex-OSL with BA has been reliably good value for years.

  • Tom says:
    9 Mar9 March 12:08

    OT – New to the credit card game, UK resident, picked up Amex Preferred Rewards Gold card. Recently read an article albeit on a different website stating Amex sign up bonuses were once per lifetime, rather than what I initially thought (cancel card, wait certain amount of time, reapply, get bonus again). Which is it? I couldn’t find the answer in their article, or whether they were talking about US/UK residents. Cheers!

    • Graham Walsh says:
      9 Mar9 March 12:11

      Wait 6 months after cancelling card. Then you’ll get the sign up bonus again

    • Rob says:
      9 Mar9 March 13:56

      That’s US.

      • Alan says:
        10 Mar10 March 17:33

        Must say I’ve never read their website and mixed content that isn’t flagged to a particular country sounds pretty frustrating!

    • Alan says:
      10 Mar10 March 17:32

      USA – they get far higher bonuses though and much better perks on the card.

  • Graham Walsh says:
    9 Mar9 March 12:10

    Typical no offers on what I need. Vegas in July for a conference. Trying to see if I can do a hop through somewhere otherwise might be able squeeze it in PE.

  • Martin says:
    9 Mar9 March 18:57

    Hi just qualified for companion fare and looking to book to link in with a tour. Co ordinating is a challenge. Can I book the flights to secure them and then cancel if the tour doesn’t come off? I understand I get my voucher back but what about taxes and other costs. I am hoping to fly F so the add up. Thanks for the help

    • Anna says:
      9 Mar9 March 21:06

      You can cancel and will get all the avios back plus the charges minus £35 per person. The voucher will go back into your account.

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