British Airways launches a new flight and holidays sale – save more when you ‘part pay with Avios’

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• Moily says:

  4 May4 May 07:15

  OT: Does anyone have any experiences with getting a very short taxi/Uber ride from LHR to a neighbouring village/location?

  I need to make my own way to Longford to pick up a hire vehicle. It is tantalisingly close to the Heathrow Pod station and T5 but neither seem accessible on foot.

  Getting an Uber from T5 to Longford would work, and possibly a black cab (if I can get one that will give up the lucrative fare to Zone 1) but the return journey would require an early morning pick-up and I don’t want to get stranded there based on Uber’s availability at that time. Anyone have experience of Uber availability – is it fairly good at all times due to it being LHR?

  • Shoestring says:

    4 May4 May 07:23

    You’re going to be popular with the cabbie 🙂

  • Tom says:

    4 May4 May 07:41

    Just pre-book an Addison Lee?

  • The_real_a says:

    4 May4 May 08:00

    There is a bus to all the major rental outlets… But perhaps you are using an offbrand firm? Also think about the free local bus which makes a number of stops close to Bath Road. Or jumping on one of the parking shuttles…

    • Moily says:

      4 May4 May 08:18

      The rental place has only moved there in the past month so unlikely to be on any routes, sadly.

      However it looks like I could walk round to the Thistle and get a shuttle from there, or access the T5 Pod from there (presumably). Thanks for the pointer!

      • Gavin says:

        4 May4 May 08:25

        It’s possible to walk from Thistle to T5 if you want to. I’ve done it before (without much luggage though!)

  • Catalan says:

    4 May4 May 08:05

    Mollly. I believe bus 75/76 runs from T5 to Longford. It should be free as it’s within the Heathrow free zone area.

    • Moily says:

      5 May5 May 08:25

      Ah, superb. I’ll check that out, thanks!

  • Lady London says:

    4 May4 May 12:07

    Pretty sure there are regular buses from the Bath Road. Should be on Google maps.

    • Lady London says:

      4 May4 May 20:00

      * Although if you’re going there from T5 rather than T2/3 the Bath Road is going to be furher away than Longford! I think T5’s official address is even “Longford”

      • Moily says:

        5 May5 May 08:28

        Yes, the proximity of T5 was what got me thinking about walking but if T2/3 and a bus is quicker then I may as well do that. Thanks for the tip!

  • Kim says:

    4 May4 May 17:11

    Don’t bother with an Uber. I live a few miles south of Heathrow and have occasionally had to get the tube back to Hatton Cross when there have been train problems. I once stood for 45 mins waiting for an Uber that had accepted the trip and told me he’d be there soon but was grabbing petrol, before I realised he was not going to bother (but of course I got charged for cancelling after accepting… eventually got a refund).

    For a short journey, you may as well take a black cab or use a local private hire firm (but they will have to come in to the car park and get you, adding the short stay charge to the fare. Uber also charge an airport access fee). I tend to just grab a black cab for these short trips.

    • Moily says:

      5 May5 May 08:31

      Yeah I thought there may be issues with those options. Looks like a shuttle bus or walk to the Thistle will be the best plan. Thanks for the info,

• Alex W says:

  4 May4 May 07:46

  If one buys Premium Economy and part pays with Avios, can it still be upgraded to club world using Avios? Thanks.

  • BJ says:

    4 May4 May 07:54

    Yes, I’ve done that.

  • Rob says:

    4 May4 May 09:34

    It SHOULD be OK, never heard anything to the contrary.

• NickS says:

  4 May4 May 08:01

  I’ve been waiting for a luxury sale to come along as I’m doing a cruise from Sydney to Singapore next April and wanted to try to get a decent deal for a cash ticket in business or first. I did manage to snag a couple of Avis club tickets to Sydney by being quick out of the blocks one night but as I think Rob has mentioned before these are not great deals especially when I had used up all my 241 Amex vouchers till I can accrue some more this year and I also wasn’t having much joy getting the return club tickets from SIN, so as suggested by HFP previously I kept an eye on regular pricing and also BA holiday pricing and can confirm that 1) first is only about £1500 more than club for two people (I M returning of course from SIN rather than SYD) and the cash price for TWO F to SYD end March 2020 and 2 F SIN to LHR flight only in A bucket in Mid April came in at £8.6k total vs Club at just over £7k plus of course a hefty seat res fee in club as I’m currently back in Blue tier. Plus I get more Avios in F and propel myself straight into Silver Tier after I’ve completed the flights (assuming I probably need to do one mattress run flight to get the 4 x flight requirement fulfilled (is that correct? I’ll have 690 tier points from the F flights alone but I guess only three sectors actually flown??) anyway with BA hols including 4 nights at the Intercon Sydney and the luxury sale discounts (not huge but a few hundred quid) I’ve now got all this for £8.9k plus c 100k avios worth to me at least 1p (actually I value mine at 2p as I always try to travel F long haul using my 241 Amex vouchers) so you could argue that’s a further £1/2k notional saving and I’ll then be silver till end 2021 and get free seat selection through out !
  I’ll then use some IHG Spire Ambassador points for my other hotel nights and maybe my weekend Ambassador free room and my credit card spend free room and pay cash for the first night in a club room in the hope of being upgraded and left there during my BA inclusive part of the stay. All in all we are going first for probably less than and certainly no more than a normal club ticket so worth all the effort. Thanks to Rob and to HFP for teaching me all this!!

  • BJ says:

    4 May4 May 08:17

    If it’s flexible, you could probably save a packet by cancelling it and taking a flight up to HKT or BKK. From there one way in AY J is usually around £1100, and you might get lucky on a MAS suite for a sale fare. Ex SIN, it used to be possible to get one way Sri Lanka J fares for under £800 but probably higher since £ crashed.

• Waddle says:

  4 May4 May 08:42

  OT no bits sorry:
  If I have a return trip with BA and in different cabins for each leg, do I get the higher baggage allowance for both legs or respective for each? So if I fly WTP then CW back, is it 2x23kg then 2x32kg or 2x32kg both ways?

  • Shoestring says:

    4 May4 May 08:45

    No – you get the higher baggage allowance for a mixed (say) outward journey if it has more than 1 flight eg CW to Singapore but Economy to Sydney – but if it’s CW out, Economy back you only get Economy baggage on the way back.

    • Lyn says:

      4 May4 May 09:01

      Unless you are BA Silver or above, which I believe gives you 32kg anyway.

      • Lady London says:

        4 May4 May 12:13

        Silver gets extra bag and both bags 32kg even in Y. You may have to remind checking of this. Plus extra bag in another class also making all 32kg.

        The only thing I miss about my BA status.

        • Waddle says:

          4 May4 May 13:16

          Thanks everyone!

        • Lady London says:

          4 May4 May 13:29

          Check in Manage my Booking online in case Brutish Airways ever decides to sneak in worse conditions without announcing them.

        • Jonathan says:

          4 May4 May 16:44

          Not quite correct. It’s minimum 2 x 32kg in any class as Silver so extra bag in Y but no extra in W, J or F. To get an additional bag in any class ie. 3 in W & J and 4 in F you need to be Gold. Either way it’s a very good benefit for European flights in Y as means you can take skis, bike etc on top of a case.

        • Lady London says:

          4 May4 May 20:10

          Thanks very much for the clarification Jonathan.

          Yes I do recall I was Gold when I managed to get 3*32kg in J.
          And it heartens me that when I had 4 bags on my one and only trip in F, not even having Silver would have got me the 4th one free. I don’t feel so bad about British Airways ripping me off for £200 for the 1 extra bag now!

          So i guess the other good thing to remember about Silver is that is makes all your bags 32kg (not 23kg) if you want. I do recall having to gently nudge checkin staff on two separate occasions, though, on shorthaul at T5 when they were about to tell me that my bag was too heavy.

• Derek Scott says:

  4 May4 May 08:51

  I’ve done the Flight and Hotel packaging with BAH before and it is cheaper than booking seperately. However, you need to factor in that Hotel chains won’t recognise your loyalty membership when not booking direct, so no points, membership benefits, or sometimes even online check-in options.

  It has always intrigued me, frustrated even, that Hotel chains don’t appreciate loyalty by members who don’t book direct. It’s about time one of the major chains broke away and did… they may find they can track even more loyalty by members who become even more loyal.

  • Shoestring says:

    4 May4 May 08:57

    The hotel chains make a lot less profit when you book through a third party so can’t afford to give you loyalty benefits.

  • Anna says:

    4 May4 May 09:45

    That said, I’ve booked Hilton hotels twice recently via BA and then emailed the hotel and asked them to link the booking to my HH account. On both occasions they’ve honoured my gold status and I’ve been given free breakfast – at the HGI in Rome last month this added up to 12 breakfasts so well worth asking!

    • Doug M says:

      4 May4 May 09:53

      Was offered points to forgo housekeeping at an Embassy Suites. Jumped at it, kind of person that leaves a room looking like I find it. On one occasion this resulted in lots of points posting as if I paid Hilton rather than hotels com.

    • Alex Sm says:

      5 May5 May 11:04

      IHG hotels staff never refuse to link your non-qualifying booking to your IHG Rewards number but it doesn’t make much difference anyway

  • Doug M says:

    4 May4 May 09:49

    Making a hotel chain pay more than 20% to a booking agent is the sort of loyalty they manage without. Marriott or SPG used to give you the benefits not the points, but that stopped with the merger/take over. It’s not unreasonable. Depending on situation you could with something like late check-out and free breakfast think it worth paying to book direct, family of 4 say. Solo/couple more likely to benefit from lower rate.

  • Lady London says:

    4 May4 May 12:20

    The new version of Hilton’s promo just started definitely biases rewards to existing loyal Hilton stayers who stay a lot of nights with them that there’s a good chance Hilton would get those nights from anyway.

    I’d say that’s rewarding loyalty quite specifically.

    What it doesn’t do is make me move my none-too-shabby upcoming number of bookings to Hilton as they’ve set the bar too high before anything interesting is earned. Up to and including 15 nights that promo gets me 10-12% off only and I can get what that gives me quite easily anyway elsewhere. But the last thing I am going to do is book even my 4-9 nights or so with Hilton now. I’ll get better rewards elsewhere.

• Ant says:

  4 May4 May 09:40

  Very OT: booked return flights to HK For Easter 2020. Would like to go somewhere from there for a few days by the beach. Any suggestions for anisland with direct flights from HK or Macau?

  • Shoestring says:

    4 May4 May 09:52

    Macau is fun but no point flying there from HK, just take a speed ferry for fun or the new bridge opened last year so you could go by bus, it’s about 60km away.

    • Shoestring says:

      4 May4 May 10:11

      oops

      • Stu_N says:

        4 May4 May 10:56

        If you go to Macau, take the ferry. It takes you to the terminal on the peninsula then there are free buses to get to the casino – we went to the Lisboa. Then it’s a short walk to the heritage sights. It’s ok for a day but it was very busy and pretty run-down away from the main sights. We didn’t go to Cotai to see the casinos as that just doesn’t appeal.

        We were told that if you take the bus, it only goes as far as the border gateway and then you need to get a shuttle to and from there to the casinos, for which you are queueing with thousands of Mainland Chinese visiting for the day.

        On our return the queue for the ferry bus was about 10 mins and the border gate queue was huge – it was well past the “2 hours” marker.

        • John says:

          4 May4 May 16:21

          If you get to the HK Port (i.e. the bus terminal) by 0900 on weekdays, it won’t be crowded. The casino buses operate from Macau Port starting at 1000, or you can take the paid public bus before that. Crowds start to arrive around 1030, and going back to Hong Kong, it won’t be crowded if you leave before 1730.

          The ferry is at least 3x the price of the bus (6x for over 65s) although I suppose people prepared to pay £250 for a hotel room won’t worry about the difference.

    • Lady London says:

      4 May4 May 13:33

      I went across to Macau on the jetfoil and saw it before it was redeveloped. It was like stepping back in time to the 1950’s. I won’t be returning there as I don’t want to destroy that memory.

      • John says:

        4 May4 May 16:17

        The Asian Vegas is on Cotai. Coloane still has an old-fashioned feel and Macau peninsula, if you avoid the city centre and the border crossing is still quite nice (and uncrowded)

      • Shoestring says:

        4 May4 May 16:31

        Same here (for now, might visit again later) – for me it was back in 1988 and we really enjoyed the food that weekend, seeking out fusion Chinese Portuguese influence fiery stuff 🙂

        • Lady London says:

          4 May4 May 20:15

          1989 for me. Even though I’m only 21 :-).

  • Darren says:

    4 May4 May 10:01

    Phuket, Samui or you could try Danang/Hoi An in Vietnam. I think there’s also direct to Bali and the Philippines but these may be too long to get to a beach.

  • BJ says:

    4 May4 May 10:06

    Cebu…cash on Cebu Pacific or redemption on Cathay. Both from HKG but Cebu Pacific probably fly to Macao too.

    • Cat says:

      4 May4 May 11:06

      + 1 for Cebu, I just flew back on Cathay 2 weeks ago! Cebu has some lovely spots, but it’s well worth taking a ferry on to one of Bohol, Siquijor, Apo or Malapascua islands.

      • Genghis says:

        4 May4 May 17:27

        +1 for Malapascua and Bohol.

        • Cat says:

          4 May4 May 18:27

          So my OH and I are celebrating our 10 year anniversary this weekend. We’re equally happy in the great outdoors as we are in 5* luxury, so we decided to go camping in a small tent in the New Forest. This decision was made a while back, and despite weather reports, we decided to go ahead with the plan as it looked like it was at least going to be dry. OH went outside just now to cook, spotted massive grey clouds, and according to the beeb, we’re now about to get a surprise hail storm.
          My memories of the Philippines are all that are keeping me going right now…

        • Liz says:

          4 May4 May 19:33

          @Cat – we are currently in our caravan on the Island of Mull – had a great week here with great weather but temp has dropped and it’s blowing a hoolie now! Looking forward to our next big month long USA road trip in 2 wks time!

        • Cat says:

          4 May4 May 19:44

          I love Mull! And Iona! Although I can imagine the weather right now is less than ideal! It just rained a bit in the end, no hail thankfully. I’m very grateful for my down sleeping bag and down-filled air mattress right now!

        • Cat says:

          4 May4 May 19:53

          Where’s the road trip taking you Liz?

        • Liz says:

          4 May4 May 20:18

          @Cat – we’ve had fab weather all week. Wall to wall sunshine but turned chilly and windy yesterday when we climbed our 2nd Munro! We did Iona, Staffa and Lunga to see the puffins this week!
          Flying in to Denver, and road tripping through Colorado, Utah for Arches and Canyonlands NP, Monument Valley, Antelope Canyon and Lake Powell in Arizona, Bryce and Zion NP, Wyoming for Grand Teton and Yellowstone NP, Billings, Montana, S Dakota for Mt Rushmore, down through Nebraska, through Cheyenne WY and back to Denver – 7 new states for us!

        • Lady London says:

          4 May4 May 20:20

          @Cat you sound just like me. I love being under canvas. The colder, wetter and windier the better though. Provided I know I’ve got my tent (from the people starting with H) well staked down !

          For me weirdly other than that, I only like 5*+ in hotels.
          All the hotel levels in between, for me I dont enjoy and consider them just for work. Unless there’s something unusual about them.

        • Lady London says:

          4 May4 May 20:23

          @Cat down-filled air mattress…. Exped ?

        • Cat says:

          4 May4 May 20:52

          Liz wow! Both trips sound just incredible! I’m so jealous of puffin sightings, I’ve been wanting to see (and get hundreds of photos of) them for ages! I may need to pay the Highlands and islands another visit soon! Im even more jealous of your upcoming road trip – I’ve wanted to do something similar for years, but neither I nor my OH drive, and my similarly minded friends who love hiking in NPs and do drive all currently have small children. I’m waiting for them to grow and either get into hiking, or be old enough to spend a week or two with the grandparents!

          Lady London yes, my exped, its wonderful. The one beginning with H – Hilleberg? That’s exactly what I’m sleeping under right now. They’re bloody marvellous, and perfect if you walk in! I much prefer it when it’s lovely and warm though – not too hot to bake your face in the tent in the morning, but warm enough to hike in a t-shirt, and dry enough to be able to pack the tent away with the outer, inner and footprint still attached to each other! I do love a luxury 5* hotel, but I have a special place in my heart for lovely boutique hotels, well run B&Bs and, yes the unusual places. I thoroughly enjoyed staying in gers in the Gobi desert a while back!

        • Liz says:

          4 May4 May 21:24

          I like taking lots of photos of our trips for scrapbooking and posting on FB so that family abroad can follow our travels – I put up a selection of great puffin pics on my page – they are such cute funny little birds! We saw them last year on the Isle of May from Anstruther on Fife coast.

        • BJ says:

          4 May4 May 21:32

          @TheThreeLadies, your memoirs make me smile although I must confess a preference for sheets to canvas these days myself. They begin with an H too…Hotel Collection 🙂 However, my most memorable travels were in days when even canvas was a luxury, station floors, park benches, beaches, trains and buses were frequently my bed for the night in the good old days. Much more memorable than my first First or my first 5* hotel.

        • Cat says:

          4 May4 May 21:51

          @BJ beaches, trains and buses – yes, yes, yes! Park benches and station floors – hell no, a step too far!
          I can also add a cave on a beach in Sardinia, and a hammock in the upper reaches of the Amazon to the list!

        • Cat says:

          4 May4 May 21:57

          While I was in the Philippines, I did this absolutely incredible 5 day boat trip from Coron to El Nido. We stopped at the most breathtaking, remote beaches every night and slept in gorgeous, ridiculously basic open-sided huts right on the beach every night. The best beach had a backdrop of mountains that looked like a set straight out of Jurassic Park, and we were greeted by turtles when we arrived. I spent a very happy half hour snorkelling with them!

        • BJ says:

          4 May4 May 22:53

          @Cat, sounds awesome, I could always tell you were a real traveller as opposed to a holiday maker 🙂 Oddly, my favourite beach experience is on the shore of Lake Peipsi in Estonia of all places. Locals invited us to sauna in Forrest by the lake, afterwards they built a huge fire at the shore and partied there all night. The coup to overthrow Gorbachaev had just taken place and they were overjoyed as they predicted it was the
          beginning of the end of the USSR. Turned out they were right. Station floors do feel creepy, first was Koln and I was alone at the time so it didn’t help. Worst place ever though was a motel in wrong area of Washington DC, we barricaded the door! I can add a prison to my list too, stayed at the one they converted to a youth hostel in Stockholm.

        • Cat says:

          5 May5 May 08:29

          @BJ oh my word! Lake Peipsi is now going on my list, although the odds of being there for similar monumental political shifts are slim!
          Dodgy hotels and motels – I usually go for the chair under the door knob, if the chair’s tall enough!
          On a side note, I met Gorbachev many years ago. Nice chap!

• Darren says:

  4 May4 May 10:04

  So now I have to get the calculator out to see if purchasing Avios and tag them to my 241s is better than the BA sale.

  Decisions, decisions.

• David says:

  4 May4 May 10:14

  San Francisco £1,398 Club World in the sale looks like a very good price. Although some of the Qatar deals, and recently the Lufthansa / Swiss deal, have made me wonder about the continuing value of the Avios collection circus (and if you don’t travel much for work it does end up being something of a past time to earn sufficient points) – I’ve usually reverted to Avios as the maths still favours points travel.

  However, these sort of BA sale prices feel like the beginning of a potential game changer. In the last Xmas sale I paid £790 ish for a return WTP ticket LHR to SFO for November 2019, which my research told me was pretty good. I upgraded it to CW using 60,000 Avios and an additional £200 taxes and charges. So that’s £990 cash plus the equivalent of £600 worth of Avios, which amount to £1,590 total. The sale deal now looks better value.

  Caveats include finding the best sale deal on the specific dates of course, and using a 241 CP adds another level of complexity, but this is the first time I’ve thought: woh – it’s actually cheaper to buy this long haul BA CW flight cash than it is to – sensibly – use Avios.

  • Paul says:

    4 May4 May 10:24

    As was the case with previous ‘bargain’ flights announced on HFP, the ink hasn’t dried and the quoted fares seem to have disappeared. The reality of “San Francisco £1,398 Club World” as of 10 am today 4th May, is a minimum of £400 more with the minor caveat of flying on on Christmas Day! Fly a couple of weeks earlier and the ‘sale’ price rises to £3814.

    • Rob says:

      4 May4 May 10:34

      Seems so. However, it is under £1600 from Nov to March.

    • Peter K says:

      4 May4 May 11:38

      @Paul
      The early bird and all that. The sale started before today and 10:24 am is not that early even if it had. The best deals go very quickly, whether flights, holidays, black Friday etc

    • Doug M says:

      4 May4 May 18:37

      @Paul. If you’re prepared to get to Inverness, San Jose has decent availability sub £1250.

  • Lady London says:

    4 May4 May 12:26

    Avios are in constant danger of devaluation though. So if the value is anything like close to cash I’d get rid of the Avios.

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