Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Exceptional British Airways Club World and First Class flight deals if you can fly very soon

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I don’t want to suggest that the threat of the British Airways pilots strike has left forward bookings in premium cabins looking a little thin, but British Airways has launched an exceptionally good sale in Club World and First Class.

When BA runs a great sale, it is usually for travel many, many months in advance.

Not this one.

British Airways £2019 business class sale

If you have a long-haul Avios redemption booked before the end of September, you should do the maths and decide whether to cancel and replace it with a cash flight.

You must book by 19th August and travel between 19th August and 30th September.  This means, if you are able to squeeze in a last-minute getaway – and you are confident that the pilots strike will be settled – you can get a great deal.

You need to travel with a companion to get these deals.  There is nothing here for the solo traveller I’m afraid.

The following routes are £2019 for two people in Club World:

  • New York
  • Miami
  • Las Vegas
  • New Orleans
  • Philadelphia
  • Washington
  • Dubai
  • Abu Dhabi

If you can dig a little deeper, we have:

  • £2399 for two – Dallas, Atlanta, Austin, Montreal, Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto
  • £2998 for two – Beijing, Hong Kong, Bangkok
  • £2999 for two – Mumbai, Chennai, Lagos, Abuja
  • £2305 for two – Antigua
  • £2332 for two – Barbados
  • £2399 for two – Toronto
  • £2998 for two – Bangkok, Beijing
  • £3019 for two – Accra
  • £3998 for two – Tokyo

There are also some Club Europe deals if you look at the sale page of ba.com, although nothing to get too excited about.

British Airways BA A350 in flight

For an even better deal, take a look at the BA Holidays website here.

Deals include:

  • Dubai: Club World flights plus three nights at a 4* hotel from £1069 per person
  • New York: Club World flights plus three nights at a 4* hotel from £1199 per person
  • Las Vegas: Club World flights plus three nights at a 4* hotel from £1149 per person
  • Dominican Republic: Club World flights plus seven nights all-inclusive at a 4* hotel from just £1359 per person

And in First Class …..

BA has highlighted the following – I’m not sure what other routes may be available but it is worth checking all the routes with Club World deals listed above:

  • £3019 for two – New York
  • £3019 for two – Miami

How should you pay?

When it comes to paying, remember that you earn double Avios (3 per £1) on ba.com transactions charged to the British Airways Premium Plus American Express card.

Alternatively, you get double points (2 per £1) on all airline transactions charged to the American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card.

How to book

There is a special page on ba.com dedicated to this sale which you should check out here.   Don’t forget to compare prices with the BA Holidays offers 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 (143)

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

  • Keiths says:
    13 Aug13 August 07:45

    Just my luck.
    Saw this via BA email yesterday.
    We have Boston F /J on a 2:4:1 in Sept. Was going to cancel and rebook for this offer….. But Boston not included 🙁

    • Mr(s) Entitled says:
      13 Aug13 August 08:00

      Fly to NYC then connect or get the train?

    • Stu N says:
      13 Aug13 August 08:30

      Have you priced it up? Nashville isn’t on the list but I’m seeing £2019 returns there in the sale period.

      • Keiths says:
        13 Aug13 August 16:34

        Unfortunately it doesn’t come up when putting Boston in.

        I have checked out NY – ok for 7 nights, but we are doing 14 (as we are also visiting Newport & Cape Cod). When you stick in 14 nights it jumps to nearly £3k.

        It then becomes marginal for the additional cost and the additional travel.

        Never know, they may release Boston over the coming days.

  • Swissy says:
    13 Aug13 August 07:54

    I cant seem to get the cheap BA Holiday prices, Just seem to price up as normal

  • ChrisC says:
    13 Aug13 August 07:59

    Again us single travellers ignored.

    Before anyone goes on about “it’s to stop business travellers snapping them up” there are ways to prevent that – having to have both a Friday and Saturday stay or minimum 4 or 5 night stay stay for example. Most leisure travellers can manage that but not so many business travellers.

    But without knowing there was a sale on last night I was pricing up NYC for September seeing if there were any last deals and getting £1,499 which is OK but only OK I guess when I should be able to be offered £1,020. F was pricing up at £250 extra per sector.

    • TripRep says:
      13 Aug13 August 09:11

      You have no single friends?

      • ChrisC says:
        13 Aug13 August 09:22

        Not the point. A solo traveller could also be part of a couple but whose annual leave entitlement / availability isn’t the same as their partners.

        Last ticket at X price – is a day to day reflection of fare buckets – is not the same as this offer. And yes some business will allow you to do that but not all and many business travellers would rather get back home to their families. Of course their partner could fly out for part of the trip but they’d have to pay the higher solo traveller price !

        • Rob says:
          13 Aug13 August 09:29

          We actually do this in October. Kids get two weeks off school, my wife is holiday-constrained but I can work from anywhere as long as I arrange my meetings smartly. I fly off with the kids and she joins us a few days later.

    • Andrew says:
      13 Aug13 August 09:14

      If I’m travelling on Business, I always check to see what the options are if I spend an extra few nights myself. I’ve had employers who actively encouraged their staff to spend an extra few weekend nights in a City if it cuts the cost of the overall trip charged to the business.

      It’s hardly “single travellers ignored”. There’s been more than a few occasions when I’ve found that there’s only one seat left at “x” price when travelling as a couple.

  • Andrew porwol says:
    13 Aug13 August 08:03

    Booked Vegas for £1954 for 2 for this Saturday and cancelled a reward flight 😊 bargain

    • Lady London says:
      13 Aug13 August 09:55

      Sounds like you would have paid close to the dame total cash and kept all those Avios you would have paid for thé award booking, by switching to a cash ticket, @Andrew?

  • Lee says:
    13 Aug13 August 08:09

    OT – on my BA Amex today Spend £30 or more, get 1000 Extra Avios

    EXPIRES
    13/09/2019
    OFFER DETAILS
    Save to Card to get an extra 1000 Avios on eligible spend of £30+ in-store and online at participating Supermarkets

  • David Meyer says:
    13 Aug13 August 08:10

    I’m trying to book EDI-LAS in CW but offer prices do not seem to be available from regional airports. I have reserved seats LGW-LAS at offer prices. T&Cs of the offer state that ‘Regional connections to London are available’. Does anyone know the best way to book the connections and if will I be able add them to the same booking reference?

    • Alan says:
      13 Aug13 August 08:20

      Hopefully just dreadful BA IT at work, pretty appalling if limited to London-only. I’d give them a call to see if they can price it up manually over the phone for you.

      • Stu N says:
        13 Aug13 August 08:27

        EDI-LHR-XXX priced up OK.

        Gatwick can be funny for sale fares with a regional connection. I’d phone BA and see what’s what.

    • Andrew says:
      13 Aug13 August 08:26

      Check from Glasgow too (if you don’t mind suffering the indignity).

      The difference in pricing of flights (or rail journeys) can be quite startling sometimes.

    • Lady London says:
      13 Aug13 August 10:00

      Phone them. Suggest if it can work for you, you ask about departing from INV (you may not have to return there).

      In theory as APD is not charged by the government from INV it should take nearly £200 off your fare. This does not always happen with British Airways offers though.

      • David M says:
        13 Aug13 August 13:40

        Thanks to everyone for the helpful answers. I tried phoning BA but it was taking so long that I had to hang up. I’ll need to try again tonight when I’m finished work.

  • Mr_OT says:
    13 Aug13 August 08:15

    OT – I have 2 sheep. Should I slaughter them now or try and lock in their value post brexit?

    I’ve searched everywhere – so thanks for suggestions

    • Mark2 says:
      13 Aug13 August 08:28

      They will be worth more after Brexit when we are cut of from the world, but beware rustlers when law and order breaks down and only accept gold.

      • Mr_OT says:
        13 Aug13 August 09:00

        aaah gold he says.

        Real GOOOLD!

        Nevermind that plastic gold BAEC card 🙂

    • Andrew says:
      13 Aug13 August 08:36

      If you slaughter & butcher them yourself, you can only feed your own family with them. Unfortunately you can’t sell on the meat.

      It’s a real shame. It doesn’t seem that long ago that you could point out the animal that you wanted and your local farmer would sort it out for you. Perhaps, post Brexit, we can return to those days be a bit more eco-friendly through local slaughter and slash food miles.

      • Farmer says:
        13 Aug13 August 09:04

        It’s not usually European rules that prevent such things, but UK ones.

        Lamb prices are pretty much Euro dictated these days, because the main customer base is France and Spain. Post Brexit, I would expect there to be a price crash for prime, but perhaps long keep store lambs will hold up a bit better.

        If they’re ready, send them to the abattoir now.

    • TripRep says:
      13 Aug13 August 09:08

      Mr_OT – Depends can ewe use a BAA 241 first?

    • Lady London says:
      13 Aug13 August 10:10

      If you slaughter thé sheep now you cristallise thé value and can pût thé money you Get to them into something else.

      The pound will coome up again against both the euro and the dollar, but will be (further) down for a time after Brexit. By the time the pound comes back again to a décent value, the sheep could be dead by then.

      The only exception would be if your sheep have a golden fleece in which case i’d suggest you keep harvesting it and keep the sheep as gold will eventuzlly outweigh what you could earn by crystallising the sheep now.

      Sheep are not a rare commodity so transporting them to a market where you can sell them for Euros after thé pound falls further, this getting yourself more pounds, is not going to work out after costs.

      • Russ says:
        13 Aug13 August 11:39

        Very true Lady London however slaughtering two sheep at once would seriously curtail to storage capacity, raising discontent from other live stock who were previously slaughtered and already in the freezer. This will undoubtedly cause unrest with other livestock who were told many years ago they would have a share of the spare space as soon as the freezer is able. Live stock would then go to ACAS (Animals Culled and not Sauteed) and threaten to withdraw from being defrosted on numerous days in August.

    • the_real_a says:
      13 Aug13 August 18:41

      If you are Welsh i understand other uses are common… 🙂

  • Optimus Prime says:
    13 Aug13 August 08:49

    Those of you thinking of going to LAS, remember that if you go indirect through JFK you’ll get 560 TP’s.

    • janie says:
      13 Aug13 August 08:54

      I think it’s only the directs that are on offer?

      • Optimus Prime says:
        13 Aug13 August 09:02

        Well that’s a bummer 🙂

        • janie says:
          13 Aug13 August 09:04

          I always avoid the indirects as I like to get to my destination quicker I never realised the point potential. Does this work with all indirect flights? How do you calculate how many points you will receive?

          • Optimus Prime says:
            13 Aug13 August 09:12

            AFAIK it works with indirect flights to US as long as the domestic leg is operated by AA. People with better knowledge should correct me if I’m wrong, but my understanding is that AA flights with a BA codeshare will count as eligible for the four sectors you’re required to fly in order to reach Silver.

            You can find out how many points you’ll get here – https://www.britishairways.com/travel/flight-calculator/public/en_gb

            It’s a shame indirect flights are not on sale this time. They were during the centenary sale. And upgrading LHR-JFK to F cost just £200 instead of £240. That would have given you 630 TP’s and Silver status on the back of that trip.

          • john says:
            13 Aug13 August 10:00

            The number of tier points you get is based on the number of miles you fly. So for example, JFK -> DFW is under 2000 miles so only earns you 40 tier points, but JFK -> PHX is over 2000 so you get 140 tier points. There are maps on flyertalk that show you the possible internal routes on AA so you can ‘optimise’ your tier point earning.

        • janie says:
          13 Aug13 August 09:20

          Thanks for the info.
          I need 130 points by end of Jan to take me to Gold so am trying to find the best economical way! Bearing in mind that includes a big holiday already booked so I only have 4-5 days to play with.

          • Optimus Prime says:
            13 Aug13 August 09:29

            Keep an eye out for a Club Europe sale and check the 160 TP return flights such as Canary Islands, Catania, Helsinki, etc.

          • Andrew says:
            13 Aug13 August 13:47

            If you just need 130TP, just do a few runs to Edinburgh. Business is 40TP each way and you can pick up Business fares from £99ish each way.

          • Rob says:
            13 Aug13 August 15:01

            Or one of the 160 TP routes – Athens, Malta or (cheapest) Catania.

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