Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

An excellent British Airways World Traveller Plus premium economy flight deal to North America

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A few weeks ago Rhys reviewed World Traveller Plus (premium economy) on British Airways.  His view – and you are better off with his view than mine when it comes to premium economy products – is that the recent changes to the food, amenity kit and soft product have made a difference.

There are some excellent World Traveller Plus fares on offer to North America at the moment, presumably as part of the British Airways sale.

The best way to find them is the BA ‘Low Fare Finder’ tool which you can find here.  This is where I found the prices quoted below.

The best prices seem to be in February / March.  The lowest available World Traveller Plus prices are, looking at £675 and under:

  • Boston – £596
  • Chicago – £597
  • Nashville – £665
  • New Orleans – £665
  • New York – £546
  • Phoenix – £665
  • Pittsburg – £589
  • Toronto – £632
  • Washington DC – £667

If you have a World Traveller Plus Avios redemption booked on one of these routes, you might want to think about cancelling it and rebooking for cash.  For New York and Boston in particular, you are likely to be getting a poor deal.  Taxes and charges to New York in World Traveller Plus are £462 return vs as little as £546 for a cash ticket.

British Airways World Traveller Plus deals

When comparing the cost to the World Traveller fare, remember that World Traveller Plus is a very generous source of Avios and British Airways Executive Club tier points.

This HfP article lists all British Airways routes and the tier points they earn.  World Traveller Plus earns 90 tier points each-way compared with just 20 tier points each way for the cheapest World Traveller (economy) tickets.  One return flight puts you more than half-way to Bronze status.

In terms of Avios, World Traveller Plus to Washington Dulles earns 3,672 Avios each-way.  This compares to just 918 Avios each-way for the cheapest World Traveller (economy) ticket.  An extra 5,500+ Avios on a return flight like this – and substantially more on a longer route – helps offset some of the cost.

You also need to remember that you can use Avios to upgrade World Traveller Plus tickets to Club World / Club Suite.  You need Avios availability in Club World / Club Suite to do this.  Extra BA surcharges will also be due.  The cost in Avios is the difference between a World Traveller Plus Avios ticket and a Club World Avios ticket.

Full details of all of the BA sale deals can be found 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.

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.

Comments (67)

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

  • Charlieface says:

    Belfast BHD is also there at 4,800 each way which is 20% off but only from Amsterdam (only long-haul includes short connections).
    Shame, these offers used to be so much better when European promos included connections, so long as you started or finished in the correct airport.

  • TripRep says:

    Found LGW to MCO for £780rtn in PE in the autumn.

    Interestingly BA advertise WTP as PE

  • Ron says:

    Anyone tempted by the Flying Blue Wuhan offer (and other Chinese destinations) should read this:
    https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/world-asia-china-50984025

    Not a good time to visit.

  • James says:

    There are also some good deals on PE flights with onward connections.

    Last night I picked up BWI via PHL for 551.

    The flights are ticketed by AA with BA codeshares on the transatlantic legs. The connecting fights on AA usually book into full fare economy so some extra Avios and tier points.

    Worked out the return trip should earn 16k Avios (I am Iberia Platino) – this sale is a real bargain.

  • Relaxo says:

    Good timing with this Melia post. I’m thinking of taking up their current offer – stay 3 nights get £50 amazon credit- for a cheapish long wknd in Berlin. I seem to recall they ran same promo last year. Any experience of readers booking this offer in the past? Also hoping to use the Melia gold 20% off vouchers in conjunction. Im only wary because of the awful state of Melia website/IT and the joys of dealing with Spanish CS in case they don’t honour the promo.

    • Phil says:

      I bought 68k points for €244 (€3.58/1000) back in the BF Sale via the Meliá App. Added 40k points I’d accumulated from business trips staying in the Meliá White House and booked the Gran Meliá Palacio de los Duques in Madrid for 3 night B&B in September.

      Current cash price is £1,763 (€19.11/1000)! For anybody interested it’s still available at 108k points from the 17-20 September B&B!

  • Alex says:

    Help please!
    Looking to book flights to Orlando from Newcastle and returning from New Orleans in premium economy. Is the BA cabin better than AA? How can I find out which plane has the best cabin? We will go via LHR as don’t want to go to LGW. Choices to go via Philadelphia (A330 jet) Chicago (777) or via Miami (747 jet) on the way out. Can someone please let me know what’s best? Thank you

    • Andrew says:

      You don’t say when in the year you are travelling, but if you’re going out via Philadelphia, have you checked the options on AA from EDI?

      It’s barely 2 hours by train/tram from Newcastle Central.

      Virgin fly direct from Glasgow to Orlando from around Easter onwards too. Not forgetting there’s probably AerFungus from Newcastle via Dublin.

      • Alex says:

        Hi we’re going in October.
        I am aware of the other options thank you. I just wanted to somehow find out which plane is best and ba vs aa
        Thank you

        • Andrew says:

          Fair enough.

          It just seems that you are travelling for 5 hours in order to have a marginally more comfortable journey for a longer flight.

          But then I travel from Oxford to Edinburgh to enjoy the cheaper, shorter, and quicker return immigration (less than 10 minutes from door to outside airport) transatlantic flights – I do have family nearby though.

          • Alex says:

            Thank you. So have you travelled with Aer Lingus b4? If so what class?

      • Alex says:

        Reviews on Aer Lingus are terrible and their premium economy prices are not doable unfortunately

    • Nick says:

      Has AA’s roll-out of prem econ covered all of their A330 and (intl) 763 fleet yet? If so I’d unquestionably do MAN-PHL (coupled with train from NCL) and avoid London completely.

      AA’s premium economy is really rather good, it’s a shame Rhys didn’t do one way in each and do a ‘JB’ comparison.

  • Mike says:

    On the Meliá site, how do you actually check that the room you want is ‘available’ to book with points? When I look, each room as an option to pay 100% cash, cash & points or 100% points. For the 100% points option, the ‘reserve’ link is greyed-out for me – is this because it’s not available, or because I don’t have enough points to book it yet? Thanks!

    • Grant says:

      If it showing the number of points required then it is available. The reserve link will be greyed out unless you have sufficient points balance to book.

  • Boi says:

    Can you book Meliá reward and combine with 20% off? If so how?

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

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