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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.

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How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (April 2025)

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

Get 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

30,000 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.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on the ‘free for a year’ American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card is increased from 20,000 Membership Rewards points to 30,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (30,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on American Express Platinum is increased from 50,000 Membership Rewards points to a huge 80,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (80,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 30,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

80,000 bonus points and great travel benefits – for a large 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, and the standard card is FREE. Capital on Tap cards also have no FX fees.

Capital on Tap Visa

NO annual fee, NO FX fees and points worth 1 Avios per £1 Read our full review

Capital on Tap Pro Visa

10,500 points (=10,500 Avios) plus good benefits Read our full review

There is also a British Airways American Express card for small businesses:

British Airways American Express Accelerating Business

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

50,000 points when you sign-up 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 (64)

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

  • Shoestring says:
    5 Jan5 January 10:12

    The Amazon.UK offer is pretty good if you factor in the Morrison’s AMEX tesco monese discounts

    Hope it’s still there tomorrow as I’m on my way back, sitting in the airport as we speak!

    • Shoestring says:
      5 Jan5 January 10:28

      I established that any purchase resets your expiry date to the full year with melia points

  • Vipul says:
    5 Jan5 January 10:26

    Hi. A quick question, a lot of the cheaper WT+ fares are with AA e.g. Phoenix which is £550 more expensive if booking on the BA flight compared to AA. Can you upgrade using Avios vis BAEC to business if booking on the Premium Eco AA flight to take advantage of the lower fare?
    Thanks.

  • eli says:
    5 Jan5 January 12:15

    I Travelled on Air France in August. can I still open a fly blue account and retroactively credit my flight?

    • David D says:
      5 Jan5 January 14:14

      You can claim for a flight up to 6 months after it has been flown with Air France so worth doing. Make sure you don’t already have an account with another Sky Team airline which you could also consider crediting to first however.

  • xcalx says:
    5 Jan5 January 12:54

    OT I am logged into my Avios account via vueling. Keep getting error 500, do I need an avios balance to search for award flights.

    Thanks

  • Henry says:
    5 Jan5 January 14:36

    OT
    Just booked my parents a flight from LHR to MAN in club Europe
    It will be a first trip into Lhr and T3 for a very long time
    Just wondering if anyone could advise what would be the best lounge to use?
    Can they get into all of the lounges one after the other or are you allowed one entry only?
    Flight will be on a Tuesday evening at 6.30pm
    Thank you

    • Anna says:
      5 Jan5 January 14:43

      You say they are flying out of LHR, which will be T5 so just the BA lounges there.
      You don’t say if it’s a return flight, but if a they will just have access to the BA lounge at MAN T3.

      • Anna says:
        5 Jan5 January 14:55

        Galleries North & South are much of a muchness but you can certainly go in both.

      • Henry says:
        5 Jan5 January 14:56

        Hi Anna thank u for the reply yes it is just one-way LHR-MAN
        I thought it was T3 from LHR sorry for the confusion?

        Thank u

        • Secret Squirrel says:
          5 Jan5 January 15:31

          Def go to Building B North quiet lounge over the other 2x in buildings a&b, they are dire!

          • TGLoyalty says:
            5 Jan5 January 21:27

            Don’t MAN flights go from the main terminal? If so I wouldn’t trek it over to B Terminal. If they have a Platinum card the Plaza Premium would be the best choice.

  • Matthew says:
    5 Jan5 January 16:40

    Meliá Gold via Amex Plat. Benefits include ‘free breakfast for your companion’. I’m assuming that includes you too?! So it’s ok to book a room only rate with points and 2 of us will get breakfast? Thanks

  • Unsavage gerbil says:
    5 Jan5 January 17:00

    All good except Bronze status is as useful as used toilet paper.

    The Melia deal is jolly good though.

    The Gerbil.

  • Jeremy I says:
    5 Jan5 January 17:08

    Hi all. Sorry if this is a stupid question but what would the difference in taxes and charges be to upgrade from wtp to business class to Boston. I recall ba have upped taxes on USA to UK redemptions so would like to know how much extra cash they would charge to upgrade lhr to Boston return ? Thanks Jeremy

    • Tim says:
      5 Jan5 January 17:15

      I’ve just upgraded one way LON-MIA from WTP-CW and the additional fee was £122.

      • Jeremy I says:
        5 Jan5 January 17:17

        Thanks. The difference by running a dummy booking is around £190 but maybe it comes in cheaper somehow..Jeremy

      • Lady London says:
        5 Jan5 January 20:57

        Ermmm that actually means British Airways is taking that £122. And keeping that extra money for themselves.

        Reason is, APD tax is the same amount for 1 seat across Premium Economy (WTP), Business and First.

        so any increase payable MUST be an amount charged by British Airways, that is going straight into British Airways’s own pocket, and its NOT TAX.

        Did British Airways seriously tell you the extra money was “tax” ?

        • TGLoyalty says:
          5 Jan5 January 22:40

          While it’s normally a default response to say it’s a fee not tax.

          Both OP and Tim said charges/fees.

      • Riccatti says:
        5 Jan5 January 22:20

        122GBP on top of which amount…

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

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