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.

  • Boi says:

    OT (x2):
    1. Am I right in thinking Amex referral are per calendar year and not per card year? So the clock has reset on NYD and I can make 5 referrals even if I did so in nov 2019?

    2. Anyone recently did green to plat upgrade for 20K? Trying to decide whether to apply for SPG or green…

    • Secret Squirrel says:

      I would also like to know if I were to take out Amex Green, I can upgrade to Plat & bag bonus Mr on 4k spend even if I already hold BA Blue card?

    • mark2 says:

      1) counter does reset on Jan 1.

    • Rob says:

      Calendar year.

    • Grant says:

      As a linked question, is it only the free Rewards card that does not provide a bonus to the referer or are there others? I’m looking at Nectar and the £ back card but want to be sure these will provide 12,000 MR points if referred from Plat. Thanks

  • Shoestring says:

    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:

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

  • Vipul says:

    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:

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

    • David D says:

      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:

    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:

    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:

      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:

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

      • Henry says:

        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:

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

          • TGLoyalty says:

            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:

    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

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

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