This is, I admit, not necessarily the best time to be planning a holiday in Asia.
However, hear me out.
British Airways has opened the floodgates on Avios availability to some Asian cities between now and, in some cases, the end of 2020.
You may never, ever see it as good as this again in Club World.
Don’t dismiss the idea. The key with Avios travel is that you can cancel your ticket and get all your Avios and cash back for just a £35 per person fee.
If British Airways cancels your flight due to coronavirus, you will get it all back without a cancellation fee.
On some routes, if we look ahead to December – ten months from now – there are loads of dates with virtually unlimited amounts of Club World availability. Coronavirus could be a lot worse by December, but it could also be a lot better.
Here are some screenshots from seatspy.com this evening. They show days where BA is offering AT LEAST 9 (NINE) Club World seats outbound.
If you don’t need nine seats for your family, you will have even more options 🙂
There are probably MORE than 9 Club World seats on these dates, but ba.com won’t show more than 9. I have only looked at outbound travel but the return patterns are similar.
The ‘hollow’ rings are off-peak dates. The ‘solid’ rings are peak dates. Click to enlarge.
To Singapore (Singapore is only wide open until May):
Hong Kong (Hong Kong is only wide open until August):
Tokyo (not so good due to the Olympics, but still plenty of days with 9+ Club World seats):
Beijing:
Shanghai:
Seoul (to be honest, I think the days with 9+ Club World seats are just standard availability with no coronavirus impact):
Oddly, seats are still very restricted to Bangkok, Osaka and Kuala Lumpur if you want nine Club World seats.
It’s up to you if you want to risk a booking, but it is really a one-way bet given the Avios refund rules.
PS. If you missed it, take a look at our recent article on the top 10 reasons to think about getting the British Airways Premium Plus American Express card.
(Want to earn more Avios? Click here to visit our home page for the latest articles on earning and spending your Avios points and click here to see how to earn more Avios from current offers and promotions.)
About Head for Points
HKG – it could go either way… I’ve got tickets for my partner and myself for 16 days between the bank holidays in early May with Virgin to HKG… booked before the virus outbreak.
All things being equal I’d cancel if I could but Virgin will only cancel up to end April to date.
But I’m watching the virus numbers and the rate of increase is tailing off…. so fingers crossed for 75 days time will be OK.
The tickets aren’t refundable, so I’ll have to wait and see if the advice changes. I guess I can’t sell em on either.
The silver lining is I may get a good hotel deal, the cloud being I may die of the virus. Hmmm… i need to think this one through.
I’m never going to advance book anything more than about a month ahead again….
Don’t bank on a good hotel deal, prices in HKG have stayed stubbornly high over the last year, with the civil unrest and even now with the (admittedly non-risk) of corona.