British Airways has opened the floodgates on Avios availability to the US East Coast and Canada in Club World for the rest of 2020. This even includes Easter and key Christmas dates.
Our main article on Wednesday covered the amazing Avios availability to Asia. Unsurprisingly, this is not top of many peoples lists although I would be happy to risk a (refundable, remember) Avios booking for later in the year.
There are no risks to the US or Canada at the moment, of course.
The availability is astonishing on East Coast routes. Here are some screenshots showing days where there are NINE or more Club World seats available on one aircraft.
I have even seen dates with 9+ seats available on the BA New York flight from London City, which only has 32 seats on it!
If your family is smaller than nine, you will have even more choice 🙂
My gut feeling is that this is a cash grab by British Airways. It needs money, and quickly. Getting you to pay a couple of thousand pounds in taxes and charges for four Club World redemption seats is a FAR easier way of getting a few quid in the door than trying to sell a flight to Singapore for cash …..
Here are screenshots from seatspy.com taken on Wednesday. A ‘hollow’ circle is off peak, a ‘full’ circle is peak. Click to enlarge. Remember that these are dates with at least NINE Club World seats showing on one aircraft.
(Do not look for First Class availability because, due to issues with the BA data feed, you will get false positives. The Club World data is perfectly fine.)
Seats are wide open for Easter weekend (10th-13th April) on most routes.
New York:
Boston:
Washington:
San Francisco (not much, but 9 seats over Easter is exceptional):
Los Angeles (not much, but March is good):
Chicago:
It doesn’t work everywhere. Orlando doesn’t have much, for example, and neither does San Diego. Miami has a huge amount in late April but not much else. It doesn’t cover new, niche routes like Portland, Nashville, New Orleans or Charleston either.
Turning to Canada, there is a lot between now and April if you need 9 Club World seats!
Toronto:
Montreal:
Calgary:
There is a lot to go at here. See what you can find.
If you are looking into next year, you can find the 2021 calendar of peak and off-peak Avios redemption dates in this article.
PS. If you missed it, take a look at our recent article on 10 good reasons to get 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
Is the club suite rollout to Tokyo still planned for July? Will that be all flights or only certain ones?
Yes, A350 takes over from 787 on BA5/6 in July. BA7/8 may get refurbished Club Suite 777 down the line but it isn’t yet.
Not sure this is wholly accurate, the club suite ‘may’ only be available for Olympics etc.
The A350 is on Tokyo until the end of the summer schedule. The A350 has not yet been scheduled for winter 20/21 on any routes yet. So yes, this is subject to change but it is as accurate as it will ever be!
Masses of F availability to Miami has just opened up in April and May – 2 seats available on most days – they’re normally like gold dust.
Indeed, we have F seats to MIA over Easter weekend – cash prices are now hovering around £11k return pp – what on earth is going on?!
It is certainly unusual to see this many awards on the return leg which was a problem. I also noted that most of it is on a flight leaving MIA at 3.40 in the afternoon which is a new one on me.
Correction – the flight is actually as early as 3.10 pm which is quite an odd time for an eastbound TATL flight although it will some.
The talk of the cash grab…being very cynical here but I cancelled some reward flights late December for three of us and only refunds for 2 came through. Took me an additional 4 weeks (including opening up a claim with Amex) to get it back.
Spoke to a colleague today who cancelled some flights the other day and for two of them only got the automatic refund for one and is having to chase the second.
Thought on this being bad IT or perhaps BA trying to get cash in their pocket a bit longer?!
Bad IT.
BA having a mare it seems – availability isn’t real for a lot of routes…once you try and book they vanish.
seatspy showing availability. even BA’s own finder tool, but can’t book hardly any of them….
ok scratch that….i was searching for F class…..anyone know what the “issue with the data feed” is that is causing this and when it will be fixed?
No idea but it impacts SeatSpy and RewardFlightFinder.
… and Iberia have a 50% off Avios deal at the moment. 300,000 Avios for £3k which is not bad tbh
O/T
BA
afternoon flight GLA – LHR (overnight stopover) then afternoon flight to TYO
Possibly stupid question, presume its ok to check through luggage from GLA so we don’t need to lug it around London?
not stupid question
is your booking all in one or 2 different bookings? because you only get the chance to check through luggage when it’s on one reference number/ PNR
All on one booking thankfully.
Thanks Rob – long weekend in F to New York in October booked using Avios 2-4-1 and GUF2 – and a daylight flight back Eastbound too so will enjoy the service rather than just sleeping. Was just wondering what to do with those…
Family of 5 in J to NYC: £3.3k taxes… sod off BA..
Luca, try the same booking on aer Lingus