Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

100,000 extra Club World Avios flights have been released for booking

Links on Head for Points may support the site by paying a commission.  See here for all partner links.

British Airways has confirmed that it is offering thousands more seats for Avios redemption across its network for the next few months.

We wrote last week that we had been seeing increased Avios seat availability across the British Airways network including to the east coast US as well as some parts of Asia.

We have also seen the introduction of temporary additional flights to Seattle, Cape Town and Miami.  These flights, using aircraft no longer flying to Asia, need filling up.

These changes are a direct impact from the disruption caused by coronavirus.  The reduced demand for travel between London and Asia is clearly affecting the airline and forcing it to respond by encouraging people to fly to other destinations in the short term.

Avios wing 14

British Airways is releasing a total of 100,000 additional Club World seats for Avios redemption across its entire network. It is attempting to pull a massive demand lever and generate bookings in other parts of its network in order to keep cash coming in.

The additional seats are being made available for travel from today, 24th February, until 31st July.  This gives you good coverage of the Easter break as well as a significant chunk of the Summer, although it finishes too early for many state school pupils.

If these seats are spread out evenly – which won’t happen! – it would means there are approximately 800 additional Club World seats available for Avios redemption per day.  This is about 10 seats per route, per day.   British Airways usually only guarantees two Club World seats per flight so this is a BIG increase in availability.

That said, based on what we saw opening up last week, it seems that the seats are heavily focused on key business routes where traffic is down the sharpest. Leisure routes are likely to see fewer seats opening up.

EDIT: We now have a list of excluded destinations: Chatam Islands, Cape Town, Durban, Hong Kong, Incheon, Kansai, Kuala Lumpur, Muscat, Nassau, Narita, Beijing, Beijing Daxing, Shanghai, Singapore, Sydney.

You can book on the British Airways website here.  You have a week to book.

PS.  If you missed it, take a look at our recent article on the top 10 reasons to get the British Airways Premium Plus American Express card.

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.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 12th May 2024, the Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa card is offering a bonus of 30,000 points, convertible into 30,000 Avios. You must have a Limited Company to apply. Click here to learn more and click here to apply.

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.

Category

British Airways and Avios

Comments (106)

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

  • Ned says:
    24 Feb24 February 17:46

    Seems that most of the availability is for leaving the UK rather than the return journey unless maybe I was late to the party and missed the chance to change my Easter holidays return from JFK-LHR to ORD-LHR. On an off-topic note, did I miss it when BA put their cash costs up across the board for avios bookings in Club? I knew it was c.£650 for going to the US but it now looks the same to go to HKG/HND?!

    • Polly says:
      25 Feb25 February 05:58

      Yes NEd you missed it, like we all did. Only noticed the increase when we were booking KUL in F.

  • Okrib says:
    24 Feb24 February 17:48

    Got to get to Toulouse later in the year which I expected to be 15,500 Avios each way (Zone 1) in Club, but it’s showing up as 25,500 (Zone 2). This is despite it being 548 miles.

    Should I contact BA or is there something I’m missing?

    • Lady London says:
      24 Feb24 February 18:52

      From London is 4,000 or 4,500 in Y so 8,000 or 9,000 or so one way in Club.
      If you’re coming from, say, US then any BA routing to TLS would be made up of US to London then the above from London to TLS.

      • Okrib says:
        24 Feb24 February 19:52

        That’s for LHR and showing up on BA website. Will have to contact them I guess.

        Made an error in the original post, it’s pricing at 12,750 each way in Club and 7,500 each way in Economy. 2 of us going and in Club they want 51,000 return which is insane.

        • AppleW says:
          24 Feb24 February 20:53

          LHR to TLS return in Club shows as 25,500 Avios + £1 or 15,500 Avios + £51……….so it depends on the cash amount you choose.

    • mark2 says:
      25 Feb25 February 14:31

      If you have Virgin Miles you could look at Air France but you will probably have to change and the charges will be much higher!

  • Hersh says:
    24 Feb24 February 22:33

    Hardly any availability on South American routes. Looking at internal Colombia flights for example at the end of March and there’s hardly any availability (Bogota to Santa Marta on 26th March, 27th March etc has no availability).

    • Rhys says:
      25 Feb25 February 08:37

      Not sure how you would expect BA to open redemption availability on domestic South American flights given it doesn’t fly them!

      • Alex Sm says:
        25 Feb25 February 11:02

        Why does BA NOT flying to the Falklands? And they are served by LatAn. Scandalous! Hope post-Brexit adjustments will correct it

        • Rhys says:
          25 Feb25 February 11:20

          The MOD operates flights to the Falklands that you can book as a normal human being 🙂

        • Fred says:
          25 Feb25 February 19:36

          Alex, what have the EU got to do with BA flying (or not) to the Falklands? I imagine the reason BA don’t fly there will be very simple; zero (or minuscule) demand.
          Don’t believe everything you read, especially on the side of a red bus. But enjoy your new blue passport (which is manufactured in Poland).

          • Shoestring says:
            25 Feb25 February 19:49

            It’s because the non-RAF flights to Falklands/ Las Malvinas have to go via Chile (Santiago), Brazil (Sao Paulo) or Argentina (Punta Arenas) – hence the importance of Portuguese and Spanish influence in these matters – not the EU as such, just 2 countries belonging to the EU & their strong relationships with South American countries – and the rest of the EU will typically show solidarity with any other EU country in external matters

  • Hersh says:
    24 Feb24 February 22:35

    Anyone know the best redemption for London to Bogota? I have 50k avois, 100k Virgin Atlantic miles and 100k AMEX MR points.

    Dates I’m looking at are departing London on 26th March 2020 and departing Bogota or Medellin on 11th April 2020.

    • Cat says:
      24 Feb24 February 22:55

      I’d see what you can find for your dates on Iberia. Book via Iberia website, not BA. Avoid APD by starting LH in Madrid, but you’ll have to re-check bag.

  • Stuart says:
    25 Feb25 February 00:58

    To quote the BA website:
    ‘100,000 reward flight seats available in Club World
    From just 52,000 Avios, you can fly in style. There’s never been a better time to treat yourself.’
    Where in the world is 52k avios in CW? Even at off peak pricing I can’t see a redemption at this price unless they count Moscow but then it’s actually less than 52k

  • Doug says:
    25 Feb25 February 08:03

    Is there any hint of additional availability from the regions to allow connections onto the additional CW seats? Struggling so far…

  • Lou says:
    25 Feb25 February 08:37

    So happy about this! Was able to upgrade my JFK-LHR flight to CW. Before there was no availability

  • Guy G says:
    25 Feb25 February 08:43

    When did BA fly to the Chatham Islands?!

    • Rhys says:
      25 Feb25 February 08:47

      We were wondering this too…

      • New Card says:
        25 Feb25 February 11:17

        Looks like someone started with the airport codes…? Was this supposed to be CLT (Charlotte) instead of CHT…? CPT is already on the list…

        • Rhys says:
          25 Feb25 February 11:24

          BA don’t fly to Charlotte either!

          • Anna says:
            25 Feb25 February 13:35

            It’s a hub for AA, have they also released more award availability?

          • Rhys says:
            25 Feb25 February 13:52

            Not that I know of

          • Lady London says:
            25 Feb25 February 19:01

            Speaking of AA, apparently they agreed to do some codesharing of their flights with QR now.

            Interesting. Especially followed by news in past few days that QR has increased the investment they hold in IAG . IAG owning IB and BA who have Transatlantic cartel, sorry I meant revenue-sharing joint venture, existing with AA.

    • GeoffGeoff says:
      25 Feb25 February 18:40

      Appears to be a typo for Cayman islands.

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

New to Head for Points?

Welcome!  We’re the UK’s most-read source of business travel, Avios, frequent flyer and hotel loyalty news. Let us improve how you travel. Got any questions? Ask them in our forums.

NEW: Sign-up bonuses boosted to 3,000 and 18,000 points

Latest Forum Posts

Get 40,000 bonus points (worth 40,000 Avios) and £300 dining credit with The Platinum Card

Check reward flight availability instantly for free!

See a whole year of reward seat availability on one page at SeatSpy.com

Get £10 when you spend £150 on your free Currensea card

Booking a luxury hotel?

Our luxury hotel booking service offers you GUARANTEED extra benefits over booking direct. Works with Four Seasons, Mandarin Oriental, The Ritz Carlton, St Regis and more. We've booked £1.7 million of rooms to date. Click for details.

SME? SPECIAL OFFER TO 12TH MAY EARN POINTS WORTH 30,000 AVIOS WITH CAPITAL ON TAP

Get 20,000 bonus points, four airport lounge passes and your first year free with American Express Gold

The UK's biggest frequent flyer website uses cookies, which you can block via your browser settings. Continuing implies your consent to this policy. Our privacy policy is here.

Got it!