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LOTS of Avios seats on British Airways flights to the Maldives in Business and First – book quick

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In our earlier article today we noted that British Airways has moved its Maldives flight from Gatwick to Heathrow this Winter.  Services start at the end of October.

What I didn’t expect is that this seems to have been treated as a brand new flight for Avios release purposes.

This means that there are LOTS of seats available.  Various dates have four seats in Club World, and this seems to be new Club Suite.

Ritz Carlton Maldives Fari Islands

You are wasting your time looking over Christmas and New Year.  If you can get away in November, early December or mid to late January, however, you might get lucky.

You can use the SeatSpy widget in our sidebar (desktop) or under this article (mobile) to check dates, or use SeatSpy or Reward Flight Finder directly.

Remember to look at Club and First as you may need to mix and match.  There are only three flights per week so you will need some flexibility.

If you do struggle with a return flight, one option is to look at the cost of one way cash flights from Male to the Middle East or India and book your return Avios flight from there.

You can see how to save Avios with the British Airways companion voucher in this article.

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 (42)

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

  • TripRep says:
    4 Mar4 March 11:01

    Where are folks staying, I’m actually considering a good value cash stay somewhere for my next visit, the WAMI (Waldorf) has next to no availability for redemptions.

    • tom H says:
      4 Mar4 March 11:14

      Any thoughts on SAii Lagoon? Diamond Benefits look interesting?

      • marcw says:
        4 Mar4 March 11:23

        The good thing with SAii Lagoon is you can leave your resort. Well, its placed on an entertainment island with shops and many other resorts.

      • TripRep says:
        4 Mar4 March 12:09

        Sadly heard dreadful reviews of SAII lagoon, check Flyertalk

        • Secret Squirrel says:
          4 Mar4 March 12:43

          Shame as they are on Secret escapes very cheap for FB basis.

  • Anna says:
    4 Mar4 March 11:14

    Agrghhh – this is when being confined to the school holidays REALLY sucks.

  • TripRep says:
    4 Mar4 March 12:12

    Off-peak BA CW/CWS rtn from Inverness is ~ £1k + 125k Avios with 241.

    Pretty darn good value

    • BlueThroughCrimp says:
      4 Mar4 March 12:33

      Aye, good luck flying from Inverness in winter.

      They can’t supply a fully loaded deicing vehicle to deal with 3 aircraft for the early departures…

      • Jill (Kinkell) says:
        4 Mar4 March 13:37

        Och! It’s no that bad! In the last few years only had 2 early flights disrupted …one because the inbound night before flight was cancelled, so no plane on tarmac, and another due to fog, so shipped over to Aberdeen. Can’t say the snow/ice has had a major impact. What is important is to factor in plenty of time for connections,

        • paul says:
          4 Mar4 March 14:05

          Global warming?I Who Needs he Maldives

        • BlueThroughCrimp says:
          4 Mar4 March 14:52

          Oh, but it was last Tuesday!
          Loads of missed connections on the BA flight (2:30 late arrival) and the Loganair to Manchester was about the same.

  • MandS says:
    4 Mar4 March 16:31

    rob looks like flybe are about to go down the toilet

    any insight from your contacts there?

    • Rob says:
      4 Mar4 March 17:31

      You should have been listening to me on LBC News at 4.20 and you’d know 🙂

      No, no idea.

      • Shoestring says:
        4 Mar4 March 17:44

        they are meant to have enough money to last until the end of March, so if the budget brings a big reduction in APD, they might get a last chance

        however, there’s always ‘going concern’ to bear in mind

        • Colin MacKinnon says:
          4 Mar4 March 21:25

          Last two flights out of Glasgow tonight marked Cancelled – Contact airline.

          Last flight out of Edinburgh marked as delayed until c22:30.

          ITV journo in Glasgow says staff say there’ll be nothing flying tomorrow.

          • Grant says:
            4 Mar4 March 21:36

            “Flybe can confirm that, following a miscommunication regarding re-fuelling this evening, two flights were delayed and that due to the crew now being out of hours, have been cancelled.

            “Normal operations have now resumed.

            “We sincerely apologise to those passengers inconvenienced by the disruption to their travel plans.”

          • David the 1st says:
            4 Mar4 March 22:18

            MAN GLA showing diverted to MAN.

          • Shoestring says:
            4 Mar4 March 22:29

            fat lady has sung, unfortunately

            it’s over

          • Tyna says:
            4 Mar4 March 23:00

            Flybe’s last ever flight has landed at Exeter; it’s now all over. Just wanting for the CAA announcement.

  • babyg says:
    5 Mar5 March 23:22

    LOTS of seats to LHR – SYD (return)…. just bagged return (x3) in first (may/june)… un head of!

  • Calum says:
    6 Mar6 March 09:40

    FYI huge availability on first and business class redemptions to Singapore, full year is wide open with heaps of availability.

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