Get a bargain in the British Airways September Sale – city breaks from £99, holidays from £179

British Airways has launched a new sale.  It offers savings on both flights and holiday packages, with flights within Europe as well as select destinations outside of Europe from as low as £99 each way.

There are some decent prices and you have until Wednesday 30th September to book.

You can see all deals available here.

What are the BA sale flight prices?

You can find a number of very good sale fares flying in Club Europe and Club World (business class) or World Traveller (economy class) to Barbados, Malaga and New York amongst other places.

Here are some ‘lead-in’ prices in Club Europe (note these are each-way)

For selected outbound travel dates between 31st August 2020 and 30th September 2021:

• Venice from £82
• Faro (Portugal) from £89
• Rome from £99
• Barcelona from £86

We will take a separate look at any good tier point run options in another article in a few days.

Here are some ‘lead in’ prices for Club World flights:

For selected outbound travel dates between 1st September 2020 and 30th September 2021 from London Heathrow, for return flights:

• San Francisco from £1,299
• Toronto from £1,299
• New York from £1,199
• Hong Kong from £1,898

….. and some of the lead-in prices for World Traveller

For selected outbound travel dates between 27th August 2020 and 30th September 2021 from London Heathrow:

• Dubai from £299
• Seychelles from £569
• San Francisco from £348
• Los Angeles from £359
• Miami from £349
• New York from £258

For selected outbound travel dates between 4th January 2021 and 11th July 2021 from Gatwick:

• Antigua from £384
• Barbados from £429
• St. Lucia from £399
• San Jose, Costa Rica from £409

Remember that, under the British Airways ‘Book With Confidence’ guarantee, you can cancel your flight at any time, for any reason, for a British Airways ‘Future Travel Voucher’.  This applies to bookings made by 30th September for travel by 31st August 2021.  The voucher must be used for a flight which is taken by 30th April 2022.

BA Holidays has discounted holidays and city breaks

BA Holidays has also got in on the act with a selection of ‘flight and hotel’ packages based around these new flight deals.

The key thing to know about BA Holidays is that – due to the weird world of airline pricing – booking a flight and hotel, or flight and car hire, together can often work out cheaper than just booking a flight itself.

These are the ‘lead in’ deals in the current sale.  The travel dates vary and the pricing based on a seven night stay.

Club Europe (business) – Flights plus 3 or 7 nights hotel

• Venice from £219 per person – including 3 nights B&B at the 4* Panorama Hotel and Club Europe return flights from Gatwick for travel between 1st and 31st January 2021
• Faro from £309 per person – including 7 nights at the 4* Rocha Brava Village Resort and Club Europe return flights from Gatwick for travel between 1st and 31st January 2021

There are also great holiday deals in combination with Economy flights. Here are the ‘lead in’ deals for Euro and World Traveller:

Euro Traveller (economy) – Flights plus 7 nights hotel

• Crete from £429 per person – including 7 nights all-inclusive at the 4* Rimondi Grand Resort and Spa hotel and flights from Gatwick for travel between 1st April and 30th May 2021
• Dalaman from £439 per person – including 7 nights all-inclusive at the 4* Mar Poseidon Hotel Marmaris with flights from Gatwick for travel between 1st and 31st May 2021
• Faro from £299 per person – including 7 nights at the 5* self-catering Real Marina Residence with flights from Gatwick for travel between 1st and 31st January 2021

World Traveller (economy) – Flights plus 7 nights hotel

• Montego Bay from £619 per person – including 7 nights at the 3.5* Rooms On The Beach, Negril with flights from Gatwick for travel between 1st and 30th November 2020
• Cancun from £789 per person – including 7 nights at the 4* Allegro Playacar with flights from Gatwick for travel between 1st and 30th June 2021
• St Lucia from £849 per person – including 7 nights all inclusive at the 4* Starfish St. Lucia Resort with flights from Gatwick for travel between 1st and 30th June 2021
• Mauritius from £899 per person – including 7 nights half board at the 4* Solana Beach resort with flights from Gatwick for travel between 1st January and 8th February 2021

‘Flight and car’ packages are available from as little as £99 per person.

Booking a BA Holidays package also gives you additional protection in case there are any issues with your flights or hotel, due to the strong legally-binding ATOL scheme.

Remember that, under the BA Holidays coronavirus guarantee, if you book a holiday before 30th September 2020 for travel up to 31st August 2021, you can amend your booking for free (just pay the difference in price) or cancel it and get a voucher for travel up until 30th April 2022.

Note that the Flight + Hotel prices are still being updated on ba.com, so you might need to click through to the search results screen to see the most up to date sale offers.

And a few further offers:

• Executive Club members can save an additional 20% off hotels and car hire in Italy, Switzerland and Ireland when paid with Avios
• If you reserve a seat between now and 30th September for a future flight, you save 20% on the standard price
• Get a 50% Avios bonus when purchasing Avios before 30th September – we covered this in a separate article today

Free lounge access with Economy holidays

British Airways has also brought back the offer of free Heathrow lounge access for high spending BA Holidays customers.

Customers booking a ‘flight plus hotel’ package during this September sale will receive complimentary Galleries Club lounge access at Heathrow Terminal 5. You must stay for at least seven nights. There is a minimum spend requirement of £1,000 per person on short haul and £1,500 per person on long haul, based on two people travelling.

This benefit is only for new bookings made between 27th August and 30th September for travel between 3rd September and 24th December 2020. You can see more on the British Airways website here.

Other little known benefits of booking with BA Holidays ….

Just pay a deposit now:

As usual with BA Holidays you don’t have to pay in full when booking. You can secure the deal with a small deposit of £75 per person, and then pay the balance three weeks before departure. This is a substantial extra benefit compared to just booking flights.

You get a degree of cancellation flexibility:

If you only pay the deposit now, you can walk away from your booking at any point up to three weeks before departure, which is when the final payment is due. You will lose your deposit but that is an excellent outcome compared to having to walk away from pre-paid non-refundable flights.

That said, as long as the ‘Book With Confidence’ guarantee is still in place, you would also have the option of making the final payment and then cancelling the entire holiday for a British Airways voucher valid until April 2022.

Bonus Avios:

You earn a bonus 1 Avios per £1 you spend when booking with BA Holidays. You can find out more on ba.com here.

This bonus is on top of the Avios and tier points you will earn from the flights which are the same as you would get for booking a ‘flight only’, and from your credit card. Remember that BA Holidays spending earns you double Avios (3 per £1) if you charge it to a British Airways Premium Plus American Express card.

A non-benefit – no OnBusiness points

The only downside of using BA Holidays is that the flights do not earn On Business points in BA’s small business loyalty scheme.

To maximise your miles when paying, your best bet is the British Airways American Express Premium Plus card which earns double Avios (3 per £1) when you book at ba.com or via BA Holidays.  You do not get double Avios if you book with the free British Airways American Express card.  Another option is American Express Preferred Rewards Gold which offers double points – 2 per £1 – when you book flight tickets directly with an airline.

Conclusion

There is a lot going on here ….. discounted flights, discounted holiday packages, free lounge access on some economy holidays, 20% off seat selection fees, hotel discounts in certain countries and a 50% discount if you buy Avios.

The BA September sale page is here where you can find out more and get your head around what is available.   Remember that you need to book by midnight on 30th September 2020.

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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:

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

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.

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.

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.

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.

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.