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

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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.

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 Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

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

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

planeconcorde says:

28 Aug28 August 18:49

Does anybody believe that BA short haul will be operating any flights out of Gatwick before Easter 2021? I wonder if this sale is test what the market will buy before cancelling the flights later?
- Chrisasaurus says:
  
  28 Aug28 August 19:19
  
  No.
  
  If the 80% rule isn’t waived again the there’s is 0% chance of flights resuming at Gatwick in 2021, if there isn’t then there would need to be a big uptick in traffic, otherwise the cost benefit of consolidation into lhr would win out
  - Planeconcorde says:
    
    28 Aug28 August 23:24
    
    Agreed.
- ChrisC says:
  
  29 Aug29 August 11:34
  
  I was looking at prices to AMS next a May. Ex LGW prices are consistently priceier than LHR or LCY on the dates I’m looking at.
  
  I might as well just book ex LHR now and be done with it because I’m more than likely to be flying from and to there anyway!
  - John says:
    
    29 Aug29 August 12:46
    
    Probably reflects the possibility of extra work to process refunds and move people onto more expensive flights etc
    - Lady London says:
      
      29 Aug29 August 13:30
      
      One airline I use regularly jacks up the price on short flights leaving at unpopular times to literally hundreds of £ when they’re almost certainly going to cancel the flight.
      
      When the 7am or 9am Sunday flight suddenly costs £125 when the 5pm Sunday flight everyone wants costs £68 I wait and upwards of 4 weeks later the flight that got much more expensive for no reason, is cancelled.
      
      Useful to hang on and see what happens if you’re already booked on an unpopular flight and you see this.
      - ChrisC says:
        
        29 Aug29 August 13:54
        
        I’ve not booked yet but was just pricing up the flights. I’m waiting to see what sort of price Eurostar is offering when they release prices for their Direct AMS – St Pancras trains Tuesday!
        
        Despite LGW being far more convienent for me to get to from Seagull Land than LHR / LCY I refuse to pay £ 80+ on a return more just for that pleasure when usually there is little variance.
        
        As to the idea that they are charging a premium because of the costs of issuing a refund if they do cancel I think that’s a non starter.
        
        It’s almost as though they don’t want people to book ex-LGW
      - Lady London says:
        
        29 Aug29 August 19:31
        
        Just a tip on Eurostar I haven’t had time to fully investigate yet:
        You remember last week I had a rant why are Eurostar still insisting on charging fees of £30/40 euros for any change? plus the fare difference?
        
        Saw something on oui.sncf (the French own railways site) that there is no change fee for changing bookings made on Eurostar currently. I don’t know if it’s just sncf website (the oui.sncf) or a Eurostar rule, or just for the French. For sure I saw it though and for sure it’s for September bookings and maybe longer. They just released another round of cheap tickets and early Amsterdam tickets might be cheap too.
        
        So if you can make sure you don’t get diverted to the ripoff French railways site raileurope that holds specially high prices and poor booking conditions for the UK (if necessary use a VPN) then making any booking on Eurostar to anywhere on oui.sncf, for a period at least, seems you are exempt from change fees if you have to change it later.
        
        I haven;t had time to check out how long this lasts etc., and whether it is more widespread, as faced with a big display of the change fee of £30 displaying on Eurostar when I wanted to book up to 8 journeys last week, I’ve booked those ones on a plane instead.
        
        Perhaps the Netherlands Eurostar site will have concessions the UK site might not?
      - planeconcorde says:
        
        29 Aug29 August 22:15
        
        Yeah, then they will claim it is a customer enhancement to NOT flight from the unpopular London airport (Gatwick). Forgetting to mention option was priced higher.
Simon says:

28 Aug28 August 20:06

I like the little known facts. Just to add that even deposits on holidays can be exchanged for FTVs, not only the full amount.
- Jody says:
  
  29 Aug29 August 11:42
  
  That’s good to know. We’ve got a flights and hotel package booked to Monte Carlo in November. If the FCO advice doesn’t change we’re not going to want to go (shame, as it has free helicopter transfers). Handy to know we could get a voucher back for our deposit.
  - Jody says:
    
    29 Aug29 August 14:44
    
    Double checked and realised we won’t be covered, as we booked this way before March this year, so pretty sure that isn’t covered by the book with confidence.
- Lady London says:
  
  29 Aug29 August 13:32
  
  Thanks @Simon I had been wondering about that.
Alex B says:

28 Aug28 August 20:30

If I book a BA holiday and the flight gets cancelled (flight out of Gatwick), what happens?
- Rob says:
  
  28 Aug28 August 21:36
  
  BA is legally obliged to pay a full cash refund in 14 days – and it will, because it loses its licence to sell holidays otherwise.
  - Alex B says:
    
    28 Aug28 August 22:10
    
    Do I have the option of insisting they send me via another airline i.e. Lufthansa instead for the same price?
    - Goldmember says:
      
      29 Aug29 August 00:28
      
      The tour operator can at their discretion offer you alternative flights of comparable operation, booking class and journey duration. Given the tour operator is British Airways Holidays I’d say this is extremely unlikely and that they won’t be working with Lufthansa. They’re contractually obliged under ABTA and ATOL requirements to offer you alternative flights on a comparable basis or a full refund. There’s a small chance you might get away with it if you’re travelling to Frankfurt or Munich. Anywhere else then I’d say all you’ll get is the option to refund – because an indirect flight isn’t going to be comparable to a non-stop with British Airways. This is one example of how booking an inclusive holiday (flights and accommodation, flights and hotel) differs from booking a flight only.
    - Goldmember says:
      
      29 Aug29 August 00:30
      
      For clarity, you do have the right to ask for alternative travel dates where BA flights are operating. You don’t have the right to dictate LH flights if BA Holidays aren’t selling LH flights as part of their packager arrangements.
    - ChrisC says:
      
      29 Aug29 August 11:38
      
      Not that LH flies from Gatwick so that’s not an option!
      
      BA would offer you LHR or LCY to AMS.
      - ChrisC says:
        
        29 Aug29 August 11:41
        
        Ignore the AMS part. Not sure where that came from.
        
        But they would try and keep you on BA flights, then IAG airlines and then One World from LHR or LCY depending on destination.
        
        Booking on other airlines really only happens on the day due to irrops or exceptional circumstances like the strike threat last year.
- AJA says:
  
  29 Aug29 August 09:32
  
  You may find BA moves the flight to depart and arrive back at LHR. Technically it is still a cancellation of the LGW departure so grounds to request a full refund.
  - Blenz101 says:
    
    29 Aug29 August 13:56
    
    I doubt same city departure/arrival will give rise to any automatic right of refund.
    - Charlieface says:
      
      29 Aug29 August 22:19
      
      Why not? Ultimately it’s not the flight you booked
    - AJA says:
      
      31 Aug31 August 13:26
      
      It does as i had that happen to me. Was supposed to be flying to Tenerife today 31 Aug from LGW. BA sent cancellation email followed immediately by another saying we have moved your flight to operate from LHR. It even had the same flight number. I was able to get a full refund.
Alan says:

28 Aug28 August 21:27

Perhaps one of these days the BA Holidays site will work for leaving from somewhere apart from London!

Although these are nice wide open booking windows I’m just not booking anything abroad just now. Normally love travelling but so much uncertainty with potential quarantine on return, etc I’m just not feeling it!
Crafty says:

28 Aug28 August 23:12

Avios prices are better than sale prices for my possible flights. I know there has been some back and forth on cancellation costs. If I were to book today a set of flights for my family of 4 (return trip to Faro), costing X Avios plus £4 (which is the quote), what would the cost be were I later to wish to cancel? Is it £4, or 4 x £35, or something different?

Sorry for the relatively “uneducated” question, we live near Manchester and so almost never consider flying BA.
- Harry T says:
  
  28 Aug28 August 23:23
  
  I have heard that BA are enforcing the £35 cancellation fee at the moment, regardless of the amount paid in taxes. This is in line with their terms and conditions, but not their history. The issue is that they are not allowing online cancellations, so you must call to cancel.
  - Crafty says:
    
    28 Aug28 August 23:51
    
    I feared I had read something like this. Thank you for your input. It does make taking the plunge less attractive!
    - Rob says:
      
      29 Aug29 August 00:35
      
      I cancelled some one-ways last week and it was NOT enforced. I just lost the £17.50 paid.
  - BSI1978 says:
    
    29 Aug29 August 05:02
    
    Intrigued as to how BA would ‘take’ the £35 cancellation fee if one had only paid £1?
    
    Presumably they would need to try and debit said payment card, although that doesn’t seem correct or reasonable.
    - TGLoyalty says:
      
      29 Aug29 August 05:54
      
      Why would it be unreasonable? Just because you only paid £1 or £17.50 cash?
      
      They would be charging £35 to process the admin of cancelling your flight and returning your Avios as per the T&C’s when you made the booking.
      
      It is also there as a deterrent to stop people making multiple bookings across days/weeks/destinations so they can have cheap flexibility while BA get stuck seats which could otherwise have been sold to a genuine customer.
      - Spursdebs says:
        
        29 Aug29 August 07:09
        
        Wasn’t there someone ages on this site when the £1 price was brought in who booked multiple reward flights but had only the intention of using 1 or 2 flights and didn’t care about losing a £1?
        I’ve booked return club class to Faro from LHR for next year for Sons honeymoon, I choose to pay the £50 option plus whatever miles it was. 2 return flights to Faro in school summer holidays for £100 is a price I can live with.
      - Mikeact says:
        
        29 Aug29 August 08:04
        
        Correct, that was me and it all worked out fine.
      - roberto says:
        
        29 Aug29 August 11:45
        
        Was me.
        Booked for five different days @ £1 a day. Cancelled four, lost £4 and got my miles back. Oddly Ba cancelled the 5th flight and I had to go the day before on one of the ones I had previously cancelled.
      - babyg says:
        
        29 Aug29 August 15:43
        
        and this is why we cant have nice things.. too many people like roberto..
    - Andrew says:
      
      29 Aug29 August 07:57
      
      If you want your Avios back you’d need to provide a payment card to collect the £35, if not, no worries, you just don’t get the Avios back.
  - Gavin says:
    
    29 Aug29 August 11:00
    
    I was assured by a couple of knowlegable people on FT that they are not doing this. You just lose the taxes already paid, if less than £35.
- HM says:
  
  29 Aug29 August 07:29
  
  I went to cancel 3x Avios flights yesterday and was quoted £17.50 each (i.e. what I’d originally paid) to cancel them and get just the Avios back. So seems the £35pp wasn’t being enforced in this instance… As it happened, I took the FTV (and split them out into 3 separate PNRs) as I’m in no desperate need for those Avios right now. 🙂
  - Andrew says:
    
    29 Aug29 August 07:59
    
    And under booking with confidence you can change the dates of an Avios booking to another date with Avios availability free of charge.
    - HM says:
      
      29 Aug29 August 08:49
      
      Yep although I don’t really want/need an LHR-INV at all anymore since I was positioning for an ex-INV that I have had invol rerouted to ex-LHR (at no additional cost) due to the INV-LHR being cancelled…result!
      - Lady London says:
        
        29 Aug29 August 13:36
        
        Nice one, @HM
Gordon Chalker says:

29 Aug29 August 07:55

I always buy at least one flight in the BA sale, But not this time.We have had our flight to DR booked months ago cancelled 3 times now out of LGW south? so getting a full refund in 7 to 10 days as LGW south is still not open,We have had to reschedule our Hyatt hotel in DR, Cancel a hotel and parking before the flight 3 times now. So booked Swiss via Zurich to DR from LHR and they have also cancelled the flight from LHR so we miss our connection in Zurich. So we have had to reschedule everything for a week later 5th time lucky ? So we will pass this time as it’s still too uncertain and to add to it very stressful.
- ChrisC says:
  
  29 Aug29 August 11:51
  
  Where is DR?
  
  BA is operating from North terminal which is literally a couple of minutes extra travel than South.
  
  Though I do understand people losing confidence in any airline not just BA when flights booked in good faith get repeatedly cancelled. It happened to me for the trip I was due to be on this weekend. 4 Flight cancellations and rebooking in total. I gave up in the end and cancelled the trip entirely.
  - John says:
    
    29 Aug29 August 12:48
    
    Dom rep?
  - Gordon Chalker says:
    
    29 Aug29 August 14:49
    
    @CHRISC Yes as John says DR is Dominion republic, & BA only fly to DR from the south terminal which is closed so the north terminal is no good to me? Because they cancelled at short notice a few weeks before departure date we are screwed for any direct flight now, it’s frustrating because we had booked club world seats at a great price.
    - ChrisC says:
      
      29 Aug29 August 15:40
      
      Why is north no good to you? BA have moved all their ops to North.
      
      As I said it’s a couple of minutes away using the monorail thing so hardly a huge inconvenience
      - babyg says:
        
        29 Aug29 August 15:45
        
        lack of BA lounge most likely
      - Gordon Chalker says:
        
        30 Aug30 August 07:59
        
        @BABYG Believe me lounge access is the least of my problems?
      - Gordon Chalker says:
        
        30 Aug30 August 07:56
        
        Simple reason they don’t fly to DR from the LGW North so they have not moved all their ops to the north ? If they flew to DR from the north I would not have bothered going through aggravation of cancelling and going Swiss via Zurich.
chris1922 says:

29 Aug29 August 08:45

I’ve taken a punt on a June/July trip to Tampa next year GLA – LGW – TPA, 4 pax in WT+ both ways, 20 nights and a Group S SUV, all for a fiver under £4k. Thought that was a pretty good deal, and have only paid my deposit so not too much out of pocket yet. if I’m honest, I’m not 100% sure it will happen, or happen as per the current itinerary (i.e. LGW departure) but will see what happens.
Lee says:

29 Aug29 August 09:42

Your article says a deposit of £75 for a holiday, however with a car this is £350!
- Andrew says:
  
  29 Aug29 August 09:44
  
  The deposit is based on the value of the holiday – £350 is for a holiday over £3000. £75 is the lowest of the deposits for a European short holiday.
  - Lee says:
    
    29 Aug29 August 11:15
    
    ah okay – the flight and 7 day car hire to Europe is £1638, so I guess that triggers it as well.