Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Get 160 Executive Club tier points from £194 in the British Airways Club Europe sale

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We covered the current British Airways and BA Holidays sale last week.

The article focused on long-haul routes.  However, British Airways has also reduced fares on many short haul routes.

British Airways Club Europe sale

The longer Club Europe routes earn an impressive 160 Executive Club tier points for a return flight.

Remember that BA has cut status requirements by 25%

British Airways has reduced the number of tier points you need to earn status by 25% as part of its coronavirus response.  This means:

Bronze status now requires 225 tier points (Bronze benefits here)

Silver status now requires 450 tier points (Silver benefits here)

Gold status now requires 1,125 tier points (Gold benefits here)

With a single £200ish Club Europe flight earning you 160 tier points, Bronze or Silver status could be yours for a relatively modest outlay.  2-3 weekend breaks would get you Bronze or Silver status without any long-haul trips required.

Club Europe British Airways sale

What routes offer 160 tier points for the lowest price?

The prices below are the lowest fares showing on 160 tier point routes in the ba.com Low Fare Finder for Club Europe over the next 12 months.  I have only listed routes around £300 return or less.

Remember that you cannot currently travel on many of the routes listed below, so you are taking a gamble on the route opening up.

Your booking is refundable to the extent that British Airways will give you a ‘Future Travel Voucher’ if you choose to cancel for any reason.  You can read the terms of the ‘Book with Confidence’ guarantee here.

Here are cheapest 160 tier point Club Europe deals I could see.  You may need to stay a specific number of days or over a Saturday night to see these fares:

  • Algiers (£286)
  • Bucharest (£234)
  • Catania (£228)
  • Funchal (£278)
  • Gran Canaria (£256)
  • Istanbul (£274)
  • Kalamata (£274)
  • Kefalonia (£266)
  • Lanzarote (£234)
  • Malta (£236)
  • Marrakech (£233)
  • Paphos (£248)
  • Preveza Lefkada (£246)
  • Reykjavik (£222)
  • Sofia (£198)
  • Tenerife (£272)
  • Thessaloniki (£290)
  • Tirana (£194)

This Head for Points article lists all Club Europe routes which earn 160 tier points for a return flight.  Some routes on that last are currently suspended, however.

The cheapest Club Europe business class deals in the sale are under £160 but these only earn 80 tier points return.  On a ‘pound per point’ basis, the deals above are better.

Cornwall Airport Newquay

You can book Club Europe for as little as £125!

Newquay is not on the ‘Low Fare Finder’ for some reason, but can be booked for a remarkable £125 return in Club Europe.  For example:

Newquay Club Europe pricing

Newquay is an 80 tier point route.  There are currently no flights for sale between the end of February, when BA’s Government subsidy runs out, and July when the route restarts on a fully commercial basis.

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.

Category

British Airways and Avios

Comments (61)

  • NigelT says:
    6 Sep6 September 10:40

    I’m GGL and I won’t be taking advantage of these fares. To my mind flying for TPs at the moment is irresponsible. Deaths may be low at the moment but no guarantee that will be the case in the future especially with students returning to uni with no thought of social distancing.

    • GaryC says:
      6 Sep6 September 14:49

      I’m GGL as well and somewhat sympathetic to that point of view. But if flying is a hobby, and the journey is part of the holiday (and I’ve done some crazy, yet utterly enjoyable TP runs), then so long as the proper precautions (masks, sanitisers etc) are followed I don’t have much of an issue. Ultimately you could argue that anything which isn’t necessary for bare bones survival – going to the restaurant, for a beer etc – is irresponsible by a similar metric. That said I’m unlikely to take advantage of them either, but in my case it’s the volatility of the situation w.r.t. quarantine rules and ever changing air corridoors that make me think making any plans more than a week or two ahead is pointless.

      • Andrew says:
        6 Sep6 September 18:45

        I agree, it’s a hobby and it’s all about the journey for me as well – but the mask wearing for 8 hours and a ready meal in a cardboard box isn’t very appealing.

  • Tom says:
    6 Sep6 September 10:42

    Nothing from MAN yet again

    • Jonathan says:
      6 Sep6 September 10:48

      All the long haul deals are available from MAN but it’s not worth it for BA to use two seats on a domestic connection for a £170 shorthaul fare (Not to mention the fact you’d be earning another 2,000 Avios & 80 TP’s)!

      If you’re south of Manchester then may as well just drive to Heathrow or suck it up & fly Ryanair for 2 hours

  • AJA says:
    6 Sep6 September 14:15

    I am not booking anything until next year at the earliest. Right now even though Covid deaths in the UK seem to be declining it isn’t the case everywhere and I can’t help thinking we will start to see a rise again in the UK in the next 4 months. Also it’s only relevant what is happening here in the sense of will I be allowed to enter another country. More importantly it’s concerning me what is happening in any destination I choose and whether I have the potential to catch it there. Besides I still am not convinced that the HEPA filters really prevent the spread of covid on board. If that was the case then no one would need to quarantine as they’ve been forced to do returning from Zante or does Tui not have HEPA filters on board?

    • Char char says:
      6 Sep6 September 15:14

      Whether they have HEPA filters or not doesn’t mean they are not quarantining you be safe. More than likely is that the people on the flight were already infected before leaving to Zante, certainly not from locals anyway.

    • Char char says:
      6 Sep6 September 15:15

      Regarding the death rate well that is down to individual immune system how they cope with it, can’t be blamed on a government

    • TGLoyalty says:
      6 Sep6 September 17:46

      No one said they prevent it. They reduce the chance(risk) vs not having hepa filters.

      Masks don’t prevent it either it reduces the chance (risk)

      At the end of the day it’s a tiny metal tube with 200 people onboard even if you have the best filters and everyone wears a mask all the way through you can still catch it.

  • Andrew says:
    6 Sep6 September 18:43

    And today the U.K. has recorded the highest number of cases since May, so it’s far from over.

    • Ken says:
      6 Sep6 September 21:14

      Simply beggars belief that anyone could think that it was close to being over.

      I’m sure the debate will become what an acceptable level of weekly/ monthly mortality is, while trying to have a fairly normal life / economy.

      Further full lockdowns are untenable (and seemingly futile in the long run).

      And ‘normal’ probably doesn’t mean being press-ganged back to the office by the halfwits running the country, just to keep Pret & Costa in business.

      • Sharka says:
        6 Sep6 September 23:23

        Cases are not deaths, so it is nothing to do with mortality: the terms are not interchangeable . In fact, more people are now reported as dying from flu weekly than from Covid-19: both are exceedingly low numbers and much lower than everyday activities like deaths from traffic accidents.

  • Wollhouse says:
    7 Sep7 September 09:50

    So, this is a general question. For those of us not based near London….. all the sale offers seem to be from London. And I can’t see that there’s an option to alter the originating airport? What’s the “best” way to try to get these sometimes well priced offers? Find an offer you like and then book a separate connecting flight (with BA or another carrier?) call to use Avios for the connecting flight? Or is there a way to cost effectively tack on the connection if you call? If you just go in and price a holiday, not via the sales page, coming from say Edinburgh or Newcastle the pricing is many multiples higher than the sales offers. I’m sure I’m missing something or is it just book a separate ticket with another airline to connect?? I seem to recall a £35 fee for the connection being mentioned but I could be misremembering!?

  • @soundnomad says:
    7 Sep7 September 12:36

    Hi there.

    Question for you all on a related matter.. I always get itchy feet this time of year.. so as a mild distraction/daydreaming exercise I worked out some itineraries to do a Gold run of 1500 TPs in one trip. (New to TP Runs) That being said, I share many of the concerns above/below regarding the current status of the pandemic so I figured this would be something I can save for and look forward to in 2021/22. The reduction in tier points threshold, whilst enticing, would still require a lot of time in precisely the conditions that the virus thrives in. Recycled, Air-conditioned and enclosed air;lots of queuing/waiting in travel hubs and I’m too risk adverse to chance it just now.

    My questions relate maximising the Status once it is achieved. My current BAEC account anniversary is in September. But I see some good options in April.
    1. Is there a way of booking an itinerary without a BAEC number In September (Now) and then setting up a second BAEC account in April and then adding that account number to the flights through the various carriers before departure?
    2. If that is possible – is it then possible to subsequently merge the two accounts thus preserving TP Points and Lifetime TP and having Gold status from April/May onwards for essentially 2 years.

    The only drawback I see is that I may not be able to use the Avios in my original BAEC account to part pay for any flights.

    Any advice/help most welcome. Thanks
    James

    • John says:
      7 Sep7 September 13:57

      1a. You don’t need a BAEC account to book a flight or a BA holiday. Think of all the people who don’t even bother collecting miles.

      1b. Nothing stops you from opening multiple BA accounts online, but it is against the T&Cs of BAEC to have multiple accounts. If multiple accounts are accidentally opened for example by Tesco / Amex etc there shouldn’t be a problem with merging them. But to open multiple accounts for a material gain may not be seen so kindly by BA.

      I suspect that if you manage to do what you suggest, the result will be that your original September membership date stands.

      The only way to reset your BA membership date is to close your account fully (by writing a letter to BA) and then opening another one. Avios could be preserved in avios.com or Iberia, but not lifetime TPs.

      • @soundnomad says:
        8 Sep8 September 14:15

        Hi John – thanks for that.
        Yeah thought as much – i think waiting fro Jan sales for a September itinerary might be the way to go.

        James

    • AJA says:
      7 Sep7 September 15:09

      It is against the BAEC rules to have two membership numbers for one person as per clause 3.5.

      3.5. Applicants accepted as Members will be given a Membership Number and may be provided with a Card. A Member may not have multiple Memberships. Each Member must maintain only one account. If a Member violates this rule, all Memberships (other than the first Membership approved by British Airways) will be cancelled, as will any Avios points contained in the cancelled accounts.

      If you do mistakenly have two accounts BA will merge them if you ask.

      https://naprepin.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/1051/~/combining-%28or-merging%29-duplicate-executive-club-accounts

      I am not sure why you want Gold status for two years. I assume you are not already Gold. If you are already Gold, with the 1 year extension announced in June you will simply retain Gold until 8 Sep 2021 anyway even if you do no flying or do not have enough TP to retain Gold. If you do simply don’t fly at all in the next 12 months to 8 Sep 2021 you will drop to Silver at the end of October 2021. If you then do your TP run after 8 Sep 2021 you will be promoted to Gold which will last until 8 Sep 2023.

      If you are not Gold you will benefit from the reduced TP from 9 Sep 2020 meaning you only need to earn 1,125TP by 8 Sep 2021 to get Gold which will achieve status until 8 Sep 2022.

      • @soundnomad says:
        8 Sep8 September 14:14

        Hi AJA Thanks for the adivce. I would be doing a TP run from a standing start in Blue on 0TP. Plus won’t be until next year for reasons above. However i could wait for the January sales to see what was on offer from sept 2020 and hope that similar deals appear. The two years comes from my understanding of the BAEC rules on giving you status for the rest of the year you earn it and the following membership year. so earning as close as possible to the start of my membership year would in effect give me almost 24 months of Gold status. (23 months and change).

    • Makrxx says:
      7 Sep7 September 15:52

      Can you share your 1500TP trip out of curiosity?

      I’m looking to get Silver at 450TP. Thinking of doing Inverness – Heathrow – New York return which will get me 360TP and cost around £850 for next Easter (though I have to position myself to Inverness, being London based)

      • @soundnomad says:
        8 Sep8 September 14:37

        Hi Makrxx

        My itinerary similar to the tried and tested Abu Dabi Shuffle (TM) FROM TL4L.
        Based on BA Business one way from LHR to Manchester and then back to backs at either end Via MAN LHR return at split at beginning and end. Between roughly April 21 – 11th May
        LHR-INV return at either end
        Long Haul RTNS:
        INV – AUH BA Premium economy
        AUH – CGK Srilankan Buisness
        AUH – CGK Srilankan Buisness

        12(ish) days. 1520 TPs 30063 Avios £2244 cash price. (utilising a 15000 = £150 part pay with avios offer would get the Earning rate down substantially below 1.5/£ but that is dependent on the sale fairs and that offer happening again and also having enough avios. I have very pedestrian numbers in that department too.

        Crazy trip…… would require some fitness and endurance training perhaps. 😉
        James

        • @soundnomad says:
          8 Sep8 September 14:47

          If you just needed 1125 TPs Instead of the second AUH – CGK run one could look into a trip out from Jakata CGK -TPE ON Cathay rtn business and ditch the Manchester B2Bs etc and fly return to INV from LHR on economy rtn netting 1130 tier points for £1886 cash in approximately the same amount of time. give or take.

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