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Lowest ever BA Club Europe fares? Sale flights now from £119 return (tier points from 91p)

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British Airways has decided to make deeper fare cuts as its September sale comes towards its end.

The headline deal is in Euro Traveller, where BA is promoting fares for under £35 each way. Last week I actually saw a one-way flight from Gibraltar to Heathrow for £14 which may be some sort of record.

British Airways Club Europe cheap tier points

These additional Euro Traveller discounts are available until 22nd September for travel up to 31st March. Your ticket can be turned into a Future Travel Voucher if you later decide not to travel.

Our real focus, however, is Club Europe.

There are some genuinely crazy Club Europe fares currently available. These are worth 80 British Airways Executive Club tier points return – and in some cases 160 tier points return.

Given that the requirements for status are currently reduced by a quarter (Bronze requires 225 tier points, Silver requires 450 tier points, Gold requires 1,125 tier points) you could earn status for very little money indeed. You would also get a few short breaks in the New Year too.

Club Europe British Airways sale cheap tier points

How cheap are the new Club Europe deals?

These are the examples given in the BA media release:

  • Dublin £119 return
  • Krakow £129 return
  • Luxembourg £129 return
  • Prague £149 return
  • Vienna £149 return
  • Nice £169 return

Here is a longer list which I have drawn from BA’s Low Fare Finder tool. I got these prices by doubling the one-way fares shown, although this often underestimates the cost of a return by £10 or so as one leg is often cheaper than the other.

These are destinations available for under £200 return. Historically, finding a Club Europe fare for under £200 was exceedingly rare.

  • Aberdeen £164
  • Alicante £142
  • Amsterdam £160
  • Athens £196
  • Barcelona £144
  • Bari £186
  • Basel £136
  • Belfast £188
  • Berlin £156
  • Bilbao £146
  • Billund £122
  • Bologna £148
  • Bordeaux £170
  • Brussels £152
  • Bucharest £172
  • Budapest £162
  • Cologne £196
  • Copenhagen £158
  • Corfu £176
  • Dubrovnik £190
  • Dusseldorf £156
  • Edinburgh £176
  • Faro £154
  • Florence £200
  • Frankfurt £176
  • Geneva £146
  • Genoa £156
  • Gibraltar £138
  • Glasgow £152
  • Gothenburg £142
  • Hamburg £140
  • Hannover £158
  • Ibiza £182
  • Innsbruck £162
  • Inverness £122
  • Istanbul £182
  • Jersey £170
  • Lanzarote £184
  • Larnaca £192
  • Lisbon £166
  • Lyon £160
  • Madrid £152
  • Malaga £144
  • Malta £164
  • Manchester £180
  • Marseille £154
  • Milan £162
  • Munich £160
  • Naples £144
  • Newcastle £170
  • Nice £142
  • Olbia £176
  • Oslo £160
  • Palma £140
  • Paphos £198
  • Paris £180
  • Pisa £132
  • Porto £142
  • Prague £144
  • Pula £194
  • Reykjavik £154
  • Rome £166
  • Rotterdam £198
  • Salzburg £144
  • Sardinia £186
  • Seville £144
  • Sofia £146
  • Stockholm £158
  • Stuttgart £150
  • Tirana £166
  • Toulouse £154
  • Turin £144
  • Valencia £130
  • Venice £144
  • Verona £142
  • Warsaw £136
  • Zagreb £142
  • Zurich £146

Remember that actual fares may be £10 or so higher, because the ‘low fare finder’ only shows the cheapest fare in either direction. Some routes have higher fares in one direction than the other.

Istanbul 160 tier points

What about 160 tier point routes?

Here are the cheapest routes which earn 160 tier points:

  • Algiers £242
  • Bucharest £172
  • Catania £228
  • Funchal £208
  • Gran Canaria £204
  • Istanbul £182
  • Kalamata £274
  • Lanzarote £184
  • Malta £164
  • Marrakech £205
  • Paphos £198
  • Preveza Lefkada £246
  • Reykjavik £154
  • Sofia £146
  • Tenerife £204
  • Thessaloniki £222
  • Tirana £176

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.

Sofia

Can you really get 160 tier points for £146 via Sofia?

Out Saturday, back Sunday in late March. 24 hours on the ground to see the city. £144 return in Club Europe, earning 160 tier points. That is 91p per tier point. You’d also earn 3,800 Avios return as a Blue member. Tempting …..

If you want to travel sooner, Istanbul looks VERY interesting. There is no quarantine requirement, in either direction, when visiting Turkey and you will pick up tier points for under £1.20 each. You do NOT need to show proof of a negative covid test.

Club Europe sale fares are bookable until 30th September (eight days later than the economy deals) for travel, in most cases, up to the end of March. Saturday night or minimum stay requirements will apply.

Booking the majority of these routes clearly means taking a gamble that any particular route will open up and not require quarantine. If you’re prepared to take the risk, however, there are some very cheap tier points to be had here.

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Category

British Airways and Avios

Comments (100)

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

  • Jimmy Mac says:
    20 Sep20 September 05:05

    Nothing from the regions, yet again….

    • Goldmember says:
      20 Sep20 September 06:17

      He’s highlighting LEAD IN fares which given BA’s operating base is London will mean departing London. You only have to take a moment to look at whatever the regional departure point to your destination costs on Google flights to gage what the prices might be. For example MAN-LHR-LUX is coming in at £221 return for 4×40 tier points. So your domestic connecting flights are £92 in Club (on top of the ex London price of £129). If you put a tiny amount effort in, you’ll work out for yourself whether it’s worth it or not.

    • Cheshire Pete says:
      20 Sep20 September 07:00

      In the CW sale to NYC, the price from MAN went down compared to LHR, and you could sweep a return up for £850 , cheaper than starting in London. So it sometimes works in our favour!

    • Rhys says:
      20 Sep20 September 08:28

      BA’s Low Fare Finder only calculates from London, so it would be quite difficult for us to list fares from the regions….and we don’t have all day! Rob likes to enjoy his weekends too 🙂

    • Colin MacKinnon says:
      20 Sep20 September 08:38

      £169 EDI to Faro on Sat 3rd Oct return 4th Nov in Club Europe.

      Or £25 each was from Glasgow on EasyJet.

    • Anna says:
      20 Sep20 September 09:18

      BA might be re-starting MAN-SZG in December which might be a good option, though prices are usually high on this route because of the lack of competition.

    • Alan says:
      20 Sep20 September 14:08

      Yep, as ever the BA fare finder only works for London departures. Maybe one of these days they’ll finally code it to cope with other departure points but I’m not holding my breath. Personally not booking anything for now anyway – have Silver until May 2022 and suspect this may be heading to be a 0 TP year this year!

  • John says:
    20 Sep20 September 06:01

    LUX-LHR is EUR 14, i.e., around GBP 13.

  • Rob says:
    20 Sep20 September 06:42

    Would be great to have a survey on what percentage of HfP readers are planning a flight before the end of 2019.

    • Rob says:
      20 Sep20 September 06:43

      Or even 2020 !!

      • Yvo says:
        20 Sep20 September 08:05

        I’d love to take a gamble on October half term to go – anywhere – but the way countries in the green race up the infections chart to red and quarantine requirements kick in (I’m looking at you Denmark), as Goldmember says, it’s just impossible knowing the hassle of cancelling.

    • Rob says:
      20 Sep20 September 08:11

      We did two over the Summer and still sitting on Barbados for half term. Might nip down to Venice as well whilst it is dead.

      • Michael C says:
        20 Sep20 September 09:04

        Ohhh Venice is nice idea! Sis is off to Sorento/Naples next w/end, looking pretty good.

    • TGLoyalty says:
      20 Sep20 September 09:07

      Done one already. Hopefully another in a couple weeks.

      HarryT is off every week 🙂

      • Harry T says:
        20 Sep20 September 09:36

        Sadly not planning on much European travel now because there’s a desperate paucity of convenient weekend flights to exempt destinations. I really want to get to Venice!

    • Ikaz says:
      20 Sep20 September 09:13

      My next flight is in a few hours, just spent the weekend in Germany.
      In October and November I have a few trips planned to Germany and Italy for leisure, not sure if they will happen though.

    • Alan says:
      20 Sep20 September 14:10

      Not left Scotland since March apart from 10 in England when I was in the Borders and crossed over at Coldstream 🤣

      Was meant to be in the USA this week, obviously cancelled and nothing else booked.

  • Goldmember says:
    20 Sep20 September 06:58

    I’m half tempted at these prices but the fact is it was such a faff getting flights I’d booked for this year refunded and not end up with a FTV (having to wait for my departure date to be covered in their free cancellation in the case of BA or having a schedule change/cancellation to force the cash refund, I have zero inclination in repeating the exercise any time soon.

  • P4D says:
    20 Sep20 September 07:26

    I have booked a couple of the return flights to SOF for this year. Cheapest I could see ~200 return (120 out, 80 back), with double avios in August it worked out even better, part pay with avios £30 off for 3000 can be useful too.

    Oddly the flight out last week was almost full. Very impressed with the New galleries lounge table service.

    • Ian says:
      20 Sep20 September 09:07

      So having returned from Bulgaria you are self isolating for 14 days? And planning on triggering hat twice more?

      • Colin MacKinnon says:
        20 Sep20 September 10:10

        Iturns our in today’s news of fines of up to £10k that self-isolation Is only voluntary!

        Legislation comes in on the 28th!

        • Nick says:
          20 Sep20 September 11:02

          Isolation when requested by test & trace hasn’t been compulsory. When returning from a country on the list it has been. Best not so sow confusion here.

        • TGLoyalty says:
          20 Sep20 September 11:22

          Talking about self isolation after being requested to from track and trace or having symptoms.

          There were already fines for breaking travel isolation rules.

  • ChrisW says:
    20 Sep20 September 08:29

    Just confirming – newly earned status benefits from reducing thresholds but not the 12 month extension right?
    So if I was blue now (membership year resets April) and earned silver by Christmas I would only have to earn 425 TPs total but that silver status would only last a year?

    • AJA says:
      20 Sep20 September 11:37

      Firstly it’s 450 TP for Silver, not 425. Secondly if you get Silver by Dec20 you would have it until 31 May 2022 (assuming TP end date is 8 Apr 2021) as it is valid for remainder of current year and the whole of the next year

  • Aliks says:
    20 Sep20 September 08:41

    £300 for 3 return flights to get Silver – it does sound tempting. . . .

    However, all my long haul flights in recent years have been business class voucher fuelled Avios redemptions, so I got lounge access anyway. With the HSBC World Elite Card I get basic lounges in most airports, so that covers short haul.

    The remaining Silver benefits – early seat choice, higher Avios earning, these are hardly worth the effort.

    • Jimmy Mac says:
      20 Sep20 September 09:45

      £300 each or for all 3?

    • HAM76 says:
      20 Sep20 September 13:57

      With the TAP status match you also get Star Alliance gold status for a year. The LH SEN lounges in MUC and FRA have a better selection of gins than BA in Galleries Club. Gotta have priorities….

    • Alan says:
      20 Sep20 September 14:12

      Agree, I’m hardly ever connecting in LHR now apart from on long haul in CW so benefit of BA TP runs is much lower than it used to be.

  • Nobby says:
    20 Sep20 September 09:01

    Thanks for the heads-up, Rob… using a ‘special discount’, plus 3000 Avios, I just nabbed a Club return to Sofia next March for £82. BONKERS!

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

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