LAST CALL: Get a bargain in the British Airways September Sale

Wednesday 30th September is your last chance to book a bargain during the current British Airways sale.  It offers savings on both flights and holiday packages, with flights within Europe as well as select destinations outside of Europe with Club Europe flights from as low as £149 return!

There are some decent prices, but you only have a few more days to book as the sale ends Wednesday 30th September.

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 Dubai, Antigua and Barbados amongst other places.

Here are some ‘lead-in’ prices in Club Europe (return)

For selected outbound travel dates between now and 31st March 2021:

• Dublin from £119
• Krakow from £129
• Prague from £149
• Florence from £135
• Athens from £199
• Larnaca from £199

You can find these Club Europe deals here.

If you are specifically interested in routes which earn 160 tier points, we covered those in this article yesterday.

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

For selected outbound travel dates between now and 30th September 2021:

• Barbados from £429
• Antigua from £384
• Dubai from £299
• New York from £258
• San Francisco from £348

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

For selected outbound travel dates between now and 30th September 2021 (quite a long window there!) from London Heathrow or Gatwick, for return flights:

• St. Lucia from £1,369 (out of Gatwick)
• Toronto from £1,299 (out of Heathrow)
• New York from £1,199 (out of Heathrow)
• Hong Kong from £1,898 (out of Heathrow)

You can find the Club World deals here.

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.

Save an extra £50 or £100 on BA Holidays

BA Holidays has also got in on the act with a selection of ‘flight and hotel’ packages based around the current flight deals and is offering extra savings when booking between today and Wednesday.

In addition to the already discounted packages you can save

• an extra £100 when spending £2,500+ per booking
• an extra £50 when spending £1,250+ per booking

This offer is for travel dates between 1st October 2020 and 15th September 2021. For travel in 2020 this offer is only available for selected destinations.

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 some example deals in the current sale with the additional discount already applied.  The travel dates vary and the pricing is based on a seven night stay.

Euro Traveller (economy) – Flights plus 7 nights hotel

• Corfu from £749 per person – including 7 nights all-inclusive at the 5* MarBella Corfu Hotel and flights from Heathrow for travel between 1st and 31st May 2021
• Larnaca from £679 per person – including 7 nights all-inclusive at the 45* Olympic Lagoon Resort Agia Napa with flights from Heathrow for travel between 1st and 30th April 2021

World Traveller (economy) – Flights plus 7 nights hotel

• St Lucia from £1,199 per person – including 7 nights all inclusive at the 4* Coconut Bay Beach Resort and Spa with flights from Gatwick for travel between 1st and 31st May 2021
• Las Vegas from £699 per person – including 7 nights at the 5* Venetian Resort with flights from Heathrow for travel between 1st – 31st March 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.

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.

Part Pay with Avios

As always you can reduce the cost of the flight with Avios part payment. With discounts starting from 1,000 Avios for £10 off any flight.

Here are a few price examples for World Traveller flights:

• London Heathrow to New York (JFK) from £170 plus 25,000 Avios
• London Gatwick to Antigua from £164 plus 49,000 Avios
• London Gatwick to St. Lucia from £179 plus 49,000 Avios
• London Heathrow to Male from £337 plus 74,000 Avios

Conclusion

There is a lot going on here and you only have a few more days to book ….. discounted flights, discounted holiday packages and free lounge access on some economy holidays.

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 Wednesday 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.