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MASSIVE AVIOS SALE: 50% off ALL long-haul flights, 25% off short-haul and it works with a 241

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British Airways has launched what is possibly the biggest Avios flight sale it has ever run.

All long haul flights, in all classes, are half price. Well, half points anyway.

Full details are on this special page of ba.com.

Avios 50% discount sale

This is what you need to know:

  • ALL long-haul redemptions (all routes, all travel classes) are reduced by 50%
  • ALL short-haul redemptions (all routes, both travel classes) are reduced by 25%

Here are the key dates:

  • You must book by 13th October
  • You must travel between now and 30th June 2021
  • Full taxes and charges are due
  • The discount is valid on both one-way and return flights
  • The discount only applies to British Airways flights and not partner airlines

Can this offer be combined with a British Airways American Express 2-4-1 or Lloyds voucher?

YES. Well, with an Amex 241 anyway.

British Airways told me that it doesn’t, but it does!

This may or may be an error. The small print does say that ‘vouchers’ are excluded.

British Airways Gatwick Airport

Should I cancel and rebook existing redemptions?

This is a tricky question.

For existing long haul bookings:

Clearly there are HUGE savings to be made if you cancel existing Avios long-haul redemptions and rebook them. You’d be crazy not to, to be honest, if it meant saving 50,000 to 100,000 Avios per booking.

(Do NOT do this with a Lloyds Avios upgrade voucher. As far as I know, these are still lost if you cancel a redemption flight which uses one.)

You need to be careful, however.

If you have enough Avios to make a fresh booking and didn’t use a 2-4-1 voucher, you don’t have any risk. You can make a new booking and then cancel your original at your convenience.

(Remember that, if you cancel online, you can only receive a Future Travel Voucher. This involves wrapping up the Avios, cash and any companion voucher in a voucher. You do NOT get the Avios, cash or companion voucher back in your accounts but you don’t pay any cancellation fees. Alternatively, you can ring BA, pay the £35 per person cancellation fee and get the Avios, cash and any voucher back directly.)

If you don’t have enough Avios to rebook, or need your 2-4-1 voucher back first, you are in a trickier position.

You need to call BA, trigger a Future Travel Voucher (which usually arrives within a few minutes, but isn’t guaranteed) and then call British Airways to rebook.

You should assume that your original seats will NOT go back into redemption availability. Only do this if you can see enough fresh seats available for the dates you want and you are willing to take the risk of them disappearing before you can rebook.

Half price Avios bookings

For existing short haul bookings:

For short haul, however, I don’t think it is worth the effort. The cancellation fees will outweigh a 25% Avios saving. Cancelling for a Future Travel Voucher and then rebooking to avoid cancellation fees is a bit of a faff for a modest return, even if seats are available.

Is there a special offer to buy Avios if I’m short?

No, unfortunately not. The 50% bonus promotion ended last week and I imagine there is no chance of a new offer before 13th October.

If you are happy to pay full price (1.6p per Avios plus a £15 handling fee), you can buy Avios via this page of ba.com.

Be careful not to get carried away ….

This is an exceptionally good offer. Offering 50% off all long haul flights, to all destination and in all classes, is not something you see every day.

However …. if you end up not flying the tickets you book, you will be paying £35 per person to cancel or taking a Future Travel Voucher, which comes with its own complications when you come to rebook (no name changes etc). Book with care.

Click here to visit the special sale page of ba.com and find out more.

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How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (April 2025)

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 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 card

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

Get 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

30,000 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.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on the ‘free for a year’ American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card is increased from 20,000 Membership Rewards points to 30,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (30,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on American Express Platinum is increased from 50,000 Membership Rewards points to a huge 80,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (80,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 30,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

80,000 bonus points and great travel benefits – for a large 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, and the standard card is FREE. Capital on Tap cards also have no FX fees.

Capital on Tap Visa

NO annual fee, NO FX fees and points worth 1 Avios per £1 Read our full review

Capital on Tap Pro Visa

10,500 points (=10,500 Avios) plus good benefits Read our full review

There is also a British Airways American Express card for small businesses:

British Airways American Express Accelerating Business

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

50,000 points when you sign-up 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

Comments (712)

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

  • Alexey says:
    6 Oct6 October 11:55

    so how this conversion of avios + 241 into voucher in case of cancellation works ?

    I am think about booking that just for the purpose of saving 241 voucher from expiry , basically can I get cost of 2 flights as voucher back in that case? How much BA value avios in this conversion to voucher ?

  • Nadeshka says:
    6 Oct6 October 11:56

    This is a very niche question, wondering if anyone has experience however.
    I’m looking at rebooking our trip to a later date where our daughter will turn 2 during the trip. I know this means she gets a seat with only the infant fare due.
    Does anyone know if I can book this online as 2 adults + infant (since I see availability) and get her a seat assigned later? Or does the whole thing need to be done via the phone in the first place (as suggested by BA’s website?)

    • Mr. AC says:
      6 Oct6 October 12:50

      Yes, in my experience it worked to book everything online when my son was below 2 on the outbound but older than 2 on the inbound. No seat allocated both ways. We never flew this due to COVID, but I’d imagine they would allow him to fly without an allocated seat this way even though he’d be over 2.

      • Nadeshka says:
        6 Oct6 October 13:09

        I think legally they have to have a seat, and my concern was there wouldn’t be any space in the cabin and we would be bumped.
        As it was I got through on the phones very quickly (few mins hold tops) and got it all booked! Took 30 mins to get all seat allocation but v happy!

  • Stagger Lee says:
    6 Oct6 October 11:59

    Ive got a 241 booked to the Caymans in Feb whcih is right at the expiry date for that voucher.

    Let’s ignore whther the flights will actually happen.

    DO you think I should cancel that, take a future travel voucher (and how long would that be valid for?) and rebook using a different 241?

    • Anna says:
      6 Oct6 October 12:05

      I think FTVs are still valid till April 2022 (though I have a feeling that’s about to end shortly unless BA extends the policy again).

      • Stagger Lee says:
        6 Oct6 October 12:36

        Cheers. I’ll discuss with my wife and then make a decision on what to do

      • Stagger Lee says:
        6 Oct6 October 14:23

        Thanks again.

        After much pondering I rang and cancelled my existing booking and then rebooked, saving 62500 avios. I had to pay the £35 x 2 fees but that seemed a small price to get it sorted so quickly.

        We have 3 other 241s so I wasn’t sure we’d be able to get much use out of a FTV as well.

        Now just hope the Caymans are reopen by then and that we can actually travel.

  • Ian Williams says:
    6 Oct6 October 12:00

    just come off phone to BA Only LA New York Bermuda and Dubai No other long haul routes

  • Nicole says:
    6 Oct6 October 12:06

    If you get a future travel voucher for cash, 2-4-1 voucher and points, and then re-book using the FTV (using up the 2-1 voucher and the cash but only half the points), do you then get a new voucher for the remaining points balance? And is it the case that cancelling online means you may have to wait (how long?) to get a FTV issued while doing it over the phone means it’ll be quicker?

    • W says:
      6 Oct6 October 17:38

      I got my FTV issued in 2 minutes, I am wondering the same question will you get a new voucher for unspent points if used in the current promotion. I am also wondering if you have to use the FTV on reward flights

      • Rob says:
        6 Oct6 October 18:09

        You get a fresh voucher for any ‘change’, yes. Don’t think you’re restricted to rebooking as a reward but not 100% certain.

        • Nicole says:
          7 Oct7 October 10:52

          Thanks Rob – is that the case for the 2-4-1 voucher as well? As in, if I use all the cash and avios and just have the vouchers left, would I be left with a FTV for companion vouchers (rather than having vouchers returned to my account)? Occurred to me that instead of getting the 50% avios back, I could rebook using the same number of avios but keep my two 2-4-1 vouchers and extend them (one was due to expire in June), getting better value out of them later.

  • Gavin says:
    6 Oct6 October 12:07

    I compared the cost of this offer to my flights to Japan next year which I booked in the recent cash sale, WT+ with UUA to CW both ways (one way peak, one way off-peak), valuing avios at 1p.

    Total paid: £751 + 66,000 Avios – 18,666 earned Avios (effective cost £1225)
    This new avios offer: £573 + 82,500 Avios (effective cost £1398)

    So this offer is worse in my case.

    • MattB says:
      6 Oct6 October 12:53

      Normally I would agree, but in the current climate I would be happy to pay a more for ability to cancel for a full refund (less cancellation fee) at my discretion rather than being tied up in a voucher of some sort.

  • Louise K says:
    6 Oct6 October 12:10

    i am very tempted!

    Do we all think we will be able to travel to the States by next spring / summer? We were headed to Hawaii in July but I have cancelled my flights because I don’t think its going to happen.

    What are your thoughts?

  • D.C. says:
    6 Oct6 October 12:11

    Just completed my cancellation and rebooking on my 2 4 1 voucher. Getting 73,750 avios back and the cost to change was £50 including the £70 cancellation fee! ie taxes and charges were lower for the rebooking.Bargain! Thanks Rob. Avios being refunded straight away!

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