Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Save 20% on British Airways flights with their Black Friday offer

Links on Head for Points may support the site by paying a commission.  See here for all partner links.

British Airways has, it seems, decided to run its Black Friday offer this year in conjunction with the Daily Mail. You don’t need to buy a copy of the Daily Mail however.

With the offer, you will save 20% on the cash price of any qualifying British Airways flight you book.

For once, the 20% discount is on the FULL ticket price and not just the base fare. It is a genuine 20% saving.

British Airways BA A350 in flight

You can see full details on this page of ba.com.

Here is the small print:

  • You must use promo code ‘BASpecial’ on ba.com during the booking process
  • Valid across all travel classes except First
  • Valid only on flights operated by British Airways and carrying a BA flight number
  • Flights must depart from the UK
  • Must book by 23.59 on Friday 27th November
  • Valid for travel between 3rd December 2020 and 16th November 2021
  • Not valid with ‘Part Pay With Avios’ or any other sort of discount or promotion

Where do I insert the code?

The code box isn’t on the payment page. It comes earlier in the process. Once you have selected your flights, at the bottom is a box for your eVoucher.

If the ‘BASpecial’ code is accepted, the saving will show immediately.

Because you apply the discount at this stage, you do NOT save 20% on anything you add to your booking later in the process, such as seat selection or extra baggage.

Will there be further Black Friday offers from BA?

That’s a good question. BA has boxed itself into a corner now, because if it runs any further deals on Friday then they will double up with this 20% discount. We haven’t heard anything from British Airways about Black Friday offers.

You can find out more about the 20% discount on this page of ba.com.


How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

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 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

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.

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.

Comments (39)

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

  • Holger says:

    Prices for all flights have gone up. I have screenshots from yesterday looking at various trips and every single one went up by 20 to 30% even though they show x amount of seats still available at that fare, same as yesterday. Pointless exercise really.

    • Marcelo C says:

      Same thing here… should have bought yesterday when there was real discount.

  • Vicki Harris says:

    It didn’t work for me

  • jessiefan says:

    BASpecial isn’t the code I got.

    Re the price increases, worth contacting CMA this is clearly an illegal practice if true

  • Ben says:

    Any reductions for one-way flights Spain -> UK? I’m taking the Eurostar & TGV outbound to reduce my CO2 emissions, but need to fly back to avoid triggering a quarantine!

  • AndyS says:

    Is this really the best that BA can do. Looking at Club World vs Upper Class inthe Virgin sale, and it’s 50% more! (around 1500 for a return to the USA vs 999 on virgin). I would generally prefer to go with BA as they have the whole oneworld network to get you home if things go wrong but its not worth paying 50% extra for this peace of mind.

    • Rob says:

      Aer Lingus is under £999 if you search from Dublin. You’d need to buy our own connection and, of course, they are not oneworld either and whilst you earn Avios there are no tier points.

  • Jon says:

    Seems BA have now dropped select USA club world fares to ~£1100-1300 Jan to March in case useful to anyone. AA flights inline with the ~£1k pricing of the other alliances.

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

The UK's biggest frequent flyer website uses cookies, which you can block via your browser settings. Continuing implies your consent to this policy. Our privacy policy is here.