Get 160 tier points from £180 in the British Airways sale

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• John says:

  14 Apr14 April 05:37

  Great prices but thanks to BA I am not interested in TPs until November and have no intention of booking so far in advance. 50% chance of some form of restrictions in winter

  • James says:

    14 Apr14 April 07:00

    Nice to see you’ve woken up on the optimistic side, John.

  • Mike says:

    14 Apr14 April 07:26

    Now is not really the time to be encouraging travel. I am definitely not making any Summer / Winter travel plans – Easter 22 at the earliest

    • ChrisC says:

      14 Apr14 April 07:50

      And that’s your decison to make. And if it suits you then absolutlfine.

      I don’t think Rob is encouraging anyone to travel if they don’t want to

    • Yuff says:

      14 Apr14 April 09:18

      Plenty of people need to travel now, next week and in the near future. That’s what this site is for.
      Now that PCR test costs are being targeted for profiteering, May half term to a green list country is looking pretty good.

• Jonathan says:

  14 Apr14 April 06:37

  BA will surely have to extend status. A very irresponsible article encouraging people to fly unnecessarily while the pandemic still has exponential growth across the globe and the challenges with climate change. Article writers need to see the bigger picture, be innovative and move with the times. Tired rehashed articles pre the pandemic is not the way to go.

  • Genghis says:

    14 Apr14 April 06:46

    I thought status already had been extended? I’m now thru to Nov 22.

    • Jonathan says:

      14 Apr14 April 06:59

      They’ve extended for anyone with a TP collection year ending in 2021 so I’m extended to July ‘22 whereas my wife is still January ’22.

      I also don’t think it’s irresponsible for BA to be running a sale on flights for next year. They will need to start getting some cash in the door asap & it’s up to the government to decide when it’s safe to let us travel, not BA.

      If we’re still not safe to travel again next year then the whole travel industry is toast.

  • Barry cutters says:

    14 Apr14 April 06:54

    Hardly irresponsible .

    The rules change on 17th may . Allowing international travel. If some people choose to fly to one destination over another Due to the cheap price / high number of TP- that’s totally up to them .
    As I’m sure you know , there will be a traffic light system in place . In any case for most of these destinations if not all You would need some combination of vaccine/testing out / testing in / isolation .

  • mradey says:

    14 Apr14 April 07:02

    Yawn……. . . . . . . . .

  • Capt Hammond says:

    14 Apr14 April 07:13

    Perhaps you should start your own blog, Jonathan, lecturing people on how they should behave and criticising them for not following your obviously infallible moralistic standards. It’s clearly wrong for people to make informed choices based on their risk assessments and the government’s own publicised guidelines. Glad you’re here to tell us how we are all so wrong.

    • Roberto says:

      14 Apr14 April 07:18

      +1 Jonathan loves telling everyone else what to do.

    • Nick says:

      15 Apr15 April 06:50

      +1 Jonathan should go elsewhere for his lecturing. This is a frequent flyer forum!!

  • Roberto says:

    14 Apr14 April 07:16

    Lockdown forever and fly on Paperplaneairways.com then?

  • Economist_Nearby says:

    14 Apr14 April 08:27

    …and avoid cliches like “see the bigger picture, be innovative and move with the times”

  • DT says:

    14 Apr14 April 08:33

    Grumpy commenters need to comment later in the day, have a coffee and a few deep breaths. Tired, grumpy commenters pre their coffee is not the way to go.

    • Dubious says:

      14 Apr14 April 16:49

      +1 I often have to encourage myself to do this in the morning before responding to my colleagues emails…

  • Tim says:

    14 Apr14 April 08:43

    Are you on the correct site Jonathan?

• Erico1875 says:

  14 Apr14 April 07:16

  This is a blog, especially focusing on BA, Avios and their points!
  What else would you suggest the team write about Jonathan?

• ChrisW says:

  14 Apr14 April 07:44

  I’d be adding at least £180 to the cost of each of these status runs for a PCR test for each end.

  I would love a cheeky status run this year but I don’t think it will be feasible with all the new rules and restrictions.

  • Neil says:

    14 Apr14 April 08:20

    Yes and I think all the comments about making them more affordable just means they will be required for a very long time to come and so a factor in everyone’s holiday planning for a long time to come – except for merchant bakers of course

    • Neil says:

      14 Apr14 April 08:22

      oops should have been bankers but maybe there were lots of bakers in the Maldives looking at property too

• JonD says:

  14 Apr14 April 07:46

  Malta and Reykjavik would look to be the 2 best options for Green countries.

• Optimus Prime says:

  14 Apr14 April 08:36

  £180 plus the cost of 3 PCR tests upon your return 🙁

  • James says:

    14 Apr14 April 08:55

    How much are PCR tests. These are done once returned back to the UK?

    • Optimus Prime says:

      14 Apr14 April 09:26

      At the moment you need a test done 72 hours before your return, so the cost would depend on where you are at that moment. Then you need another 2 tests once you’ve returned to the UK and right now they cost £210 per person (for the 2-test pack).

      • Yuff says:

        14 Apr14 April 10:30

        Article in the times today says they are being reduced to between £40-60 in ,one with other countries

        • Rob says:

          14 Apr14 April 10:49

          Unlikely, because VAT is 20% for a start and those countries charging £50 are subsidised and have no VAT.

          Randox will do £60 BUT you need an airline invite code – and this presumably involves the airline making a payment to Randox as an incentive to get your original booking. Virgin Atlantic will think you are happier paying £300 for a flight and £60 for a test than £260 for a flight and £100 for a test.

        • Yuff says:

          14 Apr14 April 11:36

          Quote for eurofins for single PCR tests is £44.90

        • The Original David says:

          14 Apr14 April 16:28

          In China they are about £9, I can do it in 10 minutes at lunch time, and results are online that night. I’ve had 6…

  • Rhys says:

    14 Apr14 April 09:27

    You don’t need 3 PCR tests when you return from a green list country!

    • Optimus Prime says:

      14 Apr14 April 09:35

      My bad, the pre-departure test doesn’t have to be PCR.

      As of now Bulgaria would be on the amber list, wouldn’t it? That requires 2 PCR tests when you’re back.

      • Tony says:

        14 Apr14 April 10:00

        Although there is a good chance the country you are going to will require a pre departure PCR test and won’t accept lateral flow. Everyone is assuming the UK is the only country setting Covid requirements. Some may also require a test to release scheme and quarantine. Why would only the UK have requirements on arrival and not any other countries? Admittedly many are desperate for tourists and will probably minimise requirements on arrivals from high vaccination countries.

        • Lord Doncaster says:

          14 Apr14 April 15:43

          Deb20

          Perhaps in France the ‘Kent variant’ is known as the “UK Virus” but that’s about it… Most other countries respect the UK as being one of the few countries in Europe to now have the virus under control.

      • Rhys says:

        14 Apr14 April 10:02

        As of now we don’t know what countries will be on which lists!

        • DeB20 says:

          14 Apr14 April 13:23

          Since many countries still see the UK as the super spreader of the Kent mutant virus, known overseas as the UK virus, the entry requirements for UK residents into many countries could be tough.

          As I’ve been at the receiving end of the anti-UK virus sentiment overseas, I make this statement based on experience. Mr Shapps has been on TV shows twice, including Peston, quoting Singapore as a country with whom the UK government is negotiating for a travel corridor to be opened. The government of Singapore is not as sure as our dear minister about this happening in the next few months.

• Bluekjp says:

  14 Apr14 April 08:39

  Another smart deal in this sale, as in the previous sale, is a fare of £252 to Tirana from Nov through to March for a day return issued on one ticket on certain days of the week where two flights operate. You arrive at about 1pm and depart at 7pm. If you need 160 TP’s and haven’t got the time to be away for a period this is the optimum way to achieve that on the safety of one air ticket.

  • lumma says:

    14 Apr14 April 09:32

    Or you could stay in Albania for 1 night and enjoy an interesting city in a fascinating country?

    • Tocsin says:

      14 Apr14 April 11:39

      +1 – a week in Albania was one of my cancelled trips last year 🙁

  • ChrisW says:

    14 Apr14 April 09:41

    Tirana is great. Excellent, very affordable Italian restaurants.

    • johnny_c-l says:

      14 Apr14 April 10:08

      +1

      Had a couple of nice Italians in Tirana washed down with Korcha beer.

  • Joe says:

    14 Apr14 April 16:25

    The whole of Albania is magnificent. Some stunning hiking in the mountains in the north!

• Magneto says:

  14 Apr14 April 09:10

  Apologies for the stupid question, but I reset (to blue) on 8 March. The BA website doesn’t make it particularly clear, but that means I just need 450 TPs by 7 March 2022 for silver? I have a return booked in F to SFO in August so should be easy enough to collect the remaining 30 TPs by next March if that trip can go ahead…

  • Rhys says:

    14 Apr14 April 09:59

    Yes, you should be eligible for the reduced tier thresholds.

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