British Airways launches a Luxury Flight Sale – what is worth a look?

British Airways has launched its latest Luxury Sale.

We will admit that it isn’t the most exciting sale ever. High oil prices have pushed sale fares to some of the highest levels we’ve seen since we started monitoring prices. You should expect to pay more for flights across all airlines this year.

You can see all deals available on the sale section of ba.com here.

You need to book by 28th March.

Business class: British Airways Club World sale deals

As with the Winter Sale, fares are being squeezed by the massive spike in oil prices, so don’t expect to see rock-bottom fares, and certainly not as low as those pre-pandemic.

Crunching the numbers on this sale shows that you will find the better deals on flights to the Middle East and Africa. Here are some of better prices compared to our historic sale data:

• Boston from £1,499
• Cape Town from £2,704
• Dubai from £1,698
• Islamabad from £1,878
• Santiago (Chile) from £2,148
• Singapore from £2,538

Note that travel dates may be very restricted. Want to book Dubai for £1,698? You can only travel between 5th and 28th September. The small print is at the bottom of the sale home page.

How to check pricing

The easiest way to check for the lowest fares on any particular route, or across a series of routes, is via the British Airways Low Fare Finder – click here.

This is one of the most useful pages of the BA website. I find it especially helpful when looking for cheap Club Europe short haul business class deals to top up my tier points.

You can quickly see, for example, that New York and Boston get no cheaper than £1,499. An aggressive (pre-covid) British Airways sale would see those cities at around the £1,200 mark. £2,019 to Miami is hardly a bargain either, but these prices are likely to stay for some time thanks to oil prices.

‘Book with Confidence’ is still running

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 for travel by 30th September 2022.  The voucher must be used for a flight which is taken by 30th September 2023.

If your flight is cancelled by British Airways for any reason, you will receive a full cash refund.

British Airways Holidays has discounted holidays and city breaks

British Airways Holidays has also got in on the act with a selection of ‘flight and hotel’ and ‘flight and car’ packages.

The key thing to know about British Airways Holidays is that booking a flight and hotel, or flight and car hire, together can offer better value than booking each element separately.

These are the ‘lead in’ deals in the current sale.  There are lots of other options available which you can see if you look here.

Club World (business class) flight and hotel deals

• New York – four nights at the 4* DoubleTree by Hilton New York Times Square West from £1,599 pp in August 2022
• Mexico City – five nights at the 4* Hilton Mexico City Reforma from £1,859 pp in August 2022
• Dubai– seven nights at the 5* Hyatt Regency Dubai from £1,719 in September 2022
• Toronto – four nights in the 4* Chelsea Hotel Toronto from £1,999 pp from May until July 2022

Booking a British Airways Holidays package gives you additional protection in case there are any issues with your flights or hotel, due to the strong legally-binding ATOL scheme.

What is the current BA Holidays cancellation policy?

The current BA Holidays cancellation policy for new bookings is:

• for travel due to be completed by 30th September, you can cancel up to 28 days before departure for a refund in the form of a voucher
• cancellations within 28 days of departure, or for travel after 30th September, are subject to the standard cancellation policy

You can see details of the revised BA Holidays Covid cancellation policy on its home page here.

The other BA Holidays benefits are still in place

What is great about the BA Holidays sale is that it stacks with various other offers:

Double tier points

If you book a ‘flight and hotel’ or ‘flight and car’ package for at least five nights, and travel by 31st October 2022, you will receive double BA tier points on your flights. Existing bookings count.

You can find out more on the BA Holidays website here.

There are problems with the posting of these bonus tier points and BA Holidays is now saying that you need to wait 60 days. The latest reader feedback is that a new email address – executiveclub@my.ba.com – is apparently your best bet for submitting a retroclaim. However, you shouldn’t let that put you off what is a very generous deal.

With the tier point threshold for British Airways Executive Club Silver status cut to 450 tier points for membership years ending in 2022, you could hit this in just one trip.

A BA Holidays package in Business Class to, say, Athens would earn you 320 tier points with this promotion. You would be just 130 tier points short of Silver.

A Business Class package to, say, New York or Dubai would get you 560 tier points under this offer. This is well over the threshold for Silver and half of the way to Gold, currently 1,125 tier points.

Triple Avios from BA Holidays when you pay with American Express

You will receive triple Avios (3 per £1) when you register and pay with a British Airways American Express card. This includes the Accelerating Business small business card.

You must register for triple Avios which you can do here.

The offer is valid for bookings made by 21st March for travel completed by the end of November.

Other benefits

• booking a ‘Flight and Hotel’ or ‘Flight and Car’ package can be cheaper than booking a flight on its own, since British Airways will often use BA Holidays as a way of quietly selling seats without cutting its headline flight prices
• you earn an additional 1 Avios per £1 for every £1 you spend at BA Holidays (this is tripled to 3 Avios per £1 under the current American Express promotion discussed above)
• if you have the British Airways Premium Plus American Express card, you get double Avios via American Express if you use it to pay for your holiday
• you only need to pay a deposit now – which can be as low as £60 per person – with the balance not due until seven weeks before departure

You can find out more on the BA Holidays website here.

How to pay for your British Airways sale booking

To maximise your miles when paying, your best bet is the British Airways American Express Premium Plus card which earns double Avios (3 per £1) when you book at ba.com or via BA Holidays. 

You do not get double Avios if you book with the free British Airways American Express card or the new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards (see here and here).

Another option is American Express Preferred Rewards Gold which offers double points – 2 per £1 – when you book directly with an airline.

Conclusion

The British Airways sale home 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 28th March.

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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.