BOOK NOW: BA Gatwick ski flights for Winter 2022 / Spring 2023 loaded and open for Avios

British Airways has just relaunched its Winter ski flights for later this year and early 2023.

These are the first ski flights from Gatwick since early 2020, and the first for new BA shorthaul Gatwick subsidiary Euroflyer.

The flights have been loaded to ba.com this morning and Avios availability is wide open as of noon. There are many dates with four Club Europe seats still available.

Rob has just booked his own flights to Salzburg for February half term. Shockingly, BA wants £4,460 for four seats on the exact same flights in Club Europe. Economy is a scary £3,448 for four – and that is hand baggage only which is unlikely for a ski trip!

Thanks to London Air Travel for the spot.

London Gatwick to Salzburg

BA returns to Salzburg at the start of the Winter 2022/23 schedules, on Monday 31st October. Flights are three times a week until December, when they go daily.

Flight continue to operate until the end of the Winter Schedule on 25th March 2023, although we may see British Airways extend flights beyond this.

The outbound flight numbers are BA2652 and BA2654. Flight times are all over the place: some days you have two flights a day, others just one. BA2652, for example, departs just after 10am one day but at 14:10 the next.

Here is a screenshot from SeatSpy, indicating just how many seats are still available:

Heathrow Avios availability has virtually all dried up so this is primarily from the new Gatwick flights, and extends to the end of March.

London Gatwick to Geneva

Flights to Geneva are also being relaunched.

These will begin on the 4th December and tentatively run until 25th March, although I would be shocked if this isn’t extended to cover the school Easter holidays in the first few weeks of April.

There are two to three flights a day in early January, with as many as seven flights on peak Saturday and Sundays.

What is it like flying British Airways from Gatwick now?

When BA returned to short haul flying at Gatwick, it said it would be under a new subsidiary called Euroflyer. This is purely a structural change – BA hopes that the difference will be unnoticeable to your average passenger. There will be no difference in terms of baggage rules, seat selection, lounge access, food and drink etc – only to crew pay.

This includes access to the Galleries Club and First lounges reviewed here, and which in my opinion are superior to the Heathrow lounges.

Club Europe is fully catered (albeit not by DO&CO, although the food is still good) whilst you get a free bottle of water and bag of crisps in economy.

You can book flights on BA.com here.

PS. It also looks like BA has added Friday, Saturday and Sunday flights from Heathrow to Innsbruck from December until March. Avios availability is also wide open.

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How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (October 2023)

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.

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.

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.

EDIT: Applications for this card are temporarily suspended due to IT issues with the British Airways On Business SME loyalty scheme.

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.