British Airways launches more ‘Avios only’ flights for late 2023 and Easter 2024

British Airways recently launched ‘Avios only’ flights, copying a successful Qantas initiative.

Selected flights in the schedule are withdrawn for cash sale with every single seat opened up for Avios redemption.

The second batch has now become available for booking.

There is a subtle change for this second round of ‘Avios only’ flights.

For the first batch, only OUTBOUND flights were ‘Avios only‘. There were no dedicated return flights, although BA told us that they had increased Avios availability over the following week to hopefully allow everyone to get back.

This time, there is a dedicated outbound flight and a dedicated inbound flight. YOU DON’T NEED TO BOOK BOTH but you shouldn’t have problems getting back on the dedicated return date even if all other flights that week have no Avios availability.

Here are the options. Note that there is a concentration of flights over next Easter which will be attractive to many.

Route	Outbound date	Inbound date
London Gatwick to Las Palmas	15 November 2023	22 November 2023
London Gatwick to Lanzarote	4 December 2023	11 December 2023
London Heathrow to Barcelona	29 March 2024	7 April 2024
London Heathrow to Nice	29 March 2024	7 April 2024
London Gatwick to Tenerife	29 March 2024	7 April 2024

The Avios pricing for these flights is the same as usual – there are no surcharges or special conditions.

You can use British Airways American Express 2-4-1 vouchers or Barclays Avios Upgrade vouchers if you wish. The usual cancellation rules apply (£35 per person fee or the Reward Flight Saver fee paid, whichever is lower).

I still think that British Airways isn’t making the most of these offers. If it really wants to make a splash, let’s open up a full Boeing 777 to the Middle East over October half term. This would get people talking. It could also tie these flights into a special event, such as a European pride festival.

I also think there is also potential to do a deal with local hotels to offer special rates to anyone who books these flights. You could add a drinks reception midweek with BA representatives for all of the passengers, irrespective of where they stay.

It is still early days for ‘Avios only’ flights, however. If you want to book one of these trips, I would jump in quickly as the first batch sold out within 24 hours.

PS. The hotel image above is the Hyatt Regency Palais de la Méditerranée hotel, Nice which we recently reviewed