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British Airways increases Chicago flights

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British Airways has added an extra flight to Chicago next summer, taking the total number of daily flights to three.

The new flight slots in nicely between the existing 11:05 and 15:35 departures:

  • BA299 departs Heathrow at 13:10 and arrives in Chicago at 15:50
  • BA298 departes Chicago at 19:10 and arrives in London at 09:00 the following morning
The St Regis Chicago

Flights start on 11th May and run until the end of BA’s current booking window. Assuming it is a seasonal addition, I would expect it to operate until sometime in September or October.

This is a real capacity increase with an additional 787-10 being added to the existing 777 and 787-10 services. The 787-10 comes with eight First Class seats and is fitted with Club Suite.

The flight is currently wide-open for Avios redemptions, with the full four Club, two World Traveller Plus and eight World Traveller seats open on most days. An off-peak business class redemption costs 160,000 Avios plus £350 return if you take the ‘most Avios, least cash’ option.

You can book on the BA website here.

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How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (October 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.

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There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

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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.

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There is also a British Airways American Express card for small businesses:

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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.

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Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.

Category

British Airways and Avios

Comments (23)

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

  • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:
    30 Sep30 September 04:47

    TFL has a 6 month look ahead for engineering closures. Updated weekly on a rolling basis

    https://content.tfl.gov.uk/planned-track-closures.pdf

    It also has the Christmas and Easter closures on it

  • Jay-Marc says:
    30 Sep30 September 07:25

    The engineering work is more extensive than the spur line. Paddington main line is closed all day. Long distance services will start/terminate at Reading. Local services start at Slough in the morning and Ealing Broadway later.

  • masaccio says:
    30 Sep30 September 08:14

    It’d be nice if they returned that afternoon Chicago flight to later in the day. It gave an option other than NYC for a Friday after work getaway.

    • Blair Waldorf Salad says:
      30 Sep30 September 11:04

      I spoke to Aer Lingus cabin crew who said the provision of free wifi in the J cabin means that since lockdown, they’ve noticed many people taking morning flights to the US on a Friday for a long weekend by ‘working’ on the plane.

  • Catalan says:
    30 Sep30 September 08:22

    Rob. The 160,000 Avios you quote is for a return flight. Not oneway as you state in the article.

  • Mark says:
    30 Sep30 September 09:11

    I get that it’s all about revenue but it’s frustrating to see places like Chicago go 3x daily instead of reinstating some of the lost SE Asia routes. Very dull.

    • Richie says:
      30 Sep30 September 10:02

      The BA B787-10 is a premium heavy aircraft with no economy seats in front of the rear doors, Chicago is not that far from Heathrow and the aircraft can easily do 2 sectors per day. It’s a bit if a cash cow really.

    • JDB says:
      30 Sep30 September 10:44

      And in addition to @Richie’s points, BA already has an infrastructure in Chicago and it is an AA hub city so lots of efficiencies.

      • Nick says:
        30 Sep30 September 10:51

        BA are also moving terminals in ORD which will allow significantly easier connections to and from AA (and of course the Flagship lounge). This may also go some way to explaining the additional flight…

    • Blair Waldorf Salad says:
      30 Sep30 September 11:06

      A great city though. Has lost much of the midmarket retail in the city centre (upper and lower markets remain robust), but the place is chocka with new restaurants and casual eateries arising from the continued regeneration of the riverfront. Also IMO the best AA Flagship lounge

  • Mankhool says:
    30 Sep30 September 09:28

    For 70% bonus you would receive 140k points and for 60% for 124k is 86800

  • Ben says:
    30 Sep30 September 12:53

    Rob – help me understand the maths of buying virgin points. Yes you’re buying them for a cheap $ per point, but with all the fees virgin charges on redemption the effective value of a point is much lower.

    Say London to New York, in Upper Class is 78,700 + £1000.21, total cost = £1692. With advance purchase you can often find cash fares for a similar cost, so why tie up your money in virgin points? Is there anyway to spend the points without incurring the ridiculous fees?

    • Rob says:
      30 Sep30 September 17:39

      The article specifically says DON’T tie up your cash in points if you don’t need them.

      However …. a) you can’t buy an Upper Class J ticket for £1692 at present, b) you can NEVER buy one without a Sat night stay for anything near that sum, c) your points ticket is fully refundable.

      If you happy to travel at some random future time and are totally unconstrained by school holidays, annual leave schedules at work etc and will definitely stay a Saturday night and will definitely not need to cancel after booking then, yes, cash will suit you better in a sale.

      • Chrisasaurus says:
        30 Sep30 September 20:54

        Fully refundable back to *points* though so still locked into VS (for all practical intents and purposes)

        • Rob says:
          1 Oct1 October 09:45

          Having a pile of ‘never expire’ points is vastly prefereable to losing (completely) a pile of cash on a non-refundable flight.

  • TrainDriverSparky says:
    30 Sep30 September 18:01

    There are no trains in or out of Heathrow on Saturday 25th or Sunday 26th. Source: https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/search/detailed/gb-nr:HXX/2023-11-25/0000-2359?stp=WVS&show=all&order=wtt

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

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