Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Aggressive BA Business Class fares to the USA and Canada from £1,150 from Dublin

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British Airways and British Airways Holidays launched a new sale last week – we looked at the British Airways Holidays deals in an article on Friday.

Whilst the flight-only deals from London are not the greatest, there ARE some very good offers if you are happy to start your trip outside the UK.

Given the wide availability of these fares between October 2024 and April 2025, you have to wonder how well premium bookings are holding up. We already saw an enormous dump of Business Class Avios seats to the Maldives last week for example.

Very aggressive BA Business fares to the USA

Here is Dublin to New York JFK in Business Class for November at €1,355 (£1,150) return:

Very aggressive BA Business fares to the USA

Here’s a West Coast example (Los Angeles) for €1,655:

Very aggressive BA Business fares to the USA

Here’s a Paris example to Boston for €1,321. You can get it below €1,300 if you are happy to route Paris to Madrid to Boston:

Very aggressive BA Business fares to the USA

Here are some other Dublin examples courtesy of Luxury Flight Club:

  • Boston €1,556​
  • Denver €1,656​
  • Las Vegas €1,539​
  • Los Angeles €1,656​
  • Miami €1,537​
  • Montreal €1,569​
  • New York €1,337​
  • Orlando €1,520​
  • San Francisco €1,584​
  • Seattle €1,689
  • Toronto €1,511​
  • Vancouver €1,652​
  • Washington €1,534​

If you are thinking of booking any of these flights, remember the core rules:

  • you must take the first flight from Dublin, Paris etc – you CANNOT just hop on in London
  • on the way home, you could hop off in Heathrow if you have no checked baggage, but you’d be giving up 40 tier points from the last leg back to Dublin, Paris etc!
  • if you did have checked baggage, you could ensure it comes off at Heathrow (and so you can go straight home) by booking your last leg from Gatwick or London City Airport
  • you need to factor in the cost of getting to your starting point with enough leeway to deal with any delays, plus the time required to pick up your luggage and recheck it, if necessary – this could involve an overnight hotel stay to be certain

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (April 2025)

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:

Barclaycard Avios Plus card

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios card

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

Get 5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

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

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

30,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending £15,000 Read our full review

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.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 30,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

80,000 bonus points and great travel benefits – for a large fee Read our full review

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, and the standard card is FREE. Capital on Tap cards also have no FX fees.

Capital on Tap Visa

NO annual fee, NO FX fees and points worth 1 Avios per £1 Read our full review

Capital on Tap Pro Visa

10,500 points (=10,500 Avios) plus good benefits Read our full review

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

British Airways American Express Accelerating Business

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

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.

American Express Business Platinum

50,000 points when you sign-up and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and FREE for a year Read our full review

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

Comments (105)

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

  • David says:

    Dub-virtually anywhere in USA-mad is even cheaper from £971 (1135eur). Example to San José, Virginia, Columbus, Sacramento etc. Courtesy of travel-dealz dot de. Hope it’s ok to put this here Hfp team.

    • Rob says:

      You can’t hop off in Heathrow on the return though.

      • Colin MacKinnon says:

        But if you are in Scotland , it would be a flight MAD-EDI instead of LHR-EDI on a “normal” ticket?

      • Nancy says:

        Of course you can. Route back via London. If you have baggage then book a flight which arrives in LHR and depart to MAD from LGW. Just booked that exact fare last week.

        • Rob says:

          Obviously you can if you do that, but the fare example quoted is based on heading back via Madrid.

          • Ziggy says:

            DUB-LHR-USA-LHR-MAD is, I think, what’s being suggested.

          • Nancy says:

            The fare David mentioned has a starting point in DUB and ending at MAD (not via MAD).

          • david says:

            Yes, getting off at LHR I had as a given, needs to worked in or HBO. Ending at MAD is giving the cheapest fares.

          • Optimus Prime says:

            I think the ‘ending in Madrid’ trick to reduce the price used to work even for ex-UK trips, that’s why BA changed the Holiday Double TP rules to say ‘only one flight leaving UK is eligible ‘

      • Gordon says:

        I would not hop off at Heathrow until after 07:30 on Friday, there’s a border force strike!

  • Harry T says:

    These prices are pretty typical for ExDUB, including outside of “sale” periods.

  • davefl says:

    Also ex-Paris £1097 to BOS etc

  • Dan says:

    Can you reduce the cost of these flights further using avios?

  • Ian says:

    The Article suggests that these are via LHR, but it is not mentioned apart from the hopping off in London on the return.

    If I was doing this, I would only consider an overnight in Dublin. You used to be able to do a back to back but it is harder now.

    You could check your bags in early for the TA then fly to Dublin on an earlier flight.

    The risk is that if that flight is cancelled or delayed you might miss the first leg and so therefore would forfeit the entire trip.

    If hopping off in Heathrow on the return with bags, build in an overnight layover (under 24 hours) to not have the bags checked through.

    Although this is in breach of the rules you agree to in the ticket. Although not known anyone fined, although did here of travel agents being fined.

    • Harry T says:

      Yeah. I think the only reasonable safe approach is to stay overnight at DUB, having done this a few times.

    • NorthernLass says:

      On a 241 booking but we’re starting in DUB later this year flying F to MEX. The surcharges were £600 less than starting in MAN so some of that saving will pay for a mini break in Dublin, which we’ve not visited before. Now we’ve got the time, a city break before a long haul trip will be a fun part of the travel/redemption strategy.

      • Simin CH says:

        We do this too.
        Make the most of the opportunity.
        See the sights and if you book early, hotels are a bargain.

        • Rob says:

          Reward Flight Saver is due to launch for First Class soon so this option will disappear.

          • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:

            @Rob ohhh that’s interesting to know!

          • LittleNick says:

            How awful! That means a devaluation for F as it’s the same avios as J! No doubt avios required for F will increase, does that mean then though Barclays upgrade vouchers will work on F?

          • Rob says:

            Very unlikely the Barclays vouchers will change – that rule was in place before RFS appeared on long haul.

    • Simin CH says:

      Check out these routes, all via LHR and you can start in Dublin and end in Spain, take a few days there and head home afterwards. That’s what we do, staying a few days in Madrid and another trip in Barcelona.

      https://travel-dealz.de/deal/oneworld-business-irland-usa-spanien/

  • Paul says:

    Getting off in LHR on return with bags.
    Safest route to ensure this is routing via LGW or LCY on the very last leg. Whilst I have no recent experience of BA ex the the USA I did encounter issues with AA last year from LAX. Despite an overnight in LHR they would not allow me to check the bag to LHR. This was a first for me but nothing would move them. They were actually really rude and obstructive about it.
    On arrival in T3 I was able to retrieve the bag as my onward flight was to BUD.

  • Simin CH says:

    This is old news and I have been flying ex Dublin for years, also ex Budapest.
    As mentioned in here already, the Business class fare to most “Regional” airports in USA is undef £1000. A billed as low as Euro 1135. DUB-LHR-DFW-SAT for example, which I am flying this Thursday 2nd May.
    These are NOT new, this has been available for years, and always advertised on Travel-Dealz the German blog pages.

    Strange that you Inly just found this out, since I have put up half a dozen TP runs on here using this routing. 440TP and 25000 Avios was given prior to 18 Oct 2023 Bookings.

  • Matthias says:

    I assume these would also work for Silver TP runs eg DUB-LHR-JFK-LAX and back?

    • Simin CH says:

      Absolutely. My flight this week is 440 Avios.
      Although NOT for Avios points as the cost is so low and you get the multiplier x status so about 7000 Avios now, whereas my previos bookings got 25,000 per booking.

      • Matthias says:

        Thanks – although if you’re going to go all that way then surely worth going for the full 560 (or higher if you can manage Hawaii)

        • Simin CH says:

          I did Honolulu a couple of years back and got 30,000 plus Avios and the 560TP.
          But this weeks and later in the years trips are 440 TP each and over 25,000 Avios per person, as booked prior to the changes.
          We have a road trip around Texas, starting in San Antonio and another starting in Spokane, to see Idaho, Montana and South Dakota (Mt Rushmore).

      • david says:

        Travel-dealz states youd get 17,000 ish Avios with AerLingus.

        • Rob says:

          You’d need to spend almost €6,000 exc taxes to earn 17,000 Avios from an Aer Lingus flight book on aerlingus.com.

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

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