Now it’s Dubai – wide-open business class Avios availability in January, February and March

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• Jimbo says:

  1 May1 May 07:42

  Only aspirational tw@ts go to morally bankrupt places like Dubai. They claim that drugs, prostitution and homosexuality are all illegal yet these all exist BIG TIME. It’s a cultural desert with almost no record of good human rights, to say nothing of rampant misogyny. Why would you go other than to boast you’ve been to a shopping mall in the desert?

  • Dominic says:

    1 May1 May 08:10

    Guaranteed winter sun?

    Laughable that you say this – drugs also illegal in the UK, yet exists BIG TIME. Prostitution exists everywhere in the world – legal or not.

  • Charles Martel says:

    1 May1 May 08:32

    Not my cup of tea. It does boggle my mind that guardian reading sourpusses find it acceptable to go there.

  • Dennis says:

    1 May1 May 13:17

    Ermmm….best restaurants in the world, fantastic weather Oct-Apr, the best place for holidaying with kids, tourists feel much safer in Dubai than they do in other parts of the world?

    • Throwawayname says:

      1 May1 May 17:31

      Don’t forget that, due to the huge amount of foreigners working in the UAE, a lot of people have friends and/or family there. I wouldn’t want to go back purely as a tourist, but I might be tempted to visit friends for a long weekend or squeeze a couple of nights into a stopover.

• Mikeact says:

  1 May1 May 07:52

  Each to their own I guess….we personally, wouldn’t want to go…
  working trips were enough for me.

• Sarah says:

  1 May1 May 08:00

  There has also been another big dump of avios availability to the Maldives Nov – March

  • Rhys says:

    1 May1 May 08:52

    See our other article!

    • Sarah says:

      1 May1 May 09:06

      Oops, I hadn’t got as far as that one!

• Vbop says:

  1 May1 May 09:02

  I went BA Business Class to Dubai in March for the first time. Club suite out and old (A380) seats back. Both overnight flights, had a companion voucher about to expire. Whilst i really liked a lot about Dubai, afternoon tea at the Burg al Arab was sublime. I will not do the trip overnight again. In both directions i was awake all night with crying children and utterly indifferent parents. It was like a nursery, absolute carnage. I have (grown up) children and we never took them Business until they knew how to behave. I would be an advocate of a minimum age limit of children in premium cabins.

  • Gordon says:

    1 May1 May 09:52

    I’d recommend GOOD ear plugs! I actually slept through and missed breakfast on a recent J flight from LAS, also if I’m wearing the noise cancelling headphones watching the IFE I don’t really hear anything. We always choose seats the furthest away from the Bassinet seating, just to give an advantage.

    • Denis says:

      1 May1 May 13:18

      +1

  • Jonathan says:

    1 May1 May 10:11

    Complain to BA about them putting children in the premium cabins and can’t behave themselves. A luxury restaurant won’t tolerate children disturbing other diner’s experience, so why should it be any different on an airline ?

    • Gordon says:

      1 May1 May 10:37

      As long as BA has a desired occupancy in premium cabins, (including parents paying for their children to be in such a cabin) complaining will be a waste of time.

      Regarding restaurants and children ruining other diners experiences, this was once the case, and would not be tolerated, but sadly not so often now, it comes down to the same fact, that with so much competition, the restaurants need bums on seats, to make the business profitable, and if they have that, then they are not overly fussed about loosing the odd customers, as there will be plenty to take their place.
      Times have moved on now, and the world has become more child tolerant.

      • Throwawayname says:

        1 May1 May 13:18

        The flights are too short to get a decent amount of sleep. If you are not very pressed for time you are better off flying TK/A3 in Y with complimentary catering and a nice stop in the middle of the journey to stretch your legs.

      • KS says:

        1 May1 May 13:40

        Probably two main groups who take their children in business class or better, rich people and frequent flyers with lots of Avios. I don’t see any airline saying no to either of those groups anytime soon.

    • Martin says:

      1 May1 May 16:27

      I can gladly say, that on the odd occasion that our son played up between the age of 2 + 3, we were that family with a screaming child.
      His seat was paid for so he had a right to sit in it.
      Most people were very understanding if he cried during taxi and take off strapped into his seat, however there was always the odd stuck up person that would make the comment “he shouldn’t be allowed in business class”
      Never really understood why it would be more acceptable for him to cry in economy..
      Apart from being a “NIMBY”

      • Throwawayname says:

        1 May1 May 17:27

        As business class can often be a miserable experience, perhaps they meant that you should’ve shown some sympathy to poor fellow pax and chartered a private jet instead!

• James says:

  1 May1 May 09:34

  According to SeatSpy there are no more than 4 business any any flights around that time.

  • Rob says:

    1 May1 May 10:16

    SeatSpy is wrong. I noticed this yesterday – it can’t see beyond four seats per flight. The BA screenshot in the article makes it very clear there are 9+.

    • James says:

      1 May1 May 10:58

      Good point yes. Being a family of 5 and paying a SeatSpy subscription for this situation i shall be having a word….

• Manya says:

  1 May1 May 09:48

  Who remembers the 50% discount on AVIOS flights to the Middle East that BA ran 10 or so years ago?

  Effectively made it an actual 25% cost of AVIOS per person when doubled up with a companion voucher. Need more deals like that!

  • tony says:

    1 May1 May 11:21

    It was worldwide, not just Middle East. Fees were reasonable and wasn’t North America 100k in J, 80k if it was the very North East corner?

    • TGLoyalty says:

      1 May1 May 23:22

      That wasn’t 20 years ago I think it was during the first Covid “reopening” then everything was slammed shut again in late 2020 but perhaps it was late 2019 and people were just having seats cancelled because of the various lockdowns.

• Rich says:

  1 May1 May 14:29

  I lost my Diamond status in March 2024, I also forgot to ask for the one-time extension in time (as I thought I qualified, but turns out I don’t). I just messaged them on chat and asked if they would give me a fast-track to diamond or do the one-time status extension anyway, and the agent said I qualified apart from I didn’t have the 250 nights needed, however she said they would give me the extension as a one-off good-will gesture! And my account updated immediately. This is amazing customer services and shows that if you ask nicely, you sometimes get. Will make a big difference as I have 2 x 7 nights booked for Dubai this year and next year so will save me a fortune in the Exec lounge!

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