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NOW BOOKABLE: new ‘Avios only’ flights to Abu Dhabi and Faro for Easter 2025

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British Airways has launched two new Avios-only flghts for Easter 2025. These are bookable now.

Both flights will operate on Friday 18th April which is Good Friday, returning eight days later.

There are two options:

  • Abu Dhabi
  • Faro

Abu Dhabi will be the second long haul flight to operate under the ‘Avios only’ scheme. The first is a Dubai service over October half term, which I am booked on.

ALL seats in ALL cabins are available for redemption. The Abu Dhabi flight is currently showing as a Boeing 787-9 with old-style Club World and no First Class.

Faro will obviously be a typical BA short haul service with Club Europe and Euro Traveller.

Important: most schools are NOT on holiday that week

Easter is very late in 2025 and most schools will not be off that week.

Looking at my own children, schools will break up on either Friday 28th March or Friday 4th April and return on Tuesday 22nd April.

When will the ‘Avios only’ flights run?

Here are the flights, which are now bookable:

  • Abu Dhabi outbound – Friday 18th April – 22.25 Heathrow, lands 08.30 Abu Dhabi
  • Abu Dhabi return – Saturday 26th April – 10.10 Abu Dhabi, lands 15.20 Heathrow
  • Faro outbound – Friday 18th April – 13.10 Heathrow, lands 16.05 Faro
  • Faro return – Saturday 26th April – 11.55 Faro, lands 14.40 Heathrow
British Airways 'Avios only' flight for Easter to Abu Dhabi

As per the image above, remember that Abu Dhabi is only a 40 minute cheap taxi ride to Dubai – although Abu Dhabi has lots of decent beach resorts in its own right. Remember that hotel rates in the resorts will be at peak levels over Easter although the lack of British families may see some bargains appearing.

The pricing options for Club World to Abu Dhabi are:

  • 170,000 Avios + £375
  • 140,000 Avios + £635
  • 110,000 Avios + £850
  • 96,000 Avios + £1,195
  • 68,000 Avios + £1,515
  • 48,000 Avios + £1,750

If you have a British Airways American Express 2-4-1 voucher AND you value an Avios at 1p, the cheapest option is 170,000 Avios + £375 (ie 170,000 Avios + £750 for two people). The 140,000 and 110,000 Avios options are not far off. The worst deals by far are the 48,000 and 68,000 Avios options.

If you do NOT have a companion voucher AND you value an Avios at 1p, the cheapest option is 110,000 Avios + £850 per person. The other options are not a lot worse though. except for the 180,000 Avios deal.

Remember that all Avios seats are cancellable for a £35 per person fee. All points and taxes will be returned. You can cancel for free within 24 hours of booking if you want to book now and ask your partner later.

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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.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on the ‘free for a year’ American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card is increased from 20,000 Membership Rewards points to 30,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (30,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on American Express Platinum is increased from 50,000 Membership Rewards points to a huge 80,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (80,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

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

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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.

Category

British Airways and Avios

Comments (32)

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

  • SonicStar817 says:
    25 Jul25 July 12:20

    Wasn’t there a BGI Avios only flight as well?

  • AndrewF says:
    25 Jul25 July 12:28

    Dammit. Our kids go back to school the day after Easter Monday so that’s us out of contention this time round. Hey ho. You win some, you lose some.

    • The real Swiss Tony says:
      25 Jul25 July 12:43

      I think that will be the case for the vast majority of schools. Maybe private ones will be off two weeks before Easter and one after.

      I’ve also been watching the price of cabs between AUH and Dubai creep up over the years. Think it was about £50 when I first tried this but then paid over £80 for a rather nail biting Careem ride last month.

  • MPC says:
    25 Jul25 July 12:57

    Ah i got excited for a fraction of a second there as misread it as “Far East” –

  • babyg says:
    25 Jul25 July 13:49

    really dont see the value here… I bought a BA cash flight (only to DOHA) a few months ago for around 1200 quid return for the F1 weekend in December… plus there are many other cash deals from other carriers that make this seem like a poor deal

    • Rob says:
      25 Jul25 July 14:28

      Get some kids and try booking for prime weeks.

      No sensible childless couple should book this. Quick look at hotels shows you’re looking at £800 per night in Dubai for something decent on the beach.

    • TGLoyalty says:
      25 Jul25 July 14:34

      That was an error date that lasted about 12 hours

  • djdj says:
    25 Jul25 July 14:46

    Bkk flights also released today for Easter holidays

  • Simon CH says:
    25 Jul25 July 16:10

    Another BA rip off!!!

    I flew this last month where it was 160,000 and £700 for two with Amex voucher.
    They have increased taxes and increased redemption for this flight.

    Just goes to show how they try and hide their higher redemptions and charges!!!
    Another wayBA is devalued the Avios and increased taxes.

    • Matthew says:
      25 Jul25 July 16:15

      Peak/Off-peak pricing maybe?

    • Bernard says:
      25 Jul25 July 16:22

      We dumped Amex for hsbc premier world elite.
      A few less avios but you earn avios buying fares on other airlines often cheaper than avios redemption costs.

      Fly enough and lounges (tbf increasingly chased-out) and the £18 dinning credit has real value – as does 10pct of Expedia and agoda hotel booking (but be wary of Agoda’s rip-off fx rates on overseas hotels).

      With BA’s monthly devaluations and almost monthly increases to the made up £££ add-ons the whole scheme and 241s are for the truly (over)committed or the financially ignorant nowadays.

      • Bernard says:
        26 Jul26 July 08:10

        Views on value will differ between individuals.

        However, let’s assume your 1p is correct (and I doubt it).

        London- Nashville. Using BA 241 it can be 112,000 avios plus 2x £1375 in taxes so £3870 plus 295 card fee. Ie £4165.
        A fare using Delta One, connecting but with much better timed flights (BA isn’t daily) is £4,400 for two (platinum Amex might get better though).
        So keeping tied to BA and Amex has saved you £235. But you’ve got inferior flight times/days,
        Sure you’ve got some flexibility but so does that Delta fare for $250.

        Meanwhile I have the pick of the best, two of us would have potentially £72 of dinning credits at airports (reducing the savings to £163).
        In addition we’ll have earned 5500 avios (with regular 25pct bonus), worth £55 to you. So the saving for being inflexibly tied in is just £108.
        Your Amex doesn’t have any hotel deals, so if I’m booking about £1000 of hotels (so about 2-3 nights in the US) then HSBC has then saved me more than your saving.

        It all depends on circumstances but it’s very individual.
        M

  • Ross says:
    25 Jul25 July 16:15

    40 mins to Dubai? Sure. The border perhaps but it’s at least 60 mins to get to Jumeriah or 70 mins to downtown

    I’m surprised this is even a thing. I’ve been flying AUH with BA since they restarted (at least twice a month in J) and the cabins have just been full of staff traveling (I’m
    Not exaggerating when I say 90% of the cabin). They’ve all been flying into AUH and then scooting down to Dubai.

  • Ricardos-Alpert says:
    25 Jul25 July 16:18

    Would it be possible to use 2 Companion vouchers for 3 people on this route?

    • babyg says:
      25 Jul25 July 16:33

      if two diffirent people have 1 voucher each – then yes with separate bookings

      • Rob says:
        25 Jul25 July 16:42

        Can only be done with ‘1 voucher holder + kid’ on 241 and ‘1 voucher holder’ booked separately at 50% off, with the two voucher holders being different people.

        • Jake says:
          25 Jul25 July 22:43

          Rob- this seems a little bonkers it has to be in two people’s names.

          If you can use two vouchers for four, why not for three?

          Surely it’s a very easy customer satisfaction win with minimal costs?

          Do BA have a reason for not implementing?

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