Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

British Airways adds new Cape Town flights for Winter 2025

Links on Head for Points may support the site by paying a commission.  See here for all partner links.

EDIT: This article is now out of date. The missing Club World seats appeared around 10.30pm on Thursday night. If you are reading this on Friday morning then some Avios seats in business class should still be there, although probably not for the Christmas and New Year period.

British Airways has just announced an additional (third) daily flight to Cape Town for this winter.

Something weird is happening though. There is NO Avios availability in Club World on these services.

There IS the full roster of World Traveller Plus seats (two per flight) and World Traveller seats (eight per flight) – but not a sausage up front.

British Airways adds new Cape Town flights

The additional flights will operate outbound on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday from Sunday 9th November, with the return flight leaving the following day.

The outbound leaves Heathrow at 8.30pm, arriving in Cape Town at 10.20am.

The inbound leaves Cape Town at 10pm, arriving in Heathrow at 8.00am.

British Airways is using a Boeing 787 which means no First Class. It IS scheduled to have Club Suite.

Where are the business class Avios seats?

Here is a SeatSpy screenshot (SeatSpy is our recommended reward seat notification service) showing World Traveller Plus seats in blue and Club World seats in green.

Click to enlarge:

Cape Town Avios availability

Yes, lots of blue. The expected two Avios seats per flight in World Traveller Plus are available on all of the new flights as of 2.45pm on Thursday..

No green though. Nothing, not a sausage, in business class.

Given this is BA, let’s not put down to conspiracy that which can be explained by IT.

Let’s assume that those guaranteed four business class seats per flight will appear at some point very soon. If you’re interested in booking, keep an eye on the availability.

The Avios cost, excluding any vouchers you may have is (peak / off-peak):

  • World Traveller – 60,000 or 70,000 Avios + £150 return
  • World Traveller Plus – 95,000 or 135,000 Avios + £355 return
  • Club World – 180,000 or 200,000 Avios + £475 return

This is the ‘most Avios, least cash’ option which is usually the best value choice – and will certainly be the best value choice if using a British Airways American Express 2-4-1 companion voucher. If you have a Barclaycard upgrade voucher, it is your only choice!

PS. If you are not a regular Head for Points visitor, why not sign up for our FREE weekly or daily newsletters? They are full of the latest Avios, airline, hotel and credit card points news and will help you travel better. To join our 65,000 free subscribers, click the button below or visit this page of the site to find out more. Thank you.

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

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.

Category

British Airways and Avios

Comments (46)

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

  • jjoohhnn says:
    6 Mar6 March 15:15

    Weds 6th Feb has green..

  • NorthernLass says:
    6 Mar6 March 15:32

    SeatSpy has been wrong quite a lot recently. Also only seems to be able to show a maximum of 4 seats in economy (at least on the version I have). Always double check on ba.com before getting too excited!

    • NorthernLass says:
      6 Mar6 March 15:33

      Surcharges are wrong as well!

    • Rob says:
      6 Mar6 March 15:34

      Unsurprisingly I actually went to ba.com and double checked 🙂

      • Craig says:
        6 Mar6 March 15:40

        Yeah – nothing on Ba.com in business and the premium eco seats for the day I wanted were gone pronto….

      • Cheryl D says:
        6 Mar6 March 16:35

        Any thoughts on when/if the business flights will appear

        • Rob says:
          6 Mar6 March 16:38

          No, and when they do you’ll only have an hour or so before the best dates are gone. Good use for a SeatSpy subscription!

          • Cheryl D says:
            6 Mar6 March 17:17

            I was an early member so am fortunate to pay a low monthly fee and in theory get Instant notifications. I love SeatSpy. The PE notification came through this afternoon at 13.34 .
            I already have our outward flight booked for December (via the US call centre although I actually spoke to a very helpful agent in Newcastle) but have friends trying to book their trip
            at the moment. Too soon for our return yet but 3 flights a day is great and gives more availability online when they are released.

  • Garethgerry says:
    6 Mar6 March 16:43

    Any idea when 787 will get club suite, looking for April 26, but will avoid this flight if no club suite

    • Jetstreamer says:
      6 Mar6 March 16:58

      Assuming this is a 787-8 route (mentions no F so must be), there are currently 3 of 12 aircraft refitted with Club Suites. Presumably a few more will be refitted by the winter. So let’s call it a 50/50 shot of CS on these flights!

    • GH says:
      6 Mar6 March 23:13

      Also no wifi on unrefurbished 788…

  • Littlefish says:
    6 Mar6 March 18:14

    BA website has had a glitch recently where CPT availability in CW fails to materialise when checking the date.
    The underlying availability looks to be there “seats available” then drops when clicking in on the date.
    Same thing happened with GLA a few months ago.
    Hopefully this HFP article will prompt BA to fix it.

  • Mike P says:
    6 Mar6 March 21:41

    Just booked outbound on Dec 19th and inbound on Jan 3rd on those flights so I think there is availability now

    • Aston100 says:
      6 Mar6 March 23:15

      Well done – those are the most optimum dates for English school Christmas holidays I think.

      • Mike P says:
        7 Mar7 March 06:43

        Thanks, fortunate timing. I only needed one seat which clearly makes it easier but the dates were perfect for me.

  • Seb says:
    6 Mar6 March 22:04

    Is the most avios, least cash option being the best value a change? I always thought that, assuming 1 avios is 1p, the better value was found about midway down the list?

  • Thegasman says:
    6 Mar6 March 22:33

    Yes, I’ve just picked up 4 J returns in January. Allegedly CS according to seat map but not expecting that to stick.

  • Michael says:
    6 Mar6 March 22:53

    While BA promises to make 4 business class award seats available on every flight, it doesn’t state when they will be available. To date it has made them available from the flight opening for booking, but it doesn’t have to, as long as they are available at some point!

    This reminds me of the back to back (B2B) arguments – that you are safe on a B2B separate ticket connection with sequential flight numbers as on BA the outbound always operates the return. Some of us will be familiar with other, more nimble, airlines where disruption can cause flights to be merged or chopped and changed to get people on their way.

    BA tends to operate as a London-centric out-and-back airline with reward seats opened at t-355 or flight opening for bookings but there’s no hard and fast rule saying they have to!

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

New to Head for Points?

Welcome!  We’re the UK’s most-read source of business travel, Avios, frequent flyer and hotel loyalty news. Let us improve how you travel. Got any questions? Ask them in our forums.

Get 25,000 Avios with the Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

GET A SIGN-UP BONUS OF 18,000 VIRGIN POINTS!

Latest Forum Posts

Get 80,000 bonus points (worth 80,000 Avios) and £400 of dining credit with The Platinum Card (Offer ends 27th May)

Check reward flight availability instantly for free!

See a whole year of reward seat availability on one page at SeatSpy.com

Get up to 10,000 bonus Hilton Honors points

Booking a luxury hotel?

Our luxury hotel booking service offers you GUARANTEED extra benefits over booking direct. Works with Four Seasons, Mandarin Oriental, The Ritz Carlton, St Regis and more. We've booked £1.7 million of rooms to date. Click for details.

SME? GET THE ONLY FREE SMALL BUSINESS CREDIT CARD WHICH CAN EARN AVIOS

Get points worth 30,000 Avios with 'first year free' American Express Gold (ends 27th May)

The UK's biggest frequent flyer website uses cookies, which you can block via your browser settings. Continuing implies your consent to this policy. Our privacy policy is here.

Got it!