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British Airways launches two new ‘Avios only’ flights for October 2025 half term

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‘Avios only’ flights are back!

British Airways has released two short-haul flights for October 2025 where EVERY seat in both cabins is available for Avios redemption.

It seems that these flights have been available for booking since 11th March, although it was clearly a very low key launch. Seats are still available.

New Avios only flight

Here are your options:

Malaga, from London Heathrow

  • Flying out on Sunday 26th October at 08.25
  • Flying back on Sunday 2nd November at 13.10

Marrakech, from London Heathrow

  • Flying out on Saturday 25th October at 07.30
  • Flying back on Saturday 1st November at 15.55

At the time of writing there are NO economy seats available back from Marrakech. I don’t know if this is an IT error or genuinely no availability, because the outbound flight is wide open in Economy. Both flights are wide open in Business / Club Europe.

Malaga is wide open in both cabins on both flights.

How do you book Avios-only flights?

It is identical to booking any other Avios flight. Go to ba.com, search for Avios flights and these services will (if seats remain) show.

You can use Barclaycard upgrade vouchers or British Airways American Express 2-4-1 companion vouchers if you wish, and the usual cancellation rules (the lowest of £35 per person or the cash supplement paid) apply.

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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

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 (28)

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

  • AndyGWP says:
    17 Mar17 March 10:40

    I got an alert about these last week from the Avios iOS app fwiw…

  • freckles says:
    17 Mar17 March 10:51

    Someone did mention on the daily chat thread at the time

  • tony says:
    17 Mar17 March 11:14

    I saw a plug on the BA site for a longer than usual list of Avios only flights a few days back, but didn’t bother to dig further as i’m kind of out of Avios now…

  • Richie says:
    17 Mar17 March 11:21

    Surprised at Marrakech as a destination, Tenerife TFS may have been more popular.

    • Mark says:
      17 Mar17 March 12:03

      We flew to Marrakech a few weeks ago, and there were WAY too many children in the cabin lol. I think a lot of families go to the resorts outside the city and never leave the compound except on an organised trip.

    • NorthernLass says:
      17 Mar17 March 12:27

      Possibly BA knows they will sell all the TFS seats for silly amounts of cash 🤷‍♀️. Malaga is risky for weather in late October, you can sometimes get 3/4 days of rain in a 7-day holiday which makes things a bit of a drag with kids!

  • JD Beds says:
    17 Mar17 March 13:44

    These have been available for almost a week. It was mentioned in the chat last Tuesday/Wednesday

    • Scott says:
      17 Mar17 March 15:28

      This was been known since mid-morning. It was reported in comments above 4/5 hours ago.

  • Ed says:
    17 Mar17 March 14:28

    Is anyone else getting a continual error when searching for award seats on BA?

    • Rob says:
      17 Mar17 March 14:37

      Yes, is an issue on some routes and has been for a few days. Other routes ok.

      • Paul says:
        17 Mar17 March 19:47

        Rob it’s not just Avios. Hotline fares for staff hasn’t been working for 10 days of more. Staff being to book via the public pages. They really don’t care!
        It’s bizarre in that some can book some routes while someone else cannot. Clearing history cache or using a different browser does not help!

    • Veyron says:
      17 Mar17 March 15:01

      Yep, getting an error when searching routes operated by Qatar Airways out of/into Doha. Worked fine about a week ago. Wondering if this is permanent or will be fixed as I need to book something soon.

      • Ed says:
        17 Mar17 March 15:17

        It’s so frustrating, I’m also getting close to the date to make a T-355 booking and if this carries on it will ruin my options and make my avios pretty useless.

    • ADS says:
      21 Mar21 March 17:53

      searching for reward seats from LHR to both EDI and BHD regularly results in error message – depending on the date

      sometimes you can search for a date a couple of days before or after what you actually want, and then click on the date you want – it’s seriously shabby!

  • Jimmy6 says:
    17 Mar17 March 17:17

    Just back from Agadir couple of weeks ago on the old tier point run!

    Actually very nice weather, much better than canaries, much cheaper, and very relaxing.

    And yes, made Gold 🙂

  • David says:
    17 Mar17 March 18:24

    Have BA ever heard of Manchester

    • G says:
      17 Mar17 March 21:31

      I thought it was that island off the Falklands or was it a shoe shop?

    • Points Hound says:
      18 Mar18 March 00:04

      If its one of the town’s in the North that they run less than half the number of daily flights from than other domestic locations like Glasgow and Edinburgh, they have yes 👍🏻

      • Andrew. says:
        18 Mar18 March 08:14

        Not comparing like with like though.

        From Edinburgh & Glasgow there is still a core commuter, business, and crew travel flow to Heathrow & City, and the domestic connecting flights are a bonus.

        If you’re in Manchester the core is the domestic connections, the commuter & business travel moved to the 2h06m rail services to central London when the Pendolinos were introduced. It’s just not sensible to fly when the time spent at the airport exceeds the time sat on the train.

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

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