AVIOS SALE: Save 40%-45% on many British Airways reward flights!

British Airways is offering a 40% discount on Avios redemptions across parts of its network! Select routes enjoy an additional 5% discount for a total of 45% off.

British Airways doesn’t run these offers very often. The last Reward Flight Sale I can remember was in late 2020.

The offer applies to both peak and off-peak reward flights in economy (worldwide) and business (Club Europe / short haul only). Let’s jump into the details.

The offer is outlined on the British Airways website here.

The first key restriction is that long haul premium economy, business class and first class redemptions are not included.

The second key restriction is that not all routes are included. Only 30 Heathrow destinations are taking part, for example. There are lists on ba.com.

For added fun, some routes are only on sale from certain airports, eg Nice from London City but not London Heathrow.

Dubai, looking at the examples given by BA, only shows a 10% discount. It’s not clear how many other routes are not giving the full 40%.

When can you travel and what will you pay?

The offer is valid for bookings made by 23rd July (next Wednesday) for travel between 1st August 2025 and 11th February 2026. Christmas is excluded, with a blackout period from 19th December 2025 to 4th January 2026.

The discount applies only to the Avios portion of the booking.

You’ll still be on the hook for the taxes and fees which are now fixed thanks to the rollout of Reward Flight Saver across both short haul and long haul routes. You can see a full chart of Avios pricing across all British Airways routes here.

To see the discounted rates, just log into your BA Club account and book a flight with Avios. The price will automatically be adjusted. Note that you won’t see the offer mentioned on the booking page beyond the lower fares displayed.

No new seats are being opened for Avios redemption, so you’re reliant on booking what’s left. It’s not hard to find good deals though.

A quick search for flights to Toronto clearly showed the reduced pricing in action, with an off-peak one way economy flight normally priced at 25,000 Avios + £50 one-way, now showing as 15,000 Avios:

The discount applies in both directions. You can book either one-way flights or returns. In the above example, a one-way flight from Toronto to Heathrow is also priced at 15,000 Avios + £50.

An additional 5% off to select destinations

British Airways is increasing the discount to 45% on certain destinations. It’s not clear if this is an exhaustive list, but the BA website highlights the following routes as having an additional 5% off:

45% off	Original price
Cologne: £1 + 10,175 Avios	£1 + 18,500 Avios
Jersey: £1 + 10,175 Avios	£1 + 18,500 Avios
Budapest: £1 + 12,925 Avios	£1 + 23,500 Avios
Madeira: £1 + 15,125 Avios	£1 + 27,500 Avios
Barbados: £150 + 33,000 Avios	£150 + 60,000 Avios

Can you use vouchers on top?

You CAN use British Airways American Express 2-4-1 Companion Vouchers.

There is contrasting reader feedback below on whether or not you can use a Barclays Upgrade Voucher. No-one in the office has one to test!

Should you cancel existing bookings?

It depends ….

You absolutely should NOT cancel an Avios booking if you cannot see seats available to rebook. Under no circumstances should you gamble that the seats you cancel will go back into reward inventory – although they might.

To be totally safe, you should – if you have enough Avios – make the new booking before you cancel the old one. This means that you are not stuck if the seats you see are snapped up between cancellation and rebooking, or if the availability you see isn’t correct.

Remember that you will pay a fee to cancel your existing booking. This is the lower of, per person, £35 or the amount of taxes and charges you paid.

If you had originally booked an ‘Avios + £1’ ticket you are guaranteed to be better off by rebooking. You’d need to be saving at least 3,500 Avios per person, and hopefully more, before it was worth paying a £35 cancellation fee.

Beware that Avios availability is currently ‘odd’

On 1st July, British Airways rolled out a new pricing system for its flights. To put it simply, people in different countries using a travel agent should now see the same price for the same flight – this was previously not the case.

British Airways would, for example, release more of the cheapest tickets for a flight for travel agents in (say) Australia than it would in the UK. You were not meant to be able to buy these tickets if you were outside the country concerned but you would find the odd rogue agent.

The reason we mention this is that, since 1st July, Avios reward availability has been all over the place. Some readers have reported bizarrely large numbers of seats showing for the ‘extra’ availability in business given to American Express 2-4-1 Companion Voucher holders.

First Class redemptions were virtually wiped out but have started to reappear in recent days, albeit only for travel in the short term. There are ZERO First Class seats to New York JFK beyond 27th August for example.

Some short haul routes are also showing virtually nothing in the short term (Stockholm has no outbound seats in any class until 27th August) but this could just be summer holiday related.

It’s all very odd, and we are currently assuming it is an IT issue rather than a mix of new strategies to restrict availability. The situation has definitely improved in the last few days – Malaga had no flights showing for the next seven weeks but is now back to pretty good availability (in fact, excellent given it is July / August).

Conclusion

British Airways has launched a rare reward flight sale on economy tickets worldwide and Club Europe short haul business class.

You must book by Wednesday 23rd July for travel between 1st August – 18th December 2025 and 5th January – 11th February 2026.

You can find out more, and book, on the sale page of the BA website.

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How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (September 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:

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

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 14th October 2025, the sign-up bonus on the American Express Preferred Rewards Gold Credit Card is doubled to 40,000 Membership Rewards points. This would convert to 40,000 Avios! The spend target is changed to £5,000 within SIX months of approval. T&C apply. Click here to apply.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 14th October 2025, the sign-up bonus on The Platinum Card from American Express is increased to 80,000 Membership Rewards points. This would convert to 80,000 Avios! The spend target is changed to £10,000 within SIX months of approval. T&C apply. Click here to apply.

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital on Tap for limited companies. You earn points worth 0.8 Avios per £1 on the FREE standard card and 1 Avios per £1 on the Pro card. Capital on Tap cards also have no FX fees.

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

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.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 14th October 2025, the sign-up bonus on The American Express Business Platinum Card is increased to 120,000 Membership Rewards points. This would convert to 120,000 Avios! The spend target is changed to £12,000 within three months of approval. T&C apply. Click here to apply.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 14th October 2025, the sign-up bonus on The American Express Business Gold Card is TRIPLED to 60,000 Membership Rewards points. This would convert to 60,000 Avios! The spend target is changed to £6,000 within three months of approval. The card remains free for the first year. T&C apply. Click here to apply.

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