Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

BA Business Class from £129 return in the Christmas sale

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If you’ve been on ba.com in the last couple of days, you may have seen the ads for “The Luxury Seat Sale” and thought … blah … another BA sale, nothing special.

This time, though, you’d be wrong!

There are some really, really good fares available at the moment, especially for European business class. Some of the prices are ludicrous. You can book BA business class to Amsterdam, for example, for less than easyJet on some days!

BA 747 retirement nose to nose

And easyJet, last time I looked, didn’t include lounges with free food and drink, free meals on board, free luggage, a guaranteed empty middle seat next to you and all the on-board champagne you can drink. (Plus at least 1,500 Avios and 80 tier points).

In general (and there are exclusions), here are the rules:

  • Book by midnight on Tuesday 13 November
  • Fly out and back between 14 December and 4 January

The easiest way to see what routes are available is to use the BA low-fare finder. Make sure ‘Return fares’ is ticked, as well as ‘Business / Club’ for class.

Here are what I can see as the lowest return fares:

  • Amsterdam £139
  • Bordeaux £189
  • Brussels £199
  • Chambery £172
  • Dubrovnik £129
  • Frankfurt £181
  • Geneva £149
  • Genoa £159
  • Jersey £129
  • Rotterdam £195
  • Venice £169
  • Verona £160
  • Zagreb £159
  • Zurich £176

These prices are return, in Club Europe (business class), including all taxes. Some of these destinations are from Gatwick only, some Heathrow only. Where the flight goes from both (eg Amsterdam) the cheap fare above is probably from Gatwick.

How about booking yourself a nice little post-Christmas, pre-New Year break whilst you’re off work? Other European destinations are available – I only listed those below £200.

There are some good long-haul deals to be had as well:

  • Dubai £999
  • Amman / Beirut £599
  • Tel Aviv £661
  • Doha / Bahrain / Muscat / Abu Dhabi £1099
  • India (various) £1199
  • Seoul £777 !!
  • New York £1247

The Seoul price is not a misprint. It is a special deal to celebrate the launch of this new route. It may be your only chance to do a long-haul return flight to Asia in Club World for £777 – and you’d get about £300-worth of Avios back as well!

Seoul has slightly different booking details. The deadline is November 16th, and your outbound flight must be between December 3rd and December 13th, returning whenever you want. Even if you don’t want to go to Seoul, you may be able to pick up connecting flights elsewhere in Asia cheaply.

There are also special deals on BA Holidays available. It is worth checking these before you book flights, as you may be able to get a hotel included for a very modest extra sum.


How to earn Avios points from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (December 2021)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

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

British Airways BA Amex American Express card

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up, no annual fee and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending ….. Read our full review

British Airways BA Premium Plus American Express Amex credit card

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the UK’s most valuable credit card perk – the 2-4-1 companion voucher Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points, such as:

Nectar American Express

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & two airport lounge passes Read our full review

American Express Platinum card Amex

The Platinum Card from American Express

30,000 points and an unbeatable set of travel benefits – for a 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, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios:

Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa

The most generous Avios Visa or Mastercard for a limited company Read our full review

You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus:

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express card

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios 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.

(Want to earn more Avios?  Click here to visit our home page for our latest articles on earning and spending your Avios points and click here to see how to earn more Avios this month from offers and promotions.)

Comments (1)

This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.

  • flyforfun says:

    Like you and others probably I too was tempted to ignore this, but my other half is going to Amsterdam during the period of the promotion and I was able to get him one of the £140 business class seats. Economy would have been £128 for the same flight, so a no brainer really! The only downside it is for specific flights and in this case the best fares were from Gatwick which, with a 9am departure is a bit of a pain with a very early start. Still he’ll get hot breakfast and if he moves he may even get to to into the lounge!! Unlikely, but you never know!!

This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.