British Airways short-haul deals and Qatar Airways long-haul deals for Winter

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Our main article today is about the new British Airways short-haul seat.

As part of the PR operation to promote the new seat, BA is offering 1 million short-haul seats at reduced prices.

You need to book by June 25th. You can only fly from October 1st to April 30th 2015.

The promotional website is here. You might have more joy finding a good deal by using the BA Low Fare Finder tool online.

Secondly, Qatar Airways has launched a number of long-haul deals. These are valid in both Economy and Business Class.

These prices are NOT the cheapest you will ever see, although they aren’t bad. What is most useful is that the sale is valid for travel for a long time-period – from September 30th to March 31st 2015. If you were planning a long-haul trip over the Winter, you might want to take a look at the fares.

You need to book by June 20th. The promotional website is here.

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:

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

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

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.)

Category

British Airways and Avios, oneworld alliance partners, Qatar Airways and Privilege Club

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

TravelMush says:

17 Jun17 June 06:56

Just over £2000 from London to Bangkok / KL / Singapore in Business is very attractive – thanks for this, will pass the info on to friends who plan to come and visit us in South East Asia early next year
Boi says:

17 Jun17 June 07:07

OT: yesterday I booked reward seats to trinidad. I had two 2for1 vouchers (one in my name,the other in hubby’s name). I was looking for 5 CW seats and was told I can’t do them all in one booking so I had to make 3 separate bookings. My main problem is I want to select seats using my cathay gold to guarantee all 5 of us seating together. Will the finnair route once discussed allow me to do this considering it is 3 separate bookings and I am a passenger in just 1? is there a way around this?

secondly, we are hoping to leave kids with grandparents and catch a few nights in st lucia to celebrate our anniversary. Is there a way to use tesco CC boost outside UK? I read in some comments on a different post that it is better value than 1st converting to avios.

thanks in advance.
- Polly says:
  
  17 Jun17 June 09:10
  
  No you can’t do the MP thing if on 3 separate booking references. We had that problem last year, my OH could book his seat, I had to wait until the normal check in. I did call up BA to try it, but failed there too. So am afraid that’s it. But one way around it is, if travelling with small children, they may let you book your seats in advance, I definitely saw that. But it may refer to being on one booking reference number , worth calling them up to check. You did well getting 5 seats anyway all together!
  - Boi says:
    
    17 Jun17 June 10:17
    
    I know….I was very lucky and chuffed to get 5 seats over easter! I am travelling with small children, I will call BA to try my luck…
    
    Thanks for all comments.
- Rob says:
  
  17 Jun17 June 10:09
  
  No, no way around that. If you are BA Gold I think BA will let you link bookings if you call but they won’t do it for anyone else.
  
  Tesco – you could look into using your vouchers for a package holiday. The problem is that most of the holiday deals are now restricted so that, for example, you can only get say £100 maximum as a discount with vouchers. Back in the old days you could pay for an entire Virgin Holiday with vouchers at 4x face value.
  
  You could take a look at Virgin availability to St Lucia. If seats are available the Tesco vouchers should convert overnight so there is minimum risk of the seats being lost.
  
  Heck, back in the old days you could buy a CAR from Motorpoint with vouchers at 4x face value with no cap!
  - Boi says:
    
    17 Jun17 June 10:14
    
    BA have actually said they have linked all my bookings. BUT they said to select seats I need to go into each individual reference number. If I wait for check in time they will select seats for all of us. But I don’t know if that will guarantee us seating together.
    
    The St Lucia trip will actually be from Trinidad, not from UK. Fortunately I managed to get 5 reward seats with BA in CW which I was very pleased about!
    - idrive says:
      
      17 Jun17 June 13:12
      
      POS-UVF with BA have you tried searching for availability? BA 2158/9
    - JamesW says:
      
      18 Jun18 June 14:29
      
      Don’t worry about sitting together. Do what most people seem to do and sit far away from your kids in business class so they annoy other passengers but not you 🙂
      - Boi says:
        
        18 Jun18 June 15:12
        
        Or hope they get really irritated they offer a swap.lol.
- Boi says:
  
  17 Jun17 June 10:18
  
  I was talking about booking hotels with Tesco CC.
  - idrive says:
    
    17 Jun17 June 14:09
    
    well, you could convert Tesco into Avios (.com) and try to search there. you can search even now, if you have an account.
Roger says:

17 Jun17 June 09:48

Helsinki for £78 return (actually £77.53) for an HBO fare must be a bargain. The fare is said to be just £2 plus £75.53 for the extras.

40 tier points and 4,536 Avios as a silver are not to be sniffed at. And the possibility of a sale add-on to Club.
- Rob says:
  
  17 Jun17 June 09:59
  
  Helsinki is very pleasant if you’ve not been. And The Kamp, an SPG hotel, is (or was, a few years ago when I was there) an exceptionally plush place and well worth blowing a few SPG points on.
  - Roger says:
    
    17 Jun17 June 10:12
    
    I agree! It’s too long since I went there and I’m keen to get back. Would prefer June, though.
    
    TP hunters may find this interesting. Jersey for £56 HBO return (actually £55.56). The fare is £0 – ha ha ha – with £55.56 for the extras. 20 TPs and 2,000 Avios (as a silver). Day trips OK. Repeat as necessary. Good availability to April excluding holidays. Just book by 25 June.
danksy says:

17 Jun17 June 11:47

Thanks for the headsup on this.

I’m really restricted on dates (half term next year) and wanted flights to SLL from any UK airport.
Since I have many avios I’m not too fussed about the earning potential, but no availablity for reward seats on flights I wanted via BAEC. I can’t face the thought of stumping up nearly £6k for what was going to be a quick getaway, so I checked out the fairs on Qatarair.

Economy seats listed for the times I wanted are £715 return, whereas via online brokers more like £585 each!

I’ve still got 2x 2for1 vouchers expiring next year and I’m strugglnig to use them :’-(
Gaz says:

18 Jun18 June 00:09

I suspect this offer’s not that useful for many people, but Amex ME are offering 10% off Y, W and J bookings ex Middle East for travel and booking before 30/SEP/2015.

Full details here: http://goo.gl/f4LmZB