NEWSFLASH: BA launches ‘flash’ £1 taxes and 50% fewer Avios sale

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British Airways gave me a bit of a surprise this morning by launching a ‘flash’ redemption sale via an announcement on the ‘offers’ page of ba.com.

This is a very quick post as I am due at an event at World Travel Market in 5 minutes!

The short haul deal covers 10 European routes.

Club Europe British Airways

You need to book your seat before midnight on November 17th and travel before January 31st.

You will pay the usual Avios price but the taxes charge is reduced by £34 to just £1.

The list of participating routes is here. They are all in the 15,000 to 20,000 Avios per seat band which means they are generally ‘Winter sun’ routes. Only economy seats are available.

The long haul deal covers 35 routes.

The number of Avios required for World Traveller (ie economy) seats is reduced by HALF on 30 routes and by a quarter on the remaining five. The taxes figure is unchanged, however.

The booking and travel dates are the same as for the short haul offer.

The list of routes is here. Dubai and Abu Dhabi are included if the Winter weather is getting you down this week.

Not sure if these can be booked via avios.com or if you need to move your points over to British Airways Executive Club first.

Seats are available for booking now. Full analysis tomorrow. Right, off to my meeting ….

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

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

Elena says:

6 Nov6 November 10:42

Thank you Raffles, love this deal and the timing is perfect 🙂

I would love to hear your view on the WTM as I was suppose to go but couldn’t make it last minute.
- Rob says:
  
  6 Nov6 November 12:04
  
  I dislike it immensely and usually don’t go at all. However, this year I was asked to take part in a blogger networking session. Of about 10 people I spoke with only one was even vaguely relevant or interesting – but that one person may actually be able to offer me a very interesting trip next year which would make a good story. It may pay off in the end.
  
  I heard that Etihad has their new A380 seats on show so if I can find those and get some pictures then I will get a story out of the day!
Andrew (@andrewseftel) says:

6 Nov6 November 10:50

Jo’burg and Calgary (for Banff) will both be in season and are destinations with a high base fare. Will be quite good value I think.
- Andrew (@andrewseftel) says:
  
  6 Nov6 November 10:57
  
  Cheapest WT fare to Calgary is £285, so that’s at least 1.14p/Avios.
PGW says:

6 Nov6 November 10:50

The BA page says that it’s on offer from London airports but I just checked from MAN and got the same discount. Well done, BA.
- TJ says:
  
  8 Nov8 November 08:08
  
  Pleased to report that I successfully booked a weekend trip to Malta from Edinburgh for 1 GBP. As my husband and I go back and forth between Edinburgh and London, I also used it to get a free round-trip between Edinburgh and London as explained by Raffles here. Pleased as punch!
  https://headforpoints.com/2014/10/31/how-to-get-a-free-domestic-avios-redemption-with-an-overseas-reward/
simon says:

6 Nov6 November 11:00

Its not letting me book flights at the moment, keeps telling me their is an issue and to call the contact centre.
george says:

6 Nov6 November 11:09

Hi Raffles – do you (or anyone else) know whether the same trick that worked for Gold members in Jan of 2014 (your article on Jan 14th) would work for GGL members now? I am referring to booking the £1 redemption, and then changing it to a different date? Although the terms do state that “Changes are not permitted”
- Rob says:
  
  6 Nov6 November 12:02
  
  The problem is that Gold members now need to pay the £35 change fee, so it is a pointless exercise!
  
  In January you could actually change the destination as well so you could effectively book a £1 ticket to anywhere if Gold.
Paul says:

6 Nov6 November 11:10

I suppose you need to grateful for any of the crumbs that BA scatter from time to time.
Ian particularly underwhelmed and even though I need to plan a weekend break for January this offer does not encourage me to book. Great however if you wee already planning to go
Jeff says:

6 Nov6 November 11:47

Warning. Avois.com will try to charge full charge (£35) for cancellations (assuming you want your avoid refunded) This has happened to me and others in the past.

Meanwhile is there a cast iron guarantee ba.com wouldn’t do the same?
- Dave W says:
  
  6 Nov6 November 11:55
  
  Last time around I cancelled a £1 flight to Dublin and got my BA avios back no worries. No attempt to make me pay an additional £34 to cancel?
- Rob says:
  
  6 Nov6 November 12:01
  
  I have cancelled numerous redemptions on ba.com and not been asked for additional charges. If you ring up to cancel they may try it on but cancel online and you’re fine.
  - Jeff says:
    
    6 Nov6 November 14:40
    
    Hi guys, my point was aimed at Avios.com – trust me, they try it on! Plus they have no option for online cancellations to match BA.
  - jonboy says:
    
    6 Nov6 November 16:48
    
    I recently cancelled a flight with £8 taxes on the phone to gold line, along with other flights, no attempt to charge any more money, or even take it from the taxes on the other flights. flights were separate bookings but all cancx on same call.
Ian says:

6 Nov6 November 11:47

All you need now is to find a date available…