Bits: new BA routes, Osaka in Business for £1050, 1000 Avios with Kaligo.com

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News in brief:

British Airways launches three new European routes

British Airways has announced three new routes for next Summer:

Biarritz (photo of Hotel du Palais below) – twice weekly from 1st May
Mahon, Menorca – four times weekly from 29th April
Palermo, Sicily – twice weekly from 30th April

All will depart from Heathrow Terminal 5. Avios and cash tickets should be available soon on ba.com if they are not already there by the time you read this. Remember that availability for Avios will be excellent as it always is with brand new routes, even for peak dates.

In other news, Hanover is moving to Terminal 5 from Terminal 3 on 27th March.

Biarritz

Excellent Osaka deal with KLM / Air France

Air France and KLM, until Thursday, have an excellent business class deal from the UK to Osaka in Japan.

Travel between 1st December and 29th February and your ticket will cost just £1,050! This is the cost from your local UK airport served by KLM or Air France – you don’t need to position yourself in Europe first, although of course you need to change planes in Paris or Amsterdam.

The cheapest fares are from London City. Departing from Heathrow, Manchester etc seems to add another £50. No Avios to be earned – you would be crediting to the Air France / KLM Flying Blue programme, which lets you book across the Skyteam alliance.

You can even cancel your flight if necessary, subject to a £300 fee. Full details on the KLM website here – click on ‘Osaka on Sale’.

Remember that Japan Airlines is a oneworld member so you could use Avios to connect to Tokyo or elsewhere.

1,000 Avios with any Kaligo.com booking

Finally, hotel booking service Kaligo.com is offering 1,000 bonus Avios with every hotel booking made this month. This is on top of the standard Avios you earn.

This isn’t as good as some of their recent offers, but if you are making a hotel booking – especially a low value one – this could work out nicely.

Remember that you won’t get points or stay credit in a hotel loyalty scheme for rooms booked via Kaligo.com so it is best to choose a booking where you would otherwise have no status or would not collect points anyway.

Full details on Kaligo.com at this special registration page. The offer is open to new and existing customers and you must book before 26th October. Remember to register here.

Hotel offers update – December 2021:

Want to earn more hotel points? Click here to see our complete list of promotions from the major hotel chains or use the ‘Hotel Offers’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.

Want to buy hotel points? There is currently a special offer running with IHG Rewards (80% bonus to 4th January 2022) and World of Hyatt (30% discount, equivalent to a 43% bonus, to 30th December 2021).

Category

Air France KLM and Flying Blue, British Airways and Avios

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

Nathan says:

21 Oct21 October 10:15

The IC Osaka is very good too. The club lounge is great and the location is perfect for the train station for both long journeys and local underground etc.
- Andrew (@andrewseftel) says:
  
  21 Oct21 October 12:48
  
  Ditto Hilton. Right opposite the station, exec rooms are spacious with good views and decent lounge & breakfast.
Gavin says:

21 Oct21 October 10:51

The KLM/AF deal is only ~£857 if booked through on OTA, eg Budget Air.
- idrive says:
  
  21 Oct21 October 11:07
  
  Budget Air has been reported elsewhere as not a trustworthy counterparty. However I believe you can get those similar prices you quote well looking around.
- CV3V says:
  
  21 Oct21 October 11:25
  
  On Expedia just priced EDI – OSA at £943!
John says:

21 Oct21 October 11:03

Hello lovely people!

I have been following this fantastic website for quite a while now and used an awful lot of the information to great benefit….I was wondering if anyone had any opinion on the following:
I need to book a hotel for 5 nights next week, if I block book 5 nights on Kaligo it is showing a 2,600 avios reward and if I book 5 inidividual nights it is coming out at 6000 Avios (obviously a much better deal especially if I can get reception to let me keep the same room each night)

Has anyone tried this before? I cant see anything in the T&Cs which prohibit this but wanted to check here before I go through with it (dont want to check out and in every day for nothing)

many thanks in advance, John
- Rob says:
  
  21 Oct21 October 11:41
  
  Should be fine – I don’t think Kaligo prohibit this and clearly it is affordable or they wouldn’t be offering it on one night stays.
  - John says:
    
    21 Oct21 October 12:43
    
    thanks for the 2nd opinion Raffles, Im going to give it a go.
    - Polly says:
      
      21 Oct21 October 21:15
      
      Hi John, we have done this a few times, most recently in HKT. Booked three diff bookings all adding up to one long stay, and yes you usually keep the same room. The same applies to our Jan trip, have priced it up as individual bookings also. But we are booking directly with the hotel now as each night is £20 more on Kaligo, so costing more an if we actually bought the avios from a etc. they can be pricey….just make sure you compare fully first .
Bill says:

21 Oct21 October 11:26

nb: most flights seem to be old style sloping biz seats.
William PH says:

21 Oct21 October 11:54

Sorry to go off-topics. I booked one of the special deal Finnair business class returns LHR-HEL-SIN that were available earlier this month, and featured on this site(£1000 base plus £559.41 taxes) — thanks. However, I have a long stopover in HEL on the return journey (Arr HEL 0615, Dep HEL 1930). Can I just relax in the lounge for 12 hours or so on the trip, or will they boot me out into the cold?
- James67 says:
  
  21 Oct21 October 12:15
  
  I recommend you spend a few hours in the city and a few hours at a pool sauna complex. You will not wish to spend all day in the lounge because it is not all that good. Since I last passed through there I understand AY have opened a new, presumably better, lounge but oddly an AY business ticket does not even qualify you for entry, you need a high end one world status. It’s at least 18 months since I was last there so all that might have changed, perhaps somebody who has been through more recently can correct me if I’m wrong.
  - Simmo says:
    
    21 Oct21 October 12:51
    
    I loved the HEL Finnair Lounge! (this was pretty big)- Thought it was much better than the LHR/LGW Galleries, better food, beer on tap and champagne free pour.
    
    This was on a MUC-HEL-BKK Business ticket late 2014.
    - Rob says:
      
      21 Oct21 October 19:55
      
      Will be there in 3 weeks so will let you know ….
      - James67 says:
        
        21 Oct21 October 22:42
        
        Just checked AY website. They are still operating both the old and new premium lounges, both by gate 37 (nonschengen so applies to UK). Entry rules remain as I reported, the premium lounge requires AY gold or platinum, or one world emerald or saphire on a one world flight. Personally, I think it is bad form from AY not to allow their own longhaul business class passengers access. Probably boils down to size, the premium lounge being about half the size of the old lounge. Premium lounge has better food, drink and shower rooms, and also has a sauna.
- Andrew (@andrewseftel) says:
  
  21 Oct21 October 12:49
  
  Go into the city for a day trip. You’ll have time to see the main sights and have lunch. Did it a few years ago in the same situation.
  - Leo says:
    
    21 Oct21 October 14:15
    
    I love a lounge don’t get me wrong….but 12 hours!!!!!!?
Catherinexx says:

21 Oct21 October 12:39

Great tip about the new destinations. Have managed to get a 4* May half term holiday for my family of 4 for under £1000 with BA holidays. Bargain.
Andrew says:

21 Oct21 October 16:41

Despite being a regular reader here, I’ve only just booked my first hotel via Kaligo. It’s the Ramada Hounslow Heathrow East, for 51 quid. As a new member I get the 3000 bonus Avios, plus the 1000 Avios offered this week, plus the normal 200. That’s 4,200 Avios for nothing. I keep wondering what the catch is!

Thanks Mr Raffles!
- Rob says:
  
  21 Oct21 October 19:52
  
  No problem! Good to have you with us.
PZE says:

21 Oct21 October 17:28

Thanks for the alert, just booked a late August trip to Sicily in CE on the helpfully off-peak Tuesday flights, meaning it’s actually cheaper than before the Grand Avios Devaluation.

BA seem to have made a surprisingly generous allocation of reward flights available after initially offers 2xCE and 4xET on each flight – seem to be 9+ in both cabins on some August dates at the moment so well worth a look (Sicily is pretty quiet after the Italian holiday season eases off from 15 August). Presumably this is sensible load management on a new route and not in any way an error connected with repeated crashes of the redemption section of ba.com today.
- idrive says:
  
  21 Oct21 October 18:37
  
  but still advertised prices is not including taxes!