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Excellent SriLankan business deals from Paris to Asia (earn Avios and BA tier points)

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SriLankan Airlines joined the oneworld alliance in May 2014.  From that time it has been possible to earn Avios and British Airways tier points when you fly with them, and to redeem your Avios for flights to Colombo and beyond.

I haven’t covered the airline much on Head for Points because the route network is limited and it was not aggressively priced.

SriLankan seems to have taken a lesson on pricing from Qatar Airways, however.  It is currently selling some very attractive business class fares from Paris:

Paris to Tokyo (via Colombo) – €1,074 return (£811)

Paris to Hong Kong (via Colombo) – €1,035 return (£781)

Paris to Singapore (via Colombo) – €1,035 return (£781)

Paris to Shanghai (via Colombo) – €1,026 return (£775)

Other destinations may also be available.  Keep an eye on the connection times as you could be stuck with a long stopover in Colombo.

Flights from London are available for around £300 more and from Frankfurt for around £150 more.

The SriLankan website is here.

The Paris flights are on new Airbus A330-300 aircraft.  This would appear to get you a Virgin / Cathay style herringbone 1-2-1 layout with a fully flat bed, presumably this:

SriLankan business class

…. which seems more than acceptable.  Looks like SriLankan is another one for the ‘better business class than British Airways’ list …..

You need to book before 29th January for travel before 30th June.  A five day minimum stay is required.

As I wrote in this article, Opodo has some ‘flight only’ discount codes at the moment which in theory you could use in conjunction with these fares.  In my tests yesterday, however, I could not get Opodo to match the fares showing on the SriLankan website.

Note that, for tier point purposes, Singapore only earns 360 points return (140 + 40 + 140 + 40) because the 2nd flight is under 2,000 miles.  Tokyo, Hong Kong and Shanghai should earn 560 points return (140 x 4).


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 (46)

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

  • Simmo says:

    OT/
    1) Is there any way to get a AA Flight, Booked on AA.com into the BA Manage My Booking?
    2) I have a AA flight LAS-JFK (in Domestic First) – Am I correct in reading that’s 210 Tier Points? http://www.britishairways.com/travel/flight-calculator/public/en_gb

    • Jaz says:

      1) I looked into this a bit. From what I understand BA and AA use different booking systems, so each provide booking reference IDs incompatible with the other’s system. However, by contacting AA it may be possible to get the equivalent BA number for your booking, which you could then enter into BA Exec. I didn’t bother trying it though, so can’t confirm if it works.

    • LondonFoodie says:

      I remember doing this – but you need to find your equivalent BA PNR. I remember there was a website that allowed you to do that, but easiest is to call AA and ask for it.

  • Swanhunter says:

    It’s not quite like Virgin as the seats face inwards and not out. A nicer arrangement IMO.

    Inflight service on UK has always been great and decent food too.

  • Kai says:

    “Looks like SriLankan is another one for the ‘better business class than British Airways’ list”
    – Any airline that is not on that list? 😉

    • JamesW says:

      It really is not hard now is it !
      BA 8 or 9 seats across in business, EK, QR etc…. 4 across !!

  • Surbhi says:

    How can I find out the dates which show this fare?

    • Rob says:

      The website has a grid which allows you to easily see which combos of outbound and inbound work. They all had good availability in May when I was getting prices yesterday.

      • JamesW says:

        Damn these fares !! Decided to only jump on one of the QR deals as I could do with saving a bit of money this year but now this….and I want to try the UL J product.

        This website is a Godsend but also a curse 🙂

        I wonder if these can be credited towards retaining QR status. I presume so as Oneworld.
        I shall explore !

        By the way, also posted below; Delhi 1060 euro, BKK 1036 euro.

  • James says:

    I wonder where Sri Lankan will fly their early A350s? The first one is well on the way to completion. Now that will be worth flying on 🙂

  • aceman says:

    Worth using the multi city tool and pricing to come back to london instead of cdg.

    Worked out at €117 more to come back to LHR instead of CDG for my dates.

  • JamesW says:

    Anyone found any other destinations ? I’ve checked and certainly there’s no similar price to CMB 🙁

  • JamesW says:

    I don’t seem able to find them on ITA, well certainly not the CDG-SIN (using 7-10 day calendar search).

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