British Airways announces New Orleans ….. Avios redemptions wide open

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• Nick says:

  21 Oct21 October 06:27

  IMHO, if travelling to New Orleans I wouldn’t want to go there in the summer months when it’s stifflingly hot & humid. Far better in the spring or autumn when the weather is much more comfortable.

• Simon says:

  21 Oct21 October 06:43

  Don’t suppose there is any news about direct flights to cuba?!

  • Scallder says:

    21 Oct21 October 10:01

    Simon do you mean from the UK? Just in case you’re not already aware, Virgin already fly it (albeit only twice week), and from April are also adding a flight to Varadero so can do that using any FC miles you may have (was previously looking at this route and booking far enough ahead availability seemed decent in all classes)

    • Simon says:

      22 Oct22 October 08:12

      Thks for the reply. Was wanting BA to use my companion voucher unfortunately.

• Anjelica says:

  21 Oct21 October 07:51

  Sorry if this is a litre off topic but I wonder if anyone can help….I am fairly new to this but have been collecting Virgin Airmiles for about 6 months. I’ve already booked a one-way upper class reward flight for my fiancé and I from London to San Francisco in March 2016 for our honeymoon.

  We’ve now got enough (about 70k each, give or take!) miles to book a return flight but I am finding no availability whatsoever. We’re travelling around on our honeymoon so are fairly flexible with destinations but nothing seems to be available for that week. We’re looking to fly home on Fri 14 or Sat 15 April. Does anyone know if these dates are ‘black out’ dates for some reason? Ideally we wanted to fly home from St Lucia but this seems impossible! Maybe there’s something I’m missing. And we’ll just have to book cash flights!

  • Yuff says:

    21 Oct21 October 08:06

    I suspect all reward availability will have been sold, by now, if any were released on the flights you are looking at.
    There is a chance they may release some more seats but it Easter, when you are looking to travel, so failrly busy.

  • Stuart_f says:

    21 Oct21 October 08:06

    Virgin doesn’t have blackout dates but it doesn’t guarantee availability either. You’ve left it a bit late to book to be honest. A one way cash fare will be very expensive on Virgin after they get rid of combi fares in Nov.

    Do you have any avios for a one way redemption? If not then you might think about Norwegian or similar for the cash option as they don’t put a premium on one way.

    • Anjelica says:

      21 Oct21 October 08:29

      Yes I collect via Clubcard so could transfer to BA!

      I had a feeling it may have been too late – I’ll keep looking for any releases but I might just have to pay. Totally my own fault but I couldn’t book earlier as had to wait for the Clubcard quarter to end 🙂

      • Louise says:

        21 Oct21 October 08:45

        Keep checking daily.
        V flyer is a good forum for all things virgin.

        • Mark says:

          21 Oct21 October 12:05

          try coming back to manchester, there tends to be better availability, there is availability but only on the 18th if that helps, SFO-Man

        • Amy Anderson says:

          21 Oct21 October 13:23

          Thanks so much!

          We’re looking to come back from another place (ideally st lucia but this seems impossible!) but I will certainly look at the availability for Manchester flights. We’re based in Scotland so that would work well.

          The BA reward seat finder doesn’t seem to be working, annoyingly!

  • mark says:

    21 Oct21 October 08:45

    It is late really, just remember depending on the booking class they might only have 2 seats per flight and if one person has booked, you cannot (as you want to travel together)…

    Do you have Avios?

    Just had a look AA has flights the otherway around…. 35,000 miles to HKG and £4.60 in tax (did LAX) or £34 with CX….

    Spend a couple of days in HKG and then virgin might have seats back to LHR?

    HKG to LHR not lots of availability – finnair was about £90 (with avios) or £20 with BA (if off peak <20k in miles)

    Just options for you…

    IF more flights available from NYC CX does a flight from across the country

  • xcalx says:

    21 Oct21 October 09:26

    Reward business flights for 2 people are available to Madrid with Iberia over the weekend of 14/15 April SDQ 65000 + taxes of £105 pp SJU 50000 + £53pp PTY 65000 + £105pp MIA 65000 + £76 pp ORD 50000 + £76pp

    This is for bookings made with avios at Iberia much higher taxes through BA

  • PauloG says:

    21 Oct21 October 13:55

    Your return dates are at the end of the UK school Easter holidays, so you are travelling back at a busy period for Brits returning from the US with kids.

  • Will says:

    21 Oct21 October 20:30

    You have to pay $10 a month, but if you subscribe to expert flyer then you can set up reward seat alerts for specific routes/dates – you get an email if spaces free up.

    I did it for BA on some First tickets to LA and did get an alert. They are like unicorns so if you have an hour free to set up the alerts it’s well worth the money.

    Just remember to cancel the subscription after if you have no further use

• Toby says:

  21 Oct21 October 08:37

  I thought BA had previously flown to New Orleans but stopped some years ago?

  • Raffles says:

    21 Oct21 October 08:40

    1982!

    • dps says:

      21 Oct21 October 18:55

      …and the flight continued to MEX…

• Howard says:

  21 Oct21 October 08:56

  This is great news as we have wanted to go to NO for some time.

  Looking at a two centre holiday so I need NO to Vegas and I think only South West fly direct.

  Is there any way we can get South West points? I have over 130,000 SPG points if there is any arbitrage possibilities.

  • Nick says:

    21 Oct21 October 10:08

    Howard, you could try checking this out with the WebFlyer Mileage Converter:

    http://www.webflyer.com/programs/mileage_converter/

  • Mike says:

    21 Oct21 October 11:09

    Just a bit of information for southwest, they release their seats in waves, and summer 2017 releases on 1st November.
    Book on this day and it will be very cheap (well as cheap as it gets). Remember that it includes a free bag, so the price you see is the price you pay.

  • thomas bond says:

    22 Oct22 October 08:43

    You can move your spg points to Marriott and then use them on flight+hotel package. You get a week in a Marriott and 120000 Southwest points using hotel+air pack 3. Its 270000 Marriott points for up to a category 5 hotel and increases in cost the higher the category

• Joe says:

  21 Oct21 October 10:18

  Thanks Rob, I booked 2 CW r/t with an amex voucher this morning for my birthday next year in September 🙂

• Howard says:

  21 Oct21 October 10:42

  Thanks for advice on this.

• Sara says:

  21 Oct21 October 13:02

  Thanks for this Rob, I’ve just managed to grab 2 x CW next September, I’ve always wanted to go to New Orleans 🙂

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