What is worth booking in the new BA luxury sale?

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British Airways has launched a new luxury sale, with deals in Club World and First. There are also some Club Europe and BA Holidays deals – including additional BA Holidays discounts valid until 9th May.

The headline fare is £89 for a one-way in Club Europe from Heathrow to Billund (Legoland) so there is definitely something for every wallet here.

The home page for the sale is here. You can book until 23rd May.

Travel dates are all over the place and it would take me a full article just to list all the permutations. On most routes you can book from 1st June to May 2018, although there will almost certainly be blackout dates.

You should take a look at the small print at the bottom of the sale website for all the travel date details.

The easiest way to check out the best prices to a specific destination is with the British Airways Low Fare Finder tool on ba.com. This will show you the cheapest price on any route, in any class, on month by month basis.

If you can be flexible with dates, there are some decent fares available.

In general, fares in First and Club World are higher than we saw in the last major sale in March. Very little got me very excited – I picked out in Club World:

Beijing at £1,651
Seoul at £1,760
India at £1,500 to £1,800
Muscat at £1,409
Abu Dhabi at £1,291
Boston at £1,792
Orlando at £1,693
Tampa at £1,493
Cancun at £1,489
Punta Cana at £1,192
Antigua at £1,677

In First Class, you’ve got:

Miami at £2,449
Atlanta at £2,059
Chicago at £2,394
Abu Dhabi at £1,876
Muscat at £1,874

There are also some deals on European short-haul flights with some destinations at £225 return or less for 80 tier points. I spotted Alicante, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Bergen, Billund, Bordeaux, Geneva, Genoa, Ibiza, Limoges, Luxembourg, Milan, Nantes, Nice, Palma, Paris, Pisa, Quimper, Rotterdam, Seville, Tallinn and Valencia. These fares will require a Saturday night stay.

Remember that ‘Part Pay With Avios’ (details here) can be used with these fares. The maximum discount at present is £200 for 36,500 Avios points per return flight in Club Europe, 45,500 Avios for £250 off in Club World and 55,000 for £300 off in First. Some routes are offering better deals than this.

BA Holidays is also running deals

It is also worth pricing up BA’s ‘flight and hotel’ or ‘flight and car’ options. Adding a one-star hotel for just one night of your trip, or a small car for one day, can bring down the cost to less than just a flight.

Pop over to BA Holidays here and do a test booking before booking anything as ‘flight only’. Another benefit of booking your flight as a holiday is that you pay a deposit now with the balance only due five weeks before departure.

Until 9th May, BA Holidays is offering additional discounts:

Save £50 when you spend £1250 (total booking) on Flight + Hotel or Flight + Car

Save £100 when you spend £2500+ (total booking) on Flight + Hotel or Flight + Car

Here are a few examples of BA Holidays pricing:

Barcelona – three nights at the 4* Atenea Valles, from £289 per person, travelling May 1 – May 31, Club Europe from Gatwick

Seville – three nights at the 4* Precise Resort El Rompido Club, from £259 per person, travelling September 1 – September 30, Club Europe from Gatwick

Toronto – three nights at the 4* Chelsea Hotel Toronto, from £1299 per person, travelling December 18 – December 27, Club World from Heathrow

Tampa – seven nights at the 4* Holiday Inn & Suites Harbourside, from £1599 per person, travelling May 1 – June 30, Club World from Gatwick

Barbados – seven nights at the 4* Sugar Cane Club Hotel & Spa, from £1899 per person, travelling September 1 – September 30, Club World from Gatwick

Cape Town – five nights at the 4* Circa Luxury Apartment Hotel, from £3169 per person, travelling November 13 – November 29, Club World from Gatwick

Dubai – three nights at the 4* Doubletree by Hilton Ras Al Khaimah, from £1479 per person, travelling June 1 – June 21, Club World from Heathrow

Hong Kong – four nights at the 4* Harbour Plaza North Point, from £3169 per person, travelling July 1 – July 31, Club World from Heathrow

The best thing to do if you are interested is to go to ba.com and have a look around. The full sale details are here.

PS. If you are looking at North America, Expedia is also running a holidays promotion with United at the moment. Details are here. You need to book by 21st May.

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.

Stu_N says:

6 May6 May 09:30

There is some additional Avios availability out there too in the last 48 hours. Both periods I’ve been watching, Aug from west coast USA and Dec to and from NYC, have a lot of extra availability. Not sure if that’s just pot luck though…
Dale says:

6 May6 May 09:55

Are there free domestic connections for club world flights or holidays?
Is it possible to configure the low fare finder tool to Edinburgh because it seems to always default to London
- Stu_N says:
  
  6 May6 May 10:33
  
  You get free domestic connections on long haul Avois-only bookings.
  
  The low fare finder has only ever worked from London in my experience, generally I find deals from London then use the booking process to refine it to specific flights from Edinburgh. You can use it from London – Edinburgh too to check none of the days you’re thinking of are super-pricy too.
  - TripRep says:
    
    6 May6 May 19:50
    
    Dale & Stu-N – They are certainly not “free”
    
    Yes I appreciate you don’t pay additional Avios.
    
    But you definitely pay real £ GBP for adding a domestic connecting leg. Can be as much as £70 per pax per sector connecting to a CW flight.
    - Stu N says:
      
      7 May7 May 03:30
      
      Well, it is free in terms of Avios. I work on the basis that the connection is same or less than cheapest revenue fares so it’s cost neutral.
      
      Assuming your long haul is in cw or F then you get benefits of being a single ticket and Club Europe seats, but down side of no TPs and Avios which would probably be minimal anyway.
    - Jimmy says:
      
      7 May7 May 21:03
      
      Indeed. When will people cease referring to ‘free’ domestic add-ons!
      
      Avios ‘free’ maybe, but plenty of cash! (and never at RFS rates)
- Alan says:
  
  6 May6 May 11:02
  
  Sadly it’s yet another bit of BA IT that only seems to be designed to work from London. Also not sure if BA Holidays site works for anywhere else or if you have to call them for those?
Doodles says:

6 May6 May 12:07

Billund flights are also suitable to visit Aarhus with regular buses from the airport. The Sunday morning flight back to LHR does mean getting the first bus to the airport though, at 6am or similar. I went in November 2016, stayed at the Radisson and had an enjoyable trip. Worth considering if you’ve already done the Scandinavian capitals.
Paul says:

6 May6 May 14:50

BA and luxury in the same sentence….laughable!
- the real harry1 says:
  
  6 May6 May 14:54
  
  silly boy! 🙂
  
  still a nice experience compared to cattle
  
  might not be as good as the noisy neighbours – but not to be sneezed at
Mucky says:

6 May6 May 14:59

O/T

Sorry to go off topic but I am helping friends books honeymoon flights and need a little guidance.
1) How long does it take for Amex to transfer membership reward points to BA if no BA number has been entered previously?

2) They are looking to use an open jaw ba companion voucher and have enough miles to fly outbound in club and do not yet have enough miles for the return. If you book 1 way using the BA voucher and then want to add a inbound leg later, does the BA system/agents allow that or do inbound and outbound need to be booked together?

3) The open jaw is out to Chennai return from Dubai, form what i can gather this should be ok, is that right?

Thanks for the advice!
- Genghis says:
  
  6 May6 May 15:35
  
  1. As TRH1 said, about 3 days
  2. Book outbound using 241 then inbound can be added later when have enough avios
  3. Should be ok. Is Chennai ->Dubai less than the two BA legs?
the real harry1 says:

6 May6 May 15:03

1 – up to 3 days
lostantipod says:

6 May6 May 15:14

So the “headline fare” LGW-NCE in Y, for a random 3 day weekend trip in June, is “from £77 each way” according to the Luxury Sale page. I click on “continue” , and am taken to a booking page to select my flights, where the lowest possible fare is £93, not £77. Total £196, or 22% more expensive than the Sale page says it will be…..

Same BA flights are cheaper on Expedia for £178. And EZ flights about the same as BA “sale”.

I accept the pedants and the pragmatists will both point out that good Y prices should not be expected in a Luxury Sale, but then, with CE at the “sale” price of £509 on the same flights…sorry but “luxury” is not the four letter expletive that passed my lips!

Sale ? You’ve been warned.
- the real harry1 says:
  
  6 May6 May 15:35
  
  ‘for a random 3 day weekend trip in June’
  
  you expect them to have the best prices for all dates?
  - lostantipod says:
    
    6 May6 May 17:30
    
    NO, i expect a “sale” page that says £77 each way to not then lead to a page that says £93 each way. And I expect to get at least an equal deal on the BA website as Expedia. Too much to ask?
- Nick says:
  
  6 May6 May 15:51
  
  Are you kidding?! It’s a ‘premium sale’, there are no economy sale fares. End of story. If you want an economy sale, wait till they run one of those.
  - lostantipod says:
    
    6 May6 May 17:43
    
    Thanks for your reply. Please read my post again. ” I accept ….that good Y prices should not be expected in a luxury sale. ”
    But what I inadvertently and easily found was a case of a Y price mysteriously increasing as I proceeded through the booking from the sale page. Maybe i was incredibly unlucky. Or maybe there’s a glitch in the sale site. In any case, what I found reinforces the idea that anyone looking to book should, as always, consider their options to make sure that they are getting the best deal.
    Hope that’s clearer.
- TGLoyalty says:
  
  6 May6 May 16:12
  
  Not every date will be the cheapest fare. Nice in June is unlikely to be cheap as chips for flights
  - Sam G says:
    
    7 May7 May 04:13
    
    most of the “from” fares seem to be for the one weekly Stansted flights – e.g. Milan it’s only available to return at 06:55 on a Sunday morning! Err, no thanks 🙂
    - TGLoyalty says:
      
      7 May7 May 08:40
      
      Sales do usually discount the left overs at ed of season etc
      
      Why discount the popular flights which sell out at full price anyway?
      
      Let’s not forget this is a business not a charity
N says:

6 May6 May 18:51

Does Ba holidays work ex-EU?