What is worth booking in the new British Airways sale?

British Airways has launched a new sale, with deals in World Traveller,  World Traveller Plus, Club World and First.  There are also some Club Europe and BA Holidays deals available.

The home page for the sale is here.  You can book until 11th July.

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 until the end of March 2018, although there will almost certainly be blackout dates.  Some Gatwick ‘bucket and spade’ routes can be booked until June 2018.

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 but nothing to go crazy about.

I am only focusing on Club World and First Class prices in this article.  If you are looking for economy deals, start with the Low Fare Finder or the sale home page.

In general, very little got me very excited and the fare are similar to the last couple of sales.

For example, in the last BA sale Beijing was £1,651 in Club World.  In this sale it is a ludicrous £2,839!  In the SWISS ‘2 for 1’ sale I covered yesterday, it is £1,178 for a far superior product ……

Most Club World pricing is terrible.  Apart from Bangkok at £1,859 there is nothing even vaguely interesting across Asia or the Middle East – go with the SWISS sale instead.

North America / Caribbean is a bit better:

• Boston at £1,813
• Calgary at £1,895
• Fort Lauderdale at £1,696
• Orlando at £1,695
• Tampa at £1,495
• Cancun at £1,491
• Kingston at £1,194
• Punta Cana at £1,195
• Antigua at £1,598

In First Class, you’ve got:

• Boston at £2,213
• Miami at £2,470
• Atlanta at £2,507
• Chicago at £2,415

….. but the good Middle East deals have not come back this time.

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 (ending soon), Billund, Bologna, Bordeaux, Geneva, Genoa, Limoges, Luxembourg, Nice, Palma, Pisa, Seville, Tallinn, Valencia and Venice. 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 cheap 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.

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

Click here to see the full sale details.

Remember that you need to book by 11th July.

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 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 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.)