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Is British Airways running down Flight Pass?

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After making a fresh attempt to breath some life into Flight Pass last year, it looks like British Airways may be running it down.

Flight Pass is no longer available for sale for use beyond 31st December.  All 12 month passes have been withdrawn – we need to see if 9 month passes are withdrawn on 1st April.  OptionTown, which runs the scheme for BA, is not responding to queries.

If you don’t know about Flight Pass, via this OptionTown linkyou can buy route passes for economy travel on flights from Heathrow, Gatwick and City.

There are a huge number of pricing permutations based on how many people would share your pass, how many tickets you want, what expiry date you are willing to accept and how close to the date of travel you want to book.  You can buy a pass for one route or for an entire country.

For example, you can buy 12 one-way flights from Heathrow to Newcastle for £605so £50 each.  This includes taxes.  You must use them within 3 months AND must book 90 days in advance.  At the other extreme, 12 one-way tickets bookable up to 4 hours in advance will cost you £131 per seat.

Given the huge number of pricing options, it is impossible to say if this offers decent savings or not but I know many frequent air commuters use it.  Note that you can only book return flights with Flight Pass which means that it is less flexible than you may think – you may be able to book your outbound with just four hours notice but you need to lock in the return at the same time (changeable for a fee).

You have last seat availability.   If there are still seats for sale, irrespective of the price, you can book them – as long as you are inside the booking window of your Flight Pass.  There are no blackout dates or minimum stays.

All of this is irrelevant, of course, if the product is now on its last legs.


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 (81)

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

  • JamesB says:

    OT Nectar: They might be targeted bug I thought worth flagging up for those with kids. 1500 points gets a voucher for £11+ off Pizza Express. 200 points gets a 3 month subscription to kids tv app hopster.

  • Simon says:

    OT(dropped it in another bits, but missed this one… sorry!)
    I want to travel LON-NYC on BA.

    I have 40k amex points and 3k avios. I’ve not bought any points. My flights will be a shade over £1k for 2 people in economy. Can anybody suggest the cheapest way to book these flights?

    Thanks

    • Rob MC says:

      What dates and why specifically BA?

      • Simon says:

        Thanks for the response!

        28/04-06/05 (ish, can wiggle by a day or two)

        Wanted BA as a friend can usually get us upgrades on BA (not BA/AA flights though) once we’re on the system, thought it would be a good treat especially if the return flight is overnight.

    • Rob says:

      Don’t fly on BA. Book Aer Lingus from Dublin and get a separate ticket to Dublin. Tax will drop from roughly £300 per person to under £70. See https://headforpoints.com/2018/02/06/how-to-redeem-avios-points-on-aer-lingus/

      You need to call BA to check Aer Lingus availability.

      • Rob MC says:

        If it were me I would use the amex points for a hotel in NYC, much more lucrative than the savings made by an economy redemption, especially if no interest in going to Dublin

        • Simon says:

          Solid advice, thanks – I’m still feeling my way round all the points fun. Happy to save the points for hotels. Any recommended to make the most of the points?

        • Simon says:

          Thanks for both your comments, really appreciate the insight.It’s taken a while to get the hang of points/taxes/redemptions.

      • Simon says:

        Had been keen on BA, given potential for an upgrade via a friend, however will look into aer lingus. Thanks!

        • Rob MC says:

          Just looking , economy redemptions are only available 26/4 or 30/4 on the way out, bit good availability on return.
          And for two it’s 52k avios and £742 tax.. so you’re not getting good value at all.

  • RTS says:

    OT – Any recommendations for hotels in Singapore? I have status with Hilton, SPG and Marriot and Expedia credit via Nectar.

    • Genghis says:

      We really liked the IC near Bugis (used AMB cert). Others I know like the Conrad but we found it very average.

    • Rob says:

      If money is not an issue, Capella on Sentosa. You can even rent a villa (normally long-term rented to expats) via a separate website if they have any spare. Great for kids as 30 seconds walk to the beach, albeit across a road.

    • Roger says:

      I have a stay coming up at JW Marriott courtesy travel package.
      Review seems to be good too.

      • Genghis says:

        I would love to spend a week in Singapore eating at loads of different food courts. Enjoy.

  • Alex Sm says:

    A friend of mine works for a regional airport in a small European country – and commercial support is often the only working tool to attract LCCs To Fly to these destination. Ryanair is still using it high and wide, btw. Then it’s just a question is whether paying the airlines is justified in terms of ROI – whether passengers bring more money into the country/region than it’s being spent on commercial support

  • rams1981 says:

    OT Marriott resorts. Will my gold status get any recognition? I’m staying at Grande Lakes, Orlando

    • Stevie G says:

      Not much as it is a resort. More points. That’s about it.

    • JamesB says:

      On the subject of resorts, is there any way of knowing whether a hotel might classify itself as a resort even if it does not have the word resort in the hotel name?

      • Cate ⛱️ says:

        Interesting comment JamesB. I usually avoid Marriott hotels with the word ‘resort’ as there are no elite benefits but, if a hotel decided to call itself a resort then they could supposedly refuse your elite benefits. I suppose the only way to know is to drop them an email.

        • Rob says:

          Don’t think so. Venice is called a resort but for the first year of operation was not one. Then, overnight, it decided it was and out went free breakfast and upgrades.

  • vlcnc says:

    Another post promoting Vueling *sigh*

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