Last day to book economy Avios redemptions for 50% fewer points

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Until midnight tonight, 17th June, over 90 British Airways long-haul routes can be redeemed at 50% off, but in Economy only.

Unfortunately taxes, fees and carrier charges are NOT reduced and will set you back around £350 per person (£275 for the Middle East).

This offer is for flights from or to London Heathrow and Gatwick between 1st September 2018 and 31st May 2019. In reality, despite what the rules say, regional departures seem to work OK too. If you live near Inverness this means that you can wipe out the Air Passenger Duty by starting from there as it is exempt.

One way redemptions are allowed.

Avios wing 6

You cannot combine this offer with a British Airways American Express 2-4-1 voucher or a Lloyds Avios Rewards upgrade voucher.

Avios part payments are excluded from this offer, but Avios plus cash is included. The reduced Avios price will automatically be applied when booking.

Here are some typical off-peak prices for return World Traveller (economy) flights including taxes with this offer:

Bermuda for 13,000 Avios + £367.16 (peak 20,000 Avios)
Seychelles for 16,250 Avios + £369.61 (peak 25,000 Avios)
Hong Kong for 19,500 Avios +£341.35 (peak 30,000 Avios).

Of course, even at half price most of these deals remain poor. Should I want to go to Dubai, for example, it will cost me 13,000 Avios + £259 on an off-peak date. Cash tickets can often be had for £295 to £325 which means that the redemption is still a bad deal unless you need the flexibility to cancel if needed.

That said, do the maths. If you are travelling in high season it may still make sense. Whilst economy redemptions are usually not great value long-haul, this offer would make sense if a cash ticket would otherwise set you back £550 – £600 or so. This would value your Avios points at 1p each which is fine by us.

You must book by tonight for travel between 1st September 2018 and 31st May 2019 to redeem for 50% fewer Avios – and 0% fewer taxes.

The special offer page for the deal is here.

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.

Gavlar says:

17 Jun17 June 14:09

My base airport is Inverness so when I am not using my 2for1 BA voucher is there any point in using a positioning flight followed by an Aer Lingus / Iberia hub for redemptions to avoid charges if APD is already excluded for me. Perhaps other than when there are differences in peak & offpeak dates with those carriers
- the real harry1 says:
  
  17 Jun17 June 14:18
  
  yes at times because the price difference isn’t solely APD, ie ex-EU could still present good savings
  
  I think I’m in the camp that says if you really enjoy the extra opportunity of spending a night or 3 @ the positioning city (ie extra holiday experience), this can make ex-EU really enjoyable/ good value – if you don’t, then sometimes the hassle often isn’t worth the saving
  - Gavlar says:
    
    17 Jun17 June 14:24
    
    Thanks, I see your logic and with 3 kids in tow that often tips the balance!
    - Polly says:
      
      17 Jun17 June 22:59
      
      Get a great kick out of spending the APD on a mini city break
JPV says:

17 Jun17 June 17:06

OT: is the barclaycard online service down for anyone else? I’m unable to login on both my own and my partner’s account
- Roberto says:
  
  17 Jun17 June 17:43
  
  App working for me. Just tried.
Brexiteer says:

17 Jun17 June 17:26

Why not have this party in the North?

Sick of everything being so London-centric on this blog.
- John says:
  
  17 Jun17 June 18:11
  
  Money talks and bullshit walks.
  
  London is where the money is!!
  - Rob says:
    
    17 Jun17 June 18:19
    
    I was in Manchester this morning as it happens, on the way to Atlanta.
    - Peter K says:
      
      17 Jun17 June 18:49
      
      If your target audience is mainly in the South you concentrate on the South. Likewise, if you live in the South and are organising the party then you likely keep it in the South.
      Similarly, a number of competitions are UK only as most readers of this site are.
- Lady London says:
  
  18 Jun18 June 02:25
  
  Believe it or not it’s a lot easier from a lot of “the North” to reach London than “other North”
ankomonkey says:

17 Jun17 June 20:19

I predict the party sponsor is Curve. Or Virgin Atlantic.
- Rob says:
  
  17 Jun17 June 21:48
  
  No and No. It isn’t someone we usually work with.
  - ankomonkey says:
    
    18 Jun18 June 09:58
    
    Gulf Air? Creation? No, Creation would insist it be held in Solihull.
- Genghis says:
  
  17 Jun17 June 22:21
  
  When I went to the curve offices they didn’t have any decent tea bags for a proper cuppa. V lean operation.
  - Michael Jennings says:
    
    17 Jun17 June 23:06
    
    Other than the whole “must be losing loads of money on every customer” thing.
  - Lady London says:
    
    18 Jun18 June 02:26
    
    Believe it or not it’s a lot easier from a lot of “the North” to reach London than “other North”
C F Frost says:

17 Jun17 June 23:39

OT Amex Plat referrals. Does anyone have experience of testing whether the 90k MR annual ceiling is definitely and always enforced across both the primary and supplementary cardholder? Or, in other words, has anyone on a supplementary card managed to squeeze in referrals on top of the five the primary has made? And on a finer point – does the year end according to the primary cardholder’s dates, or does the supp retain his/her own dates and is there any IT ineffectiveness here to permit >5 referrals a year across both cards?
- Steve says:
  
  18 Jun18 June 00:21
  
  Hi Default Amex Card Guy!
  
  Interested to know how a supplementary card holder would make referrals – didn’t know there was such an option.
  
  On the last point about year end, it is done by calendar year, you could potentially earn 180k points over December and January with 5 referrals each side of new year.
- Rob says:
  
  18 Jun18 June 01:33
  
  It is firm and is per MR account per calendar year.
  - vlcnc says:
    
    20 Jun20 June 09:11
    
    You can dress a turd up all you want Rob but it is still a turd. So you might get a nicer seat and some food but it is still their frankly atrocious and despicable staff, terrible delays and frankly sadistic customer services.
    - vlcnc says:
      
      20 Jun20 June 14:50
      
      Apologies wrong thread – was meant to go in the Vueling thread!
C F Frost says:

18 Jun18 June 00:32

It’s a disappointing but hardly surprising dead end. I think I just got lazy. I’d seen the referral link on my plat account but never had any need to follow it. I just have, but the only cards that show are primary Amex cards.

Would you believe me if I said this was my real name?
Yuval Lange says:

18 Jun18 June 07:50

Sometimes good things exist where you least expect them.. I just booked 2 one way economy flights to the USA and back (NYC and MCO) for next Easter with avios which gave me 3p per avios due to BA’s ludicrous price and the redemption promotion. Thanks for the information and for reminding me of the expiry date.
vlcnc says:

20 Jun20 June 09:10

You can dress a turd up all you want Rob but it is still a turd. So you might get a nicer seat and some food but it is still their frankly atrocious and despicable staff, terrible delays and frankly sadistic customer services.