British Airways has released more than 50,000 extra Avios seats in Club World

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British Airways has launched a special Avios promotion adding more than 50,000 extra reward seats in its Club World cabin.

Until 2nd December there will be increased Avios business class availability on a number of BA’s long-haul routes. The extra seats are available for travel from mid December through to the end of March 2019.

It is well worth taking a fresh look at what is available, especially if you previously drew a blank when searching for seats.

Avios wing 5

The routes included are:

London Gatwick:

Fort Lauderdale, Tampa, Orlando, Las Vegas, San Jose (Costa Rica), New York JFK and Mauritius

London Heathrow:

Abuja, Accra, Amman, Atlanta, Austin, Bahrain, Baltimore, Bangalore, Beijing, Beirut, Boston, Buenos Aires, Cairo, Calgary, Cape Town, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Dubai, Durban, Houston, Jeddah, Johannesburg, Kuala Lumpur, Kuwait, Lagos, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Mexico City, Miami, Montreal, Moscow, Nairobi, Nashville, New Orleans, New York (JFK), New York (EWR), Philadelphia, Phoenix, Rio de Janeiro, Riyadh, San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose, Santiago, Sao Paulo, Seattle, Seoul, Seychelles, Shanghai, Singapore, Tel Aviv, Tokyo (NRT), Toronto, Vancouver and Washington

The extra 50,000+ seats are available either for direct Avios bookings or for ‘upgrade using Avios’ seats upgraded from World Traveller Plus to Club World. Seats are not allocated by route.

British Airways Gatwick Airport

BA’s Club World taxes, fees and recently increased carrier charges will apply.

Carolina Martinoli, British Airways’ Director of Brand and Customer Experience, said about this promotion:

“It’s exciting to be able to make more than 50,000 extra reward seats available, giving more members a chance to travel paying just taxes, fees and carrier charges, or upgrade their cabin. With these seats spanning a vast array of long-haul routes across a number of continents, we’re hoping it will give members plenty of options for their next getaway.”

More information and full T&Cs are here.

You must book by 2nd December and best availability is for flights between 16th December 2018 and 31st March 2019.

To maximise your miles when paying the taxes, your best bet is the British Airways American Express Premium Plus card which earns double Avios (3 per £1) when you book at ba.com or via BA Holidays. You do not get double Avios if you book with the free British Airways American Express card. Another option is American Express Preferred Rewards Gold which offers double points – 2 per £1 – when you book flight tickets directly with an airline.

PS. Alongside this deal, British Airways is also offering a bonus of up to 45% when you buy Avios between now and 25th November. The ‘buy Avios’ page 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.

Scallder says:

15 Nov15 November 09:30

Can’t help but feel this is being done ahead of their financial year end the same way banks often cut their mortgage rates to get stuff on the books. Reduces their liability for the amount of outstanding Avios and ups their Q1 loads (which clearly are poor if they’re offering this amount of seats in such a short window), which I’m guessing they’ll have to discuss on investor calls/publish in their annual report…
- Lady London says:
  
  15 Nov15 November 14:45
  
  I am going to print this out and frame it !
  
  Re the ‘carrier charge’ aka the ‘British Airways got sued in court in the USA for calling it a YQ fuel charge when it wasn’t’ charge. So far as i can tell British Airways has kept charging and increased those same charges. So why dont we just call it the CG charge instead ‘carrier greed’.
- Lady London says:
  
  15 Nov15 November 14:46
  
  50_000 is not that many seats though out of their totality of seats.
nigel whitehouse says:

15 Nov15 November 10:59

thanks polly
you say i dont have to accept the change which is good news but why ?
my original QR7 flight has moved 3 hrs later, but there are other QR operated flights. can i insist they put me on 1 of these ?
thks again N
- Polly says:
  
  16 Nov16 November 15:13
  
  Yes, it’s a qr booking..you can always say the new time doesn’t suit you, layover time etc..any excuse..
- Lady London says:
  
  16 Nov16 November 21:11
  
  And you should prepare ahead a list of the other QR flight(s) you prefer, in your own order of preference, and politely suggest the other one you’d prefer as their newproposed flight/timing (even difference in aircraft type, if so) does not work for you… It always helps to be able to suggest your pre-prepared alternative, it helps them out too.
Boi says:

15 Nov15 November 14:22

OT, what’s the number to call to use the Lloyd’s upgrade voucher? My Avios account is closed
- Rob says:
  
  15 Nov15 November 14:32
  
  Standard BA call centre number which varies depending on your tier.
  - Anna says:
    
    15 Nov15 November 16:38
    
    I thought it had to be done via avios.com? 0844 4933399.
    - Mzungu says:
      
      15 Nov15 November 19:07
      
      But of course, you’ll call 0344 4933399 and not the premium rate number that they take a rake-off from :o)
    - Shoestring says:
      
      16 Nov16 November 21:22
      
      0191 4907901
      0191 4238749
james says:

15 Nov15 November 16:35

HELP !!!!!!!!!!!!

I have purchased a BA premium economy T class return flight and tried to then upgrade it using Avios.
I get the error message online telling me that changes can’t be made, please call customer services.

I’m in Egypt at the moment with my UK sim and a cheapo egyptian sim with about £1 on (basically for data) so this is tricky.
I managed to figiure out how to do it using Skype but the line is a bit fuzzy and I did get cut off on my first attempt.
Anyhow, managed to sustain a conversation and the chap looked up my booking, found there was availability in CW (which I already knew as am monitoring it). Good so far.
He then tries to process the upgrade.
Fails.
Asks me to hold while he checks with supervisor.
After few minutes reports back that the fare class means it can’t be upgraded.

Surely this is incorrect ?
This is a PE flight booked in T class via American Express Travel.

Is there something I am missing ?

Should I HUCA (a laborious task from here !!) or does anyone know why this might be happening and is legit ?
Obviously the availability in CW could go at any minute 🙁
- Anna says:
  
  15 Nov15 November 16:41
  
  Which fare classes can be upgraded? Surely if this must stated somewhere so you can refer CS agent to the Ts and Cs.
  - Rob says:
    
    15 Nov15 November 16:50
    
    Odd UNLESS Amex has sneakily sold you a package holiday / Inclusive Tour ticket. A lot of travel agents scam customers by secretly selling them restrictive tickets but marking up the ticket massively so you are charged the same as ba.com.
    
    Amex has form here – read this readers story: https://headforpoints.com/2014/04/09/take-care-amex-travel-selling-non-earning-airline-tickets/
    - james says:
      
      15 Nov15 November 18:11
      
      I understand it is all sorted now.
      I am awaitng confirmation of the upgrade though so until I have that in my hand I will be wary.
      Long story which I may write here once I have a chance to relax a bit, but the summary is:
      Staying calm and explaining with logic which can’t really be faulted certainly helps.
      The agents were sympathetic but sticking to their guns.
      I asked to speak to Mr. Alex Cruz in his high viz vest and hard hat (at which the agent had a little giggle) but wasn’t really sure how to do that ! I settled for speaking to a supervisor / manager.
      I think the last agent I spoke with (yes, there were a few before this points hence this is the short version of events !!), whilst adament that she could not process the upgrade put in a good word for me with the supervisor / manager who took about 5 or 6 minutes to review what had been going on before speaking to me.
      Fortunately for me this manager / supervisor agreed that she would process the upgrade because of x,y,z (for the long version of events !) but that in the future they absolutely would not be upgraded.
      I await confirmation. If something else goes wrong I think I’ll cry and ceremonially post Cruz my BAEC card cut into little pieces.
      
      So moral(s) of the story:
      Travel Agents can be sneaky buggers,
      Keeping cool, calm, level headed and thinking the logic of your arguments through is vital,
      HUCA,
      Perservere,
      Mock Alex Cruz,
      Be polite & nice to the agents, they are people just enforcing company policy – not out to get you personally !!
      Don’t try to use Skype from Egypt over a crappy hotel wifi even if it is your only option other than a very large phone bill (One of the agents early on in the debacle was just taking the last 4 digits of my credit card to process the upgrade when the connection dropped !!! The next few agents I got hold of said they couldn’t do it. For the sake of 6 more seconds it would have all been sorted bloody ages and a lot of stress ago !!)
      
      Phew !
    - james says:
      
      15 Nov15 November 18:20
      
      Would you believe it !! Just this second an amex travel customer service survey request has landed in my inbox. Just loading up a glass of Glenmorangie and both barrels 🙂
- james says:
  
  15 Nov15 November 18:48
  
  I might be about to cry. Think I’ve been at this since about 5pm (now quarter to 9).
  A suspicious charge from BA of about half the price of the agreed cash portion of the fee for the return upgrade (not much money) has appeared on my ccard. Upon reviewing my booking only one way has been upgraded despite all along we all knew we were talking about both legs and the supervisor signing off with “so that’s £xx and YYYYY Avios for the upgrades”………….I can’t face another wifi skype call from Egypt getting passed from pillar to post 🙁
  
  Kill me. Please just kill me.
Ahop says:

15 Nov15 November 17:22

OT: I still have an amex travel purchase pending after 4 days. Am I right in thinking that unless this is processed in the next few hours, I will miss out on the offer that was given a deadline of today?
- Ahop says:
  
  15 Nov15 November 17:40
  
  Just seen some comments posted elsewhere in relation to the above.
  - james says:
    
    15 Nov15 November 18:16
    
    Well given my debacle caused by Amex Travel today I wouldn’t be surprised if the sneaky b****rs were holding up payments deliberately.
    
    I hope it goes through Okay.
    - Anna says:
      
      15 Nov15 November 18:40
      
      I’m trying to chase up my missing 2 x 500 avios and no chat reps available – is this your fault? ????
    - Peter K says:
      
      15 Nov15 November 21:37
      
      @Anna ????
      James was talking to three reps on the phone, 4 on live chat plus all supervisors available. Only Alex Cruz was not in contact with him as he was being measured up for a new high vis jacket and trousers to go with his waistcoat.
    - Polly says:
      
      16 Nov16 November 15:23
      
      V funny Peter!
Genghis says:

15 Nov15 November 21:33

New routes not normally loaded for searching but there for booking.
FlyUpTop says:

16 Nov16 November 17:48

SEZ is for some reason on BA search sometimes a pain to find, try using different browsers.
- Spurs Debs says:
  
  17 Nov17 November 07:46
  
  Or just phone BA and ask them.
Daftboy says:

1 Dec1 December 12:23

Just for reference there is a lot of Club and First availability to Mumbai for next May if anyone was looking for that (we have to attend a wedding out there so it’s worked out very well)