Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

British Airways selling long haul Economy seats at £100 each way for its 100th birthday

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If you were wondering why Virgin Atlantic brought back its £1 ‘Golden Tickets’ game on Monday (see this article), it seems to be a spoiler for a new British Airways offer.

As part of its 100th birthday celebrations, British Airways will be selling 100 long-haul Economy seats each day for £200 return, ie £100 each way.

Different routes will be offered each day between Monday and Thursday at noon.

BA 100th birthday offer

There will be two different destinations each day, to include the USA, Africa and South America over the course of the week.

Tickets will be made available at noon exactly.  ba.com will collapse at around 12.00:05 ….

Destinations will be listed on this special page of ba.com.

On Monday the destinations were New York and Cape Town.  On Tuesday it was Abu Dhabi and Boston.  On Wednesday it was Pittsburgh and Rio.

Travel dates have varied by destination so it is impossible to predict what will be offered on Thursday.  The window is generally about four weeks.

These tickets have booked into ‘M’ class in general but this is not guaranteed.  This means that you can upgrade them later to World Traveller Plus if Avios reward seats open up.  Do note, however, that this will trigger the higher rate of Air Passenger Duty plus additional BA surcharges so it won’t be cheap.

As an Avios earning opportunity, this is surprisingly good.  A BA Blue member would earn 6,020 Avios and 80 tier points return from the Cape Town offer.  A BA Gold would have earned a whopping 18,060 Avios return plus 80 tier points for their £200 outlay – and they got to visit Cape Town.  Although 2 x 12-hour overnight flights in Economy is not exactly an easy way of earning cheap Avios ….

The promo page for BA’s 100th birthday sale offer 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:

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 (317)

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

  • YeahBeenThere says:

    Boom, got Barbados for a weekend. Never been…tips to stay/what to do in 2 nights?

    • Chris Horsfall says:

      You lucky b****rd. I could not even get though to the page which told me the destinations. I clicked then refreshed on the second, then the “Technical” issue kept coming up. I had the time booked off, and wanted a diving destination for one person. Would have been perfect as I don’t mind economy when it is just me. Wife “has” to fly club 🙂

    • Maxine says:

      Depends what you’re into.
      If you’re there on a Friday night, visit Oistins fish fry on the south coast.
      Best beaches and sunsets are on the West Coast. I prefer staying near Holetown, which has plenty of restaurants and bars to choose from.
      Buses are $2 per person, for any destination, so you may not want to bother with hiring a car.
      Places to visit: Harrison’s Cave, St Nicholas Abbey with it’s brand new train service, Bridgetown (the capital). If you want a flavour of the island, I’d highly recommend Ted’s Tour, the best tour guide on the island.
      Any other questions, ask away! I love Barbados, and hopefully you will too.

  • LukeM says:

    The Philadelphia flights appeared to be change to AA in Dublin.

  • Nick M says:

    So close… managed to go through the whole process but then “sold out” message after card details – 4 people to Barbados for £455 + 8000 Avios, plus could have used my Marriott travel package for 7/9 nights!

  • TONY says:

    8 Adults to Barbados!!

    Thanks ROB1!!!

  • Choons says:

    I just forgot about it completely this time, oh well, like others GBP400+ saved

  • Mirp says:

    Got Barbados.

  • Liv says:

    I got Rio yesterday arrriiibabababaaaaaaa excited as always wanted to go. Thanks so much Rob!

  • Anonymus says:

    Hi Rob
    Just wondering, do you never feel that sharing some deals can make them less available for your close friends and family?Do you at times hold your cards close to your chest like?

    • Rob says:

      Fair question.

      There are some things which we never write about. These are loopholes which would be closed within 24 hours if they became public, and so publication serves no purpose. If you come to one of our parties you will definitely learn a few things face to face (not from me though, because I spend the 2 hours running around in panic making sure everything is going OK!).

      For deals that are available immediately, obviously I can pick them up before an article goes out. If I have written an article about, say, the next batch of O2 concerts being available for Marriott points, then clearly I will have jumped in for myself before the article goes live. I’d be stupid not to.

      Would I write about a great AUCTION deal for Marriott points if I wanted to win it, knowing that telling 25,000 more people was going to massively reduce my chance of getting it? Don’t know.

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