British Airways launches six new Heathrow ‘Summer sun’ routes – Avios flights bookable now

Links on Head for Points may pay us an affiliate commission. A list of partners is here.

British Airways has announced six new ‘Summer sun’ routes from Heathrow, including Pristina and Podgorica.

These routes are all available for booking now, with the guaranteed six Avios seats per flight available.

Some of these are brand new whilst others are re-instatements of previously cancelled routes. They all offer you additional options for your 2020 holiday.

The most intriguing, and somewhere that I have never been, is Kosovo. British Airways will operate Saturday-only flights to Pristina from 4th July to 29th August.

This is obviously a low-risk way of testing the market, with only around 1500 seats in each direction over the season. I got an error message when trying to book this at 12pm but it should appear soon.

BA is also entering Montenegro, although not to the more obvious holiday option of Tivat. Instead, there will be a weekly flight to Podgorica. The operating dates are identical to Pristina.

Heathrow will also see flights to Perugia in Italy. Services will run on Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays from 2nd July to 31st August.

Turkey is also seeing expansion. British Airways already flies to Dalaman from London Gatwick but is adding an additional Heathrow service too.

Bodrum, pictured above, is also back on the BA map.

Both routes will be Saturday-only, operating between 23rd May and 24th October. Remember that British Airways is also launching Antalya from Gatwick from mid April.

Turning to Greece, there will be a new service between Heathrow and Rhodes. This will operate on Saturdays between 4th July and 29th August. The existing service between Gatwick and Rhodes, pictured below, will remain.

Corfu is also gaining an additional two flights per week from Gatwick on Fridays and Sundays between 1st May and 23rd October.

Frequency increases have also been announced on 16 routes including Larnaca, Brindisi, Nice, Ibiza, Tenerife, Split, Olbia, Kefalonia and Preveza. Unfortunately we were not given a full list. If you previously tried and failed to find Avios space on these routes for the Summer you may want to check again.

Seats should be bookable on all these routes, for cash or Avios, at ba.com.

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.

ADS says:

12 Dec12 December 12:52

when i was in Podgorica a few Summers ago there were lots of teenagers with english accents – spending the summer with their grandparents !

so i suspect this route will do well.
Lady London says:

12 Dec12 December 13:21

I can’t hear these Balkan place names without remembering coverage of the Yugoslav war in the 90’s and reports of conflicts shells and bombing and suffering, when people who had been neighbours for decades started killing each other. One day I will make it to visit these destinations and good move by British Airways to offer them.

Presumably British Airways might also benefit from the recent demise of Thomas Cook on some of these routes too. I’m not sure if there is overlap between these destinations and EasyJet’s new EasyJet Holidays ventures. If so, this could also be a spoiler move by BA on destinations that overlap!
KevMc says:

12 Dec12 December 13:47

Are any of these 160 TP options?
- Shoestring says:
  
  12 Dec12 December 13:59
  
  LHR DLM 1,758 mi
  LHR BJV 1,688 mi
  LHR RHO 1,745 m
  
  hmmm
  - Shoestring says:
    
    12 Dec12 December 14:02
    
    Catania is 1229 miles & 160TP so you could be in luck
    
    not sure how to check the TPS but there are definitely some cheap fares at the mo
    - Shoestring says:
      
      12 Dec12 December 14:04
      
      also LGW CFU 1,255 mi
      - Kevin McAuley says:
        
        12 Dec12 December 14:27
        
        I couldn’t find anywhere which states what the distance required is to become 160…do we think it is 1200? Bit of a shame, as LHR-TGD is 1,120 and LHR-PRN is 1,181
      - Kai says:
        
        12 Dec12 December 14:35
        
        Think it’s 1100 or 1150, as LHR-HEL is 1151 and definitely earns 80TP per way.
      - pauldb says:
        
        12 Dec12 December 14:40
        
        On the plus side TGD squeezes into the 1,150mi / 7,500avios band.
      - AppleW says:
        
        12 Dec12 December 15:27
        
        LHR RHO shows on BA TP calculator as 80 TP each way in CE
        
        Montenegro, Kosovo and new Turkey destinations don’t seem to be populated yet…..
      - Shoestring says:
        
        12 Dec12 December 17:39
        
        experts saying 1000-1200 miles is something of a grey area but 1200+ should be OK for 160 rtn
Henk says:

12 Dec12 December 14:19

Thanks Rob! Booked to Podgorica (Avios) for a week road trip, ending up at the Regent Porto Montenegro. On IHG points 🙂
pauldb says:

12 Dec12 December 14:39

Antalya was announced as starting from 30th April (6x) but now seems to have been brought forward to 2nd April which makes it a warm, shorthaul Easter option. Not a lot of avios availability though so perhaps altered before today.

Having done some of Montenegro from DBV, very happy to be able to see some more via Pogorica.

And must admit having been there, that I had no idea Perugia had an airport!
ankomonkey says:

12 Dec12 December 15:16

So is the Bodrum route from LHR?
- Rob says:
  
  12 Dec12 December 17:35
  
  Yes
  - ankomonkey says:
    
    12 Dec12 December 20:11
    
    Thanks. The old route was from LGW. LHR is preferable!
Michael says:

12 Dec12 December 15:18

Disappointed BA chose not to start flights to Tivat. I’ve got my eye on a stay at the Regent Montenegro this summer, currently the only option from Edinburgh is Ryanair to Dubrovnik.
- alan young says:
  
  12 Dec12 December 15:21
  
  Don’t forget car hire companies charge an extortionate fee to cross borders especially Avis.
  - Will says:
    
    12 Dec12 December 15:42
    
    I did Croatia to montenegro a few years back and it was reasonable from memory, just booked through travel supermarket.
  - pauldb says:
    
    12 Dec12 December 15:47
    
    £45? https://docs.abgcarrental.com/location/avis/UK/HR/en
    - Henk says:
      
      12 Dec12 December 15:58
      
      Weirdly, the country specific conditions for Montenegro do not mention any special restrictions: https://docs.abgcarrental.com/location/avis/UK/ME/en/
    - Princess says:
      
      13 Dec13 December 18:32
      
      Yes £45 for the green card to cross the border!
      We were there in October and that what we got charged from rental company. In theory if you manage to avoid to buy it from the rental company you can buy it at the border for much less.
      Montenegro is stunning! Lots of things to do and see!
- Henk says:
  
  12 Dec12 December 16:00
  
  Google maps says it’s only a 1:50 drive from TGD to the hotel.
- pauldb says:
  
  12 Dec12 December 16:56
  
  There’s also the O&O Portonovi opening in the spring but for that you might as well fly into DBV. Found Porto Montenegro to be a very sterile place, though I’m sure the hotel is nice. We were very happy to be staying inside the “fjord” in Perast instead.
James says:

12 Dec12 December 15:58

OT: IHG CREATION CREDIT CARD & purchasing foreign currency.

Hi, can I purchase foreign currency from the likes of M&S or John Lewis using the IHG creation credit card (premium) ?
Will it count as a purchase ?
Will it count towards the £10k spend for the free night voucher ?
Will there be an additional charge for the transaction ?

IF I front it with a Curve card (the legacy black version) how does that change things ?

Thanks ever so much.
- Kai says:
  
  12 Dec12 December 16:52
  
  Most likely a cash advance even fronted with Curve
  - memesweeper says:
    
    13 Dec13 December 09:11
    
    I’ve never managed to purchase cash from anywhere in the UK with Curve. Underlying card made no difference.
    
    Curve has always worked for me in foreign ATMs. I gave it a complete battering in Laos, as cards were only infrequently accepted and then with a surcharge, without issue.