Lowest ever BA Club Europe fares? Sale flights now from £119 return (tier points from 91p)

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British Airways has decided to make deeper fare cuts as its September sale comes towards its end.

The headline deal is in Euro Traveller, where BA is promoting fares for under £35 each way. Last week I actually saw a one-way flight from Gibraltar to Heathrow for £14 which may be some sort of record.

British Airways Club Europe cheap tier points

Don’t believe me?

These additional Euro Traveller discounts are available until 22nd September for travel up to 31st March. Your ticket can be turned into a Future Travel Voucher if you later decide not to travel.

Our real focus, however, is Club Europe.

There are some genuinely crazy Club Europe fares currently available. These are worth 80 British Airways Executive Club tier points return – and in some cases 160 tier points return.

Given that the requirements for status are currently reduced by a quarter (Bronze requires 225 tier points, Silver requires 450 tier points, Gold requires 1,125 tier points) you could earn status for very little money indeed. You would also get a few short breaks in the New Year too.

Club Europe British Airways sale cheap tier points

How cheap are the new Club Europe deals?

These are the examples given in the BA media release:

Dublin £119 return
Krakow £129 return
Luxembourg £129 return
Prague £149 return
Vienna £149 return
Nice £169 return

Here is a longer list which I have drawn from BA’s Low Fare Finder tool. I got these prices by doubling the one-way fares shown, although this often underestimates the cost of a return by £10 or so as one leg is often cheaper than the other.

These are destinations available for under £200 return. Historically, finding a Club Europe fare for under £200 was exceedingly rare.

Aberdeen £164
Alicante £142
Amsterdam £160
Athens £196
Barcelona £144
Bari £186
Basel £136
Belfast £188
Berlin £156
Bilbao £146
Billund £122
Bologna £148
Bordeaux £170
Brussels £152
Bucharest £172
Budapest £162
Cologne £196
Copenhagen £158
Corfu £176
Dubrovnik £190
Dusseldorf £156
Edinburgh £176
Faro £154
Florence £200
Frankfurt £176
Geneva £146
Genoa £156
Gibraltar £138
Glasgow £152
Gothenburg £142
Hamburg £140
Hannover £158
Ibiza £182
Innsbruck £162
Inverness £122
Istanbul £182
Jersey £170
Lanzarote £184
Larnaca £192
Lisbon £166
Lyon £160
Madrid £152
Malaga £144
Malta £164
Manchester £180
Marseille £154
Milan £162
Munich £160
Naples £144
Newcastle £170
Nice £142
Olbia £176
Oslo £160
Palma £140
Paphos £198
Paris £180
Pisa £132
Porto £142
Prague £144
Pula £194
Reykjavik £154
Rome £166
Rotterdam £198
Salzburg £144
Sardinia £186
Seville £144
Sofia £146
Stockholm £158
Stuttgart £150
Tirana £166
Toulouse £154
Turin £144
Valencia £130
Venice £144
Verona £142
Warsaw £136
Zagreb £142
Zurich £146

Remember that actual fares may be £10 or so higher, because the ‘low fare finder’ only shows the cheapest fare in either direction. Some routes have higher fares in one direction than the other.

What about 160 tier point routes?

Here are the cheapest routes which earn 160 tier points:

Algiers £242
Bucharest £172
Catania £228
Funchal £208
Gran Canaria £204
Istanbul £182
Kalamata £274
Lanzarote £184
Malta £164
Marrakech £205
Paphos £198
Preveza Lefkada £246
Reykjavik £154
Sofia £146
Tenerife £204
Thessaloniki £222
Tirana £176

This Head for Points article lists all Club Europe routes which earn 160 tier points for a return flight. Some routes on that last are currently suspended, however.

Can you really get 160 tier points for £146 via Sofia?

Yes. In fact, it actually costs less than ba.com claims. Here is an example from ba.com:

Out Saturday, back Sunday in late March. 24 hours on the ground to see the city. £144 return in Club Europe, earning 160 tier points. That is 91p per tier point. You’d also earn 3,800 Avios return as a Blue member. Tempting …..

If you want to travel sooner, Istanbul looks VERY interesting. There is no quarantine requirement, in either direction, when visiting Turkey and you will pick up tier points for under £1.20 each. You do NOT need to show proof of a negative covid test.

Club Europe sale fares are bookable until 30th September (eight days later than the economy deals) for travel, in most cases, up to the end of March. Saturday night or minimum stay requirements will apply.

Booking the majority of these routes clearly means taking a gamble that any particular route will open up and not require quarantine. If you’re prepared to take the risk, however, there are some very cheap tier points to be had 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.

Andrew says:

20 Sep20 September 09:04

Thanks for the reminder. Promoted me to cancel and rebook a trip in March LHR-BSL-LHR in Club. Net credit on a FTV of £91 which isn’t bad.

Took 10 minutes in total (FTV for original booking arrived in three minutes. Took 20 seconds to get connected to an agent on the phone to make the new booking. Done 5 mins later).

I’m actually very impressed.
Jeffrey Silvers says:

20 Sep20 September 09:19

Just shows how biased against regional flights BA are £188 for a one hour flight to Belfast. EasyJet will win every time
- TGLoyalty says:
  
  20 Sep20 September 09:24
  
  I don’t think it’s bias.
  
  It’s simple economics. Why heavily discount regional flights when people are free to travel regionally.
  
  They are trying to entice people to book European flights knowing full well the quarentine Hokey Cokey has put people off.
- Anna says:
  
  20 Sep20 September 09:54
  
  Where’s that from?
TGLoyalty says:

20 Sep20 September 09:22

As I’ve always said sometimes the person just doesn’t understand what they have actually requested.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-54160376

I’ve been presented with this screen before and it’s pretty clear you are going to get a FTV further up (she’s omitted from her a screenshot)
- Harry T says:
  
  20 Sep20 September 10:01
  
  Yep, people seem to be keen to blame BA for their lack of reading comprehension and cognitive horsepower… I’ve seen the same screen before and it’s very clear that it’s not a form for a cash refund.
- Luckyjim says:
  
  20 Sep20 September 10:04
  
  Which if the two buttons did you click to request a voucher a give up your right to a refund? The one saying ‘rebook flights’ or the one saying ‘request refund’.
  - ChrisBCN says:
    
    20 Sep20 September 10:50
    
    People have a button to click, regardless of all of the other information that may or may not have been presented on the page. ‘Cancel and refund’ is very clear on ‘refund’, with no hint that that may be a voucher. Accepted practice in life is that refund means to the original payment source. It’s a really scammy practice and BA should face fines for this – I’m quite sure there is legal precedence for this kind of behaviour that perhaps a legal eagle can comment on.
  - TGLoyalty says:
    
    20 Sep20 September 11:18
    
    It’s clearly states your refund will be in the form of a FTV. The button is related to your options stated in the text above.
    
    You are not just given two buttons with no other information
    - Gavin says:
      
      20 Sep20 September 11:27
      
      I wouldn’t have thought a FTV fits the definition of a refund. I certainly wouldn’t consider it a refund.
      - TGLoyalty says:
        
        20 Sep20 September 11:45
        
        Nor would I but FTVs have worked for lots of people. Including people in here who have just booked flights for less and have now got credit to play with.
        
        The point is it clearly says you’ll get a FTV, them calling that a refund might be underhand but they are clear it’s a voucher not a cash refund.
        
        If you want a cash refund you must call.
      - ChrisBCN says:
        
        20 Sep20 September 12:28
        
        It’s absolutely underhand… The text on the button is misleading at best, fraudulent at worst.
      - Mikeact says:
        
        20 Sep20 September 20:00
        
        @Chris etc. Total rubbish. Can you not read what it actually says on the screen, or are you just in too much of a hurry ?
        Clearly says a voucher for goodness sake.
      - ChrisBCN says:
        
        20 Sep20 September 21:20
        
        Please tell me which button says voucher. You seen to have missed the nuance.
- ChrisBCN says:
  
  20 Sep20 September 12:38
  
  Let me position this differently. Suppose you were looking to buy something. Everything on the page says it costs £5. Over and over, this costs a fiver. Abundantly clear.
  
  The button you have to click says ‘buy now £10’.
  
  You click and are charged £10. But everything on the page said £5! Under your logic where the page makes everything clear, you’ve been ripped off, despite clicking the £10 button.
  - TGLoyalty says:
    
    20 Sep20 September 12:44
    
    I believe consumer law is clear on this and you would be being ripped off.
    - ChrisBCN says:
      
      20 Sep20 September 13:51
      
      Well you should have read the page then, it was clear it only cost a fiver!
      
      You get my point?
    - Lady London says:
      
      20 Sep20 September 16:00
      
      I consider our regulators are sleeping because it’s so clear no way is British Airways meeting the clear requirements of EC261 as regards making customers’ rights to a cash refund as clear and equally easy to access as other options.
      
      To give the CAA and other consumer regulators the benefit of the doubt, they may be waiting till airlines have some positive cashflow before pursuing them.
      
      But if British Airways is not prosecuted and fined (not just admonished) for this, it will be a travesty.
      
      Ditto certain other sneaky behaviour and non- compliance of other airlines.
      - ChrisBCN says:
        
        20 Sep20 September 17:02
        
        Agreed, there has to be some form of punishment for some of the bad behaviours, especially for this particular case.
      - Mikeact says:
        
        20 Sep20 September 20:01
        
        Total rubbish if you can’t understand it.
      - ChrisBCN says:
        
        20 Sep20 September 21:21
        
        Agreed, if you can’t understand what it is, it’s total rubbish.
Colin JE says:

20 Sep20 September 09:25

I’m wondering what the chances are if BA extending their reduced tier pts offer into next year?
My silver has already extended to Oct 2021 so there’s little incentive to travel Club at present. But if the 425 TPs offer was extended I’d pay cash rather than use Avios if I wanted Club and would be keener to use all these tempting offers.
- ChrisC says:
  
  20 Sep20 September 16:55
  
  My collection year ends in November and my curent status has been extended December 2021
  
  My understanding is that the reduced TP criteria applied to the current year (ends 8th November 2020) and my next year (ends 8th Novemver 2021) so they have already extended the reduced TP criteris ‘into next year’
Anna says:

20 Sep20 September 09:32

I’m trying to decide whether to go for Silver, tier points reset to 0 last month. Like the reader above most of my flights (if they go ahead) are in F or CW anyway next year so no major benefits except seat selection in CW. Might be useful for the first half of 2022 when OH retires and we might get to do a couple of “big” cash trips. Theoretically I could do a couple of weekend trips booked at the last minute to destinations with no quarantine requirement and starting from MAN gives extra tier points!
- AJA says:
  
  20 Sep20 September 11:44
  
  You also get more Avios as Silver. And priority over Blue or Bronze if/when things go wrong. I think Silver is the sweet spot in BA status as it also gives you and a guest access to the lounges so you could continue travelling in CW or F and your son could sit further back but would still have lounge access as your guest. 450TP seems easy enough to get so why not?
- Mr. AC says:
  
  20 Sep20 September 13:58
  
  I’m always gunning for Gold, but I make a lot of use of the expanded Avios redemption availability in Economy on the routes I fly – last minute it’s consistently a good deal with RFS, so for me it usually turns out to make sense.
  - Alan says:
    
    20 Sep20 September 14:14
    
    Yep I used to use Gold for the increased redemption availability in economy for European trips – then they doubled the cost by charging for domestic legs too and now I hardly ever fly BA to Europe, just fly LCC direct.
MARK C says:

20 Sep20 September 09:56

My tier point reset is October, recently flew to athens to get silver. My account now says silver valid until November 2022! Is that correct?
- AJA says:
  
  20 Sep20 September 11:47
  
  I think you have benefitted from the BA 1 year extension of status as you’ve upgraded. Ordinarily it should be the rest of your current year and the whole of the next year so Nov 2021. Enjoy!
Katy says:

20 Sep20 September 10:18

Thanks Rob, I’ve been using ITA but they don’t seem to show back to back options (such as the example in March you have listed), do you know if they have a minimum turnaround/connection that is longer than BA permit for a booking?
- Rob says:
  
  20 Sep20 September 10:43
  
  Putting in a Sat night should do it.
  - Katy says:
    
    20 Sep20 September 11:16
    
    Thanks, will try that. Was your March quote just through ba.com?
    - Rob says:
      
      20 Sep20 September 12:04
      
      Yes
Adam says:

20 Sep20 September 10:35

Athens not on the 160TP list in the article, but just booked £197rtn CE for October.
- Coucou says:
  
  20 Sep20 September 11:57
  
  Athens is shutting down and also getting on the quarantine list.
  - TGLoyalty says:
    
    20 Sep20 September 14:19
    
    Depends if 20 is still valid when the UK is at 38 / 100k