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British Airways premium sale ends tomorrow …. or try great Turkish fares to the US

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The British Airways premium leisure sale, focussing on Club Europe, Club World and First, ends tomorrow (Tuesday).  On many routes you can book until 9th February 2016 so you could potentially secure your Easter, Summer, October half term and Christmas holidays now!

If you know where you want to go, the Low Fare Finder tool on ba.com is the easiest way to see which months have the lowest prices.

Alternatively, take a look at the sale home page on ba.com here.

Club World flights start at £1,499 on routes to the Middle East.  (Ignore a £760 fare to Lagos as that is routed on Iberia and is on a short-haul plane.)

European deals in Club Europe are also available. The usual mix of sub-£200 routes are available: Amsterdam, Barcelona, Angers, Dublin, Genoa, Rome, Turin etc with plenty more routes under £250. These are a cheap way to pick up 80 tier points towards status renewal.

Some of the longer routes which offer 160 tier points return are also worth a look. These include Athens, Istanbul, Larnaca, Marrakech and Helsinki. The tier point calculator on ba.com is a quick way of checking what a particular route will earn.

You might also want to look at some of the sale fares available out of Ireland on British Airways.  Miami, for example, is a generous £933 (€1261) return from Dublin, using BA. It is a bit cheaper still if you fly direct to New York on American from Dublin and connect but I think you get the old style AA seat.

The travel dates are tight for the Ireland deals: 28 March to 12 April, 1 July to 31 August, 22 November to 29 November and 24 December to 31 December.

Turkish 350

Alternatively, if you’ve got time to kill, Turkish Airlines has a deal for you!

Turkish Airlines is exceptionally well regarded and has well advanced plans to position itself alongside the three Middle Eastern carriers as a global hub airport for the 21st century.

Their current lounge complex in Istanbul is believed by some to be the best in the world – this is not just hype, a HFP reader made this point to me very firmly over a pint a couple of weeks ago!

This makes their current fare sale out of Oslo (yes, you start in Norway) even more of a deal.  You can see the headline prices here in Norwegian Kroner.

Boston – 7,522 NOK (£632)

New York – 8,022 NOK (£674)

There are also deals to Washington, Toronto, Houston and Montreal but they are less generous.

The good news is that these fares include a free stopover in Istanbul if you want it.  The long-haul leg is on an A340-300 (Boston, angled lie-flat I believe) or A330 (JFK, fully flat I believe).  The bad news is that Oslo to Istanbul is on a short-haul aircraft albeit with a business class service which is well regarded.

If you have time to kill, are happy flying to Oslo to start and end your trip, potentially want to have a stopover in Istanbul, are keen to try out the Turkish lounges in Istanbul, want to earn a LOT of Star Alliance miles AND pay as much as BA would want for an economy ticket on a bad day, this may appeal!

The headline fare rules are:  book by tomorrow (10th March), travel by May 31st, not valid over Easter (20th March to 3rd April), minimum 3 days or Saturday night stay, maximum stay one month.  It is bookable on Expedia etc but the Turkish website is easier as it shows you a calendar with the days where this fare is available.

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British Airways and Avios

Comments (25)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Mike says:
    9 Mar9 March 09:45

    The US flights from Dublin allow US connections as well, so if you don’t mind a longer route they’re a good opportunity to get a few more tier points. I’m getting ~700 from my F trip next month.

  • James67 says:
    9 Mar9 March 09:50

    About a week ago I also seen J return exARN with Turkish ranging from just under £1k for BKK to £1300ish SIN. My partner has flew Turkisk J from FRA-BKK before and hashappily recommended it to friends.

    • Rob says:
      9 Mar9 March 10:33

      I am keen to give it a go. I will see what flights from Heathrow use long-haul aircraft and potentially do a quick return run to Istanbul.

      • James67 says:
        10 Mar10 March 11:48

        TK are reportedly in negotiations to buy 10 a380s and lease two from MH. This raises the intriguing prospect of them deploying the whale as a time filler on LHR route, and perhaps FRA to up the stakes in their competition with LH. Interesting in itself that TK already has the routes, or at least has the ambition, to sustain a380 services. I have not flew TK personally but used to book for my partner in BMI days. Back then metal swap was an ongoing issue with them, and still seems to be the case from Jacs comment. Probably not worth the risk unless you want a few days in Istanbul.

        • Rob says:
          10 Mar10 March 12:00

          Turkish has just bought another pair of Heathrow landing slots from SAS for £20m.

  • Rich says:
    9 Mar9 March 18:52

    Nice shiny TK A330 off the Runway recently in the Himalayas……. Yes their catering is good, but does that make up for it?!

  • Jac says:
    9 Mar9 March 21:11

    I m not sure a trip report would give a fair representation of TK. They are notorious for changing aircraft at last minute so while you can book a full flat bed in a new Airbus you could be flying in the end an old plane with C just meaning the middle seat is left empty. Similar that exit seat you booked in advance easily becomes just a seat in the middle.
    While the food is normally good, the overall experience can be terrible.
    with other airlines flashing your gold card should get you rebooked quickly on another flight with TK you will be the last one to be helped for not speaking turkish
    for Xmas I was travelling with our baby in C and I tried to book a bassinet. Each time I called I was told they made a request and I should call a few days later to get confirmation (but there was no record of the earlier request) The first row however could not be booked as this is blocked for VIP (my elite plus status and travelling with baby did not help to reserve the first row)
    On our last leg to LGW we were allocated Seat 2a & 2c as they could not override the system. While TK had arranged for a bassinet (and baby food) the first row was taken by an elderly English couple who refused to swap seats (the other first row was taken by another couple travelling with a baby) I told them we were travelling with a baby and wanted to use the bassinet but they just replied that they had booked this seats and did not want to swap even though the seats (sloping beds) were identical. The cabin crew just told us that they could not force people to change seats so we had to carry our baby the whole flight in our arms not a 5* experience.

  • James67 says:
    10 Mar10 March 13:22

    TG changing to once daily from LHR and deploying a380 so that wil be another pair up for lease or sale. I think TG are missing a trick here. I think if they used other pair with a two class a330 or 777 4x weekly to Phuket and 3x weekly to Chiang Mai the ease of doing twin centres might get them a lot of lost customers back.

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

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