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.

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 from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (April 2025)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus card

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios card

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

Get 5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

30,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending £15,000 Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 30,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

80,000 bonus points and great travel benefits – for a large 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, and the standard card is FREE. Capital on Tap cards also have no FX fees.

Capital on Tap Visa

NO annual fee, NO FX fees and points worth 1 Avios per £1 Read our full review

Capital on Tap Pro Visa

10,500 points (=10,500 Avios) plus good benefits Read our full review

There is also a British Airways American Express card for small businesses:

British Airways American Express Accelerating Business

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

There are also generous bonuses on the two American Express Business cards, with the points converting at 1:1 into Avios. These cards are open to sole traders as well as limited companies.

American Express Business Platinum

50,000 points when you sign-up and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and FREE for a year 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.

Comments (308)

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

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