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MASSIVE AVIOS SALE: 50% off ALL long-haul flights, 25% off short-haul and it works with a 241

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British Airways has launched what is possibly the biggest Avios flight sale it has ever run.

All long haul flights, in all classes, are half price. Well, half points anyway.

Full details are on this special page of ba.com.

Avios 50% discount sale

This is what you need to know:

  • ALL long-haul redemptions (all routes, all travel classes) are reduced by 50%
  • ALL short-haul redemptions (all routes, both travel classes) are reduced by 25%

Here are the key dates:

  • You must book by 13th October
  • You must travel between now and 30th June 2021
  • Full taxes and charges are due
  • The discount is valid on both one-way and return flights
  • The discount only applies to British Airways flights and not partner airlines

Can this offer be combined with a British Airways American Express 2-4-1 or Lloyds voucher?

YES. Well, with an Amex 241 anyway.

British Airways told me that it doesn’t, but it does!

This may or may be an error. The small print does say that ‘vouchers’ are excluded.

British Airways Gatwick Airport

Should I cancel and rebook existing redemptions?

This is a tricky question.

For existing long haul bookings:

Clearly there are HUGE savings to be made if you cancel existing Avios long-haul redemptions and rebook them. You’d be crazy not to, to be honest, if it meant saving 50,000 to 100,000 Avios per booking.

(Do NOT do this with a Lloyds Avios upgrade voucher. As far as I know, these are still lost if you cancel a redemption flight which uses one.)

You need to be careful, however.

If you have enough Avios to make a fresh booking and didn’t use a 2-4-1 voucher, you don’t have any risk. You can make a new booking and then cancel your original at your convenience.

(Remember that, if you cancel online, you can only receive a Future Travel Voucher. This involves wrapping up the Avios, cash and any companion voucher in a voucher. You do NOT get the Avios, cash or companion voucher back in your accounts but you don’t pay any cancellation fees. Alternatively, you can ring BA, pay the £35 per person cancellation fee and get the Avios, cash and any voucher back directly.)

If you don’t have enough Avios to rebook, or need your 2-4-1 voucher back first, you are in a trickier position.

You need to call BA, trigger a Future Travel Voucher (which usually arrives within a few minutes, but isn’t guaranteed) and then call British Airways to rebook.

You should assume that your original seats will NOT go back into redemption availability. Only do this if you can see enough fresh seats available for the dates you want and you are willing to take the risk of them disappearing before you can rebook.

Half price Avios bookings

For existing short haul bookings:

For short haul, however, I don’t think it is worth the effort. The cancellation fees will outweigh a 25% Avios saving. Cancelling for a Future Travel Voucher and then rebooking to avoid cancellation fees is a bit of a faff for a modest return, even if seats are available.

Is there a special offer to buy Avios if I’m short?

No, unfortunately not. The 50% bonus promotion ended last week and I imagine there is no chance of a new offer before 13th October.

If you are happy to pay full price (1.6p per Avios plus a £15 handling fee), you can buy Avios via this page of ba.com.

Be careful not to get carried away ….

This is an exceptionally good offer. Offering 50% off all long haul flights, to all destination and in all classes, is not something you see every day.

However …. if you end up not flying the tickets you book, you will be paying £35 per person to cancel or taking a Future Travel Voucher, which comes with its own complications when you come to rebook (no name changes etc). Book with care.

Click here to visit the special sale page of ba.com and find out more.

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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.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on the ‘free for a year’ American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card is increased from 20,000 Membership Rewards points to 30,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (30,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on American Express Platinum is increased from 50,000 Membership Rewards points to a huge 80,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (80,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

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.

Category

British Airways and Avios

Comments (712)

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

  • Vit says:
    6 Oct6 October 15:53

    Decided to pull the trigger using my 2-4-1 voucher which valid till April 2022.

    INV-HND / BKK-ABZ — 82k avios + less than £1k tax & surcharge. Got J booked in with BR from NRT – BKK as well.

    All I can do is hope so we can go home and visit the family.

    • Anna says:
      6 Oct6 October 16:18

      Did you do this on the phone?

      • Vit says:
        6 Oct6 October 16:28

        Yes, Anna. I had to due to my open-jaw inbound flight and honestly speaking I did not think it was gonna be this hard to find availability from BKK in June but it was the last 2 club seats!

        Was put on queue for 15 mins or so but BA agent (Aaron) was so helpful though!

  • Wayne says:
    6 Oct6 October 16:06

    I had booked for J seats in March for Dubai, using 2 x 241 vouchers which I was contemplating cancelling anyway as March is now looking a bit soon for the restrictions to have ended. So following todays offer I have now cancelled and received 4 vouchers from BA which are valid thru to 2022, which is good as my 241’s expired March 2021. My question is how much are the vouchers worth, can I book any off peak J flight now until expiry of the vouchers?
    If I booked flights during this current promotion, would they only take the 50% Avios and provide another voucher or refund the excess?

    • Rob says:
      6 Oct6 October 16:23

      The vouchers are worth exactly what was in your original booking – all the cash, all the Avios and your 2 x 241.

      • wayne says:
        6 Oct6 October 16:33

        Thanks Rob, So I would have to use them on reward availability flights? have I extended the life of the 241’s to the life of the FTV’s?or will the 241’s still have the original expiry date?

  • Paul B says:
    6 Oct6 October 16:14

    Apologies in advance for not fully understanding Future Travel Vouchers despite reading the various comments on this site. This is my situation…

    In February 2020 I booked two adults a return in Club World LHR – BKK departing August 2020 using Avios and an AMEX 241. BA cancelled my flights, so I rerouted to February 2021 (the latest that I could under IATA regs, apparantly). Now there is a 50% off sale, what are my options?

    I rang the BA Call Centre and and they said it would be £35pp plus a £15pp service fee to cancel if they did it.

    I asked about getting a FTV and the agent said that I had to do that online. Am I actually entitled to a FTV as I booked prior 3 March 2020 and have now rerouted to February 2021? If I am, does this mean that there are no cancellation fees?

    If I get a FTV and use it to rebook at the lower Avios cost what happens to the excess Avios?

  • Alekun says:
    6 Oct6 October 16:27

    Looking to take advantage of this sale but wondering the best way to approach buying tickets to KUL with 2 adults and 1 infant under the age of 2.

    • Vit says:
      6 Oct6 October 16:31

      With infant in the tow, I would strongly suggest to call in if you can. The agent can also “hold” your flight while you’re trying to make the decision on dates, etc. With this offer, destinations like BKK or KUL are going fast.

    • Sarah says:
      6 Oct6 October 16:32

      I was just told that FTV couldn’t be used to book this as it has to be a new booking. Is that correct?

    • Andrew says:
      6 Oct6 October 16:42

      Just book online for the two adults and then phone up at a later stage to add the infant to the booking. The infant should pay 10% of the adult fare so it’s probably worth phoning before this offer ends.

  • Maria J says:
    6 Oct6 October 16:31

    Thank you very much for this. I cancelled my 2-4-1 to NYC and rebooked to DXB. Very happy!

  • SK says:
    6 Oct6 October 16:40

    Rob, I just phoned up BA about cancellation for a 241 voucher, they said it makes no difference whether you cancel it online or by phone, you still get your Avios, cash and your 241 voucher back. In fact, phoning them to cancel will cost an extra £15 (for the service charge) plus £35 for cancellation fees.

    Are you able to clarify please? Thanks

    • JohnT says:
      6 Oct6 October 17:34

      I have got away with saying they can’t charge me a service fee if not able to do it online!

      • Polly says:
        6 Oct6 October 20:43

        Well, l just got charged the phone fee without realising it needed them to transfer my 241 to my new KUL booking. Will chase it, as cs was supposed to remove the fee….

      • bookish says:
        6 Oct6 October 20:45

        As my my 241 was booked last January, it’s impossible to cancel online as I’m routed to the FTV page when I click on cancel, but then had an email 10 minutes later stating the tickets weren’t eligible. I understand there’s a work around, but can’t find the details. I’ll call in the morning and see if they’ll reimburse the avios rather than cancelling and rebooking.

  • bookish says:
    6 Oct6 October 16:41

    Had a 241 flight booked for Dec, but have now cancelled this online as I couldn’t get through on the phone. Anyone have an idea how long it takes for the FTV and the 241 to come back at the moment if you do it online? Thank you.

    • bookish says:
      6 Oct6 October 16:45

      Or rather, I guess I get a refund to my card? Which is obviously even better. I’ve misunderstood how they’re handling refunds and when they’re cash or FTV.

      • Nadeshka says:
        6 Oct6 October 19:39

        If you elected for a FTV that’s what you’ll get, and it will encompass the cash, avios and 241 from the booking all to be used against a new redemption. You won’t get the 241 voucher or cash back to your card.

        • bookish says:
          6 Oct6 October 20:47

          Tickets were booked last January, do not eligible it seems. Given that the cancellation link directs to the FTV form, I’ll need to telephone

  • Paul says:
    6 Oct6 October 16:41

    Thanks for help all, but now fearing may have erred… eventually got through to cancel my Amex 241 booking, but ended up opting for FTV as opposed to return of voucher avios and cash, as figured I’m just going to rebook immediately so will save the £70 (actually agent claiming it would be £100 as ‘service fee’ added, despite me explaining it was impossible to do online), but now wondering if the new booking via FTV will be as flexible as the original should things still be difficult travel wise and mean we need to cancel or change… Apparently i can still call back and cancel the FTV for the original voucher, cash and avios, but pay the £70 (or £100) so that’s at least an option, as long as they answer the phone of course…

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