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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.

  • cinereus says:
    6 Oct6 October 17:29

    Not remotely worth it once you factor in the crazy taxes/fees even for long haul in F. Alternatively just much much better value.

    • Cheshire Pete says:
      6 Oct6 October 17:36

      Also agree with this! We got Manchester>LHR>JFK for cash £850 return , that’s about £200 more than the taxes. We added a hotel with BAH and just deposited £350 and we’ll hang on till February until balance is due.

      Now, that is a low risk, low cost bargain!

    • Harry T says:
      6 Oct6 October 19:08

      Yes, I’m struggling to find a use for my 241. Just booked ex EU flights to Boston for next August with BA for £682 each. Upgraded the outbound to First for 40,000 Avios. I’m going to earn almost 16k Avios, and 420 tier points each, and we are paying less than the taxes of a 241.

      If you can be flexible about how and when you travel, the optics look different. If I had kids and fixed travel dates, I’d be more interested in this promotion.

  • craig bryant says:
    6 Oct6 October 17:39

    Thanks to Rob for the initial heads up.

    We had 4 x flights booked using Avios and 2 x 241 vouchers for Easter: LHR – SIN & then BKK back to LHR all in J.

    Managed to cancel and rebook the same flights out, switched the return flight from HKG to LHR (and managed to upgrade to F!) and still managed to save about 150k Avios! A great result all thanks to HPP.

    • Amber Lynn says:
      6 Oct6 October 18:43

      Sound great! Only problem is no one will be flying then, Have a week in Southend instead.

  • Andrew says:
    6 Oct6 October 17:55

    JFK 12,500 and £50 each way in WT including luggage. Amazing value. IF the USA opens up before end of June and you don’t mind sitting in economy.

  • Simon in Italy says:
    6 Oct6 October 18:00

    Sorry to ask what will be obvious to many yet I cannot put my fingers on the answer – wanting to fly LON-SFO business in May using Avios and 2-4-1. If I have to cancel (for example US not open to UK people, Hawaii still closed …) what are my options? TIA!!

    • Rob says:
      6 Oct6 October 18:08

      Pay £35 per person to get Avios and cash back or take the BA Future Travel Voucher and don’t pay the fee. You CANNOT change the date without paying additional Avios to take you back to the original price.

      • Simon in Italy says:
        6 Oct6 October 19:24

        MANY thanks for the quick and concise answer!

      • Simon in Italy says:
        6 Oct6 October 20:46

        Oh, and if I pay the punitive seat charges would I get that back too if I have to cancel?

        • Polly says:
          6 Oct6 October 21:07

          Not worth the risk, some argue here it’s your right for a refund, but so much hassle.

        • Rob says:
          6 Oct6 October 21:17

          No. You lose the money. Don’t do it.

        • Lady London says:
          7 Oct7 October 14:54

          Dont do it because BA is being mean about these – why play into your hands?
          As and when BA’s refusal to refund change fees onto flights they then cancelled, and seat reservations on those cancelled flights, comes to court I am sure they will end up having to refund those things on cancelled flights – but for now, BA;s keeping your money and saying “so sue us, then”.

          Possession of your money is 9/10s of the law, that BA is operating here. I hope they get their comeuppance.

  • Fenny says:
    6 Oct6 October 18:01

    Absolutely no use to anyone unless they know for certain that the flights are going to happen, they will be allowed into the destination country and they can cope with quarantining at home on return.

    I know the airlines want people to book, but most people going on expensive holidays what some certainty that the trip will happen or they will get a refund. I don’t mind having the £1500 for my holiday this year held over to 2 bookings for next year because I know the holiday company will give me a refund if it they don’t happen. But I don’t trust BA as far as I could drag a 747.

  • Andrew says:
    6 Oct6 October 18:02

    As many have said, obviously most of the flights we have booked today will be cancelled but in for a penny in for a pound – we have to have hope or what else is there?

    • Lady London says:
      6 Oct6 October 18:55

      And fortunately for us based in the UK/Europe, if flights are cancelled by an airline then our rights are fairly well covered. Granted some airlines have really dragged out refunds.

      I feel sorry for Australians who do not seem to have very strong consumer law at all. I read somewhere that if a flight is cancelled by an airline in Australia for reasons that are beyond the control of the airline, the airline doesn’t have to refund and can force a (potentially useless) voucher. I do hope Australia sorts out some decent consumer rights if airlines are allowed to basically not fulfil a contract without having to put the customer back in the position they were in (i.e. give them their money back if the airline didn’t provide the service paid for).

      • PolKuZZZ says:
        6 Oct6 October 19:20

        Random thought – what happens for the majority of these flights taking place presumably in 2021 in a post-Brexit world?

        Will the UK subscribe to the same rights provided under EU rules?

      • DANi says:
        6 Oct6 October 23:59

        Exactly my situation…Virgin Australia. Flight cancelled..but due to covid, so not our fault..so no refund!!

        I paid with curve, tried a charge back and failed, so advised that I would be taking it to the ombudsmen and got a courtesy refund a week later.
        I was really shocked at the Ts+C’s that were copied and pasted that I had agreed to within the initial booking…rediculous

    • Polly says:
      6 Oct6 October 21:08

      Agree, bit of excitement in the planning, and it’s a punt, really

  • LeCB says:
    6 Oct6 October 18:02

    Occurs to me if you’re Avios rich and planning multiple trips you’d be better off not using companion voucher(s) as that effectively devalues the voucher (if you can otherwise use it after June 21)?

  • marcw says:
    6 Oct6 October 18:07

    IAG will show at the end of the month! Stron forward bookings made at the start of the 4Q.

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

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