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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.

  • Yuff says:
    6 Oct6 October 18:51

    I’d already booked for Easter and bagged 4 seats in an 8 seat F cabin out to Dubai and Etihad back as no F seats on the return flights.
    Etihad had 30% off miles bookings and got 2 F and 2 J.
    Was tempted to cancel and see if my seats reappeared to save 160k for £140 but no reward seats on my flight at all so won’t be risking it.

    • Anna says:
      6 Oct6 October 22:47

      Yes, very slim pickings for DBX at Easter but I got AUH instead, J both ways but looks to be Club Suite.

  • Ben Marshall says:
    6 Oct6 October 18:52

    Hi
    If I have already got a CW return on 241, do you think it would be possible to get an upgrade to first at the lower rate without having to cancel the booking and rebook?

  • Andrew says:
    6 Oct6 October 19:07

    Worth remembering, if the full taxes are still eye wateringly high that 50% off applies to upgrade with Avios too – so you can book a WT+ decently priced ticket for not much more than the CW taxes, and then upgrade with Avios, now at half the usual rate. And of course earn back probably all those Avios once you fly, plus the tier points if that’s important/needed.

    • Harry T says:
      6 Oct6 October 19:09

      Have we got proof that it applies to UUA? Even without this promotion, UUA is arguably the best way to extract maximal value from your Avios.

      • Andrew says:
        6 Oct6 October 19:51

        Totally agree, it’s a real sweet spot. The usual calculation applies – Avios price of the cabin you want to fly in minus the Avios price of the cabin you have paid cash for. So the difference is halved under this offer.

      • Graham says:
        6 Oct6 October 20:44

        Tried to upgrade a PE to CW this afternoon and full Avios applied

      • Louise K says:
        7 Oct7 October 08:29

        Someone on FT reported they managed to UuA from PE to CW, this morning and got the discount.

  • BJ says:
    6 Oct6 October 19:26

    Good day at the office, built in some alternatives and safety nets to existing plans to cover Covid uncertaihty 🙂 Thanks to Rob for the heads up earlier this morning.

    • Harry T says:
      6 Oct6 October 20:07

      What did you book?

      • Chrisasaurus says:
        6 Oct6 October 20:09

        Don’t tell him Pike!

        We know wherever Harry T goes will be taken from the exemption list within 96 hrs of his return!

      • BJ says:
        6 Oct6 October 20:56

        Concluded it will be easier for my partner to get to Thailand than me so I mirrored our 241 Asian trips at Xmas and summer with bookings for my partner to travel solo. Added an extra trip for him over Songkran to provide options as my best guess on Thailand reopening is April for Easter and Songkran. I stand to lose a fair few x£35s unless BA cancels but I figure it is worth it for the extra hope/confidence it buys. Could save another 37.5k by changing outward leg of our summer 241 but that booking is stuck in the works at the moment so I’m reluctant to mess with it.

  • Sam Ridley says:
    6 Oct6 October 20:01

    I’ve just cancelled my booking to rebook the same flights in order to get the 50% avios back. I was charged the usual £35 per person fee but I was also charged a further £15 per person as a “service charge”. £50 per person in total. Is this usual?

    • Andrew says:
      6 Oct6 October 21:40

      When did you book the original flights? If it’s since March you shouldn’t have been charged £35. You should have been offered a FTV which could be used immediately on the phone with them for the new booking and as the voucher can’t be used on line there should be no service fee. That’s what I did this afternoon.

    • JohnT says:
      6 Oct6 October 22:05

      No but does happen. Need to remind them you cannot cancel online during call. They can then remove the service fee.

  • AndyF says:
    6 Oct6 October 20:01

    I’m looking for clarification on a 2-4-1 voucher.
    I have a 2-4-1 expiring on March 6th. If I book a 2-4-1 RFS to Spain for example for a random date in November and then cancel it online or via phone. I will then receive a voucher that takes into account my 2-4-1 and will any future bookings to be halfed and, thus extending the voucher into 2021?
    I can then ring up and book flights to Tokyo say in May and pay the extra avios and taxes but what it is effectively doing is extending the 2-4-1 from my original march date so I can then use it for flights in May and take advantage of this deal in full. Paying 75k for two people under this deal instead of 150k. Have I understood this correctly? thanks

  • David says:
    6 Oct6 October 20:05

    Hi,

    I want to book EDI-LHR-LAS return with the transatlantic segments in First. I checked the Reward Flight Finder for LON-LAS and there is First availability on my dates but when I go to book EDI-LHR-LAS I can only select Business, not First. Presumably, this is because there is no First on the EDI-LHR segments. Is there any way to book Business on those segments and First on the transatlantic segments?
    Thanks in advance for any help on this.

    • Harry T says:
      6 Oct6 October 20:08

      I think the issue lies with Seat Spy and Reward Flight Finder. They show a lot of ghost first availability for me. Can’t find it when I go to BA. BA website doesn’t mind booking Club for the domestic and First for long haul – I don’t think that’s your issue.

    • Anna says:
      6 Oct6 October 20:08

      Use the “stopover” facility which lets you then choose your segments separately. This happens on some routes but not others, I think EDI has been particularly affected by this glitch!

      • Louise K says:
        6 Oct6 October 21:10

        Tried that yesterday from MAN to LaX – said it couldn’t be prices online.

    • MikeL says:
      6 Oct6 October 20:12

      I’ve had this issue before and had to call BA to resolve it. That said, I managed to book Miami in F on line using a 241 from Glasgow (Travelling in February 2020) Glitch maybe but better to call if you keep getting the same result, especially if the availability is still showing in F. With this Avios deal on the go I wouldn’t hang around too long

      • Sarah says:
        6 Oct6 October 20:29

        Think you may have got the flights I was looking at! Was annoyed that agent wanted to charge me £45 to book it so being stubborn and stingy Scottish person, said I’d do it myself online. I could still see the available seats but then by time refund was processed, seats were gone. Lesson learned for next time!

    • Louise K says:
      6 Oct6 October 20:55

      I am having the same issue from MAN think it requires a call to.l book.

      • Steve O'Hara says:
        6 Oct6 October 22:08

        Similar from Belfast!!

        • Steve O'Hara says:
          6 Oct6 October 22:10

          And I’ve just checked going from London direct and it shows F available ok on BA for multiple flights on same date (NYC)

      • Anna says:
        6 Oct6 October 22:52

        I’ve had no problems booking MAN-LHR-AUH return, all segments in Club though.

  • Piotr says:
    6 Oct6 October 20:15

    Have just changed companion voucher LHR-GRU booking (cancelled with future travel voucher to avoid cancellation fees) to a new one saving 75000 avios. Took 2 phonecalls but all worth it. Thank you Rob!

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

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