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BA doubles San Diego, wide open for Avios, & boosts Kingston, Las Vegas, Orlando, Vancouver

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British Airways has released a number of schedule improvements for the summer 2024 flying season.

The reason this is interesting is that these seats were only made available for booking in the last few hours and therefore Avios availability is wide open.

If you’d failed to get seats for peak 2024 dates, it is worth looking again.

British Airways doubles flights to San Diego

The biggest increase is to San Diego.

From 24th April 2024, British Airways is adding a second daily flight from London Heathrow. It will be operated with a Boeing 787-8 and departs around 3pm (varies by day).

Here is a SeatSpy screenshot from noon on Wednesday showing dates with 2 x Club World seats available. As you can see, from 24th April you can take your pick, and it is a good gateway into California.

The other schedule increases are less dramatic, but there will still be fresh Avios seats out there for booking:

Kingston, from Gatwick

  • Increased from three weekly flights to four weekly flights between 6th July and 31st August

Las Vegas, from Gatwick

  • Increased from three weekly flights to five weekly flights from 31st March

Orlando, from Gatwick

  • Increased from 12 weekly flights to 14 weekly flights from 31st March

Vancouver, from Gatwick

  • Flights will start three weeks earlier than planned, on 29th April, with six flights per week

You can check Avios availability over at ba.com.

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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 (69)

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

  • SteveCroydon says:
    19 Sep19 September 12:39

    At the moment booking any redemption flight is failing with “Internal Server Error Received from IAGL API ASSOCIATE – getAssociateDetails. Please Refer Response Code and Description for more details in server log”.
    Just more garbage from an amateurish IT outfit and another good reason for a clear out from board level downwards (not just in IT).

  • john says:
    19 Sep19 September 12:46

    I cant log into my account, AGAIN.

  • SammyJ says:
    19 Sep19 September 12:50

    Am I right in thinking none of these routes offer First?

  • allycat says:
    19 Sep19 September 13:15

    What they seem to have done with SAN is put on an earlier flight. I have an avios return booking for the end of June 24 which was supposed to depart SAN at 1935 on an A350 with club suites, but I got an email overnight to tell me it had been re-timed to depart at 2000 and my seats had been changed. On going into MMB, the aircraft has been switched to a B788 with old style Club World ying-yang seats. I think the extra flight is actually an earlier departure on a B777 at 1715. Of course the B777 may still be one of those having old Club World seats if they have not finished refitting them all by June 24, or the B788 could be refitted with new club suite by then if they have manged to get them done … flyertalk threads reckon BA are focusing on finishing the B777 refits first and then starting B788 refits in 2024.

    • allycat says:
      19 Sep19 September 13:31

      Update: On checking Aeroroutes in the link above, they say the extra flight is the B788 but they have given it the old flight number and the old flight has got a new number while being changed to the new, earlier B777. Wonder if I can make a change without charge to the B777 on this basis or not ?

  • NorthernLass says:
    19 Sep19 September 13:26

    Any chance of BA ever reinstating the MAN-LGW route?!

    • Mikeact says:
      20 Sep20 September 09:14

      Why’s that then…you already have around 200 destinations and getting on for 600 flights per day.

  • Lyn says:
    19 Sep19 September 13:30

    For what it is worth, a repeat of my comment in today’s Chat …
    In my (way too) many years of experience in flying BA on the San route I have got used to BA making changes to the route, such as dropping it completely occasionally, to flying via LA or Phoenix, to the more mundane changes of aircraft type.

    So I am sceptical about whether it can really support two daily flights. The local BA people in San Diego used to say it was commercially viable on cargo alone, but that was on a 747, and right before they cancelled the route yet again, and anyway that wouldn’t necessarily apply to two planes daily.

  • VerdantBacon says:
    19 Sep19 September 13:36

    BA doubling their server capacity and IT competence would be much more welcome news, been trying to login for a while and it doesn’t work. Calling up also results in them saying they can’t do anything either

  • TooPoorToBeHere says:
    19 Sep19 September 14:27

    I’ve just spent half an hour on the phone to a really nice man at BA.

    United would have dealt with the transaction entirely online, in about 3 minutes.

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

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