MOVE FAST: new British Airways ‘Avios only’ flights launched for August 2024

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• Yakov says:

  9 Oct9 October 11:27

  It makes a lot of sense to book £1 option if you think there is a high chance that you will need to cancel.

  • The real Swiss Tony says:

    9 Oct9 October 11:32

    It makes a lot of sense to book £1 option if you think there is a high chance that you will need to cancel *and believe that BA will iron out the widely reported issue with cancellation fees on RFS bookings ;-)*

  • Rob says:

    9 Oct9 October 11:33

    Not really, because ba.com has only been charging 50p for cancellations for the last 6 months or so!

    • Chris W says:

      9 Oct9 October 12:56

      It’s the best thing about Executive Club right now!

    • Nollag says:

      9 Oct9 October 12:56

      So does this mean that it should cost a max of 50p to cancel the flights?

      • The real Swiss Tony says:

        9 Oct9 October 13:20

        No. The terms & conditions state it’s £35 or the cash element paid, whichever is less. It’s just the tech seems to want to work in a different manner.

      • Rob says:

        9 Oct9 October 13:43

        If you cancel next week, almost certainly. Next month …. next year …. I mean BA’s IT can’t be crap for ever, can it ….?

        • SteveCroydon says:

          9 Oct9 October 13:48

          YES!! No change from years past. In fact it’s getting worse recently.

        • Richard says:

          9 Oct9 October 14:56

          “Of course it can (be).. Malcolm’. For those that remember (ok a small play on words) that line ..

          It’s almost shambolic most of the time

        • VinZ says:

          10 Oct10 October 00:00

          Onbusiness anyone? I think it can, Rob! 😉

        • Rob says:

          10 Oct10 October 08:31

          Allegedly the hackers wiped the entire OB database so BA / Comarch had nothing except your old balance. Allegedly.

        • Max says:

          10 Oct10 October 11:01

          Where is the Alex Cruz High-Viz vest meme when you need it?

        • Rob says:

          10 Oct10 October 11:12

          Heard a great story about how that incident came about the other week, which sadly I can’t repeat for libel reasons!

  • BJ says:

    9 Oct9 October 12:26

    Only if you value the flexibility and flights at £250 or £450 each way … go check those dates on Easyjet.

    • Londonsteve says:

      9 Oct9 October 13:06

      The quoted prices are return. All of a sudden a rather different proposition for one of the most in demand weeks of the year.

      • BJ says:

        9 Oct9 October 13:51

        Yes, sorry!

• Novice says:

  9 Oct9 October 11:35

  They should do some long-haul flights.

  • Rob says:

    9 Oct9 October 12:12

    It gets expensive for BA. The cost of flying to Mallorca isn’t much so – whilst BA is giving up cash revenue – I reckon it won’t actually lose any money. Filling a flight to Cape Town with purely Avios passengers would lead to a substantial cash loss purely on the fuel bill I’m sure.

    • Londonsteve says:

      9 Oct9 October 13:11

      Would it though? Avios rates are still largely equivalent to lead-in fares (very roughly). You’d think they’d cover their costs if they managed to fill every seat at lead-in prices (not forgetting the much more lucrative First and Club cabins). How about flying an old 777 out of LGW to Cape Town on a popular date? People would still be happy with tired CW on a run like that and BA gets to relieve us of a ton of Avios.

      • Nick says:

        10 Oct10 October 01:00

        There is no way they’d cover costs on a longhaul redemption only flight. Crew and fuel are very expensive and if they don’t sell at least some higher yield tickets on a fairly regular basis the route just doesn’t exist (look at BKK to see what happens). During the worst of covid they pulled flights individually a month before departure if it looked as if they wouldn’t cover costs.

        It could easily be justified with a marketing/PR budget attached, and probably will at some point, but that’s the only way it could go. It’ll be tempting on something like NY as a promotion, but there’s nearly always availability there anyway.

        • Londonsteve says:

          10 Oct10 October 10:42

          You hit the nail on the head with your last comment. There are so many options to NY there wouldn’t be any value in offering an Avios-only flight as far as collectors are concerned, unless it’s a marketing wheeze to draw people into BAEC. An Avios only flight to NY (which, in reality, will be mostly filled by people that have paid cash to be there) makes more of a headline and is a better advert for Avios availability than saying, “there’s so much capacity to NY you can always find an Avios seat.”

• memesweeper says:

  9 Oct9 October 11:54

  These are flights removed from cash sale? I’d assumed it was a charter-type arrangement with an extra fight for these Avios only offers

  • Rob says:

    9 Oct9 October 12:04

    No, they are pulled from cash sale. BA doesn’t have the spare aircraft or the slots to do charters AFAIK.

    On Sat 24th you can’t pay cash for the 12.55 to Palma but you can on Sat 17th.

    You will be sharing the flight with cash passengers who have already booked.

    • memesweeper says:

      9 Oct9 October 12:09

      wow — that’s a big win for Avios collectors, those flights are premium

• BJ says:

  9 Oct9 October 12:17

  More pampering of the less than 15% of the UK population that lives in Greater London by London Airways. Perhaps next time they’ ll see fit to make these avios-only flights that small handful of routes which do not serve London.

  • Quark999 says:

    9 Oct9 October 12:42

    Depending on the definition, the population of the London Metropolitan Area is around 19 million people, that’s around 25% of the UK population. Implying that no one from Berkshire would travel to Heathrow is silly – admittedly from the Eastern or Northern fringes of the area it gets trickier, but then there’s flights from City too!

    • BJ says:

      9 Oct9 October 13:25

      Makes little difference, the offer remains essentially innacessible to the majority of the
      UK population without additional costs.

      • dougzz99 says:

        10 Oct10 October 14:35

        So what. Pubs in Newcastle are not really accessible to me. Do I bitch about it endlessly?

  • Johyu5 says:

    9 Oct9 October 12:57

    Yup, that’s life. Why would BA court people in rural towns and villages with cows?

    Stop complaining – the only worthwhile place in this god forsaken island on a downward spiral is London, and even that’s beginning to look shakey.

    • BJ says:

      9 Oct9 October 13:33

      Who said I was complaining? And why should BA court shires full of Tories?

      • Johyu5 says:

        9 Oct9 October 18:09

        You’re obviously complaining calling out the perceived injustices of Londoners being “pampered”.

        Now you’re trying to deflect, as you’ve done with replies from other posters calling you out for being 1) naive 2) petulant and/or 3) entitled.

        • BJ says:

          9 Oct9 October 20:41

          Keep guessing, you’ll figure it out 🙂

    • Colin MacKinnon says:

      9 Oct9 October 19:23

      We’re not even in a village with cows – we are a mile and a half outside, with sheep!

    • Novice says:

      9 Oct9 October 23:22

      A lot of rich ppl live in north as well. I don’t know why there’s a misconception that everyone is poor up north of England.

      • Londonsteve says:

        11 Oct11 October 11:23

        There’s just not enough for them to make it work. Compare that to the situation of Munich in Germany; it’s the richest city per capita in the country, despite being far smaller than Berlin and far from both the capital and the financial centre (Frankfurt). Not only is Munich wealthy but so is Bavaria, home to countless world leading industries. If Manchester had that kind of all pervading wealth and its surrounding region was as well off as SE England, I’m sure BA would have a sizeable operation there too, like LH in Munich.

  • daveinitalia says:

    9 Oct9 October 13:21

    Is a BA a charity set up to serve the UK or a business set up to operate what it thinks is the most profitable routes?

    • BJ says:

      9 Oct9 October 13:38

      It’s not about routes, it’s about sharing the love a little more widely sometimes.

      • Londonsteve says:

        9 Oct9 October 21:46

        Sharing the love? You’re having a laugh, if BA was a person it wouldn’t offer you a digestive biscuit.

  • NorthernLass says:

    9 Oct9 October 13:26

    There are still EDI-LCY services though, no? If this was the case for MAN, I would combine a week in the Med with a mini break in London. We did this with our VIE trip this summer but the hassle of getting to and from LHR means that it’ll probably remain a one-off.

    • BJ says:

      9 Oct9 October 13:36

      Only valuable if you want a break in London. Id I don’t I can fly all those places direct from EDI.

  • SteveJ says:

    9 Oct9 October 14:11

    To name a few add Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire, Oxfordshire and large swathes of Surrey to the equation. The number of people to whom Heathrow is their most convenient BA served international airport is significantly more than 19%.

    • AJA says:

      10 Oct10 October 09:17

      I’m one of those. I moved out of London to the home counties. Ironically it is now much easier for me to get to LHR than it was when I lived in London. And takes less time too.

      LGW is easier,and cheaper, to reach by car too and not too difficult by train requiring only one change at Clapham Junction.

      Conversely I now avoid LCY as it is far more difficult for me to get to and from. I suppose I should now complain that LCY is too East London centric? 😉

• iEimis says:

  9 Oct9 October 12:22

  Getting an error when trying to redeem 4x tix for Corfu

  • iEimis says:

    9 Oct9 October 12:35

    Working now.

• Nollag says:

  9 Oct9 October 12:55

  I have tried booking at 12:30 and most of the seats are already gone

  • Londonsteve says:

    9 Oct9 October 13:14

    I’d imagine there will be a lot of cancellations with the passage of time. At least 50% of those now booked won’t go.

    • daveinitalia says:

      9 Oct9 October 13:23

      That’s the problem when the cancellation fee is so low. It’ll definitely be worth checking again nearer the time

      • Londonsteve says:

        9 Oct9 October 21:43

        In theory it’s supposed to be £35 per person but it’s not being charged. Appears to be 50p even if you’ve paid £35 (or more) in cash.

• daveinitalia says:

  9 Oct9 October 13:26

  London to Florence is a good one if you want to explore Italy. Hopefully as it’s BA CityFlyer the flights will operate (the flights operated by BA mainline were often diverted as the airport has a short runway). FLR is a short tram ride to the city centre and high speed trains can easily get you to Bologna, Milan, Venice and Rome and Pisa is just a local train away. So there’s plenty to keep you occupied for a week.

  • Richie says:

    9 Oct9 October 13:44

    BACF flights to/ from FLR are cancelled or diverted if the weather is bad. The smaller aircraft doesn’t seem to make a difference.

    • meta says:

      9 Oct9 October 14:42

      Those seats were gone even before this article. You can now only go LCY to FLR via EDI.

  • Erico1875 says:

    10 Oct10 October 06:09

    Imagine a country having a high speed train

    • Alex Sm says:

      10 Oct10 October 20:44

      You don’t need to imagine – there are plenty of such countries

• Adam says:

  9 Oct9 October 13:53

  I’ve just grabbed some to Palma.. anyone got any tips of nice kid-friendly hotels? Not the Ikos.. It’s £6.9k for a week.. .lol

  • Adam says:

    9 Oct9 October 13:59

    765 3 768
    720 27 747
    555 75 630
    495 105 600
    315 285 600
    195 345 540

    I went with the 19,500 and £345 🙂

  • lesscleverandrew says:

    9 Oct9 October 17:21

    I can recommend the Hotel beach club font de sa cala in font de sa cala (near cala ratjada on the east side of the island). Down the road from historic arta, cala mesquida (gets busy but still a nice beach) and font de sa cala itself, caves are nearby, etc. It’s an independent, not luxury but quite chilled, tennis courts, etc. and good kiddie entertainment.

  • Erico1875 says:

    10 Oct10 October 07:01

    Pirate village Santa Ponsa or Sol Katmandu

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