Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Aggressive BA Business Class fares to the USA and Canada from £1,150 from Dublin

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British Airways and British Airways Holidays launched a new sale last week – we looked at the British Airways Holidays deals in an article on Friday.

Whilst the flight-only deals from London are not the greatest, there ARE some very good offers if you are happy to start your trip outside the UK.

Given the wide availability of these fares between October 2024 and April 2025, you have to wonder how well premium bookings are holding up. We already saw an enormous dump of Business Class Avios seats to the Maldives last week for example.

Very aggressive BA Business fares to the USA

Here is Dublin to New York JFK in Business Class for November at €1,355 (£1,150) return:

Very aggressive BA Business fares to the USA

Here’s a West Coast example (Los Angeles) for €1,655:

Very aggressive BA Business fares to the USA

Here’s a Paris example to Boston for €1,321. You can get it below €1,300 if you are happy to route Paris to Madrid to Boston:

Very aggressive BA Business fares to the USA

Here are some other Dublin examples courtesy of Luxury Flight Club:

  • Boston €1,556​
  • Denver €1,656​
  • Las Vegas €1,539​
  • Los Angeles €1,656​
  • Miami €1,537​
  • Montreal €1,569​
  • New York €1,337​
  • Orlando €1,520​
  • San Francisco €1,584​
  • Seattle €1,689
  • Toronto €1,511​
  • Vancouver €1,652​
  • Washington €1,534​

If you are thinking of booking any of these flights, remember the core rules:

  • you must take the first flight from Dublin, Paris etc – you CANNOT just hop on in London
  • on the way home, you could hop off in Heathrow if you have no checked baggage, but you’d be giving up 40 tier points from the last leg back to Dublin, Paris etc!
  • if you did have checked baggage, you could ensure it comes off at Heathrow (and so you can go straight home) by booking your last leg from Gatwick or London City Airport
  • you need to factor in the cost of getting to your starting point with enough leeway to deal with any delays, plus the time required to pick up your luggage and recheck it, if necessary – this could involve an overnight hotel stay to be certain

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.

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.

Comments (105)

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

  • Optimus Prime says:

    With those rubbish destination fees included even in redemption bookings plus their ridiculous tipping culture, I find it less appealing to travel to the US…

    I read that even Apple Store employees want to be able to accept tips! 😂

    • Rob says:

      No resort fees on Hilton redemptions.

      I saw a survey over the weekend saying that 14% of Americans tip self-service checkouts when the machine asks for a tip, so I think it’s fair to say there is no hope for a) reduced tipping or b) the American public.

      • Optimus Prime says:

        I guess it’s a matter of time till Hilton catches up with Marriott and IHG.

        BTW in the US you only get F&B credit instead of free breakfast, don’t you?

        Your comment about self-checkout tipping is spot on, that country is doomed 😂

        • Rob says:

          Hilton sees it as a competitive advantage, but lets see. Hilton pays the hotel the resort fee, in cash, so its clearly a big hit for the system fund – but, importantly, NOT a big hit for Hilton itself.

          Remember that, by law, all the money that the hotels pay into the ‘system fund’ for loyalty purposes must be spent on loyalty benefits. Hilton cannot make a $ from it. If they stop funding resort fees the money must still be paid for on something to do with the loyalty scheme.

      • Track says:

        About resort fees.

        Hyatt gives ‘no resort fees’ as special benefit to Globalist.

        What Grand Hyatts do?

        They introduce 10-15% service charge on EVERYTHING, including room rates. The expectation to tip your housecleaning, and on site restaurant waiter remains of course.

        • TGLoyalty says:

          I never tip on top of service charges if the waiter etc wants to argue take that up with your employer. It’s one or the other

        • Ziggy says:

          Hyatt doesn’t charge Gloablists resort fees on cash bookings. It doesn’t charge anyone resort fees on award bookings.

          • Track says:

            Correct, no resort fees for Globalists.

            But resorts/Grand Hyatts at resort locations typically have Service Charge, which is on top of ‘resort fees’.

            The entire amount (room rate, service charge, resort fee) is subject to statutory taxes of the country of course.

  • Track says:

    I don’t see a glaring bargain, anything DUB-JFK, return comes up 1400 EUR.

    Anything DUB-…-MIA, return comes up 1800 EUR.

    • TeesTraveller says:

      Tons of availability on DUB-MIA from 28 October onwards for €1556 (6 month advance fare).

    • Simin CH says:

      Look at a REGIONAL airport.
      Any major hub airport has a premium.
      So look at a regional in Florida.
      Look at the link I pasted earlier, tons of places under 1200 euros.

  • Matthias says:

    Was trying to book a multi stop for early April 25 (to catch the nee Exec Club year) and discovered AA booking horizon is only 331 days not 355 – so currently only bookable until 26th of March.

  • David W says:

    I really don’t get this. London to NYC is probably an average of 6.5 hours between the east and westbound legs. As much as I love flying in business, it’s lunacy to fly to Dublin, then back to London, then to NYC. Even if you didn’t build in any safety margin at all, you’re going to be doubling your flying time at the very minimum, if not tripling or quadrupling. I’d much rather pay less money for PE (or even economy) and save myself a day of travelling!

    • Rob says:

      PE wouldn’t be a lot cheaper but, yes, you’re really doing it for the tier points.

      Remember too that if you don’t live in London the diversion is less because you’re potentially already doing a domestic connection.

    • Tom says:

      Agreed and if I am going to be in anyway Dublin I’d fly direct and avoid immigration in the US.

      The idea of flying from London to Boston via both Paris and Madrid is frankly ridiculous. The idea of flying premium is style and a lack of stress!

    • Simin CH says:

      You do not do it looking at time.
      You do it for style, comfort, fun, lounges and tier points.
      Sadly not for the Avios any more.

      You can enjoy the fun, spend time in lounges, like Cathay, Qantas and so on and eat and drink premium foods and spirits.

    • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:

      I have a trip later this year ARN HEL LHR DFW SFO JFK LHR HEL ARN that I paid half of what the direct LHR-SFO would cost even allowing for the cost of positioning flights and extra hotel nights.

      That’s why some of us do these complex routings.

      • TeesTraveller says:

        Love this sort of thing, it’s a bit too crazy for me but I admire it nonetheless.

      • Señor Frog says:

        Totally agree.

        On final leg of BCN > LHR > ORD > LAS (which actually ended up BCN > MAD > MIA > LAS) return -all J (AA “Domestic F”) return, booked in December for €1,600 p.p.

        Granted: very much the long way around and positioning flights needed, but the equivalent direct flight LHR > LAS was nearly £4k p.p… jog on and no thank you very much!!

        Another US booking in July ex-BUD and again, more than 50% cheaper than direct…

    • CamFlyer says:

      At certain times of day, it might be almost as fast to connect xxx-LHR-DUB-LCY than xxx-LHR and then a taxi to the City.😆

  • patrick says:

    I cannot believe how argumentative and unpleasant people become when they have been offered some free words of advice which might be to their benefit. I am very grateful for this article, thank you.

    • TeesTraveller says:

      I agree, and IMO this should have been the top article of the day.

      Of course if you live in London, you may be less reluctant to position to DUB to get these savings but from where i live I have no chance of a direct flight to the US.

      • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:

        Horses for courses.

        I do it to save money. Plus I do like flying and the additional TPs help too.

        But I get that others can’t do it for various other reasons.like having kids. But with good planning these trips aren’t hard to organise and undertake.

        Did you se my comment in response to your BA Hol / car hire question?

        • TeesTraveller says:

          Yes thanks very much, I tried that and it works ok for the hotel (although €176 extra for 1 night in the Hilton DUB is more than the €134 booking direct). Despite the extra cost, I would pay that in order to avoid paying for the holiday until next year.

          I guess I was hoping to get a crazy priced flight and then get a decent car discount too. But maybe a car is not as important as it was in the past if you are just staying around Orlando.

      • Rob says:

        Our audience is a very broad one these days (we’ll do 2.8m page views this month and that’s before you add in the 20,000 who read us by email) and this is a bit niche as others have pointed out.

        • Michael C says:

          I’m sure there’s a good clump of readers like me: won’t get round to doing it myself (for now!), but love reading about it and other people’s complex routes!

  • Lee says:

    Hi
    Little OT but since you mentioned “an enormous dump of Business Class Avios seats to the Maldives ” apologies if already mentioned elsewhere, that article said Nov/Dec but there now seems to be lots of CW availability in Jan/Feb 2025 (even over Feb half term)
    (I don’t have Seatspy but BA website shows plenty)

  • Dan says:

    Why not redeem avios and spend 150.000 avios plus more than the cash flight amount in taxes!

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

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