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Wide-open business class Avios availability to the Maldives now bookable to February

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Last week we ran an article highlighting the crazy amount of Business Class Avios availability to the Maldives in November 2024.

Much of this availability is still there, for anyone without school-age children.

British Airways has now opened the floodgates for December, including Christmas, plus January and February 2025.

Here is, courtesy of SeatSpy, availability for 2 x Business Class seats from Heathrow to the Maldives from November 2024 until the end of March 2025. Most dates actually have 9+ seats available.

Amusingly, there are no inbound seats in March despite every day outbound being available!

Premium Economy is also wide open until the end of December, but not in January or February oddly.

I’ve double-checked the availability with ba.com and it is accurate as of 11am Tuesday.

Outbound flights with Avios seats are on the left, inbound on the right.

Avios availability to the Maldives

Headline Avios pricing in Business Class is 180,000 Avios + £450 return on off-peak dates and 200,000 Avios + £450 return on peak dates.

It is a Boeing 777 route from Heathrow so you will get the new Club Suite.

Other cash and Avios combinations are available, if you are willing to pay more cash, although the headline rate is the best value if you have a British Airways American Express 2-4-1 voucher to use.

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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:

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Barclaycard Avios card

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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.

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The Platinum Card from American Express

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There is also a British Airways American Express card for small businesses:

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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.

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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 (34)

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

  • allycat says:
    30 Apr30 April 11:36

    Woke up to an alert on this from SeatSpy this morning and have switched our early Feb 2025 trip to Antigua to the Maldives instead. I had been hoping this would come along sooner or later. Nice result. It seems like the seats we released for LGW-ANU from 1-8 Feb have already gone though. They did appear back in Avios inventory after I cancelled that booking, but someone must have nabbed them already!

    • allycat says:
      30 Apr30 April 11:41

      Oohh .. correction … SeatSpy is not showing our released LGW-ANU flights but ba.com is, so if you want 2 x J Avios seats out on 01 Feb 2025 and back on 07 Feb 2025 then jump in. SeatSpy must be behind in its updates.

      • Rob says:
        30 Apr30 April 13:12

        SeatSpy doesn’t have a live feed, it gets a regular data dump from BA.

  • Ilou says:
    30 Apr30 April 12:34

    I managed to get J to Maldives many times but it was always a combination of booking 1 year ahead or getting short term availability alerts though SeatSpy

    It’s surprising to see so much availability to the Maldives !! It’s the best it’s ever been

    • will says:
      30 Apr30 April 12:42

      I wonder if akin to the “Big Mac Index” as a measure of purchasing power in different currencies the “Maldives Reward Flight Index” is an indicator for the severity of a recession?

      • Boon says:
        30 Apr30 April 14:00

        And isn’t Jan to Mar a good time seasonally for Maldives? Like high season rates?

      • Track says:
        30 Apr30 April 14:38

        Big Mac index is pretty inaccurate — it would work in homogenous environments, like between different states and counties of the US.

        It might not be a recession. Other economic indicators might not be flashing, but it surely is cost of living bite. People adjust their spending, we are now in the updated expectations.

        • Rui N. says:
          30 Apr30 April 15:58

          Big Mac index is mostly a joke by the Economist to show that economic theories have quite the limitations in the real world.

      • JDB says:
        30 Apr30 April 15:25

        I’m not sure that there’s too much to be read into it, even with the Dubai seat dump added in to the equation as these two particular destinations have much in common and have seemed quite vulnerable for a while.

        There’s inevitably going to be some softening in demand as economic conditions tighten but also, from talking to agents at the top end, their clients are looking for more bang for their buck in terms of both value and experiences, new ideas. Our family has no interest in sitting on a beach or by a pool; that’s totally exhausting! Lots of of friends also in their sixties now have the time and money to embark on more active trips and to invite children and grandchildren on sailing/boating trips, safaris, tennis/golf camps, hiking trips or cultural tours (add they too have the Japan bug). Even organised cycling trips where it seems the oldest are the hard core, only younger ones doing it partly by van!

  • Phillip says:
    30 Apr30 April 12:59

    Anyone else having issues with searching for award flights on BA? For pretty much all routes to Asia it keeps throwing up errors and takes 10s of attempts before it actually loads… if I’m lucky!

    • djdj says:
      30 Apr30 April 13:01

      lots of people, its really odd, and meant I missed out on the return flights I needed.

  • Phillip says:
    30 Apr30 April 12:59

    That should say on BA.com

  • NorthernLass says:
    30 Apr30 April 13:10

    VS also flies this route, so you could mix and match the outbound and return.

  • JeanLuc says:
    30 Apr30 April 13:25

    Booked 2 flights in J in March this morning.
    Interestingly, there was no availability when using the 2-4-1 voucher, but plenty of availability when either not using any voucher or using the Barclaycard upgrade voucher.

    I used the Barclaycard voucher given the return flight is not available yet anyways.

    • Rob says:
      30 Apr30 April 13:28

      That is very weird indeed.

    • NorthernLass says:
      30 Apr30 April 15:27

      When are you planning to return? April seats have come and gone up to the 19th. You’ll need to hope for another BA seat dump which may be unlikely given that most of April will be Easter school holidays next year.

  • Paul says:
    30 Apr30 April 13:32

    Any well priced accommodation that people can recommend? Quick scan on hotels.com for a week and difficult to find much below the many thousands!

  • Jenny says:
    1 May1 May 04:13

    Accommodation will be pricey but you get a lot for your money, especially if you travel further afield. The JA Manafaru is one of the furthest north resorts but is one of our favourites for a good value trip. I strongly recommend checking with a travel agent for rates as there are often good offers available e.g., free transfers, free half-board, significant discounts (and they can check if something better comes up as the 2025 contracts are agreed). The offers are less likely to be stellar in high season but definitely worth checking.

    Check if Emyr has access to these discounted rates – if not, feel free to reach out to me!

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