GOOD NEWS: British Airways sale and Double Tier points extended!

It’s almost like BA waited until I published something about tier points and then decided to extend their offer!

BA Double Tier Points extended

One of the best ways to keep status is to book any trips as a BA Holiday rather than a separate flight as you get double tier points on BA Holidays if you meet certain criteria. This was due to end by 31 October but the good news is that it has been extended.

The advantages of booking as a BA Holiday is that it can sometimes work out cheaper and you only have to pay a small deposit until eight weeks before. So I tend to use this option for trips far in the future rather than leave my money sitting in BA’s account. You also get extra Avios – 1 Avios per £1 spent. 

There are two drawbacks – one, getting hold of BA Holidays is often worse than for BA itself (which takes some going!), and there is no separate priority lines for status. Secondly, the promotion tier points are meant to credit after 60 days, but up until recently, this has rarely, if ever, happened.

BA do look like they may have solved the issue as the missing tier points are starting to appear in accounts now. They are now promising that “Bonus Tier Points will be awarded separately to standard Tier Points and within 14 days of your return flight.” I’ll be on a BA Holiday to Hawaii this month, so I’ll let you know if it works (1120 TPs for the trip just going straight there via Dallas and Los Angeles).

To get the double tier points, you need to be very careful about what you book to make sure you meet the criteria:

• You must travel by 30 September 2023
• You must book a holiday of a least 5 days which can consist of a flight plus 5 hotel nights or 5 days car hire or both. 
• UPDATE: The whole booking does not need be with BA Holidays – so you can now book a 10 day trip for example and have 5 days car hire or hotel and flights with BA and then go off with your own hotel/car bookings. This has changed from before when you had to book the whole trip with BA. 
• You must start in the UK.
• It does not apply if you add the hotel or car to an existing booking. However, it does apply to existing BA Holidays bookings providing your executive club number is on the booking. 

You can read the full terms and conditions on the BA offer page here. 

The sale

British Airways and British Airways Holidays have launched their September sale, with reductions made across a range of flights and holidays all the way into the summer of 2023.

Launching today and running until 20 September 2022, the sale offers discounts on travel worldwide including 2022 winter sun trips to 2023 holidays.

BA Holiday packages can be secured with deposits from £60pp, with the final balance due up to four weeks before travel. 

Club World sale prices

So are there any good deals? At the moment it’s all relative. Prices are extremely high and no one really knows how long they will stay like that. My guess is that it will be around another 6 months before airlines and airports have enough staff to be able to operate normally, and demand dies down. While things like fuel prices have an influence, they are only a small factor at the moment. 

I looked at long haul prices over the next six months, and if you want to fly direct from the UK these are about as good as you can get at the moment. However, if you are willing to fly indirect on TAP or Aer Lingus then you can get fares to the US from £1350 from London. Similar fares on BA and AA are available from Dublin. 

I’ve highlighted the fares I think are the best value. 

• Atlanta from £1957 return
• Boston from £1768 return
• Chicago from £1763 return
• Dallas from £1976 return
• Denver from £1951 return
• Houston from £2076 return
• Las Vegas from £2086 return
• Los Angeles from £2154 return
• Miami from £1889 return
• Montreal from £1793 return
• Nashville from £1779 return
• New Orleans from £1876 return
• New York from £1668 return
• Orlando from £1895 return
• Philadelphia from £1762 return
• Phoenix from£1988 return
• Pittsburgh from £1695 return
• Portland from £1776 return
• San Diego from £2188 return
• San Francisco from £2167 return
• San Jose (CA) from £2151 return
• Seattle from £2068 return
• Tampa from £1895 return
• Toronto from £1753 return
• Vancouver from £2085 return
• Washington DC from £1863 return
• Cancun from £1685 return
  
• Rio de Janeiro £2398
• New Delhi from£2061 return
• Amman (Jordan) £846 return
• Cairo from £819 return
• Dubai from £1599 return
• Tel Aviv from £1098 return
• Tokyo from £2499 return

Further information on the flight and holiday sale can be found at ba.com/sale.

Club Europe

There are some reasonable deals, but the prices are not that much cheaper than you could pick up before. However, there are more dates at cheaper prices. Those with a * get 160 tier points return instead of 80. 

• Aberdeen from £81 each-way
• Alicante from £114 each-way
• Amsterdam from £95 each-way 
• Athens from £155 each-way*
• Barcelona from £144 each-way
• Basel from £92 each-way 
• Belfast from £83 each-way
• Berlin from £121 each-way

• Billund from £86 each-way 
• Bologna from £91 each-way 
• Bordeaux from £114 each-way
• Brussels from £99 each-way
• Bucharest from £135each-way*
• Budapest from £123 each-way
• Copenhagen from £92 each-way 
• Dublin from £82 each-way 
• Dubrovnik from £128 each-way

• Dusseldorf from £99 each-way
• Edinburgh  from £80 each-way
• Faro from £118 each-way
• Frankfurt from £104 each-way
• Funchal from £194 each-way*
• Geneva from £114 each-way
• Glasgow from £78 each-way
• Gothenburg from £96 each-way
• Gran Canaria from £192each-way*
• Hamburg from £95 each-way
• Innsbruck from £120 each-way
• Inverness from £70each-way
• Istanbul from £149 each-way*
• Krakow from £115 each-way
• Lanzarote from £180 each-way*
• Larnaca from £263 each-way*
• Lisbon from £122 each-way
• Luxembourg from £67 each-way 
• Lyon from £100 each-way
• Malaga from £105 each-way
• Malta from £153 each-way*
• Manchester from£83 each-way
• Marseille from £123 each-way

• Marrakech from £258 return
  

   

  

   

• Milan from £117 each-way
• Munich from£124 each-way
• Naples from £117 each-way
• Newcastle from£76each-way
• Nice from £142 each-way
• Nuremberg from £92 each-way 
• Oslo from £116 each-way
• Palma from £129 each-way
• Paphos from £190 each-way
• Paris from £106 each-way 
• Pisa from £91 each-way 
• Porto from £118 each-way
• Prague from £94 each-way 
• Reykjavik from £123 each-way

• Rome from £126 each-way
• Salzburg from £114 each-way
• Seville from £112 each-way
• Sofia from £97 each-way* 
• Stockholm from £96 each-way 

• Stuttgart from £97 each-way 
• Tirana from £140 each-way*
• Toulouse from £99 each-way
• Turin from £106 each-way
• Valencia from £110 each-way

• Venice from £95 each-way
• Verona from £110 each-way
• Vienna from £104 each-way
• Warsaw from£95 each-way 
• Zagreb from £98 each-way 
• Zurich from £119 each-way

Further information on the flight and holiday sale can be found at ba.com/sale.

British Airways Holidays

British Airways Holidays is also offering customers an additional saving of up to £300 on selected holidays, for a limited period. Those booking between 1 – 6 September 2022 can book a flight + hotel or flight + car holiday and make the following extra savings, on top of the September sale prices: 

• £300 extra discount with a minimum spend of £10,000 per booking (flight + hotel)
• £200 extra discount with a minimum spend of £5,000 per booking (flight + hotel)
• £100 extra discount with a minimum spend of £2,500 per booking (flight + hotel & flight + car)
• £50 extra discount with a minimum spend of £1,250 per booking (flight + hotel & flight + car)
• £25 extra discount with a min spend of £650 per booking (flight + car)

Club World holidays

Some of these are much better value than flight only, especially with the extra tier points they include a minimum 4* hotel based on two sharing and return Club World flights. 

• Barbados flights + 7 nights hotel from £2510 pp
• Antigua flights + 7 nights all-inclusive hotel from £2858 pp
• St Lucia flights + 7 nights hotel from £2489 pp
• Dominican Republic flights + 7 nights all-inclusive hotel from £2298 pp
• Cancun flights + 7 nights all-inclusive hotel from £2334 pp
• Grenada flights + 7 nights hotel from £3034 pp

• New York flights + 4 nights hotel from £3211 pp
• Orlando flights + 7 nights hotel from £2555 pp
• Los Angeles flights + 5 nights hotel from £4038 pp
• San Francisco flights + 5 nights hotel from £4255 pp
• Nashville flights + 5 nights hotel from £2749 pp
• New Orleans flights + 5 nights hotel from £2698 pp
• Dubai flights + 5 nights 5* hotel from £2779 pp
• Tel Aviv flights + 3 nights hotel from £1275 pp
• Mauritius flights + 7 nights hotel from £3323 pp
• Cape Town flights + 7 nights hotel from £3774 pp
• Toronto flights + 4 nights hotel from £2682 pp
• Montreal flights + 5 nights hotel from £2872 pp

Further information on the flight and holiday sale can be found at ba.com/sale.

Club Europe holidays

Club Europe return flights and hotel based on two sharing a room. Most of these are fairly normal sale prices for flights. There are no fantastic bargains, but I’d feel confident of a decent deal booking at these prices. 

• Tenerife flights + 7 nights hotel from £532 pp*
• Lanzarote flights + 7 nights hotel from £570 pp*
• Algarve flights + 7 nights hotel from £419 pp
• Madeira flights + 7 nights hotel from £560 pp*
• Marrakech flights + 7 nights hotel from £427 pp*
• Cyprus flights + 7 nights hotel from £576 pp*
• Crete flights + 7 nights hotel from £842 pp*
• Corfu flights + 7 nights hotel from £859 pp*
• Bodrum flights + 7 nights hotel from £1030 pp*
• Dalaman flights + 7 nights hotel from £1049 pp*
• Malaga flights + 7 nights hotel from £472 pp
• Mallorca flights + 7 nights hotel from £440 pp
• Palermo flights + 7 nights hotel from £706 pp
• Sorrento flights + 7 nights hotel from £575 pp
• Venice Business class Flights + 3 nights hotel £299 pp
• Valencia Business class Flights + 3 nights hotel £299 pp
• Lisbon Business class Flights + 3 nights hotel £348 pp
• Nice Business class Flights + 3 nights hotel £391 pp
• Gibraltar Business class Flights + 3 nights hotel £497 pp

Further information on the flight and holiday sale can be found at ba.com/sale.