NEWS & OFFERS: Get 10% off BA, 12% off Qatar and other flights, 25% Nectar bonus and Global Airlines first flights on sale

Get 10% off BA flights and more

There’s a slightly complex way to get 10% off British Airways flights as well as Air India, Emirates, Etihad, Iberia and 12% off Qatar Airways and Virgin Atlantic. To get the discounts you have to join the National Express cashback scheme, NX. It works like other cashback schemes, but the catch is that it costs £18 a month, but the first month is free. If you tend to book a lot of business class flights, it could well be worth the £18 a month. There are lots of other companies such as hotels and all the usual online stores that you can get cashback on too. 

The other catch is that you won’t get cashback on the full ticket amount as it does not include the tax elements of the ticket, but it is still going to give a decent discount on a ticket. 

There also seems to be £6.87 cash back towards National Express for trying NX Rewards.

You can find the offer page here.

25% Nectar bonus when you convert to Avios

If you convert your Nectar points by 30 April w025, there is up to a 25% bonus Avios available.

A minimum of 400 Nectar points are required to convert them into Avios. Nectar points can only be converted into Avios in increments of 400 Nectar points.  You get a 15% bonus on all manual exchanges and 25% bonus on automatic opt-in exchanges made from Nectar points into Avios from 11 April 2025 until 30 April 2025.

To qualify for the Avios bonus award, you must complete a minimum of 1x automatic opt-in or 1x manual exchange from Nectar into their BA Club account during the promotional period. You need to link the accounts together (on this page) and then sign up to auto-convert points. This gives you a weekly automatic conversion so that every time you reach 400 Nectar points, they will be automatically turned into 250 Avios. 

Avios will be credited to the members’ British Airways Club accounts within 28 days from the promotion end date.

You can find the offer page here.

Global Airlines set to launch?

Global Airlines has been offering pre-sales deals to registered customers, and flights are now available via their sales website. The first flights on their A380 from Manchester and Glasgow to New York are due to launch in May. These appear to be one-off flights rather than the start of a proper schedule. The airline was initially touted as a scheduled link between London Gatwick and New York JFK.

The sales website says “These special A380 flights will be operated by Hi Fly. Onboard, the cabins have all been overhauled to give a brand-new look and feel. The catering team has been busy preparing a new menu, and there will be special ‘limited edition’ amenity kits in all cabins, for all passengers. If you’re travelling in First or Business, there will be the chance to book a chauffeur-driven car to the airport, courtesy of our friends at Blacklane ”

It seems rather odd for people to be buying tickets when, as yet, they have not revealed what business and first class actually look like. I have not heard about any media events for an unveiling either. The configuration is the same as that of the China Southern aircraft was originally: 428 economy seats, 70 business seats, and eight first-class seats.

The flights are being sold by a different website GA flights, which is being run by Travelopedia, a separate UK company and the flights will be operated by Hi-Fly, which is a well-known wet lease specialist airline operating worldwide. Being honest, the sales website does appear rather “rushed” shall we say…The email does say to bear with them as they set up the sales website, so hopefully, it will improve in the coming days. 

The standard pricing is pretty eye-watering, and I can only hope this is because they hope people will pay more for the inaugural flights as at those prices it will be a very difficult sales proposition:

Economy class return – £778.

Business class return – £3,700

First class return –  £7,127.

Here is the schedule:

HFM808 – 15 May 2025

Global Operated by Hi Fly

GLA 11:00
Glasgow Intl, Glasgow

JFK 13:00
Kennedy, New York

HFM809 – 19 May 2025

Global Operated by Hi Fly

JFK 08:00
Kennedy, New York

GLA 19:15
Glasgow Intl, Glasgow

HFM810 – 21 May 2025

Global Operated by Hi Fly

MAN 12:25
Manchester Intl, Manchester

JFK 14:25
Kennedy, New York

HFM811 – 25 May 2025

Global Operated by Hi Fly

JFK 08:55
Kennedy, New York

MAN 20:40
Manchester Intl, Manchester

Launching a new airline is a very complex achievement and I truly hope that Gloabl Airlines does “take off” and delivery a better experience in the sky as they have promised, and this will be our first glimpse of that. 

Would you be tempted to try out Global Airlines on these flights or after they launch properly? Let us know in the comments below.