British Airways Reward Sale: 50% Off All Flight Redemptions
British Airways currently has a flight reward sale that allows you to book tickets for 50% fewer miles, meaning you can fly from London to New York in First Class for just 34,000 Avios!
Award sale
The current awards sale counts for all British Airways flights booked before 13th October 2020 in all classes. If you are a member of the British Airways Executive Club and have a stash of Avios (BA frequent flyer miles) to spend – you can have the 50% discount on any reward redemption of choice.
The offer counts for all flight classes: economy (called ‘World Traveller’ by BA), premium economy (‘World Traveller Plus’), business class (‘Club World’) and also first class.
Endless possibilities
This means that there are a lot of exciting options which you can book, if you do have enough Avios on your account to spend. Especially in business and first, the savings can be substantial.
For example, you can now fly from London to New York (or vice versa) for just 34,000 Avios for an off-peak flight – the same price as flights to Bermuda or Dubai.
London to Los Angeles can now be booked for 42,500 Avios in First (one-way) or 31,250 miles in business class.
Taxes
Of course, taxes and flight surcharges do apply to British Airways award bookings – and these costs can be substantial. On a flight from London to New York the carrier imposed surcharges and government taxes amount to 452.36 GBP.
If flying the other way (from the US to the UK) it is even more expensive given British Airway’s punitive fuel surcharges on premium class tickets from the USA. For a New York to London flight in First Class you can expect to pay 729 USD in taxes!
For the lowest amount in taxes, you are better off not departing from the United States (high fuel surcharges imposed by BA) or United Kingdom (high APD/government taxes), but from a third country.
Some countries even have bans on airlines charging ‘fuel surcharges’. When for example flying out of Hong Kong to London, the taxes you pay on a reward ticket will be less than 40 GBP!
Service
Another aspect to take into account is that British Airways’ on board product is currently extremely limited. While other premium airlines such as Air France, Lufthansa, Emirates and Qatar Airways have pretty much resumed their normal service, BA on the other hand is still limiting on-board service due to COVID-19.
Even in first class BA passengers nowadays just get a carton meal box, while the champagne on offer has been downgraded from the likes of Laurent-Perrier Grand Siecle to middle-shelf choices. Premium service it is certainly not these days!
Take the deal, or not?
Whether it is worth flying British Airways in business and first these days is up to you. If you only care about the lie-flat seat and a cheap Avios redemption – this might be worth it.
It might also be worth it to make a speculative booking a couple of months out in the hope that British Airways has restored its normal in-flight service.
But if you want to fly sooner or later and expect top luxury in First Class, this is not the time to fly (at least not on British Airways).
Never miss a deal
If you don’t want to miss another great flight deal or special sale in the future, make sure to regularly check the flight deals section of Paliparan.com.
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