The airline has now suspended flights to Freetown and Monrovia to the end of March due to the “public health” situation namely the spread of Ebola infections.
The number of casualties is doubling every two weeks which, if sustained will result in over 1 million cases by January 2015
Outbreaks in Senegal and Nigeria are relatively contained, according to WHO
Ghana and Kenya appear
British Airways is permitting ticketed passengers to re-route to Lagos, Abuja, Accra and Nairobi
The title of this post could also be, “When is it best to book flights?”
If you are intending to book travel in say 10 months’ time, it is very difficult to judge when is the cheapest time to book your flight?
This article applies to long-haul flight-only travel and not to short-haul or “low-cost” airlines.
If you book as soon as the flights are “loaded” in computer systems you may pay too much as the airlines are likely to reduce fares once they have monitored demand.
There are two or three things that you have to consider when trying to work out when is best to book flights in advance.
Demand for seats
Is there an event going on at the time you wish to travel?
A trade show or something similar?
If that’s the case then seats will be taken irrespective of the fare and the cheapest prices will not reappear.
In which case, book immediately!
Flexibility
If the dates or timings are fixed and of importance then it may be safer to book immediately.
British Airways and Virgin Atlantic Historic Sale Dates
We have monitored the sales of both airlines over several years and the following pattern has emerged. NB Both BA and Virgin have a tendency to match fares and sale dates….
SPRING SALE
From mid to late February to early March
WINTER – CHRISTMAS/NEW YEAR SALE
Around 20 December to 3rd January but often extended to mid to late January
SUMMER BUSINESS CLASS SALE
During the first week to 10 days of June, to encourage you to fly business class during the low (corporate travel) summer season
SUMMER SALE
1st week or 10 days of July.
(Far too late for summer bookings of course, but is an enticement to forward book)
AUTUMN SALE
Early September to the 23rd or 24th September
Also the 1st week November. This year, (2014) British Airways started their Business Class sale a little earlier, from 23 October to Wednesday 12 November
The airline currently operates 3 times a week from Gatwick but March 27 2015 is the last outward flight, and March 28 is the last inbound, following a “review” of services.
Flights to Male, Maldives are also cancelled from the above dates for the duration of the summer and will commence October 25th
I wonder if the airline will offer any spectacularly cheap one-way fares for the last few days of the schedules? (Seat availability should be very food for the last few days as there will no longer be the option of purchasing a return ticket)
I recently posted an article about the new function on the BA website where you can hold a seat for £5 short-haul and £10 long-haul.
I waited until today to check if this facility can be used in effect to extend the payment deadline during a sale period. Normally, when an end-of-sale deadline is given, it applies to reservation and ticket issue by a certain date. And ticket issue of course implies full payment too.
The British Airways Sale ends Tuesday 22nd September 2014 and if you are booking via a travel agency, that is still the very latest booking, ticket issue and payment date.
However, the online function mentioned above can still be used to gain up to an additional 72 hours before having to commit to a booking (with full non-refundable payment)
Changes to the booking cannot be made during this hold period however. Any change would require a new booking – and at new prices.
The £5 or £10 hold fee is deducted from your balance payment.
For the guaranteed lowest fares, book directly at the British Airways website here.
British Airways is offering a free upgrade from Business Class to First Class. It’s not what we’d normally think of in terms of an “upgrade”. For that, you’d normally buy a cheaper ticket and afterwards be rewarded with the upgrade.
The current offer is in reality a lower price for first class at the point of sale. I have seen examples where to fly in first class in one direction and business in the other, can be as much as £300 cheaper than buying a business class return fare.
The upgrade offer is for reservations booked on or before September 30th 2014 and for travel – departures up to 31st December 2014
If you are a member of the British Airways On Business Scheme you may also qualify for a 5% discount off the air fare and additional flexibility (refundable and changeable without charge)
This offer is not available online and if you need assistance do use the contact us form and we’ll recommend a company to you that can facilitate this for you.
You can now use Avios to reduce the cost of a flight booking but is this a good value?
Discount £10 Costs 1,500 Avios
Discount £20 Costs 3,000 Avios
Discount £30 Costs 4,500 Avios
BA has recently increased the offer so that On longer European routes, if you are booking two or more travellers, you can save up to £100 total:
Discount £60 Costs 9,000
Discount £100 Costs 15,000
Longer routes include London to Athens and London to Istanbul
The redemption value is 0.666 p per Avios (That’s £0.006)
If you’ve converted Tesco Clubcard points to boost your AVIOS you will have actually paid 0.4 p per Avios
So you are in profit – but not by a great margin.
And consider that for 9,000 Avios you may be able to buy a return flight ticket that may cost as much as £200
In which scenario you’d achieve a value of 2p per Avios – which is much better. But finding availability can be difficult, and the discount offer applies to any flight that has an economy fare available.
If you are booking business travel, the Avios discount will be more attractive than attempting to find a completely free ticket.
To obtain your discount, book flights as you would normally on ba.com and after selecting your preferred schedules, you will be offered the opportunity to choose the discount.
You will also earn additional Avios on the booking which will increase the overall value of the deal.
Avis is offering 20% off their normal rates for cars rented up to Friday 12th December 2014
Bookings can be made up to and including Monday 29th September
The Avis website looks slick but can be difficult to use.
If you click-through from a cashback site or if you just search from their main page (Avis.co.uk) you will NOT be offered the sale prices! You must visit their sale page and click through from there.
Here is the Avis Sale link which will pre-populate the savings code box with this code: L627900
I picked up an Audi A1 recently, 3 days for £117, and was very impressed.
You can earn BA Avios too if you supply your executive membership number
Yes, Terminal 3 !
Not all BA flights leave from T5!
Until now, flights departing from Terminal 3 needed a bus to ferry travelers from the terminal to the aircraft.
This has meant lengthier boarding time and earlier gate closures too.
This was always a pain. I always thought it to be expected of a budget carrier such as Ryanair but not of British Airways.
Over 95% of British Airways flights will now have direct pier-walkway connections
This is possible due to airlines moving to the new Terminal 2 from Terminal 3
According to the Heathrow Departures Board, BA flights leaving from terminal 3 include the following destinations:
Prague
Lisbon
Vienna
Budapest
Warsaw
Plus of course, codeshare flights (flight numbers prefixed with BA) where Finnair (Helsinki), American Airlines (to New York, Dallas etc.) and Japan Airlines etc. are the operating airlines.
You need to use a discount code to obtain this discount.
For bookings made before 30 September and for travel 1st October through 15 December, the airline is giving 10% discount for online bookings only, booked via Air Canada (here is the link to Air Canada uk site), and using this code 10LHR