Author Archives: bookingbusinesstravel

Exceptional one-off British Airways Flash Sale

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Fly in Club Europe Business Class from just £150 return to the following European Cities

Departures from Gatwick between 3rd November 2015 and 29th February 2016

Naples
Venice
Malta
Nice
Rome
Innsbruck
Bordeaux
Faro
Marrakech
Alicante
Vienna
Geneva
Seville
Friedrichshafen
Genoa

This is a “flash sale”!

For complete details and bookings visit this British Airways Page and book before midnight Wednesday 14th October

I cannot recommend Club Europe highly enough.
For many of us, economy flights have become something to endure before a holiday but you will, for a change, actually enjoy the journey itself. Fares include fast track check-in and security, food and drink on board and a more comfortable seat lay-out (the middle seat is converted to a table)

Why do we recommend Hotels.com for Business Travel?

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There are many choices available when you need to book a hotel.

COMPARISON SITES

Sites like Hotels Combined, who we feature on our hotel page, will provide you with an overview of availability from a large number of online travel agents and hotel booking companies.

Hotels Combined is great for research and also finding availability from suppliers that you wouldn’t have otherwise thought of.

DIRECT FROM HOTEL SITES

If the price is the same, then you may prefer booking direct for the following reasons:You can rely 100% on the reservations
Better selection of specific room types, bedding etc
Instant confirmation
Additional options, early check-in or late check-out etc

HOTELS.COM

The alternative to the above, especially useful if you book a variety of hotels frequently
The hotels.com website is one of the most user-friendly sites that we’ve encountered
View all your bookings in one place and with a simple log-in
Reputable company, hotels.com is part of Expedia
A very generous reward scheme, collect “nights” after your stay and for every 10 nights collected,
Hotels.com will give you 1 free night to redeem on future bookings!

Take a look at the Hotels.com site now or come back to our Useful Sites Page next time


BA Economy and Premium Economy Sale Extended

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The British Airways Sale that was to end yesterday, has been extended

Book before midnight, Tuesday 21st July

The sale prices are for economy (World Traveller) class and Premium Economy (World Traveller Plus)

Most fares are for departures September 2015 through to 2016

Example prices in Premium Economy, Dubai, from £650, Florida from £874

Most fares require a Saturday night, this these will be of more interest to leisure travellers than most business travellers.

More details available directly from British Airways here.

Remember that with many offers, you can book with a deposit now, and pay later.

You will NOT be able to upgrade these economy fares to Premium Economy using Avios

But you CAN upgrade from Premium Economy to Business, providing the seats are available

See my article regarding upgrading tickets here.

Flash Hotels Sale – Book today Wednesday 24 June and Thursday 25 June

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For 48 hours only, Hotels.com is offering discounts of up to 50%
That’s for bookings made today and tomorrow and the offers are for a selection of hotels in most European Destinations including Paris, Rome, Barcelona, Madrid, Istanbul, Venice Florence, Vienna, Lisbon, Scandinavia.

Thanks to this and their fabulous reward scheme, Hotels.com is fast becoming the most popular hotel-booking site online!

The reward scheme is generous … collect “nights” after your stay and for every 10 nights collected, Hotels.com will give you 1 free night to redeem on future bookings!

Take a look at the offers here. Hotels.com is also featured on our Useful Sites page

Important new rule regarding car hire

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Some of our clients occasionally rent a car and our useful sites page includes links to the best companies to use.

We now include a link to the DVLA under this car hire section.

Within 72 hours of picking up a vehicle, you must now register your driving licence number and National Insurance number together with your postcode

on this official DVLA page

The resulting code will be used by the car rental company to check that you have no disqualifying driving convictions

 

Virgin company rewards programme

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Virgin offers their reward programme for your company in addition to the traveller individual frequent traveller memberships.

If your company has at least 2 employees you are eligible to join the scheme, but it requires that you book frequently with Virgin:
At least 3 Upper Class trips a year in Upper Class or 5 trips in Premium Economy

The name of Virgin’s company scheme is Flying Co. Not to be confused with Flying Club, which is the individual travellers’ scheme.

Before you register, you will need the membership details of the minimum of two travellers.

The points will automatically accrue from the passengers flying club membership number. Unlike the BA On Business scheme, there is no need to add the flying co membership number in addition to the individual travellers number.
But each traveller must be pre-registered or linked in your Virgin flying co membership account details.

Can I upgrade using Avios after buying my ticket?

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Yes you can, providing that there is availability in the limited upgrade “class”.

  • Upgrading economy class to premium economy class

    You can only upgrade more expensive tickets, NOT the cheapest fares.
    The more expensive BA fare classes that you can upgrade from, are described
    as Y, B and H class and these are the highest economy fares.
    Example, Boston return, H class is £996. B class is £1,146 and Y class is £1,646!
    The lowest fares of say £446 at the moment cannot be upgraded.
    Example, Cancun return fares, currently only £1,281 to £1,936 fares can be upgraded

  • Upgrade from premium economy to first class
    This is a better option as British Airways will allow upgrades from all the lowest fares
    (these are W, E and T class) The same applies for upgrade from Business to First;
    All fare levels: J, C, D, R, I class are included

As one sale ends, another BA sale begins

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The economy class sale ended just a couple of days ago but British Airways has today announced a first and business class sale

Key Points

  • Book by Tuesday 9th June (inclusive) – You have until 23:59 to complete the transaction online!
  • Many destinations include travel up until May 2016
  • Long-haul flights from Heathrow and Gatwick require a Saturday night stay, to deter booking business travel
  • Flight only fares to USA & Canada, Middle East, Africa, Europe, Asia, South-east Asia and South America
  • Caribbean is excluded. However, fares are currently quite low if you book by Tuesday 26th May
  • Turn your flight-only booking into a fly + car booking for as little as £1 extra, based on an intermediate vehicle

Especially interesting fares are listed noted below

Dubai £1,598 return
Toronto, Montreal, £1,812 return
Orlando, Tampa, £1,698 return
Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paolo, £2,137

I would not normally highlight business class within Europe , especially for the shortest flights, e.g. London-Amsterdam but for any flight over 1 ½ hours, you will enjoy a hot meal and the trimmings!

The following cities are available for under £200 return!

Angers, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Rome, Genoa, Turin, Alicante, Zurich.

Departures from Gatwick require a Saturday night stay and from City airport, a 3 night stay away.

Again, this is to deter booking business travel at these prices.

But Heathrow departures do not have these restrictions. And, whilst most long-haul flights need to be booked in advance, these fares can be booked last-minute. Ideal for business travellers.

For more information, visit the BA Website or click on our British Airways Page.

British Airways Sale – Book before Tuesday 19 May.

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The current sale from British Airways is targeted at leisure travellers.

Most business-related travel is excluded by the fare rules.

For example, with a few exceptions, reservations require a Saturday-night stay, a minim three night stay and advance booking of up to 1, 2 or even 3 weeks. And fares are not refundable once purchased (although changes may be allowed for a fee)

Fares are valid for travel throughout the summer and autumn. Some destinations, through to January 2016.

The prices are genuine reductions and are good value.

Unfortunately, travellers will now only receive 25% of the Avios that they would have before the recent devaluation.

For more information, visit ba.com here

Avios Devaluation – should you spend your Avios before 28th April?

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On Tuesday, 28th April, the Avios reward programme is changing.

EARNING AVIOS:

Rewards, for travel with British Airways are to be reduced significantly, for those clients that choose the lowest priced fares. The new rewards for the lowest fares will be just 25% of current levels!

If you’re buying a low-priced fare, you should no longer let Avios rewards influence your choice of airline.

If you buy full-fare business class tickets you will receive bonus rewards. Example, the Business J class fare to Los Angeles, at £10,231 return.

SPENDING AVIOS:

EUROPE FLIGHTS

Short-haul economy and business class prices are not set to increase. In fact, an off-peak season fare is to be introduced which will cost less Avios than the current

LONG-HAUL FLIGHTS – ECONOMY

I have never recommended using Avios for long haul redemptions.
This is because the bulk of the “fare” consists of airport tax, fuel surcharge and fees which you still have to pay. The savings are minimal and a waste of Avios

LONG HAUL FLIGHTS – BUSINESS & FIRST CLASS

If you have a substantial Avios balance of over 100,000 and if you intend buying a business class ticket then you should be booking now!

A return flight to Los Angeles, Club World (Business), currently costs 100,000 Avios plus tax/airport fees/fuel surcharges. The new cost will be from 125,000 for off-peak and 150,000 for peak dates

Dubai, costs 80,000 Avios at the moment. That’s the business class return fare. The new price from Tuesday 28th April is 100,000 off-peak and 120,000 peak

And the definition of peak dates generally includes the UK school holidays, so, Dubai in July is considered peak season!

SUMMARY

If you have over 100,000 Avios and if you intend to use them for long-haul business/first class tickets, you need to book before Tuesday 28th April.

If you intend to spend your Avios on short-haul economy/business class flights you should wait until Tuesday .

Free car hire for up to 2 weeks with British Airways

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Using economy flights to the US as an example, the return airfare for 2 adults and 3 children, flight only, was costing a total of approximately £4,700

Choosing a Flight + Car option and the price was practically identical, depending on the vehicle choice.

The inclusive rate included a People Carrier such as a Dodge Grand Caravan.

In addition, you’ll be rewarded a bonus 9,400 Avios on the booking. That’s in addition to points gained via your credit card.

This deal is only available by booking directly via the genuine British Airways Website.

Remember to choose Flight + Car before you search

What is the best flight search engine?

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There are many flight search companies available online so it’s essential to understand the reasons for using one company in preference to another, especially if you research and book travel frequently. And especially if you’re arranging travel for business.

There are several factors to be considered when choosing the best flight search engine:

  1. Accuracy. Does the search engine use authorised exchange of XML data with the airlines? Or does it simply “screen scrape” And is the information up-to-date or does it rely on old cache memory? After all, you don’t want to offer fares and availability that is unreliable. You’ll waste your time – and look stupid in front of your boss – and important appointments may have been made based on incorrect travel information.
  2. Speed. We all love the look and feel of an instant website response but it can be to the detriment of accuracy as detailed above. Better to wait a few seconds rather than waste an hour later!
  3. Suppliers. It’s essential that the search results include information from, not only online travel agents, who may need to mark-up the fares, but also, direct from airlines. For example, some search engines offer the no-frills airlines such as easyJet via a travel agent in Spain, but the lowest easyJet fares are always direct from the airline website.
    So why not just go direct to easyJet via a Google Search for easyJet? Well, there might just be an alternative route or airline that you may not have thought of.
  4. Where is the search engine company based? If it is a US company, the information is likely to be more US centric. A company based in the UK is likely to concentrate on information relevant to UK customers.
  5. Are the results impartial? Or are they based on the highest payer to the search engine company?

After considering the above, my recommendation, for every search, is Skyscanner. The company is based in Edinburgh and is hugely successful. The results are reasonably quick and you can update the fares with one easy click.
Practically all airlines are offered – and direct with authorised fares and availability.
In addition, you can narrow down the results to non-stop, specific airline, departure/arrival time and overall journey time.

Skyscanner is perfect for business travel and leisure travel alike.

Just ensure that you follow our Skyscanner booking tips as listed on my Flight Search Page  

British Airways Free Upgrade to First Class

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Pay for a business class return ticket and travel in First Class in one direction.

This deal only applies to the higher business-class fares, not the cheapest Saturday-night-stay fares. Probably not the fares you’d normally choose to pay. But if they are the only available prices for your trip, you should take advantage of this!

You will also earn extra First Class Avios even though it’s a free upgrade.

You have to book First in one direction and business in the other direction. It’s not a case of, having bought a return ticket, of then asking the airline to “upgrade” you. So it’s not really an upgrade per se. This deal is displayed on ba.com if you choose business class in your search.

The availability of seats is limited to “A” class at the time of booking

This deal can actually reduce the normal business return fare …
Monday to Friday, Miami Return, the lowest business fare is £5,327 but by choosing First Class in one direction the fare is £3,733

For comparison, the lowest business fare to Miami is currently £2,952 but you must stay a Saturday night and this fare cannot be upgraded to First Class

You must book on or before 13th March 2015

For departures up to 11th April 2015 and complete return travel by 18th April

Book direct on the British Airways Website

 

Are the new Eurostar trains good for your business travellers?

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Eurostar has unveiled their new fleet of trains. This provides a much-needed and overdue upgrade. Eurostar trains were beginning to look a little tired!

They continue to offer three classes:

Standard class

Economy seating, low fares, no free refreshments, Fares:  £69 – £309 return
from 25th November: Paris: £69 – £347 Brussels £69 – £316

Leisure Premier

First class seating, cold meals & refreshments, 30 minute check-in, Fares: £189 – £390 return
from 25th November: £195 – £420

Business Premier

First class seating, 3 course hot meals and refreshments, 10 minute check-in, but £490 return

So no major changes to the service but we’re disappointed by the seat layout.

Most individual business travellers prefer solo seats with their own personal space.

Tables of four and two leads to complaints of playing “footsie” with passengers opposite and problems sharing the table.

The airline style seating is an alternative, but the solo seats are the most popular. In a first class solo seat, the passenger can enjoy privacy – and be productive during the trip, whether paying the “Leisure” fare or the “Business” fare.

So it’s a surprise – and a pity that whilst the new Eurostar fleet appears to offer 7 solo seats in Business Premier carriages, but only 3 in the Leisure Premier carriage.

Few companies are prepared to pay £490 for the Business Premier fare to Paris/Brussels nowadays. Normally it’s just CEO’s and politicians that travel in this class.

Whilst the “Leisure Fares” are aimed at the leisure market, few tourists care to pay the extra for what is, let’s face it, a 2 hour journey.

But many business travellers want a first class seat so they can work efficiently on the train, and it seems to us that Eurostar has overlooked these customers.

Indeed, Eurostar is trying to force business customers to buy the Business Premier fare at £490 by changing the conditions of the leisure fare. From 25th November, all leisure fares will be non-refundable. But changes will still be permitted however, at a fee of £30

You can view the new trains at the Eurostar site here.

Where to find the best fares, beat the fare increase and take advantage of the Eurostar January Sale, see my recent article here

Marriott Hotels – another reason why to book direct

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We’ve always recommended that you book Marriott hotels directly on the Marriott website because their rates match the online travel agents. And booking direct has other advantages:

  • The hotel will have the guest name immediately
  • Additional flexibility if there’s a problem as you’ll be able to deal direct with the hotel rather than via an intermediary
  • More tailored booking options such as specific room types etc

But now there’s an additional reason;

Marriott is offering free WI-FI but only to Rewards members to who book directly on the Marriott website, its mobile app, via a call center or through a particular property. –

Travel Management Companies have complained to Marriott as this policy means that their bookings will not include the free WI-FI

For now however, we continue to recommend booking direct at the official Marriott website

Eurostar Sale for travel 5 January – 12 February 2015

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January is traditionally a quiet month for Eurostar for leisure traffic so the train operator is offering return fares from London to Paris and to Brussels for just £59 return!

That’s just £29.50 each direction!

We’ve checked and seen good availability except for evening departures. Especially Friday evenings

For just £10 more you can travel onwards to any Belgium station, for example, Bruges, Antwerp, Ghent

Standard Premier is just £140 return. Enjoy the extra comfort and complimentary (but cold!) refreshments

Book by Monday 24 November 2014,

The cheapest Eurostar Fares are always direct on www.eurostar.com website and the French partner website www.voyages-sncf.com

Fares are identical on both sites but it may be that availability is sometimes different

Eurostar charge a one-off fee of £4 for credit cards and SNCF charge 2.5% so for tickets costing less than £160, you are better off booking at SNCF

But, the Eurostar site is more user-friendly and after buying your ticket, you can select your seats

Strike News in Europe November December 2014

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Belgium – National Strike – Updated 7th November 2014

Due to a national strike in Belgium on Mondays 08 and 15 December, Eurostar services to Brussels are likely to be affected with trains only able to operate to and from Lille Europe.

As a precautionary measure, Eurostar has closed sales on all Brussels services on those days, though bookings may still be made for Lille.

Other travel services are likely to be affected too

Air Portugal – Update 13 November 2015

The possibility of further TAP Crew strikes, on two separate days, has been announced for the 30th November and 2nd December 2014.

Italy Transport Strike

Transport unions in Italy are taking part in a 24hr general strike, Friday 14 November 2014.

Flash sale – 50% off all hotels in China with Hilton

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Bookable only this week (by 15th November) but for stays up to 31st December 2015!

Take advantage of this 50% discount by using this code to achieve the discount:

PR11RO

Example, Conrad Hong Kong

1Conrad HKG

 

Or the Hilton Shanghai

2Hilton Shanghai

Key Points:

Offer valid at all participating Hilton Worldwide portfolio of hotels across Mainland China, Hong Kong and Macao for stays booked between 11 November 2014 and 16 November 2014, and completed between 13 November and 31 December 2014. Offer subject to availability. Blackout. Discount is 50% off Best Available Rate (33% off for Waldorf Astoria Beijing and Waldorf Astoria Shanghai, and 45% off for Conrad Macao)
Full non-refundable prepayment required at time of booking. Your credit card will be charged immediately for the total amount quoted for the entire stay as reserved and refunds or credits will not be issued unless otherwise indicated by local law.
Must book at least 2 days in advance of arrival
Charges cannot be applied to other stays, services or merchandise.
Bookings cannot be changed

 

How to book completely free domestic flights on British Airways

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If you are redeeming Avios flights within Europe, you can include domestic flights within the UK for free!

Routes that apply to this include

Edinburgh-London-Edinburgh
Glasgow-London-Glasgow
Manchester-London-Manchester
Belfast-London-Belfast

Example: Redeeming Avios for a flight London-Geneva-London and include free flights Edinburgh-London-Edinburgh.

When on the British Airways site, find the flights you need for London-Geneva-London and the price will be 9,000 Avios plus £35

Then search again but from another UK domestic airport

(Edinburgh, Glasgow, Manchester or Belfast), for the dates required. You’ll be offered “You can break your journey with stopovers”
Choose, I want to break my journey and you can select different dates for each flight.

Please note that you must use the ticket in its entirety, as booked, in the same date sequence. If you don’t turn up for the first flight, BA will cancel the onward flights.

If you wanted a London-Edinburgh-London ticket, you cannot book it as above. BUT, you could book

London-Geneva-London-Edinburgh

To do this, you have to book separate tickets: London-Geneva one way, (cost 4,500 Avios + £17.50)

And another, Geneva-Edinburgh, choose a stopover in London (cost as above, 4,500 + £17.50)

This will provide you with a one way ticket London to Edinburgh, for free!

You can either buy a cheap one-way Edinburgh back to London or if you can plan in advance, another Avios ticket, this time starting in Edinburgh, to complete the journey.

 

BA Business Sale – Book by midnight Wednesday 12 November 2014

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This sale is for Business and First Class travel but will not apply to people booking business travel, unless they can comply with the following general restrictions:

  • The sale is for “selected travel dates” only.
  • Most fares require that you stay a Saturday night, except flights city airport. And many fares require that you book and pay at least 28 days in advance, except Club Europe tickets.
  • The fares do not allow refunds and do not allow refunds.

We believe that these rules are intended to restrict the travel to the leisure market rather than corporate business travel. But there may be some trips that can be arranged in advance, and where the traveller may want to extend to include a Saturday night / weekend away.

Unusually, this sale is available for travel from as far in advance as October 2015!

Antigua, Barbados, Grenada, Kingston, Port of Spain, Punta Cana, St Kitts, Tobago, St Lucia, Cancun, Providenciales, Las Vegas, Orlando and Tampa.
Travel from Gatwick: 22 November – 13 October 2015

Mauritius
Travel from Gatwick: 24 February – 13 October 2015

Providenciales, Mexico City, Grand Cayman and Nassau
Travel from London Heathrow 22 November – 5 September 2015

Palma Mallorca, Granada, Ibiza, Madrid, Rotterdam, Zurich, Dusseldorf, Geneva, Amsterdam
Travel from London City 1 December 2014 and 31 March 2015.

USA and Canada
Travel from Heathrow 22 November 2014 – 5 September 2015.

All other destinations available between 19 December 2014 and 5 September 2015.

Most of these fares will not include free seat assignment, unless the traveller is a Silver or Gold executive member. Bronze members can choose seats 7 days in advance, but for other travellers it has to be at check-in (online from 24 hours before departure) or at a cost of up to £65 per person per flight

Remember that the lowest online British Airways fares are only available directly from the British Airways Website.

Why travel agent e-dreams shares suspended on Spanish stock market

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It comes as no surprise that on Friday 24th October, shares in e-dreams were suspended after British Airways and Iberia said they would no longer supply their fares and availability to the agency

All the links to travel suppliers on our site are genuine and are intended to save you time and money.

We vet each site and will warn you of any advantages or disadvantages.

Some sites for example, hide the total cost until you have taken several steps through the booking process.

Example. British Airways.

I Googled British Airways and the response provided links that looked a little like British Airways own address but it is from a Spanish company, e-dreams

A price quoted on a search for Cape Town was priced at £975 compared to the official ba.com fare of £980 so you’d think you had a deal

but only after completing all the passenger information and submitted to the next page, amongst the total is a £19.99 “service charge” and, for example a Visa credit card charge labelled as £2.50 but actually totalled at £5.00, Total £1,000.25

Thus British Airways and Iberia decided to stop supplying fares to the agency.

e-dreams may continue to offer fares by “screen-scraping” the airline website – time will tell. They used to do this with Ryanair

flights and the airline took legal action over it for similar reasons.

We recommend you book British Airways via the direct links on our site to ensure the best fares.

 

 

 

An easy way to spend Avios to save up to £300 on British Airways flights

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I often hear complaints regarding availability of flights using Avios.

It can be impossible for the dates required, and you need to be quite flexible – and book far in advance or last-minute, and you may end up having to buy a ticket for cash

For those with a large bank of unspent Avios, British Airways now offer up to £300 off normal paid-for tickets.

This applies to long-haul flights only and from Heathrow or City airports only.

In World Traveller (Economy class) or World Traveller Plus (Premium), save up to £100 using 15,000 Avios in part payment.

In Club World (Business class) or First, save up to £300 for 45,000 Avios

This values Avios at only 0.66p each which isn’t particularly good value but at least you will get rid of Avios for real cash savings.

Visit this British Airways page for further information or simply search via our BA page above, and you’ll be given the opportunity to reduce the fare with Avios during the booking process.

NB Part pay with Avios is not available via Travel Agents and is not available via any other online site.

Up to 7,000 bonus Avios by booking BA flights before 28 November

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To the following destinations, British Airways is offering an additional bonus of 7,000 Avios in First Class, 5,000 Avios in Club World Business Class (J,C&C Class) 2,500 for World Traveller Plus (Premium, W&E Class), 1,000 World Traveller (Y&B) , Club Europe (JCD) 500 for domestic Y&B

If booking business class then this is a good deal.

If booking economy class, the bonus is only available in Y and B class which are the most expensive fares. Here are some example fares for those two classes, B and Y respectively:

Istanbul price range: £793 to £954
Moscow, £703 to £1,131
Bangkok £1,173 to £1,853

The bonus is payable on these services with outbound travel to 28 November and return by 12 December

LONDON HEATHROW to:

Aberdeen
Baku
Bangkok
Buenos Aires
Cape Town
Edinburgh
Geneva
Hong Kong,
Houston
Istanbul
Luanda
Moscow
Nice
Rome
Sao Palo
Stockholm
Tel Aviv

LONDON CITY AIRPORT to:

Dublin, Dusseldorf, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Rotterdam, Bari, Bordeaux, Edinburgh, Jersey

My opinion? A nice gesture for making a booking but not worth paying a higher fare simply to achieve the bonus

Free upgrades on British Airways – book by 12 December

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British Airways is still offering a free upgrade in one direction from Business Class to First Class.

But the upgrade is now only available when booking the higher fare types, namely J and C class “published fare”. Previously, lower R class fares were included.

For example, the J class return fare to Los Angeles is £9,936 return and the C class is £7,974

To Dubai, the J class fare is £4,980 and the C class £4,015

If the lowest Business Class fares are available, for example Dubai £2,316, then your traveller may not wish to pay the extra for the “free” upgrade.

However, you may be booking at short notice and unable to take advantage of Advance Purchase fares, or it may be a busy time of year and in these situations where only the higher fare is available, the free upgrade to First Class will be appreciated!

Applies to travel outbound to 31 December and return (arrival in UK) by 7 January inclusive.