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British Airways has announced a 50% discount off award redemptions on flights to and from London. Although Avios can be a pain to redeem and get value due to BA taxes and fees, this promo can provide solid value; however, you will have to hurry since awards are limited and the promo is only running through December 17, 2017.
Key Terms
- Bookings must be made by December 17, 2017
- Travel dates are between January 4, and June 30, 2018
- The promotion offers 50% off required Avios for economy redemptions, excluding taxes and fees
- Promo only applies to itineraries starting in London
- Promo is valid for one way or round-trip bookings
Is It Worth It?
British Airways levies notoriously high surcharges on award flights. To determine if the deal is worth it, you will have to look at your travel dates. For example, a flight from Los Angles LAX to London Heathrow LHR on January 20, returning on January 28, 2018, will set you back 16,250 Avios and $524 in fees and taxes.
Cash bookings for the same dates would set you back $653.23, so you are effectively buying $129 for 16,250 Avios; a horrible value for Avios.
However, there can be some value in the promo, depending on when you want to travel. For example, a one-way flight from New York to London on January 10, 2, 18 will set you back $2,721.10.
The same flight using the promo will set you back 6,500 Avios plus $179 in taxes and fees; an excellent value.
Our Take
Due to the way BA charges taxes and fees, you need to do some research before booking. If your travel dates are right, then this promo can be an excellent option. On the other hand, if the dates don’t work, you are better off saving your Avios for later when you can leverage them for better value. Regardless, before any award bookings, always do a comparison of what the cash cost would otherwise be so you can compare the value you'll receive from your miles before booking.
Source: DansDeals
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What’s this? A good use for Avios on BA? Cool
lol yup 🙂
Thanks for the info.
I suppose that there are opportunities to be had here – the ex London fares are difficult for me. . .
Me too. These fares are sometimes good if you live in the UK, but otherwise it’s not worth it.
great deal!
The deal from HKG above is very solid, but leaving from (or connecting through) LHR you will get hammered by the surcharges.
If you book the connecting flight as a separate ticket it works out cheaper.
Often yes. A connection within Europe can be booked as RFS.
Wow those are sweet deals. I hope they extend this offer for Avios redemptions from other regions.
Thank you!
That’s an excellent deal!
Huge taxes with British Airways and even more taxes leaving from London!
Quite an impressive deal. Half off is really good.
Just booked a few award flights using this promo.
Thanks for the post!
Always welcome a discount
Thank you, thank you, thank you for this excellent news! It is quite useful for me!
Pretty decent value for sure. We can all complain about fuel surcharge rates (rightfully), but at this point it’s the cost of doing business with BA.
Travelling long haul from LHR it is impossible to avoid. TO LHR is sometimes a different story.
Nice deals available. Sweet!
Very intriguing. I’m going to do some careful research and see if I can make use of my Avios miles now.
@miskocina Where do you see that London to HK deal? I’m not able to pull up anything that cheap, and the award sale website says 19500 avios+fees?
Lots of dates. Just now I checked the beginning of May and the cheaper prices are there for sure!
Just to add, you only get the cheaper cash price FROM HKG to LHR, as taxes aren’t added from Hong Kong.
Great! I would love to go to London.
Not very often do we see decent value from avios or BA but this one is good.
I have to agree that Hong Kong deal looks like an amazing price.
Book a reward flight from Hong Kong to London for around £35 and 9750 Avios…..can’t be bad!
one heck of a deal!
9750 Avios – wow! But thats Eco, am I right?
All economy as the article says.
Bummer; excluding premium cabins from this promo also excludes me, from having any interest in it.