AMAZING British Airways Business Class Sale
Update: This sale has now ended, but reading about how all of the sales and promotions were put together could help you during the next big sale.
I awoke this morning to see some posts about $850 roundtrip business class tickets from the U.S. to London. While that is definitely an amazing price, it didn’t make me jump out of my seat to book a ticket. Then as the day progressed the deal has improved dramatically.
Here are the basics:
- British Airways is having a sale on Business Class to London
- AARP members get $400 off roundtrip business class tickets (Anyone can join for $16)
- British Airways is also having a promotion giving you more value for redeeming Avios to/from certain cities including New York, Los Angeles, Las Vegas and others.
By combining those three things here is what I was able to get:
Las Vegas to London for $1172.50 after the AARP discount. Then I applied my 30,000 Avios and the price dropped to $408.25!
But wait, there’s more.
AA & British Airways are having a promotion giving 25,000 bonus AAdvantage miles or Avios for Transatlantic flights before January 31, 2015. This deal will qualify. So this is what I stand to earn:
- 11,185 miles for the distance
- 2,730 miles for the class of service bonus
- 11,185 miles as an AA elite
- 25,000 bonus miles for the flight
So basically I SHOULD earn about 50,000 AAdvantage miles in exchange for 30,000 Avios and $408. Plus I get to spend a couple of days in London! I have been there in January before. Not the best weather, but still doable. I also get to fly on British Airways business class for the first time and on AA’s 777-300ER business class for the first time.
A few helpful tips:
Not all cities are on sale and I even found not all dates will allow you to use the 30K Avios. I also had an issue where the pay with Avios option didn’t come up after doing a lot of searches. Using a Private browsing session helped to fix that.
Are you ready?
Want to replicate this? I HIGHLY suggest heading over to Frequent Miler’s Quick Deal where he lays it all out in more detail.
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[…] join) and a 30,000 Avios buydown, tickets were crazy cheap. In fact, early in the day of the sale I bragged about a ticket I purchased for a trip in January from Las Vegas to London that cost $408 plus 30K […]
is it possible to use the avios discount for other destinations in europe besides lhr? i’m trying to book lax to spain (bcn/mad) but i don’t see option to subsidize fare with avios.
Yes it should work to BCN and MAD. Make sure you are looking at BA/AA flights and then just play around with the options. I have seen some flights will tell you the pay with Avios isn’t available, but switching to other flights on the same route will give you that option.
Can I purchase RT tickets for family of 4 with one AARP membership and receive $400 x 4 off the total? Or is it one discount per member?
One membership covers the entire booking.
how do you make sure you earn AA miles while booking this on BA’s site?
Just put in your AA frequent flyer number when booking the ticket.
Is there something weird with the site? When I search, for example, NYC to Barcelona for “7 nights” it displays $1,522 for several months. When I click into those months I don’t see any combination of prices that add up to $1,522. Instead the cheapest for each leg is around $900 something so the total ends up coming out to around $1,921 and change. Minus the $400 for AARP and minus $767~ for using 30,000 BA points and the total drops to $754 out of pocket cost, which isn’t that bad but I’m seeing everyone get on the “$300-$400” out of pocket cost train and I understand I’m supposed to be searching for the “under $2,000” round trip flights which the website is showing me as available but when I click into the months it just doesn’t show it…am I missing something?
It seems the cheaper fares ended yesterday. You can still get about $800 roundtrip after AARP & Avios, but $400 doesn’t seem possible anymore.
Shawn drop me an email and let me know dates you are flying out. I booked 3 trips next year. So excited, you guys keep up the good work Madrid priced out at under 1,100 before Avois credit.
It was a great deal! I am going to London by myself for two days in January and then my whole family is going to BCN in March for Spring Break. I almost booked a third ticket, but the price went up just as I hit submit. Still a great deal though!
You left out the UK air duties. $408 including fuel surcharge for round trip. Really?
That is the price plus I also paid 30,000 Avios to bring the price down. $408 includes everything cash wise.
[…] I Just Paid $408 in Cash Roundtrip for Business Class from Las Vegas to London – Miles to Memo… […]
Like Jr, I would have been all over this if I had 30,000 Avios. Actually 60,000 Avios for two tickets and allow me to fly with wife.
Thanksgiving in London flying Business Class for under $500 each would have been great, but not for $1,225.
I agree Ric. The Avios component makes this deal. Luckily I had almost 30K sitting in my account and was able to transfer in some Ultimate Rewards. I also did that for another booking I made for my family.
[…] Miles to Memories – I Just Paid $408 in Cash Roundtrip for Business Class from Las Vegas to London – This Won’t Last… […]
i mean I don’t have 30K Avios at the moment. 🙁
Yeah I used had almost 30K to use for this ticket and then transferred in Ultimate Rewards to top it off.
Wow! I don’t have 30K at the Avios at the moment..
I think the $400ish fare is over it’s price out to be about 800 now with AARP and pay with avios.
Will I get AA EQP?
Nevermind. I just saw your comment.
I signed up for the Linked In American Airlines promotion, would this count towards that?
Yeah as long as you can get flights within the promotion dates you should earn 1.5 EQPs for every mile flown on these fares.
Not the best weather, but still doable
And that’s why the flights are on sale.
Consider rewording:
“AARP members get $400 roundtrip business class tickets (Anyone can join for $16)”
to
“AARP members get $400 off roundtrip business class tickets (Anyone can join for $16)”
Corrected. Thanks!