AMAZING FARE: $646 British Airways Business Class Roundtrips to London from Several US Cities!

by Gary Leff

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British Airways’ PR team emailed me about a 2-day business class sale with fares starting at $2,015 (including taxes, fees and carrier charges) roundtrip to London.

The key is that this sale fare stacks with several other discounts to make it pretty amazing.

The sale is available through 11:59pm Eastern on Friday, October 16. It requires a Saturday night stay. Here are key terms:

..select “I” class fares for travel November 16, 2015 through August 31, 2016 (with all travel completed by August 31, 2016) from select U.S. gateways to London on British Airways or American Airlines operated services, only. Flights to and from New York-JFK are not included for travel December 1 through December 13, 2015, flights to and from New York-EWR are not included for travel November 16, 2015 through December 20, 2015, flights to and from San Diego (SAN) are not included for travel November 16 through November 29, 2015, flights to and from San Francisco (SFO) are not included for travel November 16 through November 22, 2015, and flights to and from Baltimore (BWI) are not included for travel January 4 through February 14, 2016. Flights to and from London City (LCY) are excluded from this promotional offer.

Thankfully the $400 AARP member discount on British Airways business class is back.

AARP members save $400 on British Airways business class tickets. Anyone can join AARP instantly for $16 per year.

That discount stacks with the 10% off discount given to British Airways Visa Signature cardholders using promo code CARDOFFERU.

    The British Airways Visa Signature card comes with a huge signup bonus: Earn Total of 100,000 British Airways Avios

When searching with the AARP discount I was only given the option for economy queries. I left it that way, and economy and business class both came up to choose from.

After selecting flights, the next page gives you an option to click a radio button and expand where you will enter a promo code or eVoucher.

Note that if you book an American Airlines codeshare traveling on British Airways, you’ll earn American’s premium fare bonus. I fares originally earned bonuses only for elites:

However in May they improved earning on discount business class I fares for general members.

Unfortunately the American Airlines flights may not stack with the 10% British Airways discount.

Either way register for American’s transatlantic bonus and roundtrips through January 31 earn 25,000 bonus miles.

Stacking the British Airways AARP discount with the 10% British Airways Visa Signature Card discount here’s the roundtrip price:

However you can book these flights for even less!

Through October 19 paying part of a fare with British Airways Avios is worth 2.5 times the normal value per point. So that offer stacks with the fare sale and with the AARP discount.

It is still a normal paid ‘I’ discount business fare so the standard fare rules apply and the ticket accrues miles even when you partially pay with Avios.

And it really does price at $646!

British Airways points can be obtained via instant transfers from American Express Membership Rewards (at less than full value) and Chase Ultimate Rewards.

Unfortunately there is no way to stack the pay with cash and Avios discount with the 10% British Airways Visa Signature card discount. But let’s not be greedy..

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  5. @Gene how is it misleading?

    1. BA sale fare through tomorrow
    2. Stacks with $400 AARP discount (anyone can join instantly)
    3. Stacks with pay with (30k) points
    4. But earns a transatlantic bonus that’s worth as much or more than the points you have to use (25k AA or BA)

    So arguably it’s $646 + 5k miles and you still have a paid I fare that earns miles.

    But since I value AA miles more than BA miles I really do think it is – at a minimum – a wash on the miles portion.

    Genuinely don’t get what’s misleading once you break it down.

  8. +$200 to most destinations on the continent – just did LAX-BUD/PRG-LAX for $835 and 30K Avios….

  9. “AMAZING FARE: $646 British Airways Business Class Roundtrips to London from Several US Cities!”

    So if the total fare is ~$1200, and the title states $646, how is that not misleading? Still a good deal for sure, but c’mon. At least include the “when using avious” caveat.

  11. They must be fixing it right now, you can only select Economy Class right now from the drop down.

  12. Gary its really $646 +30,000 avios. Yes, you get a big bonus, but it’s the same big bonus you would get if you paid the $1400 fare. I’m not saying it’s not a good deal, but the headline is incomplete at the very least.

  14. I can’t even access the discount on the BA webpage. It is asking to verify my AARP membership which is currently active but it wont even get me back to the BA website. Anyone else having this issue?

  16. @Gary

    “Genuinely don’t get what’s misleading once you break it down.” Well yeah, that’s sort of the definition of misleading. BA has a $2015 fare to LHR, not a $600+ fare. “Breaking it down” isn’t “breaking it down”, it’s adding on a bunch more discounts that someone may or may not be qualified for. While anybody may be able to join AARP instantly, not everybody has 1) The BA visa, or 2) That many Avios floating around.

  17. @Scott you could already only select economy from the drop down, i mentioned that in the post, but it was still displaying business fares when you click through

  20. Hi Gary, Great tips! I got it to price using the AARP discount but then it’s only offering me a maximum of $75 off using 7,500 Avios. How do I get 2.5 cents/avio. And the option for using up to 30K Avios? Thanks!

  22. Gary, sorry, just want to double check.
    For the AA promotion Terms and condition, it says the flight has to be AA marked. But if I book the flight on BA.com, it will marked as BA flight. then it will not qualify? Am I missing something??

  24. Does the flight have to be truly nonstop to earn the AA promotion bonus? For example Lax-jfk-Lhr and back would not earn the bonus?

  26. Would only give me economy/prem economy unless I went to flights, that said, it would not let me choose both Avios and Cardofferu said, “Sorry, you can’t use promotion codes or eVouchers in conjunction with Avios. To continue, please remove Avios part payment. You will still earn Avios for this booking.”

  27. For those of you that want to argue the semantics of this amazing deal that Gary walked us through all I have to say is SUCK IT.

    Booked for myself and DH. THANK YOU!

  29. Nevermind, I get that the avios stacks with the AARP, so on a 3800 fare, I lose 380 so the value of my avios is actually 1.9c per mile vs the 2.5 unless it was a flight operated by AA where I couldnt use the Cardofferu anyway.

  30. Thanks Gary! Booked for Memorial Day weekend.

    I was going to jump on the AA award space in the earlier post, but I view this as a straight swap of the 30k Avios for AAdvantage miles (plus elite credit). So with those cancelled out, in effect I am “buying” what would otherwise be a 100k AAdvantage award for $650, or 0.65 cpm. Definite no brainer and a smokin’ deal!

  31. Gary,

    Does the AARP discount only apply to travel through March 16, 2016? Saw that date on another boarding area post.

  34. Dumb Q: Can I redeem my Avios for the discount but add my AA ff# for EQMs and the TATL bonus if I fly on AA metal?

  35. I actually see Chicago pricing out to under $500 ($446) with the Avios discount. Wish this worked from Austin or Dallas.

  36. Even though DFW is not listed as a sale city, if you fly from SAN, it routes you through DFW. So it might workout for some of you out there.

  37. Actually I am seeing the discounted fare for other airports ($1,210) from Austin for example but it says you can’t use Avios for any part of the flight. Anyone know why that would be the case?

  39. Just confirming what I believe to be true from the post but wanted to validate within the 24 hour cancellation window:

    I just booked two tickets on ba.com for AA metal, using the Avios+cash discount. Am I correct in reading that these will earn me AA EQM/EQP (assuming I enter my AA number) at the normal discount biz rates?

  40. @john I am not in a position to make promises about what another airline will do, but this is an I fare and BA’s terms when you pay in part with cash say you still earn miles.

  42. @DB at a minimum you should be able to change your frequent flyer # using the Finnair or Royal Jordanian websites and the British Airways confirmation number.

  44. Thanks Gary. Just booked two tix from Austin for next summer for $1200 each. Couldn’t get the 10% off or the pay with avios option to work, but $1200 is still a good deal IMO. I remember there being some issue with earning AA miles on BA flights – can I earn AA EQMs/RMs on this flight?

  45. Did multi city — JFK – LHR, then LHR – ORD.

    30,000 Avios + $450 ! That’s crazy for business.

    I put my AA frequent flyer number, hopefully will get the miles as paid business class.

  46. Wow, just booked $1219.05 from SFO using the stackable AARP discount. That’s crazy cheap …

    Thanks!

  47. Seeing much cheaper in some cases. just did JFK-LHR-BCN for $436+30k avios over a long weekend in March.

  49. The 2.5 multiplier for redeeming Avios does not seem to work for me (I’m only offered $75 off for 7,500 Avios, $45 for using 4,500 avios, and $15 off for using 1,500 avios). Furthermore, the link mentioned in the post above seems to time out?!?
    Anybody able to make it work? Any tricks to getting the 2.5 multiplier?

  50. Update: Just re-booked using 30k Avios: $454.xx r/t. Unreal.

    Now I just need to sit on hold with BA customer service to cancel the first booking; hope that’s not too much trouble!

Comments are closed.