British Airways Offering Economy Fares At Under £40 And Business Class Fares From £86 one-way

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I wrote about the sub-£30 British Airways fares a few weeks ago and either ticket sales are going poorly or British Airways is feeling generous as now they offering sub-£40 for travel this winter….and this time the flights are out of Heathrow (the earlier promotion was for flights out of Gatwick).

The example fares British Airways cites look impressive and are as follows:

• Luxemburg – from £27 one-way
• Palma – from £28 one-way
• Malaga – from £30 one-way
• Bilbao – from £30 one-way

Interestingly Business Class fares are making an appearance in this promotion too with British Airways claiming that Club Europe fares as low as £86 one-way are available.

No end date has been given for these low fares but, as BA says they’ve been introduced for “winter”, we can probably assume they’ll be valid no further out than 30 March 2018.

In case you’re wondering how to find these fares or how to maximise your chances of booking the cheapest flights these tips from BA are supposed to help:

1. Book early – Being organised and booking at the earliest opportunity generally allows you to access the lowest fares before they are snapped up.

2. Put down a deposit on your holiday so you benefit from the cheapest air fares – Booking early can be tricky if it’s a big holiday and money is an issue, but British Airways Holidays offers customers the chance to pay a depositof just £150 to hold your hotel and flights. This allows you to secure the whole trip with the cheapest air fares for less money, while also spreading the payments for your holiday.

3. Being flexible on your destination – British Airways offers short-haul flights to most of Europe’s  major airports and if the lowest fare is not available through one airport, it may be available through another one that is located nearby. A good example of this is Milan, where Turin and Verona are not far away by car.

4. Combining a flight and hotel will usually work out better – If you have a hotel and  flight to book or hotel and car hire, booking the two as a package will help keep the overall costs down. British Airways Holidays can offer weekend flight and hotel packages using these low fares from £119 per person. A weekend in Malaga for two nights in January starts from £119 per person, and a weekend in Bilbao for two nights in January starts from £119 per person, including return flights.

5. Check out British Airways’ low fare finder – On the British Airways website you can see the lowest fares by route and access them directly through the low-fare finder. This is especially helpful if you’re flexible with your travel dates.

6. Hold the price for 72 hours – If you’re organising a big trip and need to check the dates but don’t want to miss out, British Airways offers the facility to hold flights for 72 hoursfor a deposit of just £5, which is refundable when you book.

7. Use Avios – British Airways offers customers the chance to part-pay for elements of their trip using Avios, from the meal on board the aircraft to car hire and hotel payments. Using Avios can help reduce the cost of a trip still further.

Hmmmmm….

Is it just me or are those just general “how to keep costs down” tips?

I’m not sure that tips 2 & 4 have much to do with helping you find the low fares BA has in this promotion and you definitely shouldn’t be using Avios on super-cheap flights as tip number 7 would appear to suggest.

Are These Fares Actually Available?

When I searched for the cheapest fares to Palma (the BA blurb suggests fares as low as £28 one way have been made available) the lowest I could find out of London was £63 one-way:

When I searched for Malaga the best fare I could see was from £30 one-way (as long as you book a roundtrip fare):

A search for Bilbao threw up the £30 fare that was advertised….

….and a search for fares to Luxembourg revealed the £28 one-way fare that the promotion claims:

Business Class Fares

The £86 one-way Club Europe fare that was advertised is for travel on the Luxembourg route….

….but I still think the best Club Europe value to be had is to destinations like Malta where you’ll earn 80 Tier Points in either direction for just £272 roundtrip.

Bottom Line

The key to finding the lowest fares is to search roundtrip fares and not one-way fares.

From the brief searches I conducted it looks as if at least some of BA’s routes into Europe have some very low fares on offer right now but, as inventory is limited, I wouldn’t wait too long to book.