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British Airways operates a number of short-haul routes on which Business Class fares earn an impressive 160 Tier Points for roundtrip travel. For the next ten days, British Airways has lowered the cost of Business Class fares on some of these routes to levels that I don’t recall having ever seen before so some of the deals on offer are nothing short of fantastic.
Over the weekend, British Airways announced that through Tuesday 22 September it will be selling one million Economy Class seats for under £35 one-way. More importantly (for most readers of this blog), the airline also announced that it has reduced Club Europe fares on 60 of its short-haul routes through 30 September and, upon closer inspection, some fo the fare reductions are nothing short of spectacular.
Key To Know
- Book Economy Class fares by 22 September 2020
- Book Business Class fares by 30 September 2020
- Travel through 31 March 2021
- The British Airways flexible booking policy offers no change fees or a voucher for future travel on all bookings made by 30 September for travel through 31 August 2021.
Related Reading: Great Long-Haul Deals In The British Airways sale
Best Fares On Routes Earning 160 Tier Points
There are some amazing Business Class fares on offer right now (you can fly roundtrip to Polad for under £130) but the key fares to look out for are the fares on the longer routes which will earn 80 Tier Points in either direction for a total of 160 Tier Points. The best fares I could find are listed below:
Prices each-way based on a round-trip fare
- Athens – from £98
- Bucharest– from £86
- Catania– from £114
- Corfu – from £88
- Funchal– from £104
- Gran Canaria – from £102
- Istanbul– from £91
- Kalamata– from £137
- Lanzarote– from £92
- Larnaca – from £96
- Malta– from £82
- Marrakech – from £103
- Paphos– from £99
- Preveza Lefkada– from £123
- Reykjavik– from £77
- Santorini – from £134
- Sofia– from £73
- Tenerife– from £102
- Thessaloniki– from £111
- Tirana – from £83
I don’t ever remember seeing Business Class fares to Cyprus (Larnaca & Paphos) for under £200 roundtrip and the prices to Sofia (£146 roundtrip), Malta (£164 roundtrip), Istanbul (£182 roundtrip), and Athens (£196 roundtrip) are stunning.
I happen to have four roundtrip fares already booked on two of these routes (two in Business Class and two in Economy Class). To make the most of these deals I plan to cancel all four of my bookings in exchange for travel vouchers, and then use the travel vouchers + cash to rebook all four trips using the new fares.
Earn British Airways Silver Status With Ease
British Airways Silver status translates to oneworld Sapphire status and offers Business Class lounge access ahead of all flights, free seat selection at the time of booking, bonus Avios and a lot more and this is a status that can now be earned incredibly economically.
Traditionally, British Airways Silver status requires a flyer to earn 600 Tier Points in their membership year but, courtesy of BA’s announced status targets reduction, the current target for Silver status is just 450 Tier Points – that’s less than three roundtrips on routes earning 160 Tier Points.
The cheapest fare on offer (above) costs £146 and that means that a traveler could lock-in BA Silver status for just £438. You could reduce that cost further by part-paying for these fares with Avios (Avios + cash bookings still earn Tier Points), but I prefer to use Avios at a better rate than BA is prepared to offer so the all-cash route is probably the better way to go.
Bottom Line
British Airways is currently offering some incredibly good deals on short-haul Economy Class and Business Class fares. All the fares can be put to good use (especially as they’re covered by the airline’s flexible booking policy) but it’s the fares on the longer short-haul routes which look to offer the greatest rewards for miles & points fans.
