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British Airways has launched a new promotion for travelers booking flights out of London’s Gatwick Airport (you’re out of luck if Heathrow is your preferred airport). The airline is advertising 250,000 seats across 25 short-haul destinations at “ultra-low fares” of under £30 one way – can you make the most of this deal?
British Airways “Seats For Less Than £30” Promotion
Between now and 23:59 UK time on 19 September 2017 British Airways is offering 250,000 seats, on select short-haul routes out of Gatwick, at prices under £30 one-way (based on the traveler purchasing a reoundtrip ticket)
The travel dates for the sale fares are 1 October 2017 through 8 July 2018 and, per BA, “seats [are] available during Christmas, Easter and half-term”
The routes on which you’ll find the fares are as follows:
- Alicante
- Amsterdam
- Barcelona
- Edinburgh
- Faro
- Geneva
- Genoa
- Glasgow
- Innsbruck
- Malaga
- Naples
- Nice
- Nuremberg
- Porto
- Rome
- Salzburg
- Seville
- Turin
- Venice
- Verona
- Vienna
Here’s what BA’s director of networks and alliances, Sean Doyle, had to say about the promotion:
We are giving our customers the chance to explore Europe and still have change from £30. There’s a destination to suit all budgets and tastes; families looking to soak up some culture with a city break can head to Barcelona or Rome, skiers can slope off to Turin and Geneva and those wanting to celebrate Christmas early can stroll around the markets in Salzburg and Vienna. This offer ends at midnight on September 19 so customers should log on quickly to take advantage of these substantial savings.
The Small Catch
The little bit of small print that British Airways isn’t advertising is that these fares are “Basic” fares and so do not come with a checked baggage allowance – for short trips this shouldn’t be an issue but if you thinking of doing a longer trip you should consider purchasing a “Plus” fare which will probably only be £10 – £15 more in each direction (cheaper than paying for a hotel laundry service!).
The Fares Are Available Now
As I normally take the attitude of “I’ll believe it when I see it” to anything I see coming from a PR team I’ve been over to BA.com to see if there really are £30 readily available…and there are.
Here’s Gatwick to Nice in October:
Here’s Gatwick to Malaga in February:
And here’s Gatwick to Venice in May:
It’s not all plain sailing as the first 5 random dates I chose for flights to Rome turned up fares no lower than £69 one-way and if you want to visit the Christmas markets in Vienna (as the BA press release suggests) you’ll have to visit in November to get these fares – the lowest fare I found in December was £86 one way.
Thoughts
All in all this is a pretty decent promotion from BA so I’m not going to labor the point that I couldn’t find these fares on all the routes mentioned.
As these are true short-haul routes that are on offer the fact that these are Basic, hand baggage only fares shouldn’t make too much of a difference….especially as oneworld Emerald and Sapphire members (BA Gold and Silver) now get to choose seats at the time of booking when electing to buy a Basic fare.
Another bit of good news is that, as BA has only recently relocated to Gatwick’s South Terminal, its lounges there are still new and shiny. They’re nothing to get overly excited about but the First Class lounge at Gatwick was perfectly ok when I visited earlier this year and I believe the Business Class lounge is ok too.
If you don’t have lounge access courtesy of your airline status then don’t forget that [thirstylink linkid=”25387″ linktext=”Priority Pass gives you access to the No.1 Lounge and the Grain Store Cafe & Bar” class=”thirstylink” title=”Priority Pass gives you access to the No.1 Lounge and the Grain Store Cafe & Bar”] while [thirstylink linkid=”25388″ linktext=”Lounge Pass will also get you in to the No. 1 Lounge” class=”thirstylink” title=”Lounge Pass will just get you in to the No. 1 Lounge”].
