Gariem

For those of you with British Airways air miles they announced a "Rewards Flights for 50% Less Sale" this morning until midnight November 28, GMT, in all classes, to all destinations worldwide (not available on code share partners or one star alliance members' flights). Check it out on ba.com (if you can get in). I had to phone in my purchase due to high volume of internet traffic. Italy, here I come in 2009!

nibblette

Is this sale limited only to UK members? don't see it when I sign on. Would love to get in on this bargain!

Marija

I can't find it either.

MelJ

I'm a US ff member and it came into my e-mail box today,

P_M

I apologize in advance for hijacking this thread.

Hi Gariem, we met at the Houston GTG a few years ago. I had the pleasure of meeting Patrick about 3 weeks ago and he asked if you are still posting. I told him I haven't seen you in awhile, but maybe I wasn't looking in the right place. Good to see you again here in Fodorland.

Getting back to Gariem's post, I received this notice via email. Call BA and ask about it if you are interested.

gogogreece

This may work for my family. I was able to book tickets for 3 of us yesterday using the miles. One Chicago to Athens, Greece. Two for Boston to Athens. These are all for July 2009. The reservations will be held for a week before the transaction needs to be completed. The taxes and fee prices seem fairly hefty, but all and all it is a super value. One must call the airline, as the web site seems to be out of service or too busy for FF purchase. The agent will hold our the tickets for a week which I thought was a great bonus. There seemed to be plenty of availability which was a surprise, I received an email from BA alerting me to this offer. good luck!

KidsToLondon

I'm off to UK and Italy using this offer...it is one of the best I've seen in a long time for BA Executive Club members (freq. fliers). Not sure why BA wants to increase bookings of non-revenue seats, but I'm not going to ask!

tomboy

Well, I'm a BA ff'r and I can't find it on the website. Used the BA search box, also. Also switched the country from US to UK. No luck.

Can you post detailed URL?

Gardyloo

Apparently there isn't an URL - it's an email-only offer. Have you signed up for email notifications with BAEC?

Frances

We've just booked two tickets to Romania mid-Summer and I'm really pleased!

tomboy

What's BAEC? Is that only for EU citizens?

P_M

BAEC = British Airways Executive Club.

I'm American and I got the notification.

gogogreece

For those of you who cannot find the offer on the British Airways' web page , do call this number if you are in the USA. 800-452-1201. If you should book, it will add $20 to the cost for booking over the phone, but also save you valuable time.

frogoutofwater

If you log into your BAEC account on the BA website, you will see a notice on the left hand side of the page announcing the sale. You don't need a code or to click through a link to access the reward flight sale. Just search for availability as you normally would. When you get to nearly the last page when it shows the miles required for the flight, you'll see that the number is reduced 50%.

Some tips:

- The website is experiencing very heavy demand. You likely will get a message about "heavy internet traffic - try again later", once you get to the page where BA is searching for flight availability. Just keep hitting the search button - every few seconds if you want. After 3-5 tries, you can usually get through and the search for seats will be run.

- The sale is only for flights on BA metal (e.g. not on partner airlines).

- You will still have to pay BA's obscenely high extra fees for reward flights. Those fees seem to be about the same regardless of which class of booking (Eco, World Traveller Plus, Club, First) you make, so the best use of points is to book a premium cabin. I haven't been using my BA miles for a long time because I've refused to pay the obscenely high fees. I decided this time, however, that it was worth it because I got 2 business class (Club) seats for 60,000 miles each (instead of 120,000) plus about USD 500 per ticket for a trip to Rome next spring. I would have had to pay the $500 for World Traveller Plus, too. Two Club seats essentially for $500 each seemed worth it (essentially, I assign almost no value to my BA miles these days because they're so hard to redeem).

Probably the reasons BA is having a reward flight sale is because a) it still gets to collect those obscenely high fees per ticket I just mentioned a minute ago, and b) unused BA miles in BAEC member accounts are a kind of contingent liability on BA's financial statements - so it's better to get rid of them when it can. I wouldn't be surprised if BA reduces fees somewhat after this sale to reflect further reductions in fuel prices (so it's happy to collect as much fee revenue as possible now before the reductin).

ktinde

Yipee... I got my ticket to London from India....June/July 09. No problems at all. Even if you do not get an email re this offer, if you book as an Executive member you get the 50% discount. If you book on line you can change dates without paying for the change. But if you book by phone you are stuck with your dates or pay $ 40 for every change. But all the same what a terrific offer. Can now take a companion by just paying the taxes.

frogoutofwater

I've now blown almost all of my BA miles, but Mr frogoutofwater and I have some great trips planned for 2009.

As I mentioned in my earlier post, I booked two J/Bus seats to Italy next April for our birthday/anniversary celebration. Yesterday, I was able to change the time of our flight arriving in Rome, so we'll arrive in the early (rather than late) evening.

This morning, I booked two more sets of flights. (Availability still seems quite good and the website was more responsive.)

Mr frogoutofwater and I had agreed that we should take advantage of the sale and fly in 2009 where we could, instead of making our planned trip to Malaysia. (Poor availability and, in any case, not enough miles for two J/Bus seats.)

So I booked the following instead:

- Two J/Bus seats to Cairo for a 2-week trip beginning at the end of September 2009. We'll go diving in the Red Sea and then spend a few days touring the antiquities. Mr frogoutofwater was posted to Egypt when he was in the air force, and he has wanted to take me back and show me around. I guess we should pick up our Arabic studies again in early 2009.

- One World Traveller Plus ticket to Moscow for Mr frogoutofwater for next July. He had mentioned a few days ago that he was interested in a mountain climbing expedition planned by his climbing club but was balking at the price (almost $5000 Canadian, plus airfare). Mt Elbrus in Russia is one of the Seven Summits (highest peaks in each of the seven continents). I said, "Do what you love", and booked him the ticket.

We've had to spend quite a few $ on redemption fees, but overall I think the miles (at 50% off) and $ spent are worth it for some great trips in 2009.

Gariem

Hello all. I did not have a chance to check back after my 11/21 posting until now. Glad several of you have been able to take advantage of this unique BA offer! P_M, I haven't been posting regularly, but I read the Europe forum quite often. Good to hear from you. I will try to post more often in future. It's tough with job and home demands.

Maria_H

Well I've just managed to book us flights from the UK to Vancouver next summer. I'd been saving my BA miles for a while and realised that thanks to the offer, we could travel Club World, rather than economy! I'll be off the the Canada forum shortly to start planning our trip. I managed to book online, after a few refreshes and a rather worrying moment when my credit card was declined - my credit card company helpfully invoked it's anti-fraud procedures, as I'd already booked some short-haul flights for an Easter break. Thankfully I was able to get back in and complete the booking.

The offer ends tonight, if you have any miles to spend.

Gordon_R

I give up, this must be for US Exec Club members only. I'm a UK-based FF'er and I can't see this anywhere on my EC account page. NEver got an email either. I guess they target offers to different regions from time to time.

llamalady

We didn't get the email flyer either
but I asked a friend who received
the notification to forward it to
me.

We were ready to book Vancouver to
Istanbul on WT+ b/c we were just
short of the required 230,000 pts.

By taking advantage of this promo
we were able to fly First Class to
London and then Business Class to
Istanbul. BC all the way back.
The only drawback is that you must
fly in and out of the same city.

This combo would have taken over
400,000 pts. but it worked out to
under 200,000. Of course, we did
have to shell out over 1700 for
taxes....

It is open to all FF members but
ends tomorrow.