Summary
- British Airways offers Avios-only flights to Barbados, with all cabins available for redemption.
- Avios flights to Geneva skiing destinations will also be available without reward exchange rates.
- BA has a tradition of adding exclusive Avios flights during winter holidays, with plans to continue the program.
British Airways‘s Avios-only flights are back with a destination in the Caribbean and Europe over the British Winter school holidays.
Avios Flight to Bridgetown
Photo: British Airways
The most notable will be a 787-10 service to the popular Caribbean holiday destination Barbados. As first reported by Head For Points, all seats in all cabins are available for redemption on his new flight. While these jets do feature BA’s coveted first-class product, it appears that, according to the website, they are not available to redeem. The business class product featured on the 787-10 is the airline’s famous Club Suite product, their brand-new offering first introduced on the A350-1000, introduced in 2019. The flight is set to depart Heathrow on Saturday, 15th February, at 13.35 Heathrow and will land in Barbados at 18.35 local time. A return Avios-only flight will occur on Saturday, 22nd February, leaving the Caribbean Island at 20.25 Barbados and landing at 08.35 the next day in London.
According to Head For Points, the award price for Club World on this flight can be bought at the following rates:
- 200,000 Avios + £450
- 168,000 Avios + £640
- 150,000 Avios + £810
- 116,000 Avios + £1,200
- 84,000 Avios + £1,650
- 60,000 Avios + £1,920
A more regional escapade.
Photo: British Airways
British Airways is also opening two flights booked exclusively with Avios to Geneva, a popular skiing destination, in February, thanks to the nearby Swiss and French Alps. There are outbound flights on Saturday 15th and Saturday 22nd February, and return flights on Saturday 22nd February and Saturday 1st March. Unlike the Barbados flight, there is no reward exchange rate for this particular flight.
Avios only flights, a British Airways trend.
As mentioned earlier, these are frequent flyers. This practice can be traced back to 2023, when the airline launched exclusive flights to Sharm El Sheik and Geneva. This isn’t the first time the UK’s flag has made such flights. Last year, we talked to IAG Loyalty’s Chief Commercial Officer, Rob McDonald, in June 2023, and he had this to say about the offering :
Every flight on the British Airways network has a
guaranteed number of award seats
. That said, we know that customers really like some of the most popular destinations on some of the busiest dates, where guaranteed seats are used up very quickly. We decided to invest in that because it was really meaningful for customers to have a really large choice [of seat availability].”
Later that year, following the success of the first “Avios planes,” the company CEO announced another Avios flight to Flight Global.
[We’re] working hard to make sure you can earn and spend Avios in many more ways than you used to be able to do. We’re going to launch a long-haul Avios-only flight. It will be in Dubai (…) in October 2024. That’s going to be very popular with families. [This is] just another example of the way we can promote the utility and benefits of our Executive Club loyalty program.
British Airways Reveals Next ‘Points Plane’ Avios Route Will Be To Dubai
This is the first time that a long-haul destination has been featured in the initiative.
Bottom Line
BA is adding two new point planes to their schedule, and as is now custom, this will take place during the country’s winter holidays in February. We expect this custom to continue with a successful program for the next few years.
What destinations would you like to see the following “points plane” go to? Let us know in the comments.
