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As part of its farewell to the Boeing 747, British Airways is offering some incredible Business Class fares, direct from London. Options include Cape Town for just £991 return:
Other highlights include:
- London (LHR) – Dubai (DXB) £962
- London (LGW) – Cancun (CUN) £962
- London (LHR) – Vancouver (YVR) £964
- London (LHR) – Los Angeles (LAX) £966
- London (LHR) – Mahe Island, Seychelles (SEZ) £972
- London (LHR) – Mumbai (BOM) £976
- London (LHR) – Mauritius (MRU) £999
There really are lots of different destinations available though – you can see some more in the map below:
The quickest way to check what is available is to have a play around on Google Flights, and then click through from there to book direct with British Airways.
Flights must be between 1st November 2020 and 31st March 2021.
Bottom line
For direct BA Business Class flights from London, anything under ~£1,000 return is a good deal. For this sale to include destinations like Cape Town, Mauritius and the Seychelles, is remarkable.
Sure you get extra Avios and the questionable benefits of biz, but I’d argue £150 + 30k Avios in Economy is much much better _value_ for destinations like Male and Cape Town considering the prices people would actually be paying.
I mean obviously there’s no question that Economy is cheaper, but I think the maths here is more compelling than you think. Credit flights to CPT (for example) to Alaska, and you’ve got ~£400 worth of miles. That reduces the net cost to about £600. If Avios are worth 1p each, the Economy return is costing £450 net. Basically, you would be paying £75 more on each leg to fly Business rather than Economy. Even if you value food/drink/lounge/baggage/fast check in/etc at zero, you would be paying less than £7 an hour more to have the space/privacy of Biz and the ability to lay down. Given the flight times to/from CPT, I would pay an awful lot more than that.
That’s fair and very reasonable (can’t argue with the £7/h) _but_ all massively contingent on valuing Avios at 1p and having a good use for the Alaska miles…
If you value them at less (I personally would be hard pressed to say 0.5p given I’m sitting on lots that are hard to use and don’t particularly want more airline points right now) then your net difference shrinks.
Not having a clear use (that you would have taken anyway) for the Alaska miles and/or already having Avios to burn makes it even worse.
But point taken! 🙂
Agreed, points/miles value always very much contingent on how many you have/opportunity cost of replacing, etc.
Even so, call the Economy flight £300 net, and say the Alaska miles are only worth £200 to you, so the difference is £500. I’d still be very, very tempted to spend £250 extra (per flight) for a bed on a 12 hour overnight flight.
Mainly I was surprised how good value the £150 option is!
True – for direct flights to CPT, can’t argue with that pricing.