NEWS: British Airways – Avios only flight to Dubai, New 160 TP route to Agadir, Stansted flights and lounges

Last night, I attended the British Airways Christmas party at Heathrow, where a number of announcements were made by Sean Doyle, BA’s CEO.

Agadir joins British Airways’ short-haul network from London Gatwick

Agadir has become the latest destination to join British Airways’ route network from London Gatwick.  The four-times weekly flight will be operated by British Airways’ Gatwick short-haul subsidiary, BA Euroflyer, from 31 March 2024. Euroflyer offers exactly the same business class service as standard BA flights, although the service appears to be a bit of a mixed bag judging by my experience. 

On sale now, Agadir joins Marrakech to become BA’s second Moroccan destination. BA have flown here before but not for a at least 10 years. 

Tom Stoddart, CEO of BA Euroflyer, said: “Agadir is a coastal destination that enjoys 300 days of sunshine per year, so we know it will see strong demand from our leisure customers and particularly those seeking holiday packages. It offers beaches, golf courses and water sports alongside the opportunity to experience cultural landmarks, such as Agadir Kasbah.”

Return flights from London Gatwick to Agadir start from £138. The prices for Club seem to be extremely high, ranging from £500-1300, which seems way above what I would expect. There is usually a sale just before Xmas, so if you are interested in the route in Club, I’d either use Avios or wait for the sale.

The other good news is that it will be 80 tier points each way in Club, and with the BA Holidays double tier points offer, you could get almost enough for silver by starting your flight from one of the regions. For example, I did a BA Holiday to Tenerife from Belfast and earned 560 tier points in total including positioning flights. It was 160+320 for the main flights and another 80 for the positioning flights in Club. Silver, which gives you lounge access, is achieved at 600 tier points. 

You can find more information here www.ba.com/morocco 

All timings are local.

British Airways to return to London Stansted for Summer 2024 

British Airways has announced they will return to London Stansted airport. Launching on 18 May 2024, weekend flights from London Stansted to Florence, Ibiza and Nice will join BA Cityflyer’s operations for the summer season on its Embraer 190 aircraft. BA Cityflyer is a subsidiary of British Airways, which operates from London City Airport during the week to nearly 30 short-haul destinations. The new Stansted services will complement the existing weekday services from London City, plus recently added weekend services from Edinburgh to San Sebastian and Olbia, Sardinia.  

This will be the first time that British Airways has offered scheduled flights from Stansted since before the pandemic.

Each flight will offer two cabins: Club Europe (business class) and Euro Traveller (economy). British Airways will become the only short-haul carrier from London Stansted to offer a business class product, which includes a full meal service with drinks from the bar, priority boarding and additional baggage allowance. Club Europe on the E190 is generally not worth it as the seats are 2-2 and the lounge at Stansted will be a third-party lounge. But if you want the tier points then it could be worth it. 

Flights will be available from £41 each way to Florence, £36 each way to Ibiza and £43 each way to Nice in economy. Flights are now on sale on ba.com

First ever long-haul Avios-Only flights for October half-term 2024 

British Airways has announced that Dubai will be the destination of its next Avios-Only flight, offering more than 200 half term Reward Seats from just £100 + 60,000 Avios in economy. The flight is available to book now. It is likely to sell out quickly so don’t hang around. 

The BA105 from London Heathrow to Dubai will offer 214 Reward Seats across three cabins on 26 October 2024. The BA108 will return a week later, on 2 November 2024 with 256  seats across four cabins, timed for half-term. Obviously, if you chose to do this you could not get first both ways as it is not available on the way out unless you chose different flights. 

This is the first time that the airline has offered a long-haul Avios-Only flight, and it brings the total number to more than 30, including Geneva, Nice, Ibiza and Corfu. Avios-Only flights were launched earlier this year, on which 100% of the seats are exclusively available to British Airways Executive Club Members as Rewards Seats. 

Avios-only seats are sold as normal Reward Seats, which means that customers with British Airways American Express Credit Cards will also have the option to use their Companion Vouchers. These entitle Members to a second seat for just the taxes and charges, or one seat for half the amount of Avios. 

Reward Seats are those that can be purchased using Avios at static rates. British Airways guarantees a minimum of 12 and 14 Reward Seats on standard short and long-haul flights respectively, whereas Avios-Only flights mean that every seat is available to purchase using Avios. Members booking the Avios-Only flight can do so in any cabin as they normally would through ba.com. 

New British Airways lounge set to open in Miami 

Sean also mentioned a complete refurbishment of the lounges at Heathrow, however, some have already been done in terms of furniture and no further details were given. Hopefully we will find out more details of what exactly this means soon. 

TLFL also mentioned some time ago that BA was planning to open a new lounge in Miami and this has been officially confirmed. You can see more details on the initial announcement here.

British Airways is set to open a brand-new lounge for its customers travelling from Miami International Airport. Due to open in the first half of 2025, the lounge will feature a brand-new design concept, and will join more than 20 dedicated British Airways airport lounges around the globe.  At the moment, the only option is the American Airlines lounge, which can be crowded, so this is good news. It will also be very interesting to see what the new lounge concept is. Personally, I’d like to see the spas return. 

The lounge will be open to those travelling in the Club World (business class) and First cabins, plus Executive Club Members who hold at least Silver status, and those who hold at least Sapphire oneworld status. 

Further details will be announced in 2024.