What’s better than a 3 day bank holiday weekend? A 4 day bank holiday weekend. If you weren’t aware next June sees not only the typical Spring bank holiday but also the Queens Platinum Jubilee bank holiday. Friday June 3rd will celebrate the Queens 70 year tenure on the throne with the spring bank holiday being moved from Monday to Thursday 2nd June.
BA’s 355 Days Out
Random bit of information but important to know, British Airways release all tickets for their flights at midnight GMT 355 days in advance. Now the UK call centre closes at 22:00 so to book tickets you have to call the US office on 1-800-247-9297
The reason that’s important to know is some of BA’s Avios Redemption seats are like gold dust! Take, for example, Mauritius in Business class. A cash ticket return will run you £6,000-10,000 however, if you manage to get an Avios Redemption seat it’ll cost 150,000 Avios and about £500 in fees. Even better if you can get 2 and couple it with an AmEx 2 for 1 voucher. You’ll be getting £12,000-20,000 worth of flights for 150,000 Avios and about a grand in BA’s fees.
BA Making Life Easier For A Change?!
On May 28th British Airways doubled the amount of seats they offer for Avios redemption.
For every single long haul flight they opperate, BA GUARANTEE:
| Booking Class | Pre 28th May | Post 28th May |
| Economy | 4 Seats | 8 Seats |
| Premium Economy | 0 Seats | 2 Seats |
| Business | 2 Seats | 4 Seats |
| First | 0 Seats | 0 Seats |
and for every single short haul flight BA GUARANTEE:
| Booking Class | Pre 28th May | Post 28th May |
| Economy | 4 Seats | 8 Seats |
| Business | 2 Seats | 4 Seats |
The Point
If you haven’t joined up the dots… If you call up BA’s American office 1-800-247-9297 at 00:45 (British Summer Time) on Friday 11th June you will have a high chance of booking Avios tickets to somewhere you actually want to go. What makes it better, as it’s 355 days in advance you can book the 2nd-12th June (11 days) and you only need to put 5 days holiday in at work.
Side note, If you can, you’re better booking from the 1st June until the 10th as these are Off Peak dates and require significantly less avios.