British Airways Fare Sale: Club World New York/Toronto to London for $1,655 and 20,000 Avios Roundtrip

British Airways flew its first 787 today from Seattle to London and to celebrate they just launched a fare sale to commemorate event and build buzz around the first two cities that get 787 service from North America: Toronto and Newark.

Fares begin at $787 in World Traveller (economy), $1,209 in World Traveller Plus (premium economy), and $2,787 for Club World (business class) - all fares are roundtrip and include taxes, fees and carrier charges. The ticket offer is valid for sales until July 1, 2013. Travel dates are between October 25, 2013 and December 15, 2013, and December 25, 2013 and March 24, 2014. No promotional code is needed and the sale is available on any aircraft, not just 787's.

These are pretty decent fares, though not the cheapest I've ever seen- especially for Club World. However, the beauty of these Premium Economy fares is that they are upgradeable to Business Class (book into T class) and upgrades are only 10,000 Avios each way! I've written about using Avios to upgrade paid fares here, but here is a quick refresher on which fare classes are upgradeable using Avios:
- British Airways: J, C, D, R, I, W, E, T, Y, B, H
- American Airlines and Iberia: J, C, D, Y, B

I priced out a sample Premium Economy flight for November and it came to $1,285 and you can confirm the fare class of the ticket by clicking on the flight number- T (these are for actual 787 flights- the aircraft isn't showing on Britishairways.com, but Expertflyer confirms flights 188 and 189 to/from EWR are on the 787, though that is always open to change. Note: all flights are discounted- not just the 787 flight.If you have the Chase British Airways Visa and book through britishairways.com/chase10 using promo code CARDOFFERU, the price drops to $ 1,156.57. Pretty good for upgradeable Premium Economy!

British Airways will actually let you search for upgrade availability at the time of booking your ticket. Login to your Executive Club account -> Executive Club -> Spending Avios -> Book With Cash and Up-grade With Avios

The results will show any available flights. Note that the taxes are more expensive on upgraded itineraries and this one came to $1,655 and 20,000 Avios.

This is a pretty darn good deal, considering this same flight would cost 80,000 Avios + $ 1,155.07 to book outright as an award ticket- and you don't earn miles on award tickets! So by shelling out an additional $500 you save yourself 60,000 Avios (which I conservatively value at $900) plus you rake in 6,930 extra Avios plus Tier Qualifying/ Elite points.

Britishairways.com is a decent site, but to quickly scan fares and comparison shop I recommend using the ITA Matrix, which is very user friendly. Once you identify sale dates, go directly through BritishAirways or an online travel agency (through a portal of course!) to book.
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