EDIT: For about £50 more, you can get the same deal to Johannesburg too – with superb availability!
British Airways are currently offering business class flights to Cape Town for just £1,100 per person.
If you had South Africa on your travel bucket list for 2019, you’re unlikely to see a better deal than this all year.
A quick hop to Amsterdam once again
Much like the also excellent Johannesburg deal that I covered in December, these cheap flights start from Amsterdam.
Here’s an example I priced up:
These prices are also available if you chose to route the final leg to Amsterdam from Gatwick rather than Heathrow. That would, of course, mean the hassle of collecting your bags at Heathrow after arriving from Johannesburg but you may not (ahem) mind the inconvenience…
Positioning to/from Amsterdam to take advantage of this deal should be straightforward. Using my example itinerary above, BA has return flights for about £70.
Can you get this deal for just £900?
At the end of December, I wrote about an excellent Amex Travel offer that was appearing on many American Express cards. On my Amex Platinum card, I currently have an offer for £200 off £600 spend with Amex Travel. This offer would bring the flights down to an incredible £900!
Earn BA Bronze status + 20,000 Avios per person in one trip
A quick glance at the BA Tier point calculator shows that this trip alone would be enough to earn you British Airways Bronze status. Bronze status requires 300 Tier Points plus 4 BA flights. This deal would net you 400 Tier Points as well as satisfying the 4 BA flights requirement in one shot.
BA Bronze status benefits include:
- Priority boarding
- Free seat selection 7 days before departure for yourself and other members of your travelling party. This is clearly an advantage over the usual 24 hours before booking available to Blue members/other travellers without status.
- Use of business class check-in areas regardless of your cabin of travel
- 25% bonus Avios on flights
You’d also earn the best part of 20,000 Avios, which is a nice bonus.
How good is this deal compared to flying direct?
In a word, very.
For perspective, here’s the price for non-stop BA business class flights to Cape Town on the same dates as my example above:
In other words, direct flights from London are more than £3,000 more expensive per person!
In fact, it’s still cheaper to fly business class using this deal than direct Premium Economy flights:
How to book
Assuming you don’t have the Amex offer mentioned above, there are no online travel agency hoops to jump through on this one. This deal is bookable directly on the British Airways website.
Availability at these prices is currently very good from May all the way until early December.
Tip: Add a rental car for about £50 to turn your booking into a BA Holiday. That means you’ll just pay a deposit now, with the remainder only due 5 weeks before your flights.
Valid for travel until 12th December 2019.
Tickets must be booked by 31st January 2019.
Verdict
This deal is so good that it makes almost no sense to redeem Avios on this route.
An Avios business class redemption would cost you between 150,000-180,000 Avios + £577 in taxes per person. Booking this deal for £900-£1,100 plus earning 400 Tier Points and 20,000+ Avios seems a far better option.
If you were considering a South Africa trip in 2019, this may well be the incentive you needed.
Book on the British Airways website