UPDATE: Via
Dan’s Deals, you can use Cash + Avios and get a very good value out of your Avios (around ~2 cents per Avios)
British Airways has been having on and off business class sales to Europe for the last year or so. According to FlyerTalk, the sale is back again. I’m finding fares to Europe from San Francisco to be around $2000. This offer is not limited to San Francisco though, and should be available from many airports across the country. It’s not too often that the West Coast gets business class deals this good to Europe though.
Combine this with $400 off business class fares with the AARP discount, and 10% with code CARDOFFER4U using the Chase British Airways credit card (although I’ve found that any Chase Visa card works as well), and you can get these fares down to $1450 or so from San Francisco.
Note, the $400 only works on British Airways metal or American Airlines metal that are BA codeshares. The valid periods for travel are November 1, 2014 – March 31, 2016.
For the CARDOFFER4U code, outbound travel must be by December 31, 2015.
Here’s a map of Europe of British Airways + American Airlines flights from San Francisco to give you an idea.
Also, don’t forget about the extra 25,000 American AAdvantage miles you can earn for business class flights through January 31, 2016 to Europe!