British Airways Business Class Discount Cut in Half

Posted By Jon Nickel-D'Andrea on Feb 21, 2017 | 3 comments

One of the best ways to get to Europe has always been, in my opinion, to fly in British Airways Business Class. Often they’ll run a business class sale that will drive our business to them. Their product is average, the service is OK, but the prices usually can’t be beat.

While there currently don’t seem to be any major sales from the US to Europe and beyond on British Airways, there has been a standing discount for members of AARP for years now.

British Club World Seat

We scored some amazing deals in the past to head to Europe ($1200, $1400) using a great AARP discount.

Get your AARP Membership

For only $16 a year you can get a membership to AARP (and even less if you get a multi-year membership) that comes with a ton of discounts. There have been lots of places where we’ve shown our card to get 10-20% off of many items, and the hotel discounts can’t be beat as well. Often the rates come up better than the non-refundable rates, and you can cancel usually at any time!

British AARP Discount

One of the best discounts used to be a British Airways discount where you could get up to $400 off of a business or first class ticket on British Airways. All you had to do was travel between the US and a British Airways destination, log in via the special AARP page, and the discount would apply automatically. Easy right?

New British Discounts with AARP

Well, apparently everyone and their cousin decided to start using this benefit, because just like most things in the travel, miles, and points world, we’ve got a devaluation on our hands.

New British Airways Discount 🙁

The deadline for booking tickets used to be the end of the year, but now that’s been moved until December 31st, 2017. The flights have to be completed by March 31, 2018. Also good news. So what’s the bad news? The discount for First and Business class tickets has dropped from $400 to $200.

AARP 2017 Discount with British Airways

According to British’s website:

Exclusive AARP member savings

$65* off for travel in World Traveller (economy)

$130* off for travel in World Traveller Plus (premium economy)

$200* off for travel in Club World (business class)

$200* off for travel in First

Book by December 31, 2017

So yea, while the discount is still there, it doesn’t represent nearly as amazing of a value. Don’t get me wrong. Saving $400 per couple is still an amazing discount off of a business class ticket. Last year, British offered round trip tickets in business class from the West Coast for $1800, so getting that reduced down to $1600 is a tremendous value. And considering that your cost is anywhere from $10-16 a year, that’s a no brainer.

Have you used the AARP discount before? Where did you go and what deal did you get?