We monitor fares constantly and, as is usually the case, we’re ahead of the official advertising. Update 16th May: the official ‘Sale’ page is now live at ba.com. So, once again, Continental Club readers (got!) get the chance to pick from the best availability between fares loading and public advertising starting. Shorthaul Club Europe, longhaul Club World and First Class sale fares are on offer, with Club Europe business class fares to Amsterdam, Angers, Basel, Bordeaux, Genoa, Hamburg, Hanover, Quimper, Rotterdam, Stanvanger and Zagreb available from just £200 return.

Bookings must be made by Tuesday 4th June 2013, for outbound travel across a variety of dates. Return travel must be complete within 42 days of departure. Bookings which combine hotel and/or car rental arrangements with flights in a package also benefit from the fare reductions.

In the absence of a specific sale page showing on the British Airways website just yet, we recommend the carrier’s Low Fare Finder, which is a useful tool in the search for the best deal.

As usual, discounted premium class fares with British Airways earn full Executive Club mileage and status credits, and promotional fares are also being offered for connections from the airline’s UK domestic network. Members of the Executive Club may be particularly interested in the some of the shorthaul offers, which could easily and relatively cheaply earn the ‘Tier Points‘ required to achieve or retain status (Bronze, Silver, Gold) in the Club.

For a list of currently available longhaul destinations and starting Business & First Class fares (including non-Sale fares in the interests of completeness – and which will be updated further should additional destinations/fares be loaded) scroll down or click ‘Read More’ below:

To check these and any other fares, visit the British Airways Low Fare Finder.

Travel to US destinations is available for selected outbound travel dates between 29 June 2013 and 7 September 2013, and 26 October 2013 and 3 November 2013, and between 21 December 2013 and 5 January 2014.

Travel to Caribbean destinations is available for selected outbound travel dates between 29 May 2013 and 4 December 2013, and 31 December and 28 March 2014, and between 13 April 2014 and 30th April 2014.

Other travel dates vary, and bookings must be made by 4th June 2013.

To book these and any other fares, and to check availability, visit the British Airways Website – ba.com

- and now the official ‘Sale‘ page on ba.com too.

All of the above offers are currently scheduled to last until the end of May at least, with the notable change from April being the doubling of the welcome bonus applicable to eligible new Starwood cardholders.

As always, the relative value and attractiveness of the sign-up bonuses to a new cardholder depend on more than a few factors. Things to take into account include:

• Do you plan to pay off the balance each month?
• Do you need a fee-free card, or are the benefits of a paid-for card of sufficient value?
• Do you already collect loyalty currency in a scheme that you wish to add to?
• Are you clear on the value and availability of the rewards that you ultimately seek?

The nature of personal finance is such that almost everyone’s circumstances are unique, so it’s obviously important to look into all the features of a card before signing-up. This is particularly relevant since card issuers (like American Express) will often disqualify existing (or recently-lapsed) members from new card bonuses, even if a different product is being applied for. Pick the wrong card first, and it could be sometime before you qualify again for a bonus on taking out the right card!

Co-branded cards are also described as ‘affinity’ cards, and many of them are marketed to appeal to customers who feel ‘an affinity’ with the co-brand that they carry. Again, if you’re aiming to maximise your points-earning and, more importantly, your options for redeeming rewards, it’s critical to prioritise the practicalities of earning and redemption. More often than not, that will mean adding to your existing earning activities and accelerating your current redemption plans – rather than embarking on some new strategy.

So, if you’re based in the UK and you travel with British Airways (or at least the oneworld alliance, and earn points from alliance airlines into a BA account) most often, then one of the British Airways co-branded cards should almost certainly top your list to consider. Alternatively, if most of your travel is with Etihad, and in the absence of an Etihad credit or charge card in the UK, then a Membership Rewards-earning card from American Express could help bolster your existing earnings from flying with the Abu Dhabi airline.

The full list of carriers with which American Express offer points conversion from Membership Rewards is:

• Alitalia
• British Airways
• Cathay Pacific
• Delta
• Etihad
• Finnair
• KLM
• Iberia
• SAS
• Singapore Airlines
• Virgin Atlantic

The British Airways conversion from Membership Rewards is a useful additional option instead of earning Avios directly with a BA co-branded card. If you’re a frequent (or even exclusive) BA traveller though, then the ’2for1′ companion vouchers and potentially higher earning rates of the BA cards will probably swing the balance towards the Avios-earning cards.

One other point to note when converting points to airline miles is that, whilst American Express Membership Rewards don’t expire as long as card membership is continued, some airlines’ currencies do expire – for example KLM Flying Blue ‘award miles’ are removed when a member does not earn miles from a qualifying flight for a period of 20 months. So, it can make sense to leave earned Membership Rewards in the American Express account until they’re actually needed; that way flexibility and longevity is maximised.

The offer reprises one seen earlier this year, and published here on the Continental Club Blog:

Emirates Business & First Class Companion Fares

This time around, the fares have firmed slightly, with all destinations showing slight increases over the early-season fares:

Flights must be booked a minimum of 14 days prior to travel commencing, and no later than 16th May 2013. Outbound travel is by 28th February 2014 and there are three blackout periods: 14th June to 13th July 2013; 9th August to 15th September 2013 and between 12th December 2013 and 12th January 2014.

For full details and to book, visit emirates.com/uk.

And, once again, Emirates is also running promotions from elsewhere in Europe that may interest even UK-based travellers. This time, Germany leads the way, with fares to selected destinations matched roughly Euro:Pound – and therefore up to 15% cheaper than UK prices.

For full details and to book, visit emirates.com/de/english and use code DECMP13.

Fares in the carrier’s Club World cabin for this promotion are from:

According to the fare rules, bookings must be made no later than 17th May, for outbound flights departing between 21st July and 31st August 2013. Reservations are non-flexible, and itineraries including Club World London City service (flight numbers BA1 to BA4) are not applicable. The fares do however earn full Executive Club and OnBusiness credits for eligible members.

In the absence of a specific landing page on the British Airways website, the ba.com Low Fare Finder is a useful tool in tracking down the best availability. For those utilising an offline travel agent, the fare code is ‘I4UKJB1′.

As always, we’ve checked to determine levels of availability and actual fares, and in some instances prices are actually slightly lower than those advertised – down to £693 from London Heathrow on many dates in Economy.

Connections are through Hong Kong’s Chek Lap Kok Airport, which is considered to be one of the world’s best. Indeed, Cathay’s ‘New Business Class’ seat (pictured above) is regularly reviewed to be similarly superlative, with its conversion to a fully-flat, horizontal bed and aisle access for every passenger.

Economy Class offers book into the ‘O’ fare class, and Business Class fares use ‘I’ class. In Business, members of the Cathay Pacific Marco Polo Club will earn 125% of miles flown and 1.25 Club sectors per flight, and 125% Asia Miles, but the promotional fares in Economy are non-earning. British Airways Executive Club members can choose to earn Avios on Cathay Pacific, with Business Class fares once again attracting 125% of the flown miles in Avios. In Economy, unlike with Cathay’s own programme, Executive Club members will at least earn 25% of the flown miles. Members of other oneworld alliance and partner airline programmes should check their own scheme’s policies for ‘O’ and ‘I’ class earnings rates.

The Economy Class sale runs until 9th May, for outbound travel between 8th May and 14th June 2013. Business Class fares are available for sale until 21st May, for outbound travel until 30th September 2013.

For more details and to book, visit the Special Offers pages at cathaypacific.com. To find the best Economy fares, oddly, it’s actually more efficient to use the booking module on the Cathay homepage, which provides a date-matrix of prices when used to search. Ensure that the ‘Flexible with travel dates’ button is selected.

Two levels of assistance are offered, with both providing gate or bus rendez-vous with Etihad staff who will guide passengers through the arrivals process, including fast-track immigration and baggage assistance.

The Gold Package offers a one-to-one service and complimentary porterage to transport baggage at the airport. The Silver Package provides one staff member for 1-5 guests. Both packages include fast-track immigration and baggage collection.

The Etihad Meet & Greet service joins a growing number of bespoke airport and airline services, although it’s unusual in being an airline-operated service that’s open to all passengers. Universal availability tends to be the preserve of airport-operated services, such as Singapore’s JetQuay which we sampled in 2009:

Singapore Changi Airport and The JetQuay

Airline services are most usually tied-in to Business or First Class on-board travel. There are also a number of agents offering personalised service across a range of airports. Although limited to Abu Dhabi Airport, the Etihad Meet & Greet service is potentially most notable for its rates. The Gold Package is priced at AED240/USD65; the Silver Package is AED140/USD38.

For more details and to book, visit etihad.com/meetandgreet.

There’s no promotional code for this offer; the discount shows up on the hotel listings page and apparently applies to all room types. Although hotel rates are dynamic and these kind of ‘codeless’ offers can be difficult to validate for the real level of saving, recent tracking suggests that these are indeed genuine discounts.

More practically, comparing BA rates with those available from other agents shows some definite savings against the best rates elsewhere.

We looked at the above example, at The Bellagio Las Vegas, and found that the rate undercuts all but one other online provider at the time of checking. However the BA rate also includes the USD20 per day resort fee, meaning that the total cost with BA is indeed cheaper in real terms.

On selected dates and at hotels where other pre-existing offers apply, such as ‘fifth night free,’ the 10% off deal appears to stack on top of the original promotion and both savings are available.

For more details and to book, visit ba.com.

The UAE carrier, which serves both London and Manchester in the UK, is encouraging mid-week flying, with passengers travelling in Coral Economy Class set to benefit from a double miles bonus, and those in Pearl Business Class or Diamond First Class looking forward to a triple bonus. An example round-trip from Abu Dhabi to New York in Pearl Business Class would therefore net 71,946 Guest Miles – enough for a one-way Pearl Business Class flight from Abu Dhabi to London.

The promotion applies to bookings made at etihad.com, through accredited travel agents and Etihad call centres. There is no bespoke landing page on the Etihad website for the offer, and no registration is required.

Bookings must be made by 26th May for travel by 27th May 2013 on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays. It’s not altogether clear from the limited terms & conditions whether only sectors flown on the relevant days will count, or whether any other sectors in an itinerary which includes travel on those days will count. Neither do the terms explicitly mention overnight flights and how they’ll be treated. In the absence of that clarity, it’s probably wise to work on the principle of only day sectors flown on Mondays, Tuesdays or Wednesdays qualifying – and then hopefully being pleasantly surprised. The Ts&Cs do mention that the offer is ‘by invitation’, so check spam filters for email communications.

For a full list of the latest travel promotion codes and offers, updated daily, visit www.continentalclub.co.uk/offers/