British Airways is ramping up its loyalty game for summer 2026, unveiling exclusive Avios-only flights from London City Airport to Madrid and Toulon Saint-Tropez that can be booked from just £2 plus points, positioning the services as headline-grabbing redemptions for UK-based holidaymakers.
How British Airways’ New Avios-Only Flights Work
The new services from London City to Madrid and Toulon Saint-Tropez are part of British Airways’ expanding Avios-only programme, in which every seat on selected flights is reserved purely for reward bookings. Unlike traditional reward inventory, where a handful of seats are released alongside regular cash fares, these departures are fully ringfenced for members of The British Airways Club redeeming their points.
On the summer 2026 promotion, fares headline at £2 one way, but travellers must also redeem a fixed number of Avios. For economy, that starts at 21,500 Avios plus £2 on the Toulon Saint-Tropez route and 28,000 Avios plus £2 on the Madrid flights. The points requirement reflects distance and demand, but the flat cash element has been set deliberately low to underline the value proposition for frequent flyers.
Crucially for leisure travellers, the Avios-only fares include a checked bag of up to 23 kilograms, aligning with the airline’s standard short-haul baggage policy. That makes the offer significantly more practical than some bare-bones redemptions or ultra-low-cost fares, where luggage quickly inflates the total trip cost. For many families and couples looking at a peak-season escape, the ability to lock in flights with points and still bring a full suitcase is a key part of the appeal.
Seats on these services are being sold strictly on a first come, first served basis via the airline’s digital channels. With British Airways reporting that previous Avios-only flights frequently sell out, loyalty members eyeing a Spanish city break or a French Riviera getaway are being encouraged to move quickly if they want to secure their preferred dates.
Routes, Dates and the Summer 2026 Timetable
The Madrid and Toulon Saint-Tropez services will both operate from London City Airport, the compact hub in east London that is popular with time-poor business travellers and increasingly attractive to leisure flyers. Its short walking distances, rapid security and proximity to central London make early-morning departures and weekend escapes more manageable for city-based passengers.
British Airways has framed the new flights as limited, high-demand summer departures rather than year-round routes. For Toulon Saint-Tropez, the Avios-only operation is scheduled as a short seasonal run, with an outbound flight in June and a return the following week. The Madrid service includes late May dates that sit squarely in the early summer window, giving travellers a chance to lock in a points-funded escape before peak school-holiday crowds descend on Europe’s main hotspots.
The timing underscores how the airline is using Avios-only flights tactically on dates that are usually expensive when bought with cash. By converting entire aircraft to reward-only services at popular times of year, British Airways can both reward loyal customers and better manage demand across its broader network. For many households weighing summer travel budgets, the chance to swap cash fares for points on precisely these peak dates is likely to be a deciding factor.
Operationally, the new flights also mark a milestone for the programme, with the return from Madrid set to become the 50th dedicated Avios-only service since the concept was introduced in 2023. That figure highlights how a niche experiment has grown into a recurring feature of the carrier’s loyalty strategy, spanning everything from Mediterranean short-haul sun routes to long-haul leisure destinations in Africa and the Caribbean.
Madrid: Culture, Late Nights and Summer Energy
Madrid’s inclusion in the latest Avios-only release reflects the Spanish capital’s enduring pull as a city-break favourite. For British Airways, the route combines solid year-round business traffic with strong summer leisure demand, making it an ideal candidate for a reward-led promotion at a time when hotel rates and cash fares can both be elevated.
For travellers redeeming Avios, the new London City departures offer a particularly convenient way to tap into Madrid’s energetic cultural scene. The Prado, Reina Sofía and Thyssen-Bornemisza museums sit within easy reach of the city centre, while grand boulevards, leafy parks and late-night tapas bars make the capital a natural fit for long weekends and short, intensive itineraries.
In the warmer months, Madrid’s street life moves outside, with locals and visitors spilling onto terrazas late into the evening. Travellers arriving on Avios-only flights will find rooftop bars, open-air cinemas and neighbourhood fiestas animating districts from Malasaña to Salamanca. While many Spaniards head to the coast in high summer, Madrid’s increasingly sophisticated hotel and restaurant scene ensures that the city retains a steady stream of international visitors even as temperatures climb.
The London City origin further enhances the city-break proposition for UK-based flyers. For those living or working in the capital, the airport’s direct rail links and compact layout reduce overall journey time compared with larger hubs, turning the idea of a Friday-to-Monday Madrid escape into a more realistic proposition, particularly when the flights themselves have effectively been pre-paid in points.
Toulon Saint-Tropez: Gateway to the Riviera
If Madrid promises culture and nightlife, Toulon Saint-Tropez offers classic Mediterranean escapism. By choosing Toulon as the gateway for its Avios-only services, British Airways is positioning the route as a direct link between London City and one of Europe’s most coveted summer coastlines, the French Riviera.
Toulon’s harbourfront and old town provide a quieter, more local counterpoint to the glamour of nearby Saint-Tropez, but the combined catchment is what matters. From Toulon, travellers can spread out along the Var coastline, accessing beach clubs, pine-fringed coves and hillside villages that have long attracted a mix of French holidaymakers and international visitors. For loyalty members, the new flights effectively transform a bucket-list stretch of coast into a realistic redemption option for summer 2026.
Saint-Tropez itself remains a magnet for superyachts, luxury villas and high-end boutiques, but it also offers low-key pleasures off the main waterfront strips. Those arriving on Avios-only flights can choose between indulgent days at marquee beach clubs on Pampelonne and more understated explorations of coastal walking paths, Provençal markets and vineyard-dotted backroads. The combination ensures the route has broad appeal, from couples seeking a celebratory trip to groups of friends planning a once-a-year splurge.
Crucially, the checked-baggage allowance on the Avios-only fares means passengers can pack for a full Riviera holiday rather than trimming down to hand luggage. For a region where dress codes and varied activities can quickly fill a suitcase, that flexibility helps the trip feel more like a true summer escape than a minimalist weekend away.
Why British Airways Is Doubling Down on Avios Redemptions
The decision to launch Avios-only flights to Madrid and Toulon Saint-Tropez comes as British Airways and the wider IAG group continue to refine how they deploy loyalty capacity across their networks. Since 2023, the airline has steadily experimented with turning individual flights into 100 percent reward-seat operations, testing appetite on routes ranging from Málaga and Marrakesh to Cape Town and Barbados.
Early evidence from those launches suggests that Avios-only flights tend to sell out quickly, particularly when they coincide with school holidays or major travel peaks. For the airline, that high take-up offers clear advantages. It provides a visible way of rewarding customers who have built up large Avios balances, helps manage liability on the loyalty programme’s books and supports load factors on services that might otherwise be split between cash and reward demand.
The Madrid and Toulon Saint-Tropez routes also underline how tightly loyalty strategy is now intertwined with broader commercial realities. Recent increases in taxes and fees on some long-haul redemptions have pushed British Airways to highlight value elsewhere in its network. By promoting short-haul Avios-only flights with low cash surcharges and a full baggage allowance, the airline can demonstrate that points still unlock headline-worthy deals, even as some aspects of pricing move upward.
At the same time, Avios-only flights help keep the programme in the public eye. High-profile announcements tied to aspirational destinations generate coverage beyond traditional aviation circles, appealing not just to frequent business travellers but also to occasional flyers, co-branded credit card holders and consumers who collect Avios through everyday spending.
Booking, Eligibility and How to Maximise Value
Access to the Madrid and Toulon Saint-Tropez Avios-only flights is restricted to members of The British Airways Club, the airline’s free-to-join loyalty scheme. Travellers must have enough Avios in their account to cover the redemption requirement, plus a small cash payment to cover taxes, fees and carrier charges, which for these routes has been advertised from £2 in economy.
Bookings can be made through the airline’s website or mobile app using the standard reward-flight booking flow. Because every seat on these particular flights is a reward seat, the usual scramble to find limited award inventory is replaced by a more straightforward choice between cabins and dates, although availability can still disappear quickly once the flights become widely known among frequent flyers.
Holders of British Airways American Express cards can further enhance the value of these redemptions by applying Companion Vouchers, which allow a second passenger to travel on the same booking without paying additional Avios. On an Avios-only service, that can translate into effectively halving the points cost for two travellers, leaving them to pay only the cash surcharges for the extra ticket.
For those still working towards a sufficient points balance, a mix of strategies remains available. Regular paid flights on British Airways and partner airlines continue to earn Avios, as do hotel stays, car rentals and spending with selected retailers. Co-branded credit cards remain a central part of the ecosystem, turning everyday purchases into incremental progress towards a summer escape.
What This Means for Summer 2026 Travel
The launch of Avios-only flights to Madrid and Toulon Saint-Tropez lands at a moment when many households are scrutinising travel budgets more closely. Airfares across Europe have been volatile in recent seasons, and while demand for summer holidays remains resilient, cost-conscious travellers are increasingly selective about how and when they travel.
By offering entire flights that can be booked with points and a token cash amount, British Airways is effectively inviting its most engaged customers to ring-fence at least part of their summer 2026 plans against further price swings. For families saving Avios over several years, the Madrid and Saint-Tropez routes turn what might once have been a long-term aspiration into a concrete, bookable trip with a clear price tag in points.
The move also adds competitive pressure in a short-haul market where low-cost carriers continue to dominate many leisure routes. While budget airlines focus on rock-bottom base fares with paid extras, British Airways is betting that a fully inclusive reward redemption, departing from a centrally located airport, will resonate with travellers who value convenience, predictability and the sense of being tangibly rewarded for their loyalty.
For the wider industry, the success or otherwise of these services will be closely watched. If the Madrid and Toulon Saint-Tropez Avios-only flights once again sell out quickly, further expansions of the concept to other Mediterranean and city-break destinations seem likely. For now, though, they stand as one of the most eye-catching ways to turn a balance of frequent flyer points into a real-world summer escape in 2026.