If you fly British Airways on revenue tickets departing the United States with any frequency, then it’s absolutely worth being an AARP member, so that you can save $65-200 per ticket. This is a fantastic perk that often flies under the radar, so in this post I wanted to take a look at all the details of how this works.
In this post:
Details of the British Airways AARP discount
AARP members are able to score discounts on British Airways tickets:
- There’s a $200 discount for business class tickets
- There’s an $85 discount for premium economy tickets
- There’s a $65 discount for economy tickets (excluding basic economy fares)
To take advantage of this, you need to book an itinerary with travel originating in the United States. You need to be flying on British Airways, or can be booked on a codeshare flight on American or Iberia.
Currently this offer is valid for bookings through June 30, 2024, and for travel through June 30, 2025. However, I suspect this will be extended — this is always a limited time offer, but has been extended for years.
While AARP is intended to advocate for retired people, the reality is that there are no restrictions on who can join. Anyone can become a member for just $16 per year, so that membership more than pays for itself after booking just one British Airways ticket (and to be clear, there’s nothing unethical about joining — AARP even encourages young people to join).
The process of taking advantage of this discount is easy. Once you’re a member, you’ll need to visit this AARP webpage, where you’ll be asked to log into your AARP account. 
Once logged in, you’ll be redirected to the British Airways website, where you can start the booking process. When you find an eligible itinerary, you’ll automatically see the discount applied (eligible itineraries will be noted with the “Discounted” text).
Stack this with British Airways Visa Card perks
While the AARP discount for British Airways flights is great, you can potentially get even bigger savings if you have the British Airways Visa Signature® Card (review). The card offers a 10% flight discount on revenue tickets, and that can be stacked with the AARP savings. That means you can save up to $200 plus up to 10% on your ticket, which could lead to some significant savings.
There are many other great perks to the card, ranging from a reward flight statement credit, to the ability to earn a companion certificate.
Bottom line
British Airways offers up to a $200 ticket discount for AARP members. That means that virtually anyone booking a British Airways ticket originating in the United States is best off spending $16 on an AARP membership before booking a ticket.
This is an awesome and often overlooked benefit. It stacks especially nicely with the 10% discount on flights offered with British Airways’ co-branded credit card.
Have you ever used the British Airways AARP discount?
I'm currently living in Ireland and looking at a round-trip itinerary back to the states this summer in Premium Economy. If I were to sign up for AARP, with the originating in the US requirement, could I get $85 off the return segment from the US back to Ireland, or if it's a RT (as opposed to 2 one-ways) am I not eligible for the discount at all since it's one reservation originating outside the US?
I would, but AARP lobbies for really bad polices. Id rather pay more than give them my $16.
Do you have examples? They claim to be nonpartisan, and the only lobby agenda items I know of they are involved with is Medicare and Social Security.
almost too good to be true-- but it worked. I followed the path
logged into my AARP
got to that specific BA page referenced
priced out a flight (saw it did indeed say discounted)
went to go add the chase discount, which then prompted me to have to log into my BA account -- thought it would fail at this point.
Success--- once logged into my BA account it returned...
almost too good to be true-- but it worked. I followed the path
logged into my AARP
got to that specific BA page referenced
priced out a flight (saw it did indeed say discounted)
went to go add the chase discount, which then prompted me to have to log into my BA account -- thought it would fail at this point.
Success--- once logged into my BA account it returned me to the same sum-total price page, I applied the voucher code an indeed cut about $$350 more off the ticket.
Shazaam -- wow -- thanks!
I never see the discount on First Class fares, and it is not theoretically supposed to be. Not sure how it shows up in your example.
You cannot use the Chase 10% discount unless it is BA metal so no stacking with code shares.
To get the discount it seems as though I need to log in and have the miles credited to my BA acct.
Is there a way to get the discount and have miles credited to Alaska or AA?
you can use your AA or alaska FF number , putting it in after you select flights when it asks for your name and FF number. Downside is if you use AA number, you get very limited mileage credit, though if you are platinum or higher, you can select seasts at time of booking when using AA ID.
Ben, non Americans have no idea what AARP stands for.
AARP stands for collecting marketing fees from insurance companies that use its name because it seems to appeal to older people who remember it once was known as " American Association of Retired Persons." It's sort of like AAA, a nonprofit that makes huge profits and is not accountable to anyone.
Ross, AARP is accountable to you, if you don't like them, don't join and don't give them your money. They are not a gov. agency and as a business, you can choose not to patronize them.
wonder if it works for points booking
@ eric -- It doesn't, unfortunately.
Any chance this discount apply for flights originating from Canada?
@ Jimmy C -- When I've tried, it has returned an error message.
Ben, would this work with the British Airways Status Match promo if we find a good priced transatlantic? The T&C said no discounted fares so curious if you this would invalidate it or not. Thanks!
@ John S -- Yep, it absolutely should work. Generally non-discounted fare means that an industrial discount wouldn't qualify (referring to those traveling on privileges associated with working for an airline).
I was able to take advantage of this back in 2015 when BA was operating OpenSkies and the discount applied to those flights. With those tickets being in the $1200-$1500 range, a $200 discount (or whatever it was back then) was significant. That was my first transatlantic business class flight before I began to accumulate enough points and miles to go with better business class options on other carriers. At the time, I was enthralled...
I was able to take advantage of this back in 2015 when BA was operating OpenSkies and the discount applied to those flights. With those tickets being in the $1200-$1500 range, a $200 discount (or whatever it was back then) was significant. That was my first transatlantic business class flight before I began to accumulate enough points and miles to go with better business class options on other carriers. At the time, I was enthralled to be in business class. Looking back, the hard product on OpenSkies left a lot to be desired over even the most pedestrian current business class offering! Oh the memories!
According to the AARP offer's terms and conditions, the AARP discount seems to be available only via a unique web page. According to the Chase offer's terms and conditions, the Chase discount seems to be available only via a different unique web page. Unless I've missed some nuance, I'm not certain these will stack.
@ Lee -- They 100% do stack. You need to start your booking process through the AARP webpage, which then redirects you to the British Airways website. Then during the booking process you can enter the discount code for the 10% off promo. :-)
Ah! So noted. Thanks.