This time last year BA offered a couple of three-day sales over weekends in order to move summer Business Class seat inventory when business travelers fly much less. BA is at it again, but the deal is more generous because the competition is much sharper, with three new players offering Business Class to London: EOS, MAXjet, and the soon to be launched SilverJet. All offer fares much lower than BA.

Here’s what’s different this time around:

— Longer window of opportunity: The ticketing deadline is Feb. 1—almost 12 times longer than last year, a signal that the carrier sees a major seat surplus coming.

— Longer window of travel opportunity too: Fares are valid July 1 through Sept. 2, 2007.

— Shorter advance-purchase window: Only 21 days versus the usual 42 days.

Fare fine print: http://www.britishairways.com/travel/offerus096

[aside headline="How to Get a BA First Class Upgrade For $1,400" alignment="alignright" width="half" headline_size="default"]First Class upgrades from British Airways Business Class fares can be realized for 50,000 miles. How do you get 50,000 BA miles fast and easy? Two people with the same address can each purchase 20,000 Starpoints for $700. Starwood allows members who share the same address to pool these points—which can then be transferred to 50,000 BA miles with the 25% bonus. Voila! First Class for $3,522—when the person sitting next to you may have paid $16,808.[/aside]

The best part: Virgin Atlantic, which is our most highly recommended Business Class Seat to Europe, has matched BA fares starting at $2,122.

But wait, there’s more to the story. If your bottom line is price, you might want to hold off till April or May to purchase. As much as I like these fares, over the last few years Business Class fares have dropped as low as $1,488 round-trip from airlines like American, Continental, Lufthansa and United for summer travel.