British Airways strategy news from their Capital Markets Investor Day

Every year, British Airways parent company, IAG, holds an investor day for the financial community to update it on what is happening.

The slides from this are always made available to the public, and you can access them here (look under the IAG tab).  It is less painful than sitting through the entire five hour conference call!

Here are a few highlights from the slides:

BA profit expected to reach £1.3 billion in 2015

Passenger numbers are still 10% lower than they were in 2001

Additional seat rows are to be squeezed into short-haul aircraft by introducing thinner seats

British Airways will consolidate in Heathrow T3 and T5 by Summer 2015, leaving Terminal 1

The Boeing 747 fleet will continue to shrink, reducing to 39 by 2015 and 31 by 2018 (currently 49)

The seven (leaky!) long-haul Boeing 767s will all be retired by 2018

Three new short-haul aircraft are on order to expand London City

The Boeing 737 aircraft at Gatwick will be replaced by modern Airbus aircraft by 2015, and an additional Boeing 777 will be assigned from Summer 2014

Only 7% of UK businesses which have staff who fly are members on the OnBusiness loyalty scheme

There is also lots of stuff on the issues at Iberia and the developments at low-cost carrier Vueling.

There was no mention of Vueling becoming a BA partner, though, even though it has more and more UK departures and you can already earn and spend Avios via Iberia Plus.  I didn’t know that Vueling is already the biggest airline operating out of Barcelona and the 3rd biggest out of Paris Orly.   There is even a Hotel Vueling in Barcelona now!

Vueling is also rolling out on-board Wi-Fi in 2014, which will put it ahead of BA and Iberia, embarrassingly ….

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How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (April 2024)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital on Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 12th May 2024, the Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa card is offering a bonus of 30,000 points, convertible into 30,000 Avios. You must have a Limited Company to apply. Click here to learn more and click here to apply.

You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus.

There are also generous bonuses on the two American Express Business cards, with the points converting at 1:1 into Avios. These cards are open to sole traders as well as limited companies.

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.