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Bits: earn Avios with the Malaysia / Emirates partnership?, changes to BA peak pricing?

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News in brief:

Earn Avios with the new Malaysia / Emirates partnership?

It is a little known fact, unless you read HfP, that you can earn Avios points and British Airways tier points when you fly with Emirates.  The secret, as I explained here, is to book your Emirates flights under the Qantas flight code and not the Emirates one.

Malaysia Airlines has just launched its own codeshare arrangement with Emirates.  Most Emirates flights outside Asia can now be booked as Malaysia Airlines codeshares with an MH flight number.

Do these earn Avios and BA tier points too?  No.

As you can see on this page of ba.com, a flight with a oneworld flight code but operated by a non-oneworld airline does NOT earn Avios or tier points.  The Qantas / Emirates partnership is an exception to this rule as the small print shows:

“Flights booked under the Qantas code (QF) operated by a non-oneworld airline will earn Avios and Tier Points unless operated by Jetstar in a class other than L class.”

If you book an Emirates flight on a Malaysia flight number, you will be out of luck.  Stick with the Qantas flight codes.

Changes coming to Peak and Off Peak BA pricing?

British Airways has been reticent about publishing new ‘peak’ and ‘off-peak’ redemption calendars recently.  This is why it is impossible to know if this situation is a bug or not.

If you go to ba.com and try to book a redemption flight for Tuesday 14th February or Wednesday 15th February 2017, they are pricing at peak rates.  This will be half term for most schools.

When the new peak and off-peak timetable was introduced, BA promised that every Tuesday and Wednesday would be off-peak, whatever the season.  Something has either gone wrong with the IT or BA is planning changes.

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

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:

Barclaycard Avios Plus card

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios card

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

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

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending £15,000 Read our full review

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.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

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.

Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa

Huge 30,000 points bonus until 12th May 2024 Read our full review

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.

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

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.

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points sign-up bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and FREE for a year Read our full review

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

Category

British Airways and Avios, Emirates and Emirates Skywards, oneworld alliance partners

Comments (36)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Nick says:
    29 Feb29 February 06:50

    I’ve tried booking a flight from CPT -LHR (would be Emirates for all sectors) on the Qantas website on numerous occasions but to no avail.
    Any idea if this is possible or does at least one sector have to be with Qantas?
    Thanks.

    • anon says:
      29 Feb29 February 08:22

      Not all EK routes have QF codeshare/fares. In the main it is just Europe to Asia/Pacific.

      • Rob says:
        29 Feb29 February 08:49

        You may need a travel agent, otherwise you will struggle to do it. The Qantas site struggles with those that don’t touch Australia. My wife had hers done by the corporate TA. No requirement to have a Qantas operated segment.

  • pauldb says:
    29 Feb29 February 06:55

    BA have also marked Thursday 9th and Friday 10th February as off peak. That’s another variation as previously any peak weekends like the start of half term would be Thursday-Monday, before Tues/Wed off peak. Maybe Monday 20th will become off peak, unless they mark more than one week for half-terms (unlikely as Easter is early). It does look like a deliberate change.

  • Mikeact says:
    29 Feb29 February 08:04

    But on Avios.com, all of February is shown as off peak.However, booking a return to Teneriffe, my return is shown as peak. Strange indeed.

  • Mikeact says:
    29 Feb29 February 09:59

    Just tried to book BA back to Gatwick next February, Wednesday 15th and they are insisting it has to be booked at Peak rates, no further clarification why. “Write in and complain “.

  • The_Real_A says:
    29 Feb29 February 10:34

    Isnt most of BA IT on strike at the moment?

  • Mrs Fox says:
    29 Feb29 February 12:57

    I’m confused about MAS flights and the BA Exec Club at the moment. We flew two business class flights (HKG-KUL and KUL- SIN) last year and received zero status credits and zero Avios despite the fact that the flights were badged and operated by MAS. It wasn’t as though they lost it. The transaction is in our histories for BA Exec Club, but they show ‘0’ earnings on both. We submitted a complaint to BA Exec Club some months ago but did not receive a response. Has anyone else experienced this?

  • Rob says:
    29 Feb29 February 13:12

    To be fair, Gavin, this is probably the low – https://headforpoints.com/2013/10/18/earn-cheap-avios-by-finding-very-small-cabbages/

    This was so obscure that (and I’m not making this up) I was contacted by a well-regarded TV producer who was wondering if there was any potential for a TV show where people had to collect the most miles in the craziest way in the shortest possible time.

    • Genghis says:
      29 Feb29 February 13:17

      🙂 now there’s a show… … that nobody would watch.

    • Jonny says:
      29 Feb29 February 15:14

      i do remember the quite incredible deal (in theory) for individually-weighed okra…

    • Daz says:
      29 Feb29 February 16:23

      Great idea, it can take over from the programme called “jump” that I would say will be going from our screens soon

    • Graeme says:
      29 Feb29 February 18:15

      technically is a brussel sprout a small cabbage? Then that would have been a great deal…

      • harry says:
        29 Feb29 February 19:46

        ISTR that on self serve you can put through a bit of any veg as the one it is giving points on

        since it is not doing anything except weighing

  • Genghis says:
    29 Feb29 February 13:15

    Leave no stone unturned. If you look after the points, the reward flights will look after themselves. No? Didn’t work did it…

    If you’re going to have some Maggi noodles today, let me know how they taste. Not a good deal for me on points alone but if they’re half decent, potentially worth a few quid.

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