BA bits: win a trip to Prague, use Apple Pay to buy your BA flight

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• Guy says:

  26 Oct26 October 06:14

  Apple Pay’s a bit of a risk for the sake of a marginal convenience. I imagine you’d be losing your double Avios on a linked BA Amex or the insurance benefits on a linked Platinum (though stand to be corrected.)

  • Lumma says:

    26 Oct26 October 06:24

    I don’t see any reason why using apple pay would make any difference to bonus points/benefits.

    • Genghis says:

      26 Oct26 October 06:46

      I can but I have never used Apple Pay so don’t know the mechanics of how it works so cannot really answer. I’m thinking whether it’s akin to Curve / Supercard?

      • James Ward says:

        26 Oct26 October 07:54

        It’s not akin to Curve / Supercard. Transactions hit the origin card just as normal. It’s simply a different mechanism for making the payment.

        • Genghis says:

          26 Oct26 October 07:59

          Thanks. I might start using it when I upgrade from my ancient iphone.

        • Guy says:

          26 Oct26 October 08:31

          Stand corrected. I have it set up and use occasionally but have avoided for Shop Small etc.

        • Will says:

          26 Oct26 October 23:29

          So not like PayPal? That’s interesting.

  • Duncan Stevenson-Price says:

    26 Oct26 October 07:02

    I don’t see why you’d lose double points. Apple Pay transactions are listed as the retailer as normal so I’d imagine this would make no difference.

    I’ve used Apple Pay during Shop Small and they had no trouble applying the credit.

    That said, in the update notes I’m sure it said that only Visa and MC were supported currently. This isn’t too surprising as Amex don’t seem to give a damn about fixed their appalling Apple Pay support (especially in store)

    • Lewis says:

      26 Oct26 October 07:18

      Appalling support? What are you on about? I’ve found Amex’s Apple Pay integration to be the best around!

      • Adey says:

        26 Oct26 October 07:47

        I love Amex / Apple Pay. Amex informs me (via alert on the phone) of a purchase usually before the cash register has spat out the printed receipt!

        Never had a problem with it.

        Adey

        • Oh! Matron! says:

          26 Oct26 October 08:54

          Indeed…

          Amex: Add card to apple pay, done
          Santander: Add card to apple pay, be texted a number, done
          Lloyds: Add card to apple pay. Call number. Speak to someone. Done

          And yes, to be notified of a transaction before the person in the shop has given you a receipt is wonderful. Only Amex does this…

        • Rob says:

          26 Oct26 October 08:57

          Curve will notify you instantly.

          Very cool abroad when you instantly see the £ price.

        • Genghis says:

          26 Oct26 October 11:03

          For me some transactions from Monday evening and yesterday have not yet posted to my Curve card so it’s not truly instant (for some transactions). No idea of why.

        • Nate1309 says:

          26 Oct26 October 09:09

          I also find I receive the update before the receipt. Apple pay was how my friend found his AMEX card had been cloned and someone was making purchases via his card fraudulently, rang AMEX and told them he was watching purchases pop up on his phone and they sorted it all out within minutes.

        • Will says:

          26 Oct26 October 23:31

          If you have the Amex app on your phone then any card transaction generated a notification.

          If you have a smart watch you get the notification to the watch too!

      • Duncan Stevenson-Price says:

        26 Oct26 October 16:10

        Their implementation of Apple Pay is excellent with the transaction updates etc. They’ve nailed that side of it.

        But payment terminal support is abysmal. Most places support high value Apple Pay now (including WorldPay terminals) but not for Amex. Similarly many retailers who accept Amex do not support Amex Apple Pay. There are countless issues with it.

        Some places have nailed it (M&S, Apple Store, MOTO Service Station) but overall acceptance has been lacking. McDonalds, Tesco, Post Office, Morrisons… so many places where Amex Apple Pay simply doesn’t work.

        • RIccati says:

          27 Oct27 October 13:12

          And now…

          ApplePay DOES WORK anywhere with NFC reader/contactless payment even if there is no advertisement or explicit support.

          I have done payments with iPhone at the Post Office and a some shopping mall in the depths of Continental Europe.

  • Zander says:

    26 Oct26 October 13:10

    You won’t lose anything, it is as if you used your card. This just nakes it simpler.

    • Pavel says:

      28 Oct28 October 21:59

      Don’t you lose the Section 75 protection for purchases over £100 if using a credit card via Apple Pay (or any proxy for that matter)?

• MoNkEyMaN says:

  26 Oct26 October 07:17

  To quote the terms and conditions of the BA competition, ” Domestic connections and other add-ons are not included and any additional travel costs must be organised and funded by the winner and their companion. ”
  Thanks a bunch London Airways!

  • James Ward says:

    26 Oct26 October 07:55

    Yeah! I was about to post the same comment. How unbelievably tight is that?!

    • Worzel says:

      26 Oct26 October 08:39

      Come on, I’m sure CEO Alex Cruz agonised over the sanctioning of this competition 🙂 .

      ‘Prize flights are subject to availability and capacity control’.

      Looked at random dates(four night stay) in Jan for two travelling: BRS-PRG-BRS = £137.96.

      • Rob says:

        26 Oct26 October 08:58

        Must admit, if BA had offered us this as a HFP competition prize I would have refused!

    • Will says:

      26 Oct26 October 23:33

      If the roll out buy on board in time they might make a nice profit from the “winner” :):):)

      • Worzel says:

        27 Oct27 October 06:19

        Good point Will-perhaps Alex didn’t agonise over it all as much as I’d imagined!

  • czechoslovakia says:

    26 Oct26 October 14:29

    Wouldn’t be surprised if you had to pay your own taxes & fees either.

• vindaloo says:

  26 Oct26 October 07:32

  The Apple Pay restriction to U.K. issued cards is a bit of a show stopper since practically everyone’s card was issued in Ukraine or Uruguay.

  • Genghis says:

    26 Oct26 October 07:55

    🙂

• Dave says:

  26 Oct26 October 07:50

  When I try to enter the BA competition, I’m getting an error message after I click submit: “Sorry. We regret to advise that this section of the site is temporarily unavailable. 413”

  Just me?

  • Barry says:

    26 Oct26 October 08:53

    Same error problem when using Chrome browser. Used Firefox and it went through OK

    • AndyGWP says:

      26 Oct26 October 12:28

      Worked fine on Chrome for me 🙂

• rotundo says:

  26 Oct26 October 08:39

  Re. cash upgrade offers: “This may well increase the popularity of these, especially if the app notifies you when an offer becomes available.” Can anyone confirm whether the app does notify in that case?

• Sussex Bantam says:

  26 Oct26 October 08:48

  OT – I’m trying to add my Nectar account to AMEX to sweep up the last few remaining points but I keep getting an error message saying that it hasn’t been possible. Anyone had a similar error ?

  Its only 51 points so I’m not too bothered but the principle is irritating me !

  • Liz says:

    26 Oct26 October 09:05

    I’ve had that on both mine and husbands account – had to ring up Amex and get it manually added which they can do no problem – then transfer out!

    • Stu says:

      26 Oct26 October 19:15

      Same here. They explained if you’ve ever linked that Nectar card to a previous Amex account it will reject as it sees it as a duplicate

• Liz says:

  26 Oct26 October 09:03

  OT I saw in the comments last night that IHG has their bonus offer on again until 16/11 – I’m sure I’ve asked this before and forgotten to write it down but If I purchase pts with my IHG black card do you get 4pts/£1 for the foreign purchase and if so will it also work using Supercard or Curve to save on FX fees. Am I right in saying that a foreign spend bought in the U.K. Supercard charges £1+100%? Thanks.

  • Mr Dee says:

    26 Oct26 October 09:18

    Supercard doesn’t charge for foreign spend so use this if it works, unless using the IHG card directly you will only earn standard points. If using it to buy points in the US then I would assume a x3 bonus for spend I don’t think you would get the x4 bonus as well but could be wrong and if wrong maybe worth using it direct.

  • Genghis says:

    26 Oct26 October 09:21

    If paying in USD:
    – paying with IHG black you would get 4 points / £ (perhaps valued at 2p) but you’d pay a 3% FX fee (3p), net -1p
    – paying with curve linked to IHG would get 2 points / £ (value 1p) but you’d pay a 1% FX fee (1p), net flat
    – paying with supercard linked to IHG would get 2 points / £ (value 1p) paying a zero FX fee (0p), net +1p (I don’t think it matters where you’re based, just what currency you’re charged in)
    Someone please correct me if not right.

    • Liz says:

      26 Oct26 October 09:45

      Ok thanks – I had written down in my Supercard notes that an internet purchase in the U.K. in foreign currency was charged £1+1% – maybe I have that wrong – I’ve not tried it so not sure. Still worth buying the pts as I am finding the prices of hotels in the US are getting higher when pricing up a refundable room plus taxes.

• rams1981 says:

  26 Oct26 October 10:01

  supercard doesn’t have a foreign fee %. They did try and charge fees for the moving exchange rates post Brexit but on a trip in august was back to just one charge at the time of purchase.

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