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Bits: Luxury Travel Diary auctions, new BA strikes, new Finnair long haul routes

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News in brief:

Luxury Travel Diary auctions launched

The Luxury Travel Diary site dropped me a line about another wave of its auctions closing soon.

Most of the items offered tend to go for far less than the standard retail price.  Interesting options closing in the next 48 hours include five nights in Koh Lanta, Thailand, two nights at a boutique hotel in Paris and three nights in a riad in Marrakech.  Not everything will work for you, either in terms of location, length or dates, but you’ll probably find something of interest if you poke around.

BA A380

New BA strike dates announced

A further six days of strike action by British Airways ‘mixed fleet’ crew has been announced.  The dates are:

  • 5th – 7th February
  • 9th – 11th February

The impact from the earlier strikes has been minimal, with flights on popular routes merged and a few charter planes brought in.  BA claims that everyone will get to where they are going on the day they are booked.

Remember that City and Gatwick flights are not impacted at all.  At present it is not possible to use the strike as an excuse to change or refund any non-refundable tickets you may hold for those dates.  This page of ba.com has up to date strike information.

Finnair A350

New Finnair long haul routes announced

We like to cover Finnair on Head for Points because, as a oneworld member, you can earn and spend Avios points on its flights.

It also has an excellent business class product on its new A350 aircraft (I reviewed it here) and often has excellent low fares from London, Manchester and Edinburgh via Helsinki.

With four A350-900 aircraft arriving this year, the airline has announced four new leisure routes to operate over Winter 2017.  These are:

Goa – twice weekly from 29th November

Havana – twice weekly from 1st December

Puerto Plata (Dominican Republic) – weekly from 30th November

Puerta Vallarta (Mexico) – weekly from 19th November

As Helsinki to Goa is under 4,000 miles, it will be 120,000 Avios in Business Class.  This compare to 150,000 Avios with BA on a peak date from London to, say, Delhi as that is over 4,000 miles.  You still need to get to Helsinki of course!

(Finnair to Dubai is also interesting for a similar reason. I should do another article on that.)

If any good fare sales emerge I will cover them as they tend to be a good way to pick up British Airways tier points in style.  You can find out more about Finnair on their site here.

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, Finnair and Finnair Plus

Comments (77)

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

  • Mike says:
    30 Jan30 January 09:17

    Something very screwy going on with BA business class prices – for the next month, all US cities are £5-6k business class return – every single day, and yet on many of these there are plenty of AVios Seats available, so clearly not fully booked – BA system glitch?

    • Klaus-Peter Dudas says:
      30 Jan30 January 11:21

      Also been finding that the BA CityFlyer TXL-LCY route has been £10 cheaper than the economy fare for a lot of dates…

  • Dave says:
    30 Jan30 January 09:22

    Any experience/issues/stories with BA strikes and long-haul flights? I’m due to fly to Tokyo on the 9th on a redemption in F..

    • Rob says:
      30 Jan30 January 10:28

      You may get Club World catering as they seem to be taking a crew member off long hauls.

      10,000 Avios compensation if they do.

    • jimmy says:
      31 Jan31 January 01:58

      Hi Dave, lucky you off to Tokyo, fantastic place! Weather has been good of late (better than expected that is) HND or NRT?

      I’m there in March (same F redemption, on 789/NRT) – If I may ask, what are your plans? Am seeking tips / advice generally. Good luck and do share your ‘strike’ experience if you can. Cheers, J

  • Nick M says:
    30 Jan30 January 09:23

    Very OT… I have (finally) set up my own Tesco Clubcard account rather than just having one household account. Does the Virgin offer to get extra bonus points when you set up auto convert require you to click through a particular link or just to set it up on the Clubcard home page?

  • Bob says:
    30 Jan30 January 09:50

    Finnair helsinki to dubai is on a european A321, no?

    That means european seats, not long-haul, and bob for food in economy.

  • rams1981 says:
    30 Jan30 January 10:54

    OT I have a booking to Buenos Airies using a 2 for 1 in November which I want to change. Looking at the seats there is no availability whatsoever to change it. Do seats free up nearer the time so I can hold off making the change? Or is it better to cancel totally now? Do both options incur the £35 change fee?

    • mwinfield says:
      30 Jan30 January 12:04

      rams1981 you ask about Buenos Aires availability in November. In 2014 I watched business class flights for November very closely and very little was added (although we did eventually get 2 seats, I assume, due to a cancellation). I have also been looking this year and eventually got flights out to Santiago (crossing over Andes into Mendoza) and returning EZE-LHR. My suggestion is that you will either have to watch very closely for cancellations or maybe look for availability for Lima, Santiago or Rio as an alternative routing.

      • rams1981 says:
        30 Jan30 January 13:14

        thanks for the reply. I originally got the flights the day of release. I see flights to/from Rio which may work but that can’t be changed online.

        Anyone know the change fees involved? This was also booked on my wife’s BA 2 for 1 and she has cancelled the card so I’d like to avoid cancelling the flights just in case.

        • JP says:
          30 Jan30 January 13:46

          It will be £35 per ticket change or cancellation fee. The only time it isn’t is if the taxes are less than £35 then you can cancel and just lose the taxes.

  • mark2 says:
    30 Jan30 January 11:09

    OT
    If anyone wants to book Holiday Extras, is a Lloyds current account customer and has Avios Rewards Amex, you will be able to get both Amex 15% cash back and Lloyds 10% Everyday Offers on the full amount paid i.e. 25%.

    • the real harry1 says:
      30 Jan30 January 13:03

      + the best discount you can find, eg the MSE ‘cheap airport parking’ link to Holiday Extras discounts

  • James says:
    30 Jan30 January 11:33

    OT, but have any people received their 4500 Avios from the Times travel subscription yet? had an email a while ago saying there was a delay on it, but wanting to know when to expect them

    • MrHandBaggageOnly says:
      30 Jan30 January 13:50

      Mine reached my Avios account on 29th November, having made the application on 22nd October. A week or two after the email saying there was a delay.

      • James says:
        30 Jan30 January 14:45

        Cheers, i just checked in 1 of my account and were in there. I must of had an avios account under an old email. Have received them, which is good. Now have enough to book some flights!

  • rams1981 says:
    30 Jan30 January 13:16

    OT @genghis booked the return from Jo’burg yesterday at midnight. Called this morning, cancelled flight and added it to my 2 for 1. I swear the taxes were less on the re-booking. @Yuff’s method works 🙂

    I was wanted the seats could go between cancelling and booking but you’d have to be really unlucky for that to happen I’d have thought.

    • Lawro says:
      30 Jan30 January 14:08

      And seats reappeared in the inventory immediately for rebooking?

    • Genghis says:
      30 Jan30 January 14:26

      Thanks @rams1981. Good to know the method works. So cancellation and rebooking (onto the 241) all done on the phone? I shall be using it in a couple of weeks’ time. Was there any F availability at t-355 (obviously not guaranteed)? I want to clear out my MIL’s account and so want just the right number of avios in the HHA for the purchase.

      • rams1981 says:
        30 Jan30 January 15:25

        @genghis. All done on the phone with the same agent. I didn’t check for first availability as my research showed the earlier flight (A380) was the better plane to use and that never has first available from what I’ve seen.

        • rams1981 says:
          30 Jan30 January 15:47

          and just to follow up the agent told me the taxes would be £380.40 compared to £470 I paid to do it as a one way last night, interesting.

          • Genghis says:
            30 Jan30 January 15:57

            But a return taxes price is not necessarily equal to the two single legs? Did you do a bag a fag packet comparison to the return taxes price online?

          • rams1981 says:
            30 Jan30 January 16:09

            no I didn’t. I imagined it was something like that i.e. 2 singles more expensive than a return

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