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Bits: Waitrose / Virgin – up and down, BA to launch airside in-app upgrades

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News in brief:

Waitrose / Virgin – what’s going on?

On Wednesday I wrote an article pointing out that the generous Virgin Atlantic earning rate for shopping in-store at Waitrose was due to end.

Giving you 4 Virgin Flying Club miles per £1 was unsustainable as anyone who understands the economics of grocery retailing will tell you.  I suggested that you might want to buy some Waitrose gift cards to lock in ‘4 miles per £1’ for a while longer, since I expected a fall.

And what happened yesterday?  It isn’t clear.

If you are not logged in to the Virgin shopping site, it shows that Virgin Flying Club increased the earning rate in Waitrose to 5 miles per £1.   However, once I log in (with cookies cleared) this changes to just 1 mile per £1.

We have seen this behaviour before with Caffe Nero on the Avios in-store shopping programme.  A high rate is promised, and continues to be promised to new customers, but existing customers see their earning rate cut without warning.  Even worse, anyone who looks at the Virgin site to double-check their earning rate – but fails to log-in – will mistakenly think they are still getting the higher rate and spend accordingly.  Not clever.

Details of how to earn Virgin miles at Waitrose, including how to register your credit cards, are in this article.

British Airways to launch airside in-app upgrades

I got a news release this week about the development of the British Airways app.  This was all very ‘meh’ (“there’s been some good progress on fixing the basics”) except for one nugget of information.

From this Summer, British Airways customers will be able to upgrade themselves airside via the app.  I assume that this has been made possible by the ability to generate a new digital boarding pass automatically.

There is no clue about how this would work:

Will you be able to upgrade with Avios as well as cash?

What will the cut-off be?  (By definition, if you’re airside these are upgrades which will be processed in the 90 minutes or so before departure.)  

Will these upgrades only open up after check-in closes, at which point BA would know exactly how many people are going to be on the flight?  

How will BA handle catering, given that meals will already have been despatched to the aircraft at the point you upgrade?

There are plenty of ways this could go wrong, but it has the potential to be a very interesting initiative.

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!

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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.

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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, Virgin Atlantic and Flying Club

Comments (61)

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

  • TripRep says:
    26 May26 May 08:47

    I’d like to think bringing in additional revenue from Airside upgrades would be a positive step to improve the customer experience and more importantly potentially reduce the cynical deliberate overbooking and damaging forced downgrades in other classes.

    I’d also like to think BA would promptly adhere to its obligations for downgrades within 7 days (as advised by the CAA under EU261/2004) without having to go to unnecessarily lengthy arbitration.

    But I guess I’m a naive optimist at heart…

  • Gavin says:
    26 May26 May 09:29

    O/T – anyone got any experience of Sri Lankan in Y. Honeymoon involves 4 flights with them. I can see there’s the option to bid for a J upgrade but I imagine the LHR route will be full from paid passengers

    • Chris says:
      26 May26 May 19:23

      Flex Sri Lankan Y from Colombo to Doha last month, it was my first time in economy for a while but it was absolutely fine. Meal was right up there with the best food i’ve ever had in the air, vegetarian curry it was oustanding

    • David S says:
      28 May28 May 00:45

      Hi
      Have done business and economy short and medium haul with them. Economy is perfectly fine and food is very good particularly if you like curries!!! Recommend the A330 aircraft.

  • Doug M says:
    26 May26 May 09:36

    Just as a data point. Waitrose gone from 4 to 5 for me, I have about 200 miles approved, and around 800 pending.

    • Rob says:
      26 May26 May 09:40

      Clear cookies (or use in-private browsing), log in and look again.

      • Mycity says:
        26 May26 May 10:07

        Yep mines as Rob suggests, shows 5 miles per £ till I log in after clearing cookies it then shows 1 miles per £. However my wife has never shopped at Waitrose through Virgin, go through the same process hers shows all the way 5 miles per £1. Looks like we’re using her account moving forward.

  • rams1981 says:
    26 May26 May 09:57

    In terms of earning is buying John Lewis cards from Tesco the best approach (assuming they still give club card point per £ spent)

    • mark2 says:
      26 May26 May 10:22

      They stopped that a long time ago, sadly

      • rams1981 says:
        26 May26 May 10:24

        Ah damn. Thought it was just the bonus that stopped

        • Genghis says:
          26 May26 May 10:37

          There was never any points from the spend element, only the bonus points.

    • Rob says:
      26 May26 May 13:43

      Tesco no longer give Clubcard points, even base points, on gift card purchases.

      • Liz says:
        27 May27 May 00:09

        You get the pts for buying gift cards for the spend with the premium credit card

  • Dennis says:
    26 May26 May 10:24

    O/T – how long for the Starwood credit card referral points to post?

    • Genghis says:
      26 May26 May 10:37

      A few days. Often the day before the person you referred gets the card.

      • Matt says:
        26 May26 May 11:44

        On a related topic, I’ve spend £1000 on my new SPG card and referred my wife in less than a month. I now have 16000 Starpoints awaiting transfer. Am I completely safe to cancel the card now and expect the starpoints to hit my Starwood account in a week or two (as happens when I cancel the BAPP), or should I wait for them to transfer before cancelling (and incur part/more of the card fee)?

        Thanks

        • Genghis says:
          26 May26 May 11:56

          I’ve always waited for them to transfer across to SPG. There can be issues problems otherwise as @Liz can testify.

          • Matt says:
            26 May26 May 12:13

            Thanks, I’ll play it safe then. Going to be tight getting in another round before SPG closes.

          • Genghis says:
            26 May26 May 12:19

            Supposedly it’s now autumn 2018 so looks like a few churns still for the taking

  • lostantipod says:
    26 May26 May 14:19

    This is BA we are talking about. It is either a plan to monetise last minute upgraders, or a ploy to get more passengers airside earlier (to improve flight departure and get more handluggage in the hold) with the carrot of an upgrade.

  • TripRep says:
    26 May26 May 20:23

    BA downgrading wheelchair user..
    http://loyaltylobby.com/2017/05/26/reader-question-british-airways-downgrade-compensation-london-singapore/?omhide=true

  • Adam says:
    26 May26 May 20:41

    OT but BA…
    Flying to Alicante tomorrow and booked 4 economy seats, which we selected and paid for last October. A family of four, we picked a row of 3 and the aisle seat across the way, all in row 6. This was confirmed in our itinerary. As I was about to check in, we are now a middle and window in rows 22 and 23. Call me cynical, bit I wonder if row 6 has been designated CW and we have just been shunted down the back. Customer services closed at 8 and I have decided not to check in until I speak to customer services and understand the reasons for the move. Does anyone have any similar experience of this situation? Not the best way to start the family holiday and this has never happened with our usual carrier, EasyJet

    • Genghis says:
      26 May26 May 21:11

      Easyjet don’t have a habit of moving the J/Y divider…

      • Adam says:
        26 May26 May 21:36

        Thanks Genghis I’ll use that line when I speak to customer services tomorrow

        • Jonathan says:
          28 May28 May 00:13

          Common issue with BA in short haul Y as the divider is moved frequently to accommodate actual & predicted CE loads. I would avoid choosing first couple of rows as you can end up being dumped in whatever is left down the back. Incidentally, if the curtain moves forward again due to lower than predicted CE loads then the system is not sophisticated enough to move you back to your original seats so if moved keep checking every day to see if they open up again

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