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British Airways sending legal letters to people requesting compensation for the data breach

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A Head for Points reader sent me an interesting letter he had received after writing to British Airways to request compensation for the recent data breach.

Instead of responding directly, British Airways passed his complaint to DWF, a Manchester law firm.  He received a firm legal letter from an Andrew Harris at DWF which whilst totally correct in what it said was – to my mind – designed to scare the complainant off from pursuing any claim.

Since Harris is:

“Accomplished in significant shareholder disputes and other corporate litigation” (2011), –one of the best commercial litigators outside London” (2012) and –the standout choice for shareholder disputes” (2013).”

…. according to the “Legal 500”, it is likely that it will have cost British Airways £1,000 in legal fees to get Harris to write the fairly long letter sent to the reader telling him that he can’t have anything …..


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.

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.

Comments (222)

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

  • The Streets says:

    Just received the following email from Iberia… not sure what its getting at in the second paragraph

    Dear Customer,

    We would like to remind you that the Avios you earned in the promotion last June had special terms and conditions, as we pointed out at the time. As such, please note that the promotional Avios obtained during that campaign will no longer be available in your account if you do not redeem them in the Iberia Plus programme before 1 December 2018.

    We would also like to take this opportunity to remind you that the programme does not include the transfer of Avios, as indicated in the general terms and conditions.

    Yours sincerely,
    The Iberia Plus Team

    • Imran says:

      I just got the same email as well – no idea what the second paragraph means!

      • Roberto says:

        It means if you transfer the avios earnt in the promo out then they class that as not “redeemed” in the T&C of the offer.

        They will want them back in December. How exactly it will pan out I am unsure but thats been a given since day 1.

        I assume your account with Iberia will effectivly go overdrawn. How they collect on that debt is anyones guess.

        • Shoestring says:

          it’s not a monetary debt, that’s for sure – the Avios have zero (monetary) value

  • Steve says:

    For those who transferred Avios over to BAEC, to play it safe, perhaps its best to ‘cash out’ and make a decent redemption for the future. You would need to do this with a view to stick with the redemption and take that flight if, on 1st Dec, people report Avios going missing, butnif it turns out to be safe, cancel the redemption and get your Avios re-deposited.

  • Chris says:

    OT:
    I used the Amex Selfridges statement credit today to buy Nespresso capsules.
    3 Amex cards meant I paid £210 for nearly 1,000 capsules. Confirmation emails received immediately.

    • Genghis says:

      Never been in but the Nespresso shop on Cheapside are on SS this year.

      • BlueHorizonuk says:

        It looks like its the Cafe Nespresso branches included (there are 2 in Central London) and by extension they sell capsules so hopefully this should work and can be used in both branches.

    • Cat says:

      Xmas at ours this year – 2 panettones (the Selfridges one is bloody marvellous), some H&H Madeira and Tokaji bought. That should help me cope!

  • Cueball says:

    O/T Curve

    Anyone get an email from curve regarding beta amex program?

    Would appear you have to load money from amex:

    “In order to use Amex with Curve you will be asked to top-up a virtual wallet. We ask that you limit your top-up to the amount you are planning on spending. “

    • Alan says:

      Correct – that’s how they’ve been outlining the proposed system for a few weeks now in the Curve Community. Hopefully should work OK…

      • Talay says:

        I spend up to £300k a year on Amex. Curve had a wobbly before when it was linked to Amex so I can’t see this being viable for me.

  • Bee says:

    I tried to transfer my avios from iberia to BAEC but it does not allow this. It says it only allows from BA to Iberia not the other way around. I have had my iberia account since July.

    How do I take out the avios from iberia?

    Thanks

    • Shoestring says:

      use avios.com a/c (eg Aer Club) as a middleman – IB—>avios.com—>BAEC

  • BP says:

    OT – noticed that when leaving a tip on my Curve card in the USA where the card has already been swiped then the tip doesn’t ever get added. May be a bonus for some people who want to pretend to leave a tip!

  • ADS says:

    has anybody managed to phone up IB and book a redemption on BA to Dublin or AMS ?

    those routes aren’t available online

  • Thomas Munro says:

    Anyone redeem their points for future hotel stays on the 30th November UK time but without realising that it had just passed over into the early hours 1st Dec Madrid time due to having several problems with the website and logging in etc.
    Surely they shouldn’t of processed my transaction if they were only going to make my account go into negative by the amount of points I was using for the hotel? They are saying there is no way to reverse the negative balance on my account which I find hard to believe?
    Any help greatly appreciated.

    Tom

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

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