British Airways long-haul route changes at Gatwick for Winter 2014

British Airways has published its first raft of service changes for London Gatwick for the Winter season, which starts on 26th October.  All in all, it looks positive and reiterates BA’s commitment to the airport.

Here are the highlights:

Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic to get its own dedicated service twice a week.  At present, it is an ‘add on’ to the Antigua service on three days a week.

Antigua will see an increase in capacity because of the removal of passengers travelling on to Punta Cana

Tampa increases to a daily service from the current six per week

Orlando increases to 10 flights per week from the current seven during November and March

Kingston increases to four per week between December and February

Barbados increases to 12 per week between December and February (photo above)

St Kitts and Las Vegas see timing changes but the number of flights is unchanged

These changes have been made possible by the addition of a 10th Boeing 777 to the Gatwick fleet.  As far as I know, no services have been dropped to make way for these additions.

Flights should be available for booking, both for cash and Avios, at ba.com.

In a separate announcement, Singapore will be the next destination to use an Airbus A380.  Starting on October 28th, three services a week will use the new ‘super jumbo’.  The other flights will remain a mix of Boeing 747 and 777 aircraft.

If you have a Singapore flight booked, you can check your aircraft by doing a dummy booking on ba.com – the aircraft type will show when you click on the flight number on the pricing pages.

Singapore becomes the 5th A380 destination, behind Los Angeles, Johannesburg, Hong Kong and Washington.  Four aircraft are currently in service with a further four due for delivery later in 2014.

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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:

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

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.

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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.

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.

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