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Bits: BA Cambridge flights on Avios, T5 Priority Pass lounge, new Tesco bonus point deals

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News in brief:

Cambridge to Gothenburg on British Airways now redeemable

In February I wrote about the launch of the first British Airways service from Cambridge Airport.  In a deal underwritten by drugs giant Astra Zeneca, the Scandinavian based BA franchise airline Sun-Air launched a daily service to Gothenburg.

This is not a random choice – it was done to connect two major Astra Zeneca facilities.

At the time it was launched there were no Avios seats available.  However, as spotted on Flyertalk over the weekend, seats are now available over at ba.com.

Two economy seats are now available for most flights (there is no business class).  Remember that the service only operates Monday to Thursday and that it departs Cambridge at an early 7am.  On the upside, there is a Priority Pass lounge.

I was tempted to do this for the novelty value but the requirement for an overnight stay in Cambridge beforehand – and a very early start the next day – does not make it easy.

Sun-Air of Scandinavia

First image of the Terminal 5 Aspire (Priority Pass) lounge

The first independent lounge at Heathrow Terminal 5 is due to open in a couple of months although the exact date is not yet known.

It will be run under the ‘Aspire’ brand by Servisair / Swissport.  A image has now appeared on the Swissport website of how it will look:

Aspire Lounge Heathrow Terminal 5

The entrance will be by Gate 18 which means it will sit underneath the British Airways Galleries First lounge.  It isn’t clear how big it will be – it looks like it wraps around the edge of the terminal.  All will be revealed soon ….

Access is likely to be available for cash or with a Priority Pass and potentially Lounge Club card.  This will be good for American Express as it will make the Platinum card (which comes with a free unlimited-use Priority Pass) and the Gold card (which comes with a ‘2 visits’ Lounge Club card) more attractive.

New Tesco bonus point deals

Finally, two quick bonus point deals for additional Clubcard points.  These can be converted into Avios at 1 : 2.4 or Virgin Flying Club at 1 : 2.5.

You receive 150 bonus Clubcard points (360 Avios, 375 Virgin miles) when you pre-order the new Muse CD, Drones.  It cost £10 and you must order by June 21st.  The order page is here.

It isn’t worth buying purely for the points but it is a decent kick-back if you would have bought it anyway.

More interestingly, you can earn up to 5,000 bonus Clubcard points – a whopping 12,000 Avios points – when you buy selected Hotpoint and Indesit domestic appliances.  Only washing machines and fridge freezers seem to be included.

Details of the Hotpoint / Indesit offer are here.  Again, the deadline is June 21st.

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, Tesco Clubcard

Comments (48)

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

  • RIccati says:
    16 Jun16 June 05:11

    Aspire Lounges — all that “dress to impress” and dry soup packet (add hot water) on the menu.

    Perhaps that why BA is fine with it, it will help to unload its lounges a bit while not being a serious alternative to Galleries/First for frequent T5 visitors.

    • Polly says:
      16 Jun16 June 06:25

      Of course they are finally happy to let the plebs have another option. Keeps them flying in Y but they now have reduced opportunity to obtain status! All ties in nicely with the avios and TP changes. Thus back to the J and F pax using the BA lounges, as was the original plan anyway. They never wanted those lounges crowded with easily gained status pax in the first place. Both North and South are packed these days, obviously with OW status pax too, of course. F lounge was also v busy last time we were there. Let’s hope the food is not as bad as you envisage Riccati!

      • James67 says:
        16 Jun16 June 08:11

        I’m convinced I got a stomach bug from their food in north lounge twice, since then I have left well alone.

      • David says:
        16 Jun16 June 10:00

        Plebs!? Just because you fly a lot, do you think that makes you better than others and gives you the right to use words like that?

        Hope you choke on your LPGS

        • James67 says:
          16 Jun16 June 16:30

          Absolutely sure ypu got wrong end of the stick David, polly is having a go at BA for the manner in which they changed baec, she considers that BA have an attitude problem.

      • Tilly71 says:
        16 Jun16 June 10:04

        I don’t suppose you frequent the boards on Flyertalk do you with an attitude like that??

        • David says:
          16 Jun16 June 11:08

          Yes, I actually spend quite a lot of time on FT and, although there are a few arrogant morons and trolls on there, in my experience most users are decent and level headed. This is also usually true on HFP.

          As for my attitude, I don’t look down my nose at people just because I’m fortunate enough to be able to travel comfortably. I would say anyone that does and uses words like “plebs” has a particularly poor and arrogant attitude.

          • bob says:
            16 Jun16 June 16:05

            Can’t say it came across as remotely rude or arrogant, Polly. More like a description of how BA might view it.

          • Worzel says:
            16 Jun16 June 16:15

            Exactly how I saw it bob-was about to make a similar post myself! 🙂 .

          • Tilly71 says:
            16 Jun16 June 16:22

            Hi David, my post was in reply to polly’s rude quote but somehow came up as a reply to your post. I only mentioned FT as there was a thread on there about tesco clubcard points and ba and some of the posts from regulars were of the same attitude as Polly.
            Basically looking down their noses at BA first flyers who gain seats via Tesco etc. Most on FT gain their miles via work travel so effectively free so it’s a bit ironic to look down on others who are not so fortunate.

          • David says:
            16 Jun16 June 16:27

            Ok no worries. I agree completely.

          • David says:
            16 Jun16 June 16:32

            Hopefully the “plebs” post was meant to refer to BAs view as has been suggested. I’m not convinced though.

          • The_Real_A says:
            16 Jun16 June 19:41

            I didn’t read Polly`s post as rude in any way. Perhaps over sensitive today?

          • James67 says:
            16 Jun16 June 16:35

            Absolutely sure you got wrong end of the stick David, Polly is having a go at BA for the manner in which they changed baec, she considers that BA have an attitude problem.

          • Worzel says:
            16 Jun16 June 16:56

            I’ve read Polly’s helpful comments with interest on HFP in the past-and am sure that her comment above was in response to Riccati’s post and a view on BA’s stance.

            It’s not always easy to interpret what is fully meant within a comment-we’ve all made a post and looked back afterwards and could have written it differently.

            Time to move on? 🙂 .

    • Rob says:
      16 Jun16 June 12:01

      I get a sneaky feeling that Aspire will be better than Galleries Club in some ways – smaller, quieter (TBC), less food options but probably similar quality, substantially less shoddy furnishings.

  • rich says:
    16 Jun16 June 06:57

    If you do stay in Cambridge come out for a beer rob

  • Tom C says:
    16 Jun16 June 07:47

    Go on Rob, come to Cambridge. We have some beautiful hotels worth staying in here like erm, you know, the good one and erm that other good one, and then that’s that park bench somewhere.

    • Rob says:
      16 Jun16 June 11:58

      I did have a brief look at the Cambridge hotel options and was not overwhelmed! If the airport had something in the terminal I may have been tempted. In reality I am looking at a 5am start from central Cambridge to get a taxi to the airport to get a very early one-class flight on a wobbly Embraer (or similar) to Gothenburg. Not sure how easy it is to get into Gothenburg but – since 2 nights away would be pushing it with the Mrs! – I’d then need to get the SAS flight to Stansted or a BA to LHR a few hours later. Not ideal.

      • Tom C says:
        16 Jun16 June 21:53

        You’re not wrong. I certainly wouldn’t stay here, if I didn’t live here. I used to believe you could judge the quality of a city based on the best hotel available, yet seeing that Cambridge is actually a nice place to live, I may need to revise that.

        We all appreciate your dedication to the job, but we’ll give you a pass on having to do that journey to write up on it.

        • bob says:
          16 Jun16 June 22:31

          There’s no direct causal relationship between the two.

          They might be common factors – but that does not imply you cannot (regularly) get one without the other.

      • rich says:
        17 Jun17 June 07:24

        Quay mill is out of town but not to bad iv heard.

  • James says:
    16 Jun16 June 07:59

    Is it just me or have tesco been far less generous with bonus point promos recently?

    • joe says:
      16 Jun16 June 08:37

      Yes. I suspect it’s because people were taking the piss with the computer game offers. Greedy people will kill the golden goose.

      The gift cards offer has longevity because I imagine tesco are delighted with people smashing that one, but not so much with people buying 1000 points for a fiver. The 25 points for a chilli was probably the final nail.

      • Tilly71 says:
        16 Jun16 June 18:19

        If your connecting 1000 points for a fiver to the games pre order slips, it was 500 cc pts for a fiver.

    • Thomas says:
      16 Jun16 June 08:56

      Has anyone received any Tesco coupons at all recently ?

      • Hugh says:
        16 Jun16 June 09:32

        there has been talk about these on Flyer Talk
        synopsis is:
        it’s either a deal that’s over or there’s been a delay and they’ll be here in 10 days

  • Nick M says:
    16 Jun16 June 09:31

    We flew from T5 on Sunday and ate at Plane Food… there is an app – Velocity – that they’re promoting which gives £10 off the bill (& you can split the bill several ways) …worth a look if you can’t get into the lounges.

  • Nick says:
    16 Jun16 June 10:26

    Plebs? Umm… Thanks Polly, from all us plebs out here.
    Anyway, has anyone seen any clubcard bonuses for taking out Tesco car Insurance recently? A 3000 point bonus was knocking about?

    • pol says:
      16 Jun16 June 15:10

      promotion code CAR300G, valid until 23rd June according to the leaflet.

      • pol says:
        16 Jun16 June 15:11

        Sorry missed a zero off, CAR3000G

        • bob says:
          16 Jun16 June 16:01

          Worked for me a few weeks ago. On a renewal of an existing Tesco policy. I just cancelled the old one & took out the new one with the code, points already awarded.

          • Tilly71 says:
            16 Jun16 June 16:14

            How did you find your renewal price via tesco compared to others? When I done a quote they wanted over £100 more than my current providers renewal quote.

          • bob says:
            16 Jun16 June 23:14

            Sorry, you were rude to Polly. Cannot engage.

  • bob says:
    16 Jun16 June 18:16

    Dear bob,

    You will find your e-tickets attached to this email.
    How to print your tickets:
    1.Open the PDF document that is attached.
    2.Print the PDF document.
    3.Bring your printed tickets and present them at the venue

    • bob says:
      16 Jun16 June 18:19

      Now to find somebody who can actually use my tickets!

      BST – The Strokes – 18th June – 18 June 2015 at 15:30
      Venue: Hyde Park
      Location: Westminster

      London,
      W2 2UH Westminster
      London,
      W2 2UH
      Ticket Details
      General Admission

      • EF says:
        16 Jun16 June 19:33

        Not a glitch – they are waiving the ticket price and inviting donations for cancer charities (in Evening Standard and other papers).

        • bob says:
          16 Jun16 June 19:49

          were

          • bob says:
            16 Jun16 June 19:51

            BST Hyde Park

            4 hrs ·
            .

            All Charity tickets have now gone – Thank you for your generosity and for supporting these great causes – We look forward to seeing you at BST Hyde Park !

            Apologies for those that had technical difficulties – we will be responding to you ASAP to rectify the problem for you

          • bob says:
            16 Jun16 June 20:44

            That was fun. They stopped me buying any more!

            Hope you have better luck.

          • bob says:
            16 Jun16 June 21:52

            No longer available

      • Kevin says:
        16 Jun16 June 22:49

        Great offer and spot however why buy them if you can’t use them?

  • Ross Parker says:
    17 Jun17 June 12:51

    I was going to buy the Drones CD anyway. Free points, cheaper than Amazon, and delivered for free with our Delivery Saver. Thanks!

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