Bits: oneworld branding, Delta Hotels in Marriott Rewards, was your £780 BA HK ticket cancelled?

News in brief:

oneworld alliance launches new ‘Priority’ logo

Take a look at the logo below.  You will be seeing a lot more of it:

The oneworld airline alliance, which includes British Airways, will be rolling out this logo over the next 12 months.  It will appear at every ‘touch point’ where you can expect to receive improved service as Ruby / Sapphire / Emerald oneworld cardholder.

(In the British Airways scheme, Ruby is Bronze, Sapphire is Silver and Emerald is Gold.)

It will appear at check-in desks, fast track lanes, lounge entrances and at boarding guests to help direct guests.  Signage at 1,000 airports globally is to be replaced.  Perth is the first to be up and running.

Delta Hotels now part of Marriott Rewards – sort of

Last year, Marriott announced the acquisition of Canadian chain Delta Hotels.  As always with hotel group acquisitions, the most difficult part is the integration of an existing IT system onto the corporate platform.

The first steps are now being taken towards the integration of Delta into Marriott Rewards.  Starting immediately, your Marriott Rewards status benefits will be recognised at all Delta properties.  Your status information will not be passed to the hotel, however, so you must present your Marriott Rewards card at check in and then ask for what you are due.

That is the good news.  The bad news is that you will NOT earn any points or miles from your stay, unless you are a member of the Air Canada Aeroplan scheme.  Neither can you redeem Marriott points at Delta Hotels.  All of that will have to wait until February 2016.

As a trade off, Marriott Rewards members will save 15% on all stays at Delta Hotels until 7th September.

More details on the Marriott / Delta integration can be found here.

Did you book a £780 British Airways business class ticket to Hong Kong?

In April, the Hong Kong version of the Expedia website was selling £780 business class tickets from Germany to Hong Kong, via London, on British Airways.  The price was so low because Expedia had removed BA’s fuel surcharges from the prices.

This appears to have been an error due to misinterpretation by Expedia of the Hong Kong fuel surcharge rules.  One HfP reader who booked a ticket received an email from Expedia last week to say that his ticket had been cancelled, with no explanation.  Expedia is pushing the blame for the cancellation onto British Airways.

I’d be interested to know if anyone else booked this fare and has had their ticket cancelled.  It seems to be a poor show by BA since the base fare was priced correctly and it was only the surcharges which were incorrect.

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How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (December 2023)

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.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 9th January 2024, you will receive 30,000 Membership Rewards points (convertible to 30,000 Avios) with American Express Preferred Rewards Gold. You receive 25,000 points if you spend £3,000 in three months and a further 5,000 points if you hold the card for 15 months. You can apply here.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 9th January 2024, you will receive a huge 100,000 Membership Rewards points (convertible to 100,000 Avios) with The Platinum Card. You receive 75,000 points if you spend £10,000 in six months and a further 25,000 points if you hold the card for 15 months. You can apply here.

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.

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.