Five frequent flyer perks I still get as an old-timer but you can’t

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

• simon says:

  30 Mar30 March 03:41

  Have to admit , i love the BMI card as well , it gives so much more value than the BA Amex , which i use until £10k for the 241 then stop

  Long may it continue to be exist …..

• Dom says:

  30 Mar30 March 04:44

  Can confirm the BA Premium AMEX is still being issued to existing holders, just renewed mine.

  • Adele says:

    1 Apr1 April 10:09

    Do you mean that with the platinum Amex you can also get the BA premium Amex? That sounds great, I will ring them and ask about it. Glad I found this website, awesome tips!

    • Rob says:

      1 Apr1 April 10:22

      You can’t get it for free – that perk ended a few years ago for new people.

• Stu R says:

  30 Mar30 March 05:13

  Unfortunately, I didn’t seriously get into Avios until recently, so the only perk I get from your list is the 800 Avios per £2.50 club card voucher, however I don’t expect that will last forever given they pared back the earnings rate from 1 cc point per £2 to 1 cc point per £8 for spend outside Tesco 🙁

  • Kathy says:

    30 Mar30 March 06:24

    I wish I’d got into this hobby sooner! It’d be so much easier to earn Avios – I don’t even have the 800 per £2.50 CC rate.

    OT: I’m flying to CPH today, starting my first-ever ex-EU trip to NYC tomorrow. I am travelling hand baggage only, and planning to ditch the last leg to CPH on the way back. Will I be able to use the arrivals lounge at LHR, or will they know that I should be catching a flight to on to CPH?

    I’ve never used the arrivals lounge before, so not sure what they actually check on the door.

    • Gregor says:

      30 Mar30 March 07:08

      Kathy: the reception desk at the arrivals lounge (I’m guessing you’re talking T5) will want the boarding card for the flight you just got off (ie NYC – LHR) to prove your eligibility; your onward travel is your own business (and as I’m sure you’re aware, there’s a great deal of discussion available on the risks & benefits of dropping the last leg on ex-EU trips).

      Because there can be a long wait (almost an hour last time I tried) for morning showers in Galleries North, when transferring through T5 I actually prefer to go through Immigration and use the arrivals lounge, then head back through departures.

      PS When flying into CPH, I recommend a window seat on the right hand side from where you get a fabulous view of the Oresund Bridge as the approach runs parallel… although it depends on the wind direction of course!

      • Kathy says:

        30 Mar30 March 09:11

        Thanks! I’m in the window seat so hopefully I’ll get the nice view. Not sure if I’ll end up seeing much nice – I only have a few hours this evening to look around and the weather forecast is so grim that I’m not sure how long I’ll stick it out for before I seek shelter.

    • Martin says:

      30 Mar30 March 07:16

      If you have a long haul arriving at LHR you can use the arrivals lounge regardless if you have a connecting flight back out. No different to people flying north to the regional airports after a long haul.

• Fredo Frog says:

  30 Mar30 March 06:17

  My thought is: great perks but why draw attention to them? It is of no benefit to HfP readers who not have them as they cannot do anything to get them. And in these days of economic austerity and cutbacks keeping such benefits low profile may be in our best interests or else someone may come along and remove them!

  • Worzel says:

    30 Mar30 March 07:07

    It’s OK Fredo- this is Rob’s way of letting us know he’s having a good time down there. He’ll of course be back to the wind, rain, and grey clouds soon.

    At least you appear to have some of the above benefits-unlike me!

    Now, “Worzel” – why(!) did you “chop-in” that BMI card?? 🙂 .

    • Rob says:

      30 Mar30 March 09:01

      Yes, holiday filler, pre-written 🙂

  • Rupert says:

    30 Mar30 March 22:12

    Would agree – why shout about a good thing which is no longer available….

• Susan says:

  30 Mar30 March 06:27

  BMI amex/mc- the BA discount only applies to the paid for cards not the basic. Got caught badly (own fault) using the BMI MC on transferwise and got hit with a £70 charge for a cash advance. Won’t do that again in a hurry.

  • Genghis says:

    30 Mar30 March 07:21

    I have BMI Amex/Visa (free) and have used the 10% discount

• Mouse says:

  30 Mar30 March 07:28

  Great now this has reminded BA of the BMI 10% discount I am sure they will remove it very soon

  • ADS says:

    30 Mar30 March 12:49

    Although it doesn’t work with HBO fares – at least it didn’t with a one way HBO from Paris that I tried to book recently 🙁

    • Mouse says:

      31 Mar31 March 16:01

      Correct you can’t use it with HBO. Also in some cases the discount is virtually nothing compared to the standard fare (it’s not always a 10% discount)

• Koshka says:

  30 Mar30 March 07:45

  Is it worth challenging Tesco about the removal of the 650 points coupon. As far as I was concerned this was given in return for giving up my Visa version of the card. The original leaflet says nothing about it being a temporary benefit. We had this discussion over on Flyertalk last year when some people didn’t receive the coupon. Here’s the photo that I posted at the time.

  https://www.flickr.com/photos/10721425@N00/18109201394/

  • Genghis says:

    30 Mar30 March 08:04

    If I’m promised something that is then not delivered, I always challenge it. What have you got to lose?

    • Danksy says:

      30 Mar30 March 16:41

      Nice plan… might give that a go!

• Alan says:

  30 Mar30 March 08:45

  Yes, BA Premium still exists – my folks have it. Probably going to close it though as they’ve been finding it difficult to get good value using the voucher. Decent ex-EU deals combined with poor availability (esp when adding on a domestic connection) have reduced the clause of the voucher.

  I’ve still got the bmi Mastercard, unfortunately I had an Amex too with a higher earning but left it inactive too long and they closed the account 🙁

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