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Bits: get 7,200 Avios with any Dyson product, random thoughts on BA cabin crew

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News in brief:

Get 7,200 Avios with any Dyson product

Due to a glitch, Tesco Direct is accidentally giving away 3,000 Clubcard points on Dyson products until tomorrow (Wednesday).   It will drop down to 2,000 Clubcard points after that.

A few thoughts on BA cabin crew

We flew back from Dubai in First Class on a BA 777 yesterday.  I won’t be reviewing that flight although I will be covering the new Dubai lounge and Concorde Room bar later in the week.

I don’t normally write about cabin crew when I review flights, because it is easy to get a disproportionately good or bad one.  You can review a seat based on one flight but I don’t believe that you can fairly critique cabin crew on the same basis.

What I did realise yesterday, however, is that the Britishness of the BA crew is a key part of the appeal of the airline.  I have done a lot of flying on Qatar Airways, Etihad, Turkish and Emirates over the past year and the multinational crews have generally been very good – although you are never 100% confident that you will receive what you request.

However, yesterday my 4-year old and I had a woman called Georgia looking after us.  She was mid-20’s, Home Counties accent but with the additional ‘yeah’ and ‘gonna’s of her generation, and genuinely good at her job.

There was a marked difference between her and the average Middle Eastern airline cabin crew member – mainly because she was able to be herself.

I would never choose an airline primarily on the basis of its crew, but I did realise yesterday that BA and Virgin do still have the ability to gain a competitive advantage if they recruit the right people and train them well.


How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (June 2025)

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

Get 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 Card

30,000 Avios and the famous annual Companion Voucher voucher Read our full review

British Airways American Express Credit Card

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 Credit Card

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

50,000 bonus points and great travel benefits – for a large fee Read our full review

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital on Tap for limited companies. You earn points worth 0.8 Avios per £1 on the FREE standard card and 1 Avios per £1 on the Pro card. Capital on Tap cards also have no FX fees.

Capital on Tap Visa

NO annual fee, NO FX fees and points worth 0.8 Avios per £1 Read our full review

Capital on Tap Pro Visa

10,500 points (=10,500 Avios) plus good benefits Read our full review

There is also a British Airways American Express card for small businesses:

British Airways American Express Accelerating Business Card

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.

The American Express Business Platinum Card

50,000 points when you sign-up and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

The American Express Business Gold Card

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 (81)

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

  • harry says:

    it re-appears…:)

    been around the block

    good offer

  • george says:

    A bit off topic…I flew from JFK to LHR in CW on BA metal (but ticket issued by AA).
    Do I get avios based on the BA flight or AA flight? The avios calculator implies a substantial difference: 12,103 vs 7,767 avios (for golds, one way). Same tier points.

    • Yan says:

      earn as per an AA flight

    • Leo says:

      I flew AA J back to LHR on a BA booked ticket and got the lower avios sum – I presumed because of the lighter cabin bonus. I never thought any further about it at the time. On the outbound BA flight I got the higher sum. So to answer your question I presumed you got paid out on whichever airline you actually flew (metal).

      • george says:

        hmm….so which one is it? Raffles? anyone else can chime in?

        • Alan says:

          You earn based on the flight number (ie whether it is vowed under the BA or AA code) It doesn’t matter who issued the ticket or which metal you’re on (unlike on Star Alliance). This is particularly important on long flights in the US as using the AA flight number on two class flights will book into F and earn lots more TP than the same flight on the BA flight number which will book into business.

          • george says:

            thanks, alan. this now makes sense.
            Given the intercontinental agreement between BA and AA I am surprised there is so much difference in avios between an AA flight number and BA flight number on the same plane (metal)! Quite ridiculous!

          • Alan says:

            Sorry ‘vowed’ should of course have been ‘booked’ 🙂
            Yes, it can be a bit of a difference although, the TP earning can also be far more lucrative with AA than BA code!

          • Leo says:

            I agree it does make sense – I’m at a bit of a loss as to what happened to me. Although if my foggy memory serves – I did have an AA flight number although the flight was a BA codeshare. How does this happen when booking both flights on BA? I’d like to avoid that in the future.

          • Alan says:

            By default BA would book you onto BA flight numbers but they can definitely book AA ones too (as I say handy for TP purposes). I suppose their search may occasionally through up AA numbers too, I’m not sure.

  • Chris Jones says:

    I think the BA crew really make a different when flying with children.

    Unfortunate my 3 year old now complains to crew if his traveling coach. Asking for his BA bag and juice!!

  • Rob says:

    Only got the release today.

  • Alex W says:

    One thing that annoys me about BA is that flaming “flying start” advert that kicks in and usually means you miss the end if the film you were watching. The day they get rid of that advert I might actually make a donation to the charity.

    • Sussex bantam says:

      +1 to that …

      • DW201 says:

        My fav bit is when you have your own ear buds in watching said film and they put the volume to 5000% when this or an announcement comes on. Great way to end a flight – burst ear drum

  • Amtexfly says:

    The closest I’ve come to rude cabin crew was on an AA flight from LAX-LHR when I didn’t understand what was meant when told that beer and wine was free but we would have to pay for ‘cocktails’, he spoke to me like an idiot because I was trying to determine if he meant spirits or spirits with a mixer. I guess he was having a bad day or something because be gave me a couple of bottles of bourbon later in the flight.

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

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