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Bits: 2400 Avios with £60 LEGO spend is back, BA changes rules on ‘Plus’ short-haul fares

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News in brief:

Get 2,400 Avios with £60 LEGO spend (or 1,200 Avios with £30 of LEGO)

It’s back – another Lego deal from Tesco Direct.

Until Monday night, you will receive 1,000 Clubcard points (worth 2,400 Avios or 2,500 Virgin Flying Club) when you spend £60 on the plastic stuff.  Smaller order will attract 500 Clubcard points (1,200 Avios or 1,250 Virgin miles) for spending £30.

You should still take a close look at this deal if you have kids or are expecting to give any presents to a child soon!  LEGO makes a great gift or can easily be resold on eBay.

‘Click and Collect’ delivery to your local Tesco store will be free as you are spending £30.  The deal runs until Monday night.

LEGO Star Wars

British Airways changes the rules on its ‘Plus’ short-haul fares

When British Airways revised its short haul fare structure this year, it was genuinely an enhancement.

I explained the new structure in detail here.

The old ‘hand baggage only’ fare became ‘Saver’.  The old ‘with checked bag’ fare became ‘Plus’ – but with the added benefit of totally free flight changes on the day of departure and no change fees for other amendments.  The old ‘fully flex’ ticket became ‘Plus Flex’.

BA has now started to roll back the features of these new fares.

As of last Friday, ‘Plus’ fares can no longer be changed for free except on the day of departure.  Changes made in advance will now incur a change fee, usually £35 out of the UK, as well as the difference in fare.

‘Plus’ tickets bought before last Friday are exempt and can be changed for just the fare difference.

Full details of the terms and conditions of each fare class can be found on ba.com here.


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.

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.

Comments (88)

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

  • Craig says:

    I imagine this is Alex at work! As I’m sure these original restructure fares came into effect before he took the helm! Disappointing to take back a great feature! Maybe BA could introduce a perk for SCH/GCH that allows free changes on ‘Plus’ fares.

  • Scallder says:

    OT (sorry): SPG have announced their autumn bonus – “You’ll earn double Starpoints® on weekday stays of two or more nights and triple Starpoints on weekends.* Registration begins September 12. Book your stays between September 12 and December 18, 2016.”

    There’s also a daily competition to instant win a free night award, or 1k, k or 10k Starpoints. Overall grand prize (get a new entry every day) of 5 free night awards and 50k Starpoints.

    I won 1k although having done it for my wife she got nothing from the instant win

    • damboy says:

      OT – is £1290 a good price for Qatar airlines Helsinki to KL business class R. Mixture of A340 and A360 and 777s aircrafts. Pretty new at this but looking for some flight in November that will earn me 560 BA tier points. Will this flight do it for me?

      • AndyR says:

        That seems to be the best price available on oneworld in November. If you don’t mind waiting a bit then Qatar most probably will do a sale.

        • damboy says:

          thanks. need to complete the flights by 8th November, so will hope for a Qatar sale in the next couple of weeks.

  • New fares enhanced (no more free changes) - FlyerTalk Forums says:

    […] […]

  • Mikeact says:

    Allow me to join in the off topics,
    1 Curve is now available on Android
    2 First time I tried to use my TSB Amex Avios today in a Tesco Extra. Card declined. Called TSB help desk. ‘Not declined by us, you do realise that some retailers will not accept any cards with Avios printed on them’. What ? What a load of absolute B S. I gave up arguing.

    • AndyS says:

      Well, I think “app” is a bit of an overstatement, but I won’t shoot the messenger! Thanks for the heads-up!

      • Alan says:

        Indeed, seems to be just a placeholder – has an appropriately poor rating on the Play Store as a result! Without Amex being accepted I can’t see any point in paying £35 for it?

    • Mr Dee says:

      My first time use on the Lloyds card was blocked too, some of the staff at these companies should go through some sort of IQ test before getting a job or at least have an idea how the card payments system works. Maybe a CS agent not knowing how to put you through to the security department that deal with it!

      Still don’t see a loyalty program with Curve that was promised in the summer and I am sure very few have received their refer a friend bonuses that were meant to be given on activation, good luck to them with their Android app!

      • TGLoyalty says:

        for reading twitter it seems like referrals will start some time in Sept and full rewards in Oct

        • Genghis says:

          Didn’t realise October was summer 🙂

          • Mr Dee says:

            Its summer all year round in Curve World!

            Be interested to see what scheme they manage to dream up.

    • Genghis says:

      Indeed but the question is why the TSB Amex avios card in the first place? It wouldn’t be a card I would get…

      • Mikeact says:

        Because I was originally thinking I would back it up for overseas spend with Supercard, at 2 Avios per £ ,instead of 1 for UK spend. But then realised that overseas expenditure would probably show at 1 anyway, in which case it will be binned.

    • Genghis says:

      Depends how much money you were spending. The first charge on my last Amex Plat was £500 at a Tesco. The transaction was declined and when I called up I was told that ‘Tesco is a place fraudsters often shop at’…

  • Jonathan says:

    Sorry to be off topic but the £20 free Moneycorp card comments are closed. Has anybody received their free £20 yet? I haven’t and I got the card the day the article was published.

    • Paul says:

      Not yet either. I tried calling and they said could take up to 90 days 🙁

    • Genghis says:

      @Alan said he got his £20 added. I’m still waiting…

      • Alan says:

        Yep, £70 taken out the cash machine a few days ago – not sure what I did to get picked out for an early award of the bonus 😉 Wondering if I can do anything with the residual pennies in the account!

    • Mr Dee says:

      Emailed them and they said to wait 90 days

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

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