Bits: free Luxury Travel Fair tickets, British Airways cancels Westjet codeshares

News in brief:

Free Luxury Travel Fair tickets

The Luxury Travel Fair is back at Olympia in London from 3rd-6th November.

To be honest, this is not a hugely exciting event.  It is essentially just a lot of high-end hotels and travel agents in booths – you don’t, for example, get airlines bringing along their latest business class seats to try out.

The last time I went was especially poor, with torrential rain and a fire at South Kensington tube station making for a particularly wet and depressing journey!

The fact that they actually charge for tickets is a bit cheeky.  However, until 8th September you can order free tickets via their website using code LT4E in return for a £2.50 handling fee.  If you live nearby then it is worth popping in on the basis.  I don’t recommend it at the standard price of £14.50 in advance or £15.50 on the door.

BA ending Westjet codeshare – and cancelling flights

British Airways is ending its codeshare relationship with Canadian airline Westjet on 15th October.  You will no longer be able to book tickets to smaller cities in Canada with a BA flight number on a Westjet service.

What is surprising is that BA is cancelling existing Westjet tickets even though the flights are still operating.  If you have a ticket with a BA flight number on a Westjet service after 16th October, your flight will have been cancelled.

If seats are still available, you will be rebooked under a Westjet flight number on the same flight.

However, 24 hours after initially telling travel agents to do this, BA changed its guidance.  It has now told travel agents not to rebook passengers if the flight would be too expensive (!) – ie in the H, W or K economy ticket buckets.  You will be encouraged to take a different flight instead even though seats are available on the flight on which you were originally booked ……

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As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

There are two official British Airways American Express cards. Both have increased sign-up bonuses until 2nd November 2021:

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points, such as:

The 30,000 points bonus on Amex Gold runs to 9th November 2021. The 60,000 points bonus on The Platinum Card runs to 2nd November 2021.

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