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Bits: Heathrow protest today, Etihad sale, update on the 40000 Nectar points deal

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News in brief:

Heathrow anti-expansion protest today may cause delays

British Airways has issued an advisory warning due to a protest against Heathrow Airport expansion which will take place today, Saturday.

To quote:

A peaceful demonstration against airport expansion is expected to take place at Heathrow Airport on Saturday 1 October.

Heathrow Airport is working with the Metropolitan Police who will manage any protest activities in and around the airport or terminal facilities.

Roads around Heathrow may see a period of disruption around the middle of the day and customers travelling to/from the airport may wish to allow extra time for their journey.

Etihad A380

Etihad launches a 96 hour sale – with bonus miles

Etihad is running a sale this weekend which runs until Monday evening.

As well as some decent prices in Business Class, the airline is offering 15,000 bonus Etihad Guest miles for every Business Class flight.  Economy flights will attract a 5,000 mile bonus.

Whilst Etihad Guest was devalued sharply last year, the ability to top up your account via American Express Membership Rewards, the UK Etihad credit card, the HSBC Premier credit card and Heathrow Rewards makes their miles flexible.  You can also redeem across the full Etihad Airways Partners alliance.

Here are some headline business class fares from London.

  • Abu Dhabi £1,500
  • Bangkok £1,550
  • Mumbai £1,552
  • Johannesburg £2,191
  • Perth £2,600
  • Melbourne £2,600

Whilst these are not the cheapest deals seen this Winter, you need to remember that I rate the Etihad A380 Business Class Studio as the best seat on the market.  Heathrow will be operating a 100% A380 service from November.

These deals can be booked for travel until June 2017.  Full details are on the Etihad website here.

Update on the ‘40,000 Nectar points’ credit card deal

Yesterday I wrote an article about the attractive American Express Nectar credit card promotion which launches today.  If you are targetted via the Nectar app or website, you will receive a whopping 40,000 Nectar points for signing up.

Full details of the card are here although you should not sign up via this page.

This is worth at least – in the worse case scenario – £200 to spend at Sainsbury’s, easyJet, Expedia etc.  However, if you use your points wisely during special offers, you could get as high as £400.

I missed out a key point in the early version of the article yesterday which was the version emailed out.

Anyone who is targetted will receive the 40,000 points as long as they have not had a Nectar credit card in the last six months.  That statement was correct.

However … the terms and conditions state that you only receive the first year of membership for free if you have not had any Amex-issued Amex cards in the last six months.  That will disqualify 95% of HfP readers, who will have a BA Amex, Amex Gold, Amex Platinum, Starwood Amex or similar.

You WILL still get the 40,000 points but you need to be resigned to paying the £25 fee.  This is still very small in contrast to the sign-up bonus, however, and is refundable pro-rata if you cancel the card.

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earns points from credit cards

Want to earn more points from credit cards? – April 2025 update

If you are looking to apply for a new credit card, here are our top recommendations based on the current sign-up bonuses.

In 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

You can see our full directory of all UK cards which earn airline or hotel points here. Here are the best of the other deals currently available.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on the ‘free for a year’ American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card is increased from 20,000 Membership Rewards points to 30,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (30,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on American Express Platinum is increased from 50,000 Membership Rewards points to a huge 80,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (80,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 30,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

30,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

80,000 bonus points and great travel benefits – for a large fee Read our full review

Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard

18,000 bonus points and 1.5 points for every £1 you spend Read our full review

Earning miles and points from small business cards

If you are a sole trader or run a small company, you may also want to check out these offers:

American Express Business Platinum

50,000 points when you sign-up 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

Capital on Tap Pro Visa

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

Capital on Tap Visa

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

British Airways American Express Accelerating Business

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

Category

British Airways and Avios, Etihad and Etihad Guest

Comments (105)

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

  • Talay says:
    1 Oct1 October 08:04

    The Etihad sale is poor vaue IMHO and Etihad is my main long haul carrier to to Asia.

    Until this year, we routinely had during the last few years at least, 3x and even 4x points in business class. 15k points is circa 2x mileage accrual on my routes.

    Additionally, on my main LHR-AUH-BKK routing, the “sale” price “from” £1550 is essentially the non sale target price and what with near permanent 10% off to occasional 20% and 30% off, this looks poor value.

    YMMV of course depending on routing but April next year is running at £2500+ each and that is ludicrous.

    • James67 says:
      1 Oct1 October 08:53

      +1 Most Etihad sales I see have comparable or higher fares than those ‘normal’ fares leading up to the sale. I recall too that you could not only get x3 or x4 but you could stack these with full earnings on breaking deals and discount codes too. A huge differents in merits of Etihad since devaluation. If you are happy to pay cash for your fligts you might now want to consider Finnair which have comparable fares but give you option to collect avios and TP as opposed to EG miles.

      • Talay says:
        1 Oct1 October 11:29

        Looked at FInnair for the last trip but they jumped from their longstanding £1209 to BKK to a daft £1800/2000 figure. Going to BKK via SIN in a terrible 13+2 but the return to LHR on Finnair is an equally gruesome 10+2 whereas the 2+10 on the way out is usually ok. Limited flights also makes it an overnight in BKK as well whereas on the ME3 I can fly each way overnight. Chauffeurs on 2 of ME3 of course as well.

        You are right about stacking the 3x and 4x on discounts. I actually got one on 30% off plus 4x points for 3 of us !

        What you can see is that their points for redemption also change in line with discounted fares. Thus, what might have been 280k points might drop to 200k points when the cash fare drops from say £2000 to £1400.

        I have an option to get out of EY completely with a points and a little cash and switch but Emirates programme is poor I think and with 3 flying, I do value the family account at Etihad.

  • Mark says:
    1 Oct1 October 08:28

    Odd. Received email from Nectar about this months offers. No mention of Amex deal. Unless I use the left hand preview bit on my iPad, where it says “Boost your points balance with American Express this October”. However that text is not visible at all on the actual email 🙁

    • James67 says:
      1 Oct1 October 08:56

      If you are logged into your account and you see that uder ‘my nectar’ I would tae a screenshot and apply.

  • Yuff says:
    1 Oct1 October 08:31

    OT: 20% bonus miles for conversion to Etihad 😉
    Amex included this time 🙂

  • Yan says:
    1 Oct1 October 08:49

    EY17/18 will be non-A380 on Wednesday

  • Liz says:
    1 Oct1 October 08:57

    OT: am I ok to use £850 worth of Currys gift cards to make a purchase at PC World in one transaction? I have 8 X £100 and 1 x £50. Hoping there will be no problems when I get there !

    • Mr Dee says:
      1 Oct1 October 09:15

      Yes done more than that before, there is a limit of 3 but that is only for the digital top up cards I believe, the printed on the front value have not limits.

      • Liz says:
        1 Oct1 October 09:36

        Thanks for the confirmation – 2550 club card pts for my daughters laptop!

        • Mr Dee says:
          1 Oct1 October 16:28

          Instore of course 🙂

        • Scallder says:
          4 Oct4 October 10:47

          Worth putting £1 or so on a credit card as that then gives added benefit of being able to claim on CC if there’s any issues with product

  • Mr(s) Entitled says:
    1 Oct1 October 09:13

    A point of clarification on the Amex issued: does this include the Virgin Amex/Visa double pack?

  • Nick says:
    1 Oct1 October 09:21

    Are people gift card hunting this morning? It seems so. Does any one know if it’s possible to use Curry’s gift cards for an online purchase with a home delivery service only?

    • Boris says:
      1 Oct1 October 10:01

      Not quite the same, but I tend to order online under click and collect, which keeps my right of return, then pay in store with a GC and I think I have home delivery for larger items.

      • Boris says:
        1 Oct1 October 10:21

        IIRC I think they insist on home delivery.

        • Genghis says:
          1 Oct1 October 11:15

          Only ordered once from Currys recently but ordered online, paid with GCs online and then collected in store.

  • Will Squires says:
    1 Oct1 October 09:44

    Gutted I’m not targeted for the Amex 🙁

    • Liz says:
      1 Oct1 October 09:55

      I don’t have it either ! 🙁

    • Michael says:
      1 Oct1 October 13:38

      James I don’t think that’s true – if I go direct to Amex is still says fee waiver is only for true newbies, which I’m not. So it’s 20k for £25 fee for those of us (sadly) not targeted. I might wait and see if they expand the selection in a week or two.

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

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