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Bits: BA eBay’ing New Orleans flight tickets, good LAN deal to Buenos Aires

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News in brief:

Bid for BA tickets to New Orleans on a preview flight

British Airways is launching a new service to New Orleans on 27th March as I covered here.

On 24th February, however, there is going to be a one-off trial flight during Mardi Gras.  This may be a test trip to help with pilot and crew familiarisation or a local marketing exercise.

British Airways is selling tickets for this flight via eBay.  Each package offers:

  • 2 x return, economy tickets to New Orleans
  • Three nights accommodation based on one of three hotel options
  • Gig in the sky with a celebrity on board performance
  • Exclusive on board New Orleans cocktails and menu
  • Access to a Mardi Gras parade stand, so you can get into the thick of all the festivities
  • 10% of all auction bookings will be donated to the British Airways charity, Flying Start

The flight departs from Heathrow at 10.00 on Friday 24th February 2017 with return departing at 23.25 on Monday 27th February, arriving 14:10 on Tuesday 28th February.

No tier points or Avios will be given.

There are currently four auctions running.  You can find links to all of them at the BA eBay shop here.

Good LATAM deal from Spain to Buenos Aires – TODAY ONLY

If you have Buenos Aires on your bucket list, LATAM (the old LAN) has some excellent Business Class fares from Spain at the moment.

Remember that, as LAN is a oneworld member, you will earn Avios and British Airways tier points on these flights.

From Barcelona, the fare is £1,197 return with a plane change in Sao Paulo.  This is on a Boeing 767 where the seating is reportedly not great.   You are probably better paying an extra £4 and flying out of Madrid where you will get a new Airbus A350.

You must book TODAY and start your trip between 1st December and 31st March (28th February to 7th March excluded).  The LATAM site is here.

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How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (April 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

30,000 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.

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

The Platinum Card from American Express

80,000 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 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, and the standard card is FREE. Capital on Tap cards also have no FX fees.

Capital on Tap Visa

NO annual fee, NO FX fees and points worth 1 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

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

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

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.

Category

British Airways and Avios, oneworld alliance partners

Comments (27)

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

  • Matt says:
    23 Nov23 November 07:54

    I back the suggestion to fly as the A350 its a great new plane. In September I flew an Iberia one Madrid to Montevideo with mains power, USB charging point and large screen IFE – and that was in economy. Did business on way back, similar to BA Club but better food and drinks: Sherry, different wine with each course and Brandy – but no cigar. Assuming LATAM is similar plane lay out to Iberia it should be much nicer than a 767.

  • Temp says:
    23 Nov23 November 09:58

    Rob, do you know if BA may be having some kind of promo/sale for Black Friday? I recall in past years there’s been a short sale for biz class flights over Xmas/NY, but can’t remember when it was.

    • Rob says:
      23 Nov23 November 10:41

      Yes they are, I have the details, I am not allowed to write about it.

      Suffice it to say that you won’t need much more than £1008 to take part.

      • Save East Coast Rewards says:
        23 Nov23 November 10:48

        Ah yeah, I remember hearing about it now – it’s a 2 for £2016 Club World sale, when they’ve done similar before it’s always been advertised as a 2 for £20xx but the fares have been available per person, there’s been no need for two to travel.

        Of course the rules could change this year and they may make it available only if two travel, but based on Rob’s comment I guess they can be bought individually.

        I wonder if my bmi discount will work on these fares 🙂

      • Temp says:
        23 Nov23 November 11:03

        Cheers Rob. Not sure now… This Latam deal ticks all the boxes… Free stopover in Brazil, plenty dates… Aargh!

      • AndyR says:
        23 Nov23 November 22:14

        The £1008 fares have been loaded!!

  • Save East Coast Rewards says:
    23 Nov23 November 11:10

    The ebay sale is unappealing for most people reading this blog as I suspect most would want to redeem Avios or earn tier points for such a trip. I forgot ebay was a Nectar partner until Rob mentioned it but it makes it rather amusing that you can earn Nectar on this flight but not Avios.

  • Save East Coast Rewards says:
    23 Nov23 November 11:57

    If I knew this during the consultation stage I’m sure he did too.

  • Scallder says:
    23 Nov23 November 12:03

    Haha brilliant

  • the real harry says:
    23 Nov23 November 14:28

    sorry it’s £30 spend on my cards at least to get £10 credit

  • Adam says:
    23 Nov23 November 17:11

    I was wondering this too, but on the payment page, the terms and conditions state;

    Voucher Express is not directly linked to Eurostar and can take no responsibility for products and services offered by Eurostar. For the same reason, Eurostar shall not be responsible for services offered by Voucher Express and its associated companies, including without limitation the collection and management of your credit card data and personal information which is collected, processed and managed by Voucher Express.

    The only benefit I can see is they don’t appear to charge you a credit card fee, so perhaps this is a good way to avoid the fee, should you be booking without an offer at a later date.

  • Alan says:
    23 Nov23 November 18:53

    Sainsbury’s discount works well, only for £25 cards and not £50 ones though and limited to 4 per transaction – charged £95.03 (and earned 95 Nectar points) for 4x£25 cards.

    • Peter K says:
      23 Nov23 November 20:03

      What discount is that? Is it on Amex offers?

      • Alan says:
        23 Nov23 November 20:47

        15% off selected gift cards – was mentioned in the comments earlier today or yesterday, perhaps by Harry??

        Annoyingly the cards don’t seem to work at NS&I as the old Visa w/fee cards did

        • Peter K says:
          23 Nov23 November 21:23

          Great. I’ll have a look. Thank you!

          • Alan says:
            23 Nov23 November 21:31

            Still handy for retailers where you can use Mastercard but not Amex, esp as you’re getting Nectar points (albeit a small amount) and being paid a fiver to take ever four of them off their hands! Got me a couple of hundred closer to my spend target on my Nectar Amex card too.

        • Peter K says:
          23 Nov23 November 22:21

          I’ve looked through the comments for several days and can’t find the comment mentioned. Tried to buy the £25 shiney new style visa cards but there was no discount added. Is it just on the £25 MasterCards?

          • Alan says:
            23 Nov23 November 22:25

            Sorry I can’t remember what article it was on but yes, only the £25 Mastercard as far as cash cards go, a variety of other cards (Pizza Express, Cineworld, etc) – there was a fairly large ad in the middle of the gift card display in the store I went into.

          • Adam says:
            24 Nov24 November 20:44

            Hello,

            It was me that posted the offer, I originally said it ran until Friday, but this is incorrect, it runs until Sunday.

            You want the “Vanilla” branded pre-paid Mastercard, the offer is only running on the £25 card, which is £25 plus £2.95 processing fee, once the 15% is discount is applied you pay £23.75. Although if you buy more than one, you’ll pay a few pennies more due to rounding.

            The cards I have purchased are designed like a gift, with purple and white stripes and a silver glitter bow wrapped around the card, (printed). They should be ranged on the bottom shelf, near the centre of the gift card display.

            The other gift cards in the offer were Toys R Us, Facebook, Fat Face, Cineworld, maybe 1 or 2 others.

            It appears some stores may not have put the advertising on the gift card display as they thought it was for “Black Friday” only, but the offer started Monday. If in doubt, take to checkout and get them to scan, swipe and total your purchase and the discount will then apply. You can’t purchase at self checkouts.

            The gift cards are merchandised by an external company, therefore if they are out of stock, it’s unlikely they will have anymore.

            Good luck

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