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More Avios redemptions ending – Flybe in Scotland and Disneyland Paris tickets

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There are two stories here, with the tenuous link that both have reduced the options you have for redeeming your Avios points.

Flybe and Loganair end franchise deal in Scotland

Loganair operates flights to the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, primarily from Glasgow, Inverness and Edinburgh.  It is probably best known for its service from Glasgow to Barra, where the plane lands on the beach and the flight times are adjusted to the tide table (photo below).

Between 1993 and 2007, Loganair operated as a British Airways franchise.  In 2007, it switched to being a Flybe franchise.  It remained a British Airways codeshare partner, however, and because Flybe is a BA and avios.com partner you have been able to redeem Avios for these services.

Loganair and Flybe are ending their franchise agreement on 1st September 2017.  From the date flights will operate under the Loganair brand.

It is reported that the British Airways codeshare will remain in place allowing you to book through tickets from, say, Heathrow to Sumburgh in Shetland via Edinburgh.  Unless Loganair signs up as an Avios partner, you will not be able to redeem Avios any longer on these routes.  You WILL be able to continue to earn Avios and British Airways tier points as long as you book revenue tickets under a BA flight code.

More information on this story and other goings on in Orkney can be found here.

I have always been intrigued by the Barra flight and I may try to give it a go next year whilst I can still redeem.

Disneyland Paris park tickets disappear as an Avios redemption

I have written a couple of pieces recently about the ending of Avios earning on package holiday bookings and the end of the ability to spend Avios on Eurostar tickets.

Both of these changes take effect from 1st January.  However, it seems that another change was quietly slipped through recently with immediate effect.

It appears that you can no longer redeem Avios for Disneyland Paris park tickets.  We did this a couple of years ago – it was reasonable value although I lived to regret it in the end.  Avios do not send you tickets – they send you a voucher which you have to exchange for a ticket.  And the queue to exchange the voucher for a ticket was 45 minutes long …..

You can still earn and spend Avios on Disneyland Paris hotel breaks until the end of 2016 via this page.

If you spot any other redemptions missing from avios.com, please let me know.

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.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 12th May 2024, the Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa card is offering a bonus of 30,000 points, convertible into 30,000 Avios. You must have a Limited Company to apply. Click here to learn more and click here to apply.

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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.

Category

British Airways and Avios

Comments (28)

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

  • Graham Scholefield says:
    26 Nov26 November 07:21

    As someone who has just moved to Dundee and booked their first DND-STN redemption, this hurts!

  • ben_mw says:
    26 Nov26 November 07:25

    Have used Avios many times for MAN-INV on flybe branded loganair planes. Going to miss the ability to redeem an awful lot.

  • Tom says:
    26 Nov26 November 07:34

    I have looked at this a few times but actually the cash fares have been reasonable and only ever 2 redemption per plane (perhaps not surprising given plane capacity..!)

  • James67 says:
    26 Nov26 November 07:59

    For various reasons I would expect that an independent Loganair would want to be a full member if avios. Let’s hope so.

  • Rob says:
    26 Nov26 November 08:46

    Top man, thank you!

    • James67 says:
      26 Nov26 November 09:09

      Just keep your fingers crossed the weather doesn’t change quickly, if HFP goes down we will know where you are.

    • Anon says:
      26 Nov26 November 12:43

      Summer Scotland HfP meetup?

      Useful for those not in the Capital and that reside out in the various northern Districts..

  • Deenesh says:
    26 Nov26 November 08:49

    Can’t comment too much as I actually work for Loganair and they have quite a strict policy on employees talking about the company online, but I’ll certainly be asking the higher management about Avios and which direction they will go. Its probably quite far back on the priority list given the amount of work that needs to be done by 1st Sept but it doesn’t hurt to ask and let them know people ate thinking about it.

    • James67 says:
      26 Nov26 November 09:16

      Thanks, when you are at it please suggest a highlands and islands airpass, ideally as both a standalone option within Scotland, and with connecting to/from points outside Scotland on their network.

    • Rob says:
      26 Nov26 November 09:55

      If they are doing a BA codeshare – so you’d get Avios booking on the BA code – why bother with an Avios deal for everyone else (who are a captive market anyway)?

      • Deenesh says:
        4 Dec4 December 17:13

        You can only use the BA flight number when connecting onwards on the BA network. You cant simply book a KOI-GLA flight using the BA codeshare flight number. As such, and with flights being expensive from Kirkwall some sort of points system will have to be employed.

  • Marek says:
    26 Nov26 November 10:59

    I’ve been to Barra in 2008 and Loganair was still wearing BA colours and tickets were sold by BA.com and check-in on-line worked just fine on ba.com too. Barra is great for a day trip on days when you’ve got morning and afternoon flights – there’s a bus service from the airport to the Castlebay – I had 4 hours, more than enough to explore it 🙂

    • Ian says:
      26 Nov26 November 12:17

      I did a GLA-BRR-GLA flight last year, spending one night in Castlebay where incidentally I found NO Vodafone signal. I’d always wanted to land on the beach so this is definitely something to do once in your life, Rob.

      • Brighton Belle says:
        26 Nov26 November 16:37

        +1.

        I used the buses and ferries to fly into Barra out of Stornaway. Memorable trip..but I was lucky with the weather. Yes mobile phone service is pitiful. I was on Three and it only worked in Castlebay for half a mile, and not until Benbecula did emails arrive…again. But Calmac has free wifi.

    • Rich. says:
      26 Nov26 November 23:09

      I was there 5 days and would go back, still more to see….

  • Richard says:
    26 Nov26 November 14:34

    Did they jump or were they pushed? Loganair is a much-loved brand but its reputation is terrible at the moment – there were questions about it in Parliament, no less. I don’t know how reliability figures are calculated when it’s a franchise arrangement, but if Loganair is included in Flybe’s total then it must drag them down.

    • Andrew says:
      26 Nov26 November 21:19

      This is true. However, it’s not exactly comparing like with like to compare a service with small planes landing on remote islands with Squeezyjet services between Edinburgh and Stansted.

      I’m rather hoping that Loganair will now go for the planned EDI-OXF route. Was very good when Minoan operated it.

    • Deenesh says:
      8 Dec8 December 11:14

      Loganair chose not to renew the franchise agreement that Flybe proposed for various reasons which I can’t go in to. The issues raised in Holyrood were were rightly about reliability and OTP but we were the most punctual airline in the most recent figures released by the CAA for May (or were, last month) so things are certainly improving. We have a very hands-on Chief Exec who is really turning things around.

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

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