Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Bits: BA strike off, 100% Heathrow Rewards bonus, Blacklane / Lufthansa bonus

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News in brief:

BA strike called off

The British Airways strike by mixed fleet cabin crew, scheduled for Christmas Day and Boxing Day, was called off last night.

BA will now run a normal schedule on both days.

British Airways BA A350 in flight

Heathrow Rewards transfer bonus

Heathrow Rewards is offering a 100% transfer bonus on transfers to Lufthansa Miles & More made before 31st January.

This is a generous offer as Miles & More miles are not so easy to obtain in the UK, as they are not an American Express partner and do not sell miles – although there is a UK credit card.

You will receive 500 Miles & More miles for every 250 Heathrow Rewards points you transfer.

Unfortunately this offer does not apply to any of the other Heathrow Rewards airline partners – Etihad, Emirates, BA or Virgin.

Miles & More with Blacklane

Whilst on the subject of Miles & More, you can still earn 1000 Miles & More miles for taking a trip with chauffeur firm Blacklane between now and the end of the year.

The basic earning rate is 1 mile per £, $ or € depending on the country you are using the service in. You can book your ride via the app or website by entering your pick up and drop off points and choosing a time and car. Unlike Uber you will get a fixed price and not be charged anything extra if, for example, traffic is slow.

If you sign up between now and 31st December, you will get a 1000 Miles & More miles sign-up bonus when taking your first ride.  The Blacklane home page is here.  The company operates in 250 cities worldwide so they are a potential option in many places you may be travelling to this Christmas.

Heathrow Rewards

2,500 Heathrow Rewards points as a sign-up bonus

Given the bonus above, it is worth giving a final mention to the very generous 2,500 points Heathrow Rewards sign-up bonus that has been running this year.

2,500 points is as good a sign-up bonus as you will ever see for Heathrow Rewards although the minimum spend this time is higher than in the past.  If you transfer these points to Miles & More before 31st January, you would receive 5,000 miles.

The offer you choose will depend on how you spend money at Heathrow:

This offer is sponsored by BA although you can send your points to any airline partner.  It triggers your 2,500 bonus points (= 2,500 miles) with a £150 spend in one day before December 31st.  The sign-up link for this deal is here – make sure the code BAAPR16 is the ‘promotional code’ box.  

If you can’t manage £150, you will receive 1,000 points with a £75 spend in one day before December 31st.

Full details of the Heathrow Rewards scheme are here but to join and get the bonus you need to use this link.

Check the small print before you make your purchases at Heathrow as some items, such as tobacco, do not count.  Foreign currency transactions are not meant to count but I know that some people have changed £150 at Travelex and found that it triggered the bonus …. I cannot promise that this will work for you.

It is not clear if your first purchase on the card must be for £75 or £150 or if you simply need to spend that in one day at some point between now and the end of the year.

You may well already have a Heathrow Rewards account. If so, you have three options:

open an account for someone else who shares a BA or Avios household account with you, then transfer the Avios to that account

Heathrow Rewards now lets you transfer points between different people – you could get a card in a random name, spend the £75 or £150 and then ring Heathrow Rewards to transfer the points to yourself

if you have only previously converted to one airline programme, you could open another account in your name (different email, different postal address) and then send the points over to Virgin, Etihad or Miles & More if you usually send them to Avios (or vice versa). Do not use the same Avios number on two accounts.

Note that Heathrow Rewards only allows one account per address.

Your card won’t arrive in time for any flight you are taking before 31st December, but you can either post in your receipts later or download your membership card to Wallet on your iPhone.

Comments (33)

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

  • David says:

    Note also double Heathrow Rewards points on all transactions of £20+ value until end of year.

  • David says:

    Plus also the technology, jewellery and watches bonus:
    500 points for £150+ or
    1,000 for £350+ or
    5k for £1,500+ or
    15k for £4,000+

    Although do note the T&C say: “Where a transaction may qualify for more than one Heathrow Rewards promotion, ‘Extra points on jewellery, watches & technology’ will take precedence. ”

    Finally, don’t forget the standard 100 points bonus for reaching 250 basic earned in a year.
    in a year. (and another 100 for reaching 500 earned in a year – and double points there after.

    Anyone planning to buy a watch or tech before the end of the year should do their planning on which promotions to trigger when.

    • th real harry says:

      Re: wombling for pub receipts – HR are excellent at retro-crediting purchase you forgot to swipe with your HR card 🙂

      • Alan says:

        Haha love it, you definitely need to set a Gravatar now, Harry – the return of the Wombles 😛

        • Liz says:

          Was hoping for a BA 100% bonus like last year – will leave my 4000 HR pts where they are in the hope of one next year!

  • SLS says:

    OT but the 5×100 club card point bonus is a k for using payqwiq. Not sure if for everyone but I reviewed an email about it.

    • Iain says:

      Yes I received an email yesterday saying they missed me and offered 500 points. I’ve only ever used it 5 times before and that was to get the introductory offer. PayQwiq is definitely not quicker than paying with contactless card, even if you have to swipe th club card. Wife also got same email so 2400 avios between us for buying chewing gum.

    • Alan says:

      See discussions yesterday – appears to be targeted offer sadly.

      • Iain says:

        That’s a shame. I guess the trick is not to use it on a regular basis.

        • Alan says:

          Yes – I only used it a couple of times after the initial 5 times but that seems to have been enough to knock me off the list!

  • Paul says:

    The trade union have done well here and BA had little choice but to back down and offer more. A strike on these two days would have been horrific with exceptionally high load factors and limited staff resources on the ground. The claim the would have run a full flying programme was pie in the sky. The senior management have again been made to look inept. Will be interesting to see if the offer is accepted.or if, like prison officers it gets rejected by the staff.

  • MB says:

    Carluccios gift vouchers count as valid spend. I bought £100 worth to trigger a previous sign-up bonus. I think they’re relatively long-dated but my plans meant they were gone within a few days.

    The sticking point might be availability: the staff in T5 weren’t used to being asked for that sort of quantity and weren’t sure if they had that many in stock.

    Anyway, another avenue to consider.

  • Anon says:

    O/T Iggy fans we’re on the final home straight now… 🙂

    He’s in the middle

    222000 Swavorski

  • Mike says:

    Flights changed last week have just been changed back to original plans following early doors call to BA exec club. Exceptionally helpful and friendly staff.

    • th real harry says:

      Mike -did you see reply on the free £15 Amazon thread? – your £15 is successfully redeemed & waiting to be used

    • Rob says:

      Yes, saw this, very odd and pretty pointless.

      • Clive says:

        I think it shows, and confirms, Mr Cruz’s thought pattern.

      • Aeronaut says:

        Or alternatively he’s reading where the market is heading and doesn’t want IAG to get left behind.

        • Rob says:

          Nope. Just causing trouble for Norwegian. Same reason BA launches Oakland and Fort Lauderdale.

          • David says:

            Question is whether they will do one-way pricing.

          • Temp says:

            Yes, it is obviously a reaction to a competitor, but that is normal in business. What is the alternative, just cede customers and market share in one of its ‘home’ markets? It is clear low-cost long haul is here to stay. IAG is reacting to a new market reality, as every business should (or risk going the Nokia way!)

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

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