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Bits: limited BA First food for 96 hours, reader loses 220,000 Avios, double Heathrow Rewards

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News in brief:

BA dropping First Class food during the strike

If you were wondering how British Airways is managing to run so many services during the cabin crew strike today and Wednesday, here is one reason.

On many services with a First Class cabin, the number of cabin crew on the aircraft is being reduced.  There will be no First Class meal service provided on these aircraft.  They will receive the standard Club World meal.

Passengers impacted by this are being offered 10,000 Avios as compensation.

BA has also stated that there will be “some changes to our meal service routines” on Thursday and Friday.  This is due to aircraft which flew out on Tuesday and Wednesday being short of crew to fully staff the return flight.

Diamond Club home page

Reader loses 220,000 Diamond Club points

Last year I ran a number of articles reminding readers that BMI Diamond Club was about to close and that they should move out any remaining points.  I also suggested they check old BMI accounts for any forgotten miles.

To be honest, I assumed that no-one would be in this position.  I was very surprised to hear from so many people who had forgotten about Diamond Club balances, some in six figures.

I was also surprised to hear from a new reader yesterday who had not received any communication about the end of Diamond Club.  It turns out that he had 220,000 points (= 220,000 Avios) sitting there which have now gone.  He had kept them in Diamond Club due to the false belief that if he moved them across to British Airways Executive Club they would expire.

I have suggested he raise it with BAEC but I doubt he will get far, especially as IAG will have removed a chunky balance sheet liability from its books when his points were expired.

Heathrow Rewards

Double Heathrow Rewards points on food and drink

Heathrow Rewards has launched a double points offer in all of its restaurants, bars and cafes.

Between 11th January and 28th February you will receive double base points in all of these outlets.  Food and drink bought in Boots, WH Smith etc does not count.

11th January, by an amazing coincidence, is the day that British Airways starts charging for in-flight short haul catering.

Comments (103)

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

  • Jerry says:

    OT My personal avios super boost offer was reasonably good judging by other comments. There were 2 stages to my offer, but I can only get one of them at promo period end. 1. Earn 4500 avios and get a bonus 1200 or earn 5500 with bonus 2400. Tesco transfers seem to qualify so for me (grandfathered 800 rate) so exchanging £17.50 worth of cc points should trigger 2400 bonus (worth an additional £7.50 in CC points if my maths are correct). Heathrow Rewards transfer might qualify too. My avios balance is zero because I always combine to BA, but I have earned in the previous 12 months.

  • signol says:

    For my Avios Superboost, I received Collect 18000, bonus of 6000. Collect 25000 bonus 12000.
    My wife’s account has, collect 100 Bonus 200. Collect 500 bonus 400.
    I’ve got about 10k waiting to autoconvert from Tesco on the next spending period, and the Lloyds credit card about to purchase several £ks on family tickets to SA for next Christmas 🙂

    • Doug M says:

      Nice. When I read properly mine was 50 or 100 bonus. Signed up and already have an email saying I’ve already hit the target since Jan 1st for the 100 Superboost. So effectively got 100 for replying to an email. Seems an inefficient use of data. Either give me a target I might make and interest me trying, or ignore me. What they did in my case seems pointless to both me and them. 100 Avios is hardly a ‘superboost’ and since they were aware I’d already hit that target they were not offering anything as an incentive. Dodgy IT and poor use of data to hand it seems to me.

      • Arun T says:

        For the record my offer was collect 500 or 2000 and receive 200 or 400 respectively. Bit rubbish vs others but better than nothing I suppose.

      • signol says:

        I didn’t realise it started on Jan 1st! Makes it even easier, for 6k at least.

  • Roger says:

    OT- IHG Accelerate Q1 2017

    One of my offer is to book Bonus points package. Does this apply to any specific bonus points package or can I go for YOUR RATE package which comes with 1000 bonus points.
    Some hotels that I will consider staying does have a separate 5000 bonus points package but for £15/£20 more.

    Cheers for help.

    • Alan says:

      I went for one with bonus points but avoided Your Rate. I don’t think the number of points matters though?

  • Mark says:

    How do you get registered or find the super boost offer please?

    • AndyW says:

      +1. Rob any info?

      • Rob says:

        Targetted

      • Brian W says:

        I got an overwhelming Super Boost offer………..collect 2000 Avios for 100 bonus. Hardly worth reading the email. My nominal spend on my Lloyds Mastercard alone will hit this as my history will show so what the point in them giving me that target is in the first place I’ll never know!

        Wife got 2000 for 400 Avios. Seems a bit more worthwhile and will act as a small boost to the usual clubcard exchange.

        Whoever thinks up these offers and the associated targets or the criteria involved needs to have a word with themselves! Still free Avios I suppose.

    • Doug M says:

      I think the link is personalised, so you just have to wait I guess. Doubtless Rob will be along with the detail at some point.

  • Andrew says:

    OT – has anyone had their Avis 18k promo avios as yet into their Iberia account ??

    • the real harry1 says:

      1 person said yesterday he got them because he had a moan, not sure if they originally paid with Amex or non-Amex

      • Jeremy I says:

        All I’ve had is the base miles. Do we reckon that if we don’t contact them they won’t come automatically?

  • Ariel says:

    OT – Iberia Avis Car Rental offer which ran at the beginning of December.

    After the rental I immediately received the 700 Avios but didn’t receive the 18,000 Avios.

    Last week I called Avis Spain to chase and was told a complaint would be opened.

    Today I received an email from Avis telling me that due to unexpected demand, there would be a delay of 4-6 weeks before the Avios would be credited to my Iberia plus account.

    This afternoon the £18k Avios landed in my Iberia plus account!!!

    Can’t wait for the next Avis offer 🙂

    • Rob says:

      Excellent, glad it worked out.

    • Ronster says:

      Hi Ariel

      That is good news.

      May I ask what was the number you called and if there was any options you pressed before getting to a specific department?

      Thanks

      R

    • Fenny says:

      “Unexpected demand” – they need to sign up to the HfP emails!

  • Jessica says:

    Hi guys

    I currently have 60,000 AMEX rewards points and currently hold the AMEX gold card and the free BA AMEX card.

    I am needing to return to Australia from London approximately around mid July. I am wanting to use my points to assist me in returning business class for the cheapest amount possible. I am if at all possible hoping to return home via Dubai. How should I go about this? Thanks very much.

    • Guesswho2000 says:

      60,000 won’t get you to Australia in biz, unless I’ve missed something. One way in Y is 50,000 Avios, so unless one of the other partners has an exceedingly generous redemption rate, you may be out of luck.

      • Jessica says:

        Yes you are correct, but is there a way to pay for say Y and use points to upgrade to J?

  • DS says:

    Slightly OT – re. shopping at Heathrow, have you seen a WDF voucher valid for 2017?

    http://wdfonline.com/WDFVouchers2011/5Q1-WGL-67IJMYNC6F-19D1WO-1/wdf_jun_2.aspx/

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