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Bits: new BA strike dates announced, new Amazon cashback credit card launched

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News in brief:

New British Airways strike dates announced

The Unite union announced yesterday that a further wave of cabin crew strikes will take place on Thursday 19th, Friday 20th and Saturday 21st January.

British Airways will announce its contingency plans on Monday.  This is likely to involve, based on the strike this week:

some flights being cancelled where a route is served by several daily BA flights

charter aircraft being used on some flights

First Class catering being replaced by Club World catering on some long haul services

Do not ring BA now and try to change any existing flight plans.  The call centre will not allow changes, unless you have a flexible ticket, until the contingency plans are released.

amazon-credit-card-mastercard

Amazon launches a good cashback credit card

With little publicity to date, Amazon has launched the Amazon Platinum Mastercard.  The package is pretty decent and it is arguably the best cashback card on the market for heavy Amazon users.

You may want to weigh up whether this is a better deal than any miles or points Mastercard or Visa you have.  Here are the core benefits:

the card is free

you receive £10 of Amazon credit for signing up

you get 0.5% cashback on all spend in Amazon credit (same rate as the John Lewis and ASDA cards)

you get 0.75% cashback on all Amazon spending (the John Lewis card gives 1% back on John Lewis and Waitrose spending, the ASDA card gives 1% on ASDA spending)

The card also looks pretty smart and is likely to be more of a hit with the boys / girls than carrying around an ASDA credit card.  The only downside is the interest rate which, at 21.9%, is very high – don’t touch this card if you ever roll over a balance.  The issuer is New Day.  Full details can be found here.  Representative APR 21.9% variable.

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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:

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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.

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Category

British Airways and Avios

Comments (97)

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

  • roberto says:
    13 Jan13 January 06:32

    OT to kick off with. My 18700 avis avios hit today for the 9th Dec 3 day promo. Paid with amex so that did not preclude the bonus.

  • Tony says:
    13 Jan13 January 06:59

    Also OT – huge thanks for the tweet yesterday about the Qatar sale fare from AMS to Tokyo. Bagged tickets for end of October. Nice easy 560 tier points for £560!

    • N says:
      13 Jan13 January 08:40

      I’m desperately on the lookout for flights to Tokyo! Dammit!

      • Rob says:
        13 Jan13 January 08:52

        You should be on our Twitter or Facebook feeds! I was shocked how many readers booked last night given that I don’t really push the social media stuff much.

        • the real harry1 says:
          13 Jan13 January 09:24

          is there a way to get tweets sent to an email address?

          • the real harry1 says:
            13 Jan13 January 10:16

            maybe somebody could try this: ‘ifttt has a trigger in the Twitter channel, called “New tweet by specific user”, that seems to be exactly what you’re looking for.’

        • Rod says:
          13 Jan13 January 09:36

          Has this definitely been withdrawn now for all dates? Sounds like a great fare given the exchange rate if they honour it.

    • Lumma says:
      13 Jan13 January 13:51

      Same here, been wanting to go to Japan for ages. Was able to book last night for what I’d expect to pay for economy, plus will get around 20000 avios and achieve status with BA for the first time. Outstanding!

  • SLS says:
    13 Jan13 January 07:00

    Quick one on the strike dates. I’m due to fly from LHR or LGW to the US early morning on Sunday 22nd. Is there likely to be any knock on impact to the Sunday? Thanks

    • Wivus says:
      13 Jan13 January 07:21

      Reported this morning that it was due to be impacting on LHR only.

      • Rob says:
        13 Jan13 January 08:19

        Gatwick is separate fleet so OK. Into Gatwick on Sun could be an issue but outbound will be fine.

        • SLS says:
          13 Jan13 January 12:28

          Ok so perhaps I should choose the LGW option to avoid any risk of spillover into LHR.

          Rob, out of interest how does AA business compare to BA? Similar products?

  • the real harry1 says:
    13 Jan13 January 07:06

    Today is T-355 for flying back to UK on 2 January 2018 in time for state schools start of spring term 3rd Jan.

    Blasted BA IT. Just booked 1x HBO, having first checked 4x Avios redemptions available. Now BA is saying there are no flights available on that day! Switched browser but still rubbish. Will give it a few minutes & I’m sure it’ll come back, I guess I did it with my HBO purchase but still completely flaky IT as usual.

    • Talay says:
      13 Jan13 January 07:30

      I am waiting to add a return to 2 outgoing flights booked a few weeks ago for Xmas 2017 and BA’s website is useless.

      Non functional across multiple browsers at some points, the specific area I need to look at is seemingly split across its old site, the current site and its new beta site. Their IT is beyond a joke.

      On a serious note, who should I call at midnight to get the return legs added ? UK offices closed – who is the best ?

      • the real harry1 says:
        13 Jan13 January 07:43

        Raffles did an article on that a few days ago

        • the real harry1 says:
          13 Jan13 January 07:47

          blast it

          still getting ‘Error – British Airways and its partners do not fly this route. Please consider alternative destinations or call your Executive Club Service Centre.’

          • Genghis says:
            13 Jan13 January 07:52

            Call them up. You’d surely not have to pay the service fee.

          • the real harry1 says:
            13 Jan13 January 08:00

            OK got my 4 Avios redemptions 🙂

            Talay: give me a shout if you can’t find that article

          • Talay says:
            13 Jan13 January 08:36

            @ the real harry1 – search here doesn’t work for me – I know, I’m dumb. Can you help re the BA call people at midnight UK time ? Can’t wait until 8/9am as flights will be gone.

            @ Genghis – I understand you don’t pay the fee if the return date was outside T355 when booking the outward leg.

          • the real harry1 says:
            13 Jan13 January 09:04

            Talay – search the HFP search box top right – ‘call centre’ brought it up straight away https://headforpoints.com/2017/01/03/which-british-airways-office-call-centre-is-open-now/

          • Anon says:
            13 Jan13 January 22:11

            Looks like BA have changed policy, refusing, yes refusing to allow UK based BAEC members to book flights on the USA line when they become available at 12am or even 1am.

            This is supposedly to be fairer and prevents US based BAEC members having an advantage over UK timezone

            However it does mean that anyone booking the seats online can and will gazump anyone that has to call for the rtn oif a 241 the morning after..

            Clear as mud ???

          • the real harry1 says:
            14 Jan14 January 07:18

            Could you say you are a Brit working in USA?

      • Genghis says:
        13 Jan13 January 07:44

        Wasn’t there an article on this recently?

      • Anon says:
        13 Jan13 January 07:46

        See Robs post specifically on this from a week or two ago.

        Not being mean, but I believe you gotta “pay to play” to “earn that return.”

    • Wally1976 says:
      13 Jan13 January 08:41

      I bow to your usual superior knowledge Harry but would’ve thought it would be prudent to snaffle the 4 avios redemptions first before booking the HBO just in case…

      • the real harry1 says:
        13 Jan13 January 09:02

        I was worried that getting the 4 redemptions first might push up the cash fare a bit, though I have done it the other way round in the past…as it happens 5 seats taken hasn’t moved the cash fare at all so far. Inevitable they’ll end up about £500 each in a couple of months’ time as 2/1/18 is THE day to fly back & the plane will be full as usual.

        The flights OUT, Friday 15/12/17 are already up to £135, giving my Avios points a value of 1.57p 🙂

        • Brian says:
          13 Jan13 January 09:30

          Presumably that ‘value of 1.57p’ only applies if the flights were £135 when you booked them… :))

          • the real harry1 says:
            13 Jan13 January 09:43

            moot point, certainly I would have bought them for £135 if I had no Avios & I had forgotten to buy @ T-355 when they were about £90. We want to fly on that day.

            Much more than £135 (say, £150 upper limit) & I would have explored Wizz etc, I would certainly never dream of paying £500/ seat for a 2 hour flight.

            Of course, it’s great fun to see the prices just before we fly and give yourself a wee pat on the back: hey, we saved £2000 there! – but ridiculous to honestly think that, as you intimate.

  • Gabriel says:
    13 Jan13 January 07:24

    Is this a good card for HMRC payments?

    • Rob says:
      13 Jan13 January 08:20

      Yes, because it is free money – albeit only 0.1% profit, so £1 on every £1000 of tax.

  • Lbc says:
    13 Jan13 January 07:25

    Seriously BA is on strike more often than Air France and Lufthansa combined… They should start making announcements about days when they are NOT on strike…

    • Andrew says:
      13 Jan13 January 07:34

      Nothing can compare to the propensity of Southern Railway strikes. The RMT and ASLEF seem to be dead set on making sure 2016/17 has more stike days than British Leyland!

  • Andy says:
    13 Jan13 January 08:33

    2017 the year of Strikes:

    British Airways
    Southern Rail
    London Underground

    Lickley Strikes coming soon about Driver Only Operation:

    Aviva Rail North
    Merseyrail

  • Mike says:
    13 Jan13 January 08:45

    Is there a way to find out if my flight/route is mixed fleet or not? (I’m flying on the BA285 on the 19th)

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