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Bits: Luxury Travel Diary auctions, new BA strikes, new Finnair long haul routes

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News in brief:

Luxury Travel Diary auctions launched

The Luxury Travel Diary site dropped me a line about another wave of its auctions closing soon.

Most of the items offered tend to go for far less than the standard retail price.  Interesting options closing in the next 48 hours include five nights in Koh Lanta, Thailand, two nights at a boutique hotel in Paris and three nights in a riad in Marrakech.  Not everything will work for you, either in terms of location, length or dates, but you’ll probably find something of interest if you poke around.

BA A380

New BA strike dates announced

A further six days of strike action by British Airways ‘mixed fleet’ crew has been announced.  The dates are:

  • 5th – 7th February
  • 9th – 11th February

The impact from the earlier strikes has been minimal, with flights on popular routes merged and a few charter planes brought in.  BA claims that everyone will get to where they are going on the day they are booked.

Remember that City and Gatwick flights are not impacted at all.  At present it is not possible to use the strike as an excuse to change or refund any non-refundable tickets you may hold for those dates.  This page of ba.com has up to date strike information.

Finnair A350

New Finnair long haul routes announced

We like to cover Finnair on Head for Points because, as a oneworld member, you can earn and spend Avios points on its flights.

It also has an excellent business class product on its new A350 aircraft (I reviewed it here) and often has excellent low fares from London, Manchester and Edinburgh via Helsinki.

With four A350-900 aircraft arriving this year, the airline has announced four new leisure routes to operate over Winter 2017.  These are:

Goa – twice weekly from 29th November

Havana – twice weekly from 1st December

Puerto Plata (Dominican Republic) – weekly from 30th November

Puerta Vallarta (Mexico) – weekly from 19th November

As Helsinki to Goa is under 4,000 miles, it will be 120,000 Avios in Business Class.  This compare to 150,000 Avios with BA on a peak date from London to, say, Delhi as that is over 4,000 miles.  You still need to get to Helsinki of course!

(Finnair to Dubai is also interesting for a similar reason. I should do another article on that.)

If any good fare sales emerge I will cover them as they tend to be a good way to pick up British Airways tier points in style.  You can find out more about Finnair on their site here.

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.

Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa

Huge 30,000 points bonus until 12th May 2024 Read our full review

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, Finnair and Finnair Plus

Comments (77)

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

  • Duarte says:
    30 Jan30 January 05:38

    Good Morning, what is the best way to book Finnair flights with Avios? On the BA website? Thank you.

  • Rod says:
    30 Jan30 January 06:46

    When I checked last night avios availability to Goa on AY was extremely limited for Dec-Jan. Only found 2 dates with Y seats (only 2 seats) and no dates with business. Hope this will increase.

    • Roger says:
      30 Jan30 January 06:59

      Yes.
      Saw that too.
      Wish they started flying from this summer.

      Also could not see any availability at all for Business class awards.

  • Stu R says:
    30 Jan30 January 07:05

    BA is becoming more and more unreliable as an airline. I hesitate to book non-refundable hotels rooms now when I’m relying on BA to honour the contract at the times and dates booked months in advance.

    Yesterday, our friends were due to fly from GLA to LGW, a 1h 20m flight but it was cancelled and they were rebooked via LHR. Instead of somebody waiting at Heathrow to take those rebooked passengers to LGW, they had to visit various different desks before they were finally given a voucher to use on the National Express coach to LGW. 3 hours late arriving home from a domestic flight!

    Now to watch them announce strikes on the very day I’m relying on them to get me to PSA for my QR biz deal to Auckland …. !!

  • Ahop says:
    30 Jan30 January 07:38

    OT: is there a pattern to the Virgin Credit Card(s) higher bonuses?

    • Genghis says:
      30 Jan30 January 08:11

      Maybe next time Amex starts the BA Amex offer…

    • Rob says:
      30 Jan30 January 08:43

      They copy BA with a one week delay, although in the current case they didn’t feel they could sustain it for as long.

    • Stuart says:
      30 Jan30 January 13:16

      Call into a Virgin Clubhouse next time you are passing through a London airport and ask to speak with the credit card lady. The deal offered in the Clubhouse is far better than the public deal.

  • Tom h says:
    30 Jan30 January 08:07

    Buy on board stand with competition and “goody” bag at paddington station this morning.

    • Genghis says:
      30 Jan30 January 08:10

      What do you get? A packet of crisps that you would have got onboard?

      • Ro says:
        30 Jan30 January 08:18

        Or maybe free water

      • Tom H says:
        30 Jan30 January 08:21

        I got a 40g packet of (sea) salt and (balsamic) vinegar (hand cooked) crisps and a brownie bar.
        the competition was something about wining some ET flights.

      • the real harry1 says:
        30 Jan30 January 20:25

        probably get Cruz with a glove flicking you left & right across your face

        ‘bastardo que tu es! eet la sheet, mal y verdammt toreador manqué! – I weel not give you Moor than 1000 Avios compo for your meesing eet some sheet & dreenk some sheet freebie food & dreek on my NewVuelingBA airline you complete sheet’

  • Oyster says:
    30 Jan30 January 08:17

    Partner redemptions just don’t have the value they used to have.

    Never enough availability for a family, peak prices all year round and no 2for1.

    • Rob says:
      30 Jan30 January 08:40

      BA has no control over availability on partners! Qatar usually release 4J per flight. We have 4J on JAL over Easter for a mid-haul and 4 PE on JAL into China.

      For light Avios users it clearly isn’t attractive. For users who use their 241 on another trip and are on a peak day anyway, it makes no difference unless leg-by-leg pricing hits you.

      • @mkcol says:
        30 Jan30 January 09:01

        Happened to be looking at MIA in October, stumbled across a flight with 7 J seats available. Was rather amazed!

  • the real harry1 says:
    30 Jan30 January 08:40

    O/T reminder Tesco 250 points
    From thin crust pizzas to cost weekend escapes, getting even more from your vouchers is easy. Especially when we’re giving you 250 bonus points.
    All you have to do is try one of our Partners before 28th February 2017 and we’ll turn those points into a £2.50 voucher in your statement.
    Go on, it’s the perfect excuse to say ‘yesssss’ to trying something new.
    To claim the 250 points, the person named on the coupon must exchange with a registered Clubcard Partner using their corresponding Clubcard membership before 28/2/17.
    Clubcard points are awarded once, for the first qualifying exchange with a Tesco Clubcard Partner. Points from the offer will be added to your May 2017 statement.

    ***

    bit worried this is targeted – I didn’t get the mailshot – but surely worth a go even if you normally hoard Tesco points

    • Marcus says:
      30 Jan30 January 09:48

      What exactly do I need to do to get this to work, e.g. at Pizza Express or Zizzi’s?

    • slonik says:
      30 Jan30 January 10:02

      I was thinking of trying this (also not targeted) but seem to be unable to access the Tesco Clubcard website. Getting an error message from Tesco with redirection back to their overall homepage. Anyone else having problems?

      • Alan says:
        30 Jan30 January 12:02

        You’re not abroad are you? Just Clubcard site is blocked from all non-UK access.

    • Fenny says:
      30 Jan30 January 13:42

      Clubcard bonuses have been so abysmal in this last collection period and Waitrose have offered such better offers that my CC total was 297, including a bonus of 150.

  • ADK says:
    30 Jan30 January 09:02

    OT for the 2016 offer would flying Finair LHR HEL on a BA coded flight be valid for Triple Avios?

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