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Bits: cheap one-way Avis rentals, more British Airways strikes

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News in brief:

Save up to £69 with Avis one-way rentals

Avis is currently running a ‘no one-way rental fee’ promotion.  This could come in handy if you want a cheap trip back home from Heathrow.

If you’re driving north from London’s airports this summer, you can save up to £69 which is the maximum standard one-way surcharge.

Your car needs to be picked up from Avis at Gatwick Airport, Heathrow Airport, Luton Airport or Stansted Airport and be dropped off at one of the following locations:

Airports: Edinburgh, Glasgow, Inverness, Manchester and Prestwick;

Downtown: Edinburgh, Glasgow, Glasgow Queen Street Train Station, Inverness and Manchester

This offer expires on 12th August and can be booked here.  Thanks to Caroline.

rsz_qatar_a320

BA potential mixed fleet strike

British Airways Mixed Fleet cabin crew have announced another two week strike, starting on 2nd August.

If the strike goes ahead, it will be the 11th strike since 2016.

Flights from Gatwick, Stansted and London City are not impacted, and the number of Heathrow cancellations during the current action appears to be modest.

During the previous strikes BA has been cancelling flights to Doha, moving passengers to Qatar Airways and freeing up cabin crew, as well as leasing nine fully crewed aircraft from Qatar Airways.  This means that more of us will be getting the chance to fly on a Qatar Airways short haul plane this summer.

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

Avis and Avis Preferred, British Airways and Avios, Qatar Airways and Privilege Club

Comments (90)

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

  • Nick M says:
    22 Jul22 July 08:52

    Re BA strikes – has there been any knock on effects, or are delays/reroutings confined to the strike period? (Flying out on the 17th)

  • Amtexfly says:
    22 Jul22 July 08:57

    Off topic question:
    If you’re a certain number of stays away from the next tier of status with a hotel loyalty scheme and your next stay is more than those number of days, is it worth splitting your booking up?

    For example if I need 5 nights to progress to the next tier but my next stay is 10 nights, should I do two bookings of 5 nights each to ensure I get the benefits of improved status on the last 5 nights?

    • Rob says:
      22 Jul22 July 09:47

      No. It always takes a few deals for stays to post and for status to upgrade, and it is likely you would have checked out before your first stay was processed. IHG takes 5 days, for example, and even then I’m not sure if status updates immediately.

      You MIGHT get the bonus points for having higher status but the programme will also merge your 2nd stay with your 1st when you check out, so the combined stay will still only count as one overall (although I know that wasn’t your question).

    • JamesB says:
      22 Jul22 July 09:47

      No, the hotel schemes count consecutive nights as one stay regardless of how you break them up. Only way around it is to flip 2 or more nearby hotels or break up stay at a single hotel with your name and your partners name on alternate bookings. Also, beware mixing points stays with cash stay, it will still count as one stay and you could lose points etc on the cash bookings too.

  • Lumma says:
    22 Jul22 July 09:00

    OT but BA related. BA flights to and from Amman are on an A321 according to their website. Is this guaranteed to be on of them with the real business class seats or could it be changed to a short haul version? As economy is classed as world traveller, does that include free food and drinks? Is Royal Jordanian a better option? Despite being higher in taxes and more miles off peak

    • Nick says:
      22 Jul22 July 10:50

      It’s supposed to be the mid-haul variant and AFAIK it always is. The only exception would be if one broke and they had to sub last-minute, but even then they have a slight surplus of these so I suspect they’d just move one from a Europe/domestic rotation.
      Either way, whatever turns up, the catering is the same, and yes this means free food and drinks for the whole aircraft.

    • Clive says:
      22 Jul22 July 11:00

      Nevertheless had a short haul on that route

  • Peter Taysum says:
    22 Jul22 July 09:29

    I found the BA one mild amusing, and was bored by one watch. Every time I fly BA; especially twice in a day (NCL) as a first world problem that’s pretty annoying. All blacks excellent, and love the Virgin one.

  • Concerto says:
    22 Jul22 July 09:48

    Yes the Virgin America safety demo is quite well done if a bit long and I quite like the TAP Portugal one with wooden marionettes. But am I the only one that finds all these stupid gimmicks represent a sad comment on our smartphone smombie generation with a 3-second attention span? What’s wrong with a traditional, and shorter, safety demo and paying attention for 3 minutes? I do it and I’m on planes all the time, often the same aircraft. Usual thing, check the exits, how to open them, check the life vest is where it should be. Is it so much to ask for or expect?

  • Concerto says:
    22 Jul22 July 09:57

    Actually, I rather like the Qatar one. It somehow stays true to being a safety video and is a bit more focused (and shorter, obviously). I’m just not sure if the last image, showing the life jacket being inflated once again (was that necessary?) might encourage people to prematurely inflate their vests.

  • Genghis says:
    22 Jul22 July 10:47

    OT If one cancels an IHG reward night booking, does the night go back into the reward inventory?

    To explain, I have an IHG reward night booked and currently for that date it shows no availability but would like to use my IHG Creation reward night instead. I.e. If I cancel will I be able to rebook?

    • Rob says:
      22 Jul22 July 10:50

      Never, ever seen this discussed. Wonder if the call centre could just switch it?

    • Mr Dee says:
      22 Jul22 July 20:04

      Yes did this the other week when I needed to change to 3 nights instead of 2, pretty much straight away in my case.

  • Genghis says:
    22 Jul22 July 11:24

    OT. Just called MBNA to cancel my Virgin Black and my wife’s Virgin White. I was offered 5k bonus miles for spending £1k in 90 days but declined as it would mean another £140 in fees. Wife also offered this so we duly accepted. Might be worth calling up today if you were thinking of cancelling anyway…

    • Roger says:
      22 Jul22 July 19:05

      Followed you there Genghis.
      Same offer, apparently will receive a letter confirming the same.

      • Genghis says:
        22 Jul22 July 19:07

        Nice one! No brainer in my opinion. 5.5% return on £1k and we’ll then call up to cancel…

    • Mr Dee says:
      22 Jul22 July 20:05

      Tried this and got offered nothing 🙁

    • The Original Nick. says:
      23 Jul23 July 06:56

      Genghis, make sure you get those 5000 VS miles. I was promised the same but never got the miles so I had to call and get them credited.

      • Genghis says:
        23 Jul23 July 08:21

        I’ve had problems getting VS miles from MBNA before but it seems the whiff of a formal complaint gets them posted pretty sharpish.

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