Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Bits: more BA strikes, BA (re)launches Flight Pass, triple Miles & More with Best Western

Links on Head for Points may support the site by paying a commission.  See here for all partner links.

News in brief:

More British Airways strikes announced

The UNITE union has announced another batch of ‘mixed fleet’ cabin crew strike dates.  This covers 16th August to 30th August, which means it is back to back with the current strike.

You probably know the score by now.  Only Heathrow flights are affected, with Gatwick, London City and regional flights to Europe all OK (these are not flown by ‘mixed fleet’ crew).

British Airways will continue to use its nine leased Qatar Airways aircraft for some short haul flights, which means free food and drink and, in Club Europe, better seats than you would normall get.  Some flights will be cancelled, but BA will aim to get you to your destination on the same day as your original booking.

You do NOT get EU261 compensation if your flight is cancelled due to the strike.

British Airways

British Airways (re)launches Flight Pass

This never went away, but I noticed that Flight Pass is being widely promoted again on the British Airways website.

Old British Midland flyers may remember that BMI let you buy a ‘carnet’ ticket which gave you 10 flights on a particular route for a discount – and occasionally came with free BMI status thrown in.

British Airways has been trialling something similar and it now seems permanent.  Via this OptionTown link, you can buy route passes for economy travel on flights from Heathrow, Gatwick and City.

There are a huge number of pricing permutations based on how many people would share your pass, how many tickets you want, what expiry date you are willing to accept and how close to the date of travel you want to book.  You can buy a pass for one route or for an entire country.

For example, you can buy 12 one-way flights from Heathrow to Newcastle for £605, so £50 each.  This includes taxes.  You must use them within 3 months AND must book 90 days in advance.  At the other extreme, 12 one-way tickets bookable up to 4 hours in advance will cost you £131 per seat.

Given the huge number of pricing options, it is impossible to say if this offers decent savings or not.  Note that you can only book return flights with Flight Pass which means that it is less flexible than you may think – you may be able to book your outbound with just four hours notice but you need to lock in the return at the same time (changeable for a fee).

You have last seat availability.   If there are still seats for sale, irrespective of the price, you can book them – as long as you are inside the booking window of your Flight Pass.  There are no blackout dates or minimum stays.

There is one interesting tweak.  Assuming that nothing has changed, flight passes will book into L class which means you will earn 10 tier points per leg, which is 5 more tier points than you would receive from a standard discount economy flight.  Flight Passes allowing 4-hour booking should still book into B class which earns 20 tier points each way.

Note that you cannot upgrade a Flight Pass ticket with Avios into Club Europe.

Get triple Miles & More miles with Best Western

Best Western is running a triple miles promotion with Lufthansa Miles & More throughout August.

Until 31st August you will get triple Miles & More miles when staying at selected hotels in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Croatia, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovenia and Slovakia.

You MUST register for this offer via this page on the Miles & More website.  If your Best Western profile is currently not set to collecting Miles & More miles you must change your Best Western profile on this website to earn miles instead of points.

PS. If you are not a regular Head for Points visitor, why not sign up for our FREE weekly or daily newsletters? They are full of the latest Avios, airline, hotel and credit card points news and will help you travel better. To join our 65,000 free subscribers, click the button below or visit this page of the site to find out more. Thank you.

best hotel loyalty promotions

Hotel offers update – March 2025:

Want to earn more hotel points?  Click here to see our complete list of promotions from the major hotel chains or use the ‘Hotel Offers’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.

Want to buy hotel points?

  • Hilton Honors is offering an 80%-100% bonus when you buy points – no closing date is given. Click here to buy.
  • Marriott Bonvoy is offering a 45% bonus when you buy points by 30th March 2025. Click here to buy.
  • World of Hyatt is offering a 25% discount (equivalent to a 33% bonus) when you buy points by 14th April 2025. Click here to buy.
Category

Best Western Rewards, British Airways and Avios, Lufthansa and Miles & More

Comments (91)

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

  • Roger says:
    5 Aug5 August 15:34

    Any ideas on how do I change Frequent Flyer details for my upcoming Eurowings flight? I want to change from UA to LH Miles and more

  • jason says:
    5 Aug5 August 15:58

    Genghis how did you get with using Tesco vouchers on uber when abroad?

    • Genghis says:
      5 Aug5 August 16:43

      Didn’t work

      • hugo says:
        5 Aug5 August 23:04

        the barclaycard promotion abroad is certainly lucrative.
        pay for 10 uber rides in South America – little more than 2 or 3 pounds each and get 1 free ride which is stored up until you get back to the UK and is worth 15.

  • Cate says:
    5 Aug5 August 19:32

    Can we use a 2-4-1 voucher on the Qatar flights that are covering BA’s slots?

    • Johnny_c-l says:
      5 Aug5 August 19:42

      Whilst I’ve never used (or bothered earning) a 2 for 1, I don’t see why not as you’d be booking a BA flight which they then choose to subcontract to Qatar.

      • Cate says:
        5 Aug5 August 19:54

        Thank you. I’ve had a look at the T&C’s but not really sure if it’s that clear cut. I may try a dummy booking and see what happens.

    • Rob says:
      5 Aug5 August 20:43

      Probably not, because Avios redemptions price without RFS and without off-peak pricing, eg exactly as if they were Qatar flights (which they are).

      • Cate says:
        5 Aug5 August 22:13

        Thanks Rob. Probably wouldn’t get availability at such short notice either.

        • Nick says:
          6 Aug6 August 10:14

          Don’t trust everything you see on ba.com! These flights can be used on RFS and with vouchers, but you have to call up. It’s true the website is treating them as QR flights but this is a recognised mistake, they’re (subcontracted) BA flights and the phone agents will price them accordingly if you ask.

  • Daniel says:
    6 Aug6 August 10:58

    Looking at FRA-LCY/LHR flight passes they all require that “Flights must be booked in advance at least 30 days before travel.” – does that mean I must book the flight pass 30 days before my first flight or does it actually really mean what it says i.e. I cannot select flights which are closer than 30 days from now?

    • Rob says:
      6 Aug6 August 11:49

      Latter. Try to buy and you can – for more £ – change the 30 days to anything up to 4 hours.

  • joelyp says:
    6 Aug6 August 15:42

    Paul,

    Agreed that it is misleading regarding returns. Unclear also if the flights booked allow for free changes on the day of flight.

    I also commute on the NCL-LHR route, and as long as I can be bothered to stay up until 00:01 on the day of the flight, almost always get a suitable alternative flight change free of charge (whether economy or domestic Club). I know I’m not the only one, as seats often disappear by 00:05.

    Therefore I often book later (maybe 2 or 3 weeks ahead, when I know I’m not likely to be flying elsewhere) but choose the cheapest flight on the day I wish to travel (almost always the last flight of the day), and change it same day. That said, it is rarely critical I fly on a particular flight, so I do have the luxury of being flexible on timing if needed. It’s pretty clear, also, that the 09:00 NCL->LHR is the least available of the day, because it is not stupidly early, connects to most transatlantic flights, and is only an A319 (relatively small).

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

New to Head for Points?

Welcome!  We’re the UK’s most-read source of business travel, Avios, frequent flyer and hotel loyalty news. Let us improve how you travel. Got any questions? Ask them in our forums.

Get 25,000 Avios with the Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

GET A SIGN-UP BONUS OF 18,000 VIRGIN POINTS!

Latest Forum Posts

Get 80,000 bonus points (worth 80,000 Avios) and £400 of dining credit with The Platinum Card (Offer ends 27th May)

Check reward flight availability instantly for free!

See a whole year of reward seat availability on one page at SeatSpy.com

Get up to 10,000 bonus Hilton Honors points

Booking a luxury hotel?

Our luxury hotel booking service offers you GUARANTEED extra benefits over booking direct. Works with Four Seasons, Mandarin Oriental, The Ritz Carlton, St Regis and more. We've booked £1.7 million of rooms to date. Click for details.

SME? GET THE ONLY FREE SMALL BUSINESS CREDIT CARD WHICH CAN EARN AVIOS

Get points worth 30,000 Avios with 'first year free' American Express Gold (ends 27th May)

The UK's biggest frequent flyer website uses cookies, which you can block via your browser settings. Continuing implies your consent to this policy. Our privacy policy is here.

Got it!