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Bits: could YOU stop BA’s next IT meltdown?, 500 bonus Avios from Amex working

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News in brief:

How you can stop the next British Airways IT meltdown

After losing an estimated £80m due to the total IT failure a couple of months ago, British Airways has a plan.  Maybe you know someone who can help.

Business Resilience Executive

Are you interested in working on crisis management, emergency response and business continuity across British Airways? If so, the role of Business Resilience Executive could be for you.

This new position offers a fantastic opportunity to join the Business Resilience team in a challenging role that will require you to work with colleagues across the whole of British Airways.

You will be responsible for the administration and development of the team’s resilience plans, processes, learning portfolio, communications, facilities and technology. As such, you will be a core member of the team that helps ensure the airline is in a constant state of readiness to deal with any disruptive event – through both planning ahead and responding appropriately.

This role will allow you to develop a great understanding of the wider airline and partner operation and build personal and organisational resilience in the face of the most challenging situations.

Key skills presumably involve a) stopping weekend contractors pressing the big red ‘off’ button at the data centre and b) making sure Alex Cruz’ hi-viz vest is ready for use at all times.  Apply on ba.com here.  Thanks to Marc.

Alex Cruz

That odd email from Amex …..

If you have a British Airways American Express card, you probably got an email from Amex yesterday asking you to sign up for a new cashback deal.

All you had to do was spend £20 across WH Smith, Ocado, Shell and the Post Office, in as many transactions as you like, and you received 500 bonus Avios.

There was a button to ‘save to your card’, but it didn’t work.  Amex told one reader yesterday that it hadn’t been added to the system yet.  It told another that all 20,000 registrations had already gone, which I doubt is true as I clicked through within 30 seconds of receiving the email.

It did start working at about 9pm last night and I was able to register myself and my wife successfully.  If you tried and failed during the day yesterday, try again now before the 20,000 registrations cap is reached.

PS.  Talking of Amex IT cock-ups, American Express has just told holders of the British Airways Corporate American Express Card that it has fixed an IT error in setting up new Avios accounts.  This error has been in place since 2015.  Amex has only just got around to dealing with it, even though it impacted everyone who did not have an Avios account in place at the point of their BA Corporate Amex application.

There is also an IT issue regarding the Starwood American Express card which Amex still refuses to admit exists and which cost me 10,000 SPG points.  This has been going on for at least 3 years …..


Want to earn more points from credit cards? – April 2024 update

If you are looking to apply for a new credit card, here are our top recommendations based on the current 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

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.

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

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

Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard

18,000 bonus points and 1.5 points for every £1 you spend Read our full review

Earning miles and points from small business cards

If you are a sole trader or run a small company, you may also want to check out these offers:

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

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

Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa

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

For a non-American Express option, we also recommend the Barclaycard Select Cashback card for sole traders and small businesses. It is FREE and you receive 1% cashback on your spending.

Barclaycard Select Cashback Business Credit Card

1% cashback uncapped* on all your business spending (T&C apply) Read our full review

Comments (101)

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

  • Matthew says:

    What was the SPG error Rob? I’ve found that if you earn referral points in a particular month whereby you don’t have any spending on the card, the points get zeroed from your Amex account and then don’t appear in your SPG account until the next sweep occurs after some spend has occurred. You have to keep an eye on it though as I lost 5,000 points this way and had to make lots of calls to get it back – eventually!

    • Rob says:

      That’s the one …

      • Alan says:

        Ahh interesting, good to be aware of! 🙂 Now the question is whether time to meet sign-up spend and churn before SPG Amex disappears!

  • Zack says:

    I received the email and it took 24 hours From receipt to appear on my iPhone app. Signed up and away we go.

  • AB says:

    O/T – IHG 5000 bonus points offer

    Received an email from IHG again after failing to register for the offer first time round….

    Seems to have worked this time as I have received the confirmation email soon after registering.

  • kevino says:

    Anybody know if it can be added to Lloyds or MBNA Amex cards, and if so how?

    • Drolma-la says:

      If it could be added, it would be via sync.americanexpress.co.uk .

  • Anonym says:

    That photo of Alex Cruze just reminds me constipation and a problematic session in the toilet.
    Out Alex

  • Ross says:

    Although you say as a BA Amexcarholder I “probably” got the email, I didn’t. I also didn’t find the AirBnB or Uber offers they ran in he past on my account – I use the app mainly. Checking the desktop today, it seems some other offers are there but not on the app. Not sure why this is the case…

  • Simon says:

    Had the offer on Amex Gold and it went live this morning. Also managed to get BA Amex added via Amex webchat. Thanks for the tip off!

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

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