Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Bits: see BA’s new BOB menu, get 25% off Radisson Blu and Park Inn, BA / Avis deal renewed

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News in brief:

Changes to the British Airways buy-on-board menu

British Airways has made changes to their short-haul economy buy-on-board menu – and, if you click the link, you’ll see they don’t look great.

There is a new tapas meat and cheese platter with a couple of crackers, a new roasted falafel and spinach wrap as well as a turkey sandwich. But several (healthier) options have been taken off the menu and if you are avoiding wheat or gluten, you’ll have to be happy with cashews and crisps.

The couscous salad and the fruit salad have disappeared without a decent replacement. You can’t get olives any longer and the sweets selection has been reduced from 12 items to 5.  Yoghurt seem to have disappeared  too.  Basically, if it was at risk of going off, it has gone.

If you want to know what the menu was like before, here is a link to our buy-on-board article in January.

The new menu can be found on this ba.com page.

British Airways short haul food menu

Get 25% off Radisson Blu and Park Inn hotels

Radisoon Blu and Park Inn have launched a half term offer aimed at families.

Club Carlson members can get up to 25% off during the Autumn holiday, free wifi, kids under 16 stay for free in the UK and Ireland and kids under 12 eat for free.

This offer is valid for stays between 16th October and 27th October in the UK and Ireland and stays between 13th October and 12th November in Belgium and France.

The Radisson Blu page to book is here .

The Park Inn page to book is here.

You must book by 24th October to get up to 25% off.  The offer is also available at Radisson Red and Quorvus Collection.

Avis Budget renews British Airways IAG deal

IAG renews its exclusive Avis / Budget car rental deal

Avis Budget Group has renewed its car rental partnership with IAG.

The brands will remain the exclusive car rental partners of British Airways, Iberia and Iberia Express, with Aer Lingus to be added later.  The two brands will also remain the only car hire brands to earn points in any of the Avios loyalty schemes.

In general, I think the Avis partnership has worked well. The ability to earn bonus Avios by paying with a British Airways American Express card is a rare example of partner brands working together.

Regular Hertz renters will have to stick with crediting to Virgin Flying Club, although their 1,000 miles per rental deal is attractive.


How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (October 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

Get 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

30,000 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 great travel benefits – for a large 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.

Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa

10,000 points bonus – plus an extra 500 points for our readers Read our full review

There is also a British Airways American Express card for small businesses:

British Airways American Express Accelerating Business

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

Up to 80,000 points when you sign-up and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

Get up to 40,000 points as a sign-up offer 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.

Comments (99)

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

  • Stu R says:

    Noooooooo! They’ve stopped the chocolate covered salted pretzels and popcorn with popping candy mix! The was our ‘must have’ from the BoB menu, damn 🙁

  • Prins Polo says:

    Agree, haha.

  • Chris says:

    Overheard on a recent short haul flight:
    CC: “Sorry Sir, that item is not available – it’s a breakfast item and it’s now mid afternoon”
    PAX: “OK, I’ll just have a tea then please.”
    CC:”Sure, Sir, English Breakfast tea OK for you?”
    Made me laugh…..

  • Ben says:

    Was on flight to Amsterdam last week, 1st row in economy and they ran out of sandwiches on row two – they had a total of two available for a full flight – just crazy! They need to go back to offering something even basic wrap/sandwich. I refuse to pay for tea on BA so normally just raid the lounge before departure.

  • Fenny says:

    I flew EasyJet for the first time ever last month. I though the BoB food choices were excellent. Coming home, I was in row 22 on a packed flight, with the trolleys coming from front and back simultaneously. I think there were 3 bacon rolls left by the time they got to me, but I got my first choice in both directions.

  • TripRep says:

    Hmmm, Avis deal renewed…. Should we be hoping for another Iberia 18000 Avios for a £49 wknd rental before the end of the year? 😀

    (Sorry TRH, I know you missed out last time)

  • John says:

    Never been interested in BA’s BOB and never will be.

    OT, tried out Icelandair to KEF for the first time last week and quite impressed, the planes are pretty old but they have personal IFE and the J and PE seats are 2-2 instead of 3-3, BOB but soft drinks are free. I guess they are competing with direct flights to the US.

    No lounge in KEF for BA anyway, plus FI goes from LGW (more convenient for some) which has lower airport fees. Saga points are not that useful if you aren’t going to fly them often, although can be exchanged via points.com, however once you receive the card you can use points for BOB. The cheapest Y fares earn enough to buy something reasonable, unlike on BA. Booking direct has silly fees but you can avoid them with Amex Travel or Expedia etc.

    As for Avis, they seem to have a higher rate of problems than other rental firms, so will continue to avoid and use Hertz which (at the locations I rent, i.e. Australia) has always treated me right even when there is minor damage to the car, and once when there was severe traffic jam into the airport, I had filled up the tank but indicator had dropped to 7/8 by the time I arrived, they didn’t charge me.

    • Rakehey says:

      Bit unfair in my view, Avis always been great with me (apart from over-officious miserable staff in downtown San Francisco). Even to point when I’ve returned multiple cars absolutely filthy after long road trips and in once instance with a smashed windscreen. Each to their own.

  • Peter K says:

    One other gluten free option:
    Salted caramel hazelnut millionaire – gluten free biscuit.
    That doesn’t sway it for me however to want to fly BA sorry haul however.

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

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