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Bits: British Airways drops Kos flights, good BA luxury European deals, upstairs on a BA 747

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News in brief:

British Airways drop Kos flights

British Airways has decided to cancel the Kos route next year.  This is unfortunate, because tickets have been on sale for 5 months ….

The service was due to run between 5th May and 29th September 2018.

Cash passengers will be offered a re-route via Vienna, changing onto the Austrian Airlines service to Kos.  There is also an option to fly to Athens and then change to an Aegean service.  In both cases, business class passengers will be downgraded to economy for the second leg as they are ‘one class’ flights.

Note that Vienna is an 80 tier points route and Athens – like Kos – is a 160 tier points route.  If you have booked in Club Europe then it is easier to go via Athens if you want to be sure of your tier points.  BA should ‘make you square’ if you go via Vienna but it is likely to require a few emails back and forth.

Avios passengers will not be re-routed.  Your Avios will be refunded and you will have to make other arrangements at your own cost.

Passengers who are on a codeshare and not travelling on BA-issued tickets (ie a ticket number which does not start 125-) will also not be re-routed and will have to claim a refund from the airline with which they booked.

British Airways launches short haul Club Europe holidays sale

If you are planning a short break over the Winter, BA Holidays has launched a ‘Club Europe holidays’ short break promotion.

The special deals are listed here on ba.com.

These offer excellent value for money compared to the cost of booking flights on their own.  You will also get at least 80 tier points each – more for longer routes – which makes this a cheap way to help your plans to earn or retain your British Airways Executive Club status.

This article lists the BA Club Europe routes which earn 160 tier points return.

You need to:

book by midnight on Monday 23rd October

travel between 1st November 2017 and 18th March 2018

These are the headline prices being promoted by British Airways Holidays, although there is no guarantee this price will be available on the dates you want.  All hotels are four or five star.

  • Bilbao business class flights + 3 nights hotel £272 pp
  • Paris business class flights + 3 nights hotel £284 pp
  • Amsterdam business class flights + 3 nights hotel £286 pp
  • Istanbul business class flights + 3 nights hotel £299 pp
  • Athens business class flights + 3 nights hotel £420 pp
  • Palermo business class flights + 7 nights hotel from £308 pp
  • Larnaca business class flights + 7 nights hotel from £585 pp
  • All inclusive Malaga business class flights + 7 nights hotel from £421 pp
  • Palermo business class flights + 7 nights hotel £308 pp
  • Malaga business class flights + 7 nights hotel £370 pp
  • Mallorca (Palma) business class flights + 7 nights hotel £374 pp
  • Larnaca business class flights + 7 nights hotel £585 pp
  • Krakow business class flights + 3 nights hotel £311 pp
  • Berlin business class flights + 3 nights hotel £340 pp
  • Prague business class flights + 3 nights hotel £345 pp
  • Vienna business class flights + 3 nights hotel £353 pp
  • Budapest business class flights + 3 nights hotel £383 pp

Take a look at BA Holidays here for more details.

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How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (April 2025)

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.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on the ‘free for a year’ American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card is increased from 20,000 Membership Rewards points to 30,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (30,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on American Express Platinum is increased from 50,000 Membership Rewards points to a huge 80,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (80,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 30,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

80,000 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, and the standard card is FREE. Capital on Tap cards also have no FX fees.

Capital on Tap Visa

NO annual fee, NO FX fees and points worth 1 Avios per £1 Read our full review

Capital on Tap Pro Visa

10,500 points (=10,500 Avios) plus good benefits 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

50,000 points when you sign-up 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

Comments (125)

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

  • Kinkell says:
    21 Oct21 October 10:39

    Totally agree,UD is a very nice way to travel. Booked several times, and indeed, have gone F during daytime in the nose, but UD if its an o/n flight.

  • TripRep says:
    21 Oct21 October 10:55

    Very cool video, big fan of KSC, seen a few launches there including 2 night launches of Endeavour Space Shuttle.

  • TripRep says:
    21 Oct21 October 10:59

    ps I assume you meant LGW rather than LHR?

  • RussellH says:
    21 Oct21 October 11:13

    Compltely OT, but this is Bits…

    I assume that I am not the only one to have had an e-mail from IHG saying that “from early 2018 you will be able to earn IHG points at all Kimpton Hotels, and shortly after that be able to redeem at Kimpton too”?

  • W says:
    21 Oct21 October 11:13

    Yes 747 UD is great fun & better service. Have to pay is to get up there if I’m lowly status :((

    It will be a shame when those elegant beauties are retired.

    Iconic aviation age. You can’t replace that nose cone.

  • Leo says:
    21 Oct21 October 11:14

    Love UD on BA. Just did UD PE on VS out of Gatwick last week . Actually much preferred the PE main cabin which surprised me.

  • Roger says:
    21 Oct21 October 11:26

    OT BAPP 241.

    Would you buy BAPP 241 voucher for £210.
    Here is the math. Have used BAPP and already got Sign up bonus for spending 3k.
    Now debating whether to spend additional 7k and bag the voucher before cancelling the card. This will likely be Billhop payment.

    • Alan says:
      21 Oct21 October 11:40

      If I knew I would definitely be using the voucher and it was going to save me 40k+ Avios I’d go for it (the more Avios to be saved the keener, obviously!). If only saving 30k then I’d probably not go for it – all depends what you value Avios at and which route you’re (realistically) going to use it for.

    • Rob says:
      21 Oct21 October 11:47

      Really depends on how many Avios you have. If you are close to, say, 120k then the 241 will open up a lot of Club World routes you couldn’t otherwise hit.

      If you Avios pot is low and you end up redeeming to Hamburg then clearly it is waste.

      Given that you’ll earn 10,500 Avios on the £7k then it is really a net cost of £100 or so which is really a no brainer.

      • Genghis says:
        21 Oct21 October 12:06

        And if you factor in your normal spend rate in calculating the prorata refund (assuming you would go for the 241 without using Billhop), it makes it even cheaper

    • Worzel says:
      21 Oct21 October 12:14

      Roger,

      The Avios Hopper, in my view, has overspilt for some time- I doubt that BA will open the Chute to allow better flow.

      As Rob says (11:17) depends on the stash(that you don’t own!) -so…….!

      Genghis mentioned a few days ago -Supply/Demand.

      My view is that there will be a further devaluation in the not too distant future.

      Promises of extra seats will be made- however, the overall position situation will remain the same!

      A Conundrum 🙂 .

  • Rob says:
    21 Oct21 October 11:54

    We were invited on the retirement flight from London to SanFran next Saturday but both of us are away …..

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

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