You can no longer earn Avios points from Pizza Express

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• Stu R says:

  2 Feb2 February 04:55

  Pack for a Purpose sounds like a nice idea until someone there abuses it and hides contraband in your haul landing you in in the Bangkok Hilton! Not for me I’m afraid ….

  • Mr(s) Entitled says:

    2 Feb2 February 05:16

    I assume you get to pack yourself. It’s not a courier service. Just leave the prescription meds at home.

  • Zoe says:

    2 Feb2 February 05:27

    You buy the stationary (or whatever is actually required at your destination) and in Barbados the charity project collects it from your hotel. Seems like a good use of the extra hold allowance that Head for Points readers are likely to have.

    • Anna says:

      2 Feb2 February 06:57

      We visited Kenya a couple of times some years ago and packed all sorts of things to hand out to local children. It’s quite sobering to think about the basic things we take for granted – e.g. writing materials, toothbrushes, socks and t-shirts – which are classed as luxuries by many.

  • Stu R says:

    2 Feb2 February 07:13

    Ah right, I get it now – there was me thinking you were helping out literally as a courier service (doh!). Teach me to read things fully before making assumptions …. sorry!

  • Tilly says:

    2 Feb2 February 07:30

    The scheme sounds brilliant. Must try remember if we visit any of those places.

  • JamesB says:

    2 Feb2 February 07:52

    Thailand isn’t on the list but the Bangkok Hiltons are rather nice 🙂

    • Stu R says:

      2 Feb2 February 20:12

      Thailand is on the list – at the very bottom ….

  • John says:

    2 Feb2 February 09:38

    Hmm, I thought the same as you before reading the site.

    I’m not so sure about this – it doesn’t seem very environmentally friendly for individual travellers to go out and buy small amounts of crayons or toys and then transport them over large distances by air. For places like Barbados, everything they want is probably available locally unless it’s just after a hurricane or something. Why not just donate £50 and let the charities buy what they really need themselves?

    Just over 10 years ago I did something like this for Kenya with my school. While the teachers were getting drunk we ventured out to a local supermarket. All the supplies we had brought were being sold at half the price we had paid in the UK. We also brought 3 computers (must have been 50kg) but nobody listened to me when packing them, so all the hard drives were damaged beyond repair. The orphanage sold them as scrap metal.

    It would make more sense to bring supplies donated from UK organisations that would otherwise have been thrown away, and you can always inspect everything yourself to be sure there are no illegal items.

    • Lady London says:

      2 Feb2 February 15:11

      Yes, via charities in some countries I sometimes wonder whether things will end up being sold for private gain in the local markets. But it’s a really good idea to think about what local people might need if you visit somewhere and perhaps bring things to hand directly.

    • Nerock says:

      2 Feb2 February 21:34

      Exactly this just helps to increase CO2 footprint further, there are lot more efficient ways to provide those in need with what they need, sourced locally, thus helping the local economy and using efficient ways of transport for goods

      • Cat says:

        3 Feb3 February 13:16

        When we went to Kenya and Tanzania on safari, my friend and I had 5 extra items of hold luggage that we weren’t going to use. I asked friends and family, as well as my school (they were moving sites, and needed to get rid of a higher number of old text books etc), for anything that they were thinking of throwing away, and justified the carbon footprint by reusing items that would otherwise go into a landfill.
        Anyway, we found a school / orphanage that BADLY needed resources, and gave a huge haul of stuff to them toys, games, books, art supplies, sports gear. I’m glad we did it – I managed to feel worthy for flying first class!

• Nigel says:

  2 Feb2 February 06:52

  Even though BHX is less than a 20 min drive along the M42, I always give it a wide berth except for domestic or Western Eurooean flights. Its atrocious passenger service and facilities is shameful and until this (mis) management attitude changes, others, like me, will drive the 90 miles to LHR. It came as no surprise whatsoever to me to read yesterday that the BHX BOS route had failed due to “lack of demand” well before the first flight even flew! Quite why they think that Toronto or Newark or any other North American destination will be a success heaven only knows. BHX has a long history of attempts to fly to the USA by various carriers but it simply cannot attract the clientele.
  The airport is heaving in the school Summer holidays when the masses fly to Spain and when religious affairs take place in the East but other than that its simply useful for domestic travel. It was at its peak when BA built the Eurohub. Since they departed, regrettably, the airport has gone to pot and shows no sign of competing unless BA return, full on.

  • Chris L says:

    2 Feb2 February 08:36

    Nigel, I’m not sure I agree regarding atrocious passenger service. I’ve always found BHX to be one of the easiest airports to use. It manages to be both compact but offer decent options for food etc, and a choice of lounges, and excellent transport connections (10 mins from central Birmingham, 70 mins from London). 2017 was its busiest ever year with over 13m passengers using the airport. It’s well served by some Eastern carriers – e.g. Emirates, Qatar, Air India, Turkish, and most of the key European heavyweights connect to their hubs – Lufthansa, SWISS, Air France, Aer Lingus, Iberia, KLM. Yes, when compared to Heathrow, it is not a hub for a LH carrier, so can’t compete in that respect, but you can get a decent connection to the USA via Dublin. A lot of the existing BA routes were taken over by Flybe, so I’m not sure that a full-scale BA return would make a huge amount of difference.

    • Tony says:

      2 Feb2 February 08:58

      I’m with you. Living along the m40 (not literally) I can get to bhx slightly faster than lhr and will head North whenever I can.

      Yes the terminal is a bit rough around the edges but the time savings with no holding for takeoff or landing, plus avoiding London airspace (40 mins to Scotland, anyone?) make it hugely more efficient than Heathrow.

      • ankomonkey says:

        2 Feb2 February 11:25

        And immigration queues at BHX are short and you get through quickly. This is the opposite to my LHR experience.

      • Lady London says:

        2 Feb2 February 15:13

        Amen to that. Heathrow immigration is a really sore point a lot of the time.

        • Rob says:

          2 Feb2 February 15:26

          Just walked out of T3 in 30 seconds, helped by not having the kids so I could use the (empty) egates.

      • ankomonkey says:

        2 Feb2 February 17:38

        Granted! I should have said T5 immigration with my kids.

  • Andrew says:

    2 Feb2 February 10:46

    Budget carrier flights to a city where there is little in the way of affordable hotel accommodation doesn’t make sense – especially when the main carriers all offer cheap flights pretty much all year round anyway.

    Newark and Toronto are also very well served.

    Is there not a gap in the market for a budget carrier to serve two of Indianapolis, Pittsburgh, Cincinatti,Cleveland etc a couple of times a week?

    If I could be confident of an Embraer on the BHX-EDI run and the parking was cheaper than Heathrow, I’d seriously consider using BHX more often.

    • Chris L says:

      2 Feb2 February 10:59

      I’m def with you re an Embraer on the BHX-EDI run!! But there’s no competition on the route…go figure. Also, I think you have a point that BHX should be looking to fill in the destination gaps at LHR. To their credit, I believe the new Air India service to Amritsar is the first direct UK connection.

• Sir Richard B says:

  2 Feb2 February 06:53

  This is a great cause. My island is on the list as my house recently blew down. Any help rebuilding it is most welcome. Cheers.

  • Anna says:

    2 Feb2 February 07:00

    I’m on my way with a few cases of Chateau Lafitte and Bollinger for your wine cellar – I hear you had to live off your reserves during the hurricane!

    • Cate says:

      2 Feb2 February 12:46

      🙂

  • LB says:

    2 Feb2 February 08:25

    I’ll pack extra razors for you – the Noel Edmonds look is sooo.. 1970’s 😉

• Tom says:

  2 Feb2 February 07:13

  Primera Air appears to have announced they’ll be flying from STN to IAD instead (i.e. from one inconveniently located airport for most passengers to another) from ‘just’ £199 each way (i.e. about the same price all the full service carriers from LHR also charge for the route).

  Sure that one will be roaring success though …

• Kevin says:

  2 Feb2 February 07:55

  I’d found Pack For A Purpose on the website of the safari lodge we’re using in SA and we’re going to do it. There was a helpful list of what the local school needed.

  And yes you choose what to take and pack it yourself.

• rash says:

  2 Feb2 February 07:55

  OT: What lounges would you guys recommend for Zurich(Gate E) and Singapore(Terminal 3) for someone with a priority pass.

  • rash says:

    2 Feb2 February 14:27

    Thankyou!

• mark2 says:

  2 Feb2 February 08:52

  I think that Rob means register your card and get (or not get now) Avios for instore purchases.
  You can also get Marriott MORE points for online purchases. When you return goods bought online at Debenhams you can credit to any card, not just the one you bought on.

• Lumma says:

  2 Feb2 February 08:53

  It’s the in-store debenhams collection that has stopped, along with pizza express and a small number of other bar and restaurant chains.

  https://headforpoints.com/2017/09/19/british-airways-relaunches-seychelles/

  This article from last September lists several new partners and it looks like only 1 still exists. Interestingly, I did spend a fair amount of money at one of these places last year while they still did the avios and my rate got cut to 1 per £, while when not logged in it still said 5 per £.

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