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IAG ‘to make a third €1.5bn offer for [airline] Norwegian’

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Spanish newspaper Expansion reported yesterday (see here, Chrome can translate) that BA’s parent company, IAG, is to make a third offer for Norwegian.

This will value the airline at 330 NOK per share, giving the equity a total valuation of €1.52bn.  This is a 31% premium to the share price last Friday although, as Norwegian carries a huge amount of debt, the actual premium to the Enterprise Value of the business is much lower.

IAG Norwegian takeover bid

Since the Norwegian CEO controls 27% of the company, the decision will in reality rest with him.  With the oil price remaining fairly high by recent standards, Norwegian will face increasing pressure from its lenders.

Whilst Norwegian has said that other airlines have expressed interest, I would be less certain.

As IAG is likely to be a more conservative owner of the company – and may well close down the long-haul operations entirely to free up aircraft for LEVEL, BA, Iberia and Aer Lingus – Air France KLM and Lufthansa might be happier to sit it out and reap the benefits of reduced competition without having to spend any money of their own.

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (April 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

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

25,000 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 a huge range of valuable benefits – for a 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.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 12th May 2024, the Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa card is offering a bonus of 30,000 points, convertible into 30,000 Avios. You must have a Limited Company to apply. Click here to learn more and click here to apply.

Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa

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You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus.

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

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

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

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 (121)

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

  • Nick says:
    22 May22 May 12:23

    Bit off topic
    I am booked on a standard BA flight LHR to Rome. Booking has been made and paid by the company taking me there. Its a large group going. If I give my Exec club number at check in will I get the tier points? Is there any other way to do this?
    Thanks in advance

    • Rob says:
      22 May22 May 12:41

      Yes, you’ll get your Avios and TP. You probably wouldn’t get OnBusiness points but that doesn’t appear to apply.

  • N says:
    22 May22 May 13:16

    OT: Mistakenly signed up for a free BA card, rather than the BAPP. Before I call Amex, I was wondering if others have done similar? I know I can upgrade to the BAPP just before I hit the £10k for the 2-4-1, but don’t want to lose out on signup bonus! (5k vs 25k)

    • Rob says:
      22 May22 May 14:14

      You’re probably stuffed unfortunately. Amex is likely to say that you’ve had one of the BA cards in the previous 6 months and so cannot have a BAPP bonus.

    • Genghis says:
      22 May22 May 14:37

      Though there is a reported de facto 6k avios bonus for moving from BA Blue to BAPP

    • Jonny says:
      22 May22 May 15:25

      A colleague holding the Gold (charge) Card was looking to upgrade to the Platinum Charge Card (and hopefully bag the 20k bonus), but instead made a new, distinct application for the Platinum card.
      When realising his mistake, and before he had activated the card, he phoned up to cancel and was able to do so with no charge, as he was within the 14 day cooling off period. Due to this, Amex said there shouldn’t be any record of the application etc, and this he is now going upgrade from Gold to Platinum.

      Might be worth doing the same (i.e. call up to cancel within cooling off period). Though of course you risk ending up with nothing! If you do so, ask Rob for a referral link for the BAPP which will net you extra Avios (again, if it works…).

      Reply

      • Rob says:
        22 May22 May 18:27

        But a comment today said that Amex is no longer giving the 20k on upgrades unless you were emailed …..

        • the real harry1 says:
          22 May22 May 18:40

          Whilst I don’t doubt what they said, my wife got it fine just last week.

          For £1000 spend it’s work sucking & seeing IMV.

  • Mark Smith says:
    22 May22 May 13:33

    O/T can you still convert clubcard vouchers into Uber Eats credit? Might be one for shopper points but thought I would check here first 🙂

    • Genghis says:
      22 May22 May 13:45

      Into Uber credit which can then be used for Uber Eats, yes.

    • bsuije says:
      22 May22 May 13:49

      I have just done the conversion into Uber credit from the Clubcard page. Entered the voucher code into the Uber app (i.e. the taxi one, not the food) as per the instructions in the e-mail and it shows as credit in my Uber Eats app. I haven’t tried ordering anything yet, but if it shows as credit in the app, then I would expect it to work.

  • John says:
    22 May22 May 13:56

    OT: haven’t stepped in Tesco for ages. Going on a road trip soon and Tesco fuelling stations are probably cheapest.

    Will use Tesco debit card as Clubcard, but not sure whether paying with Lloyds Amex, Tesco credit card or Tesco debit card will earn most Avios? (No BAPP)

    • Lev441 says:
      22 May22 May 16:27

      Tesco debit card will get you 2.4 Avios per £1 spent as they are currently doing 1 point per £1 spent at Tesco. By using the debit card as a Clubcard you’d get 1 point per £1 rather than per £2 spent.
      If you pay via the Tesco pay+ app you’ll get an additional Clubcard point per £4 spent. However, you will need to hand over the debit card to use as Clubcard first otherwise you will get the reduced rate.

  • Roger1* says:
    22 May22 May 14:03

    When I checked last week, after the SP article, Tesco were out of stock of the NOW stick with 2-month pass. No worries.

    I just need the stick. Can’t get it from Tesco, NOW or amazon. I don’t need any more passes atm. Oh, well.

    • flyforfun says:
      22 May22 May 16:24

      This site occassionally has the passes at a good saving to regular prices. You can stack them up to a point. I know it’s not what you’re after but in case anyone is looking.

  • Roger1* says:
    22 May22 May 14:09

    OT re Virgin Atlantic credit cards. MBNA said we would be hearing from Virgin Atlantic.

    Mrs Roger was surprised to receive a mailing this morning containing her TWO new Virgin Money cards. On first view, they looked just like genuine cards. On reflection the back contained info promoting the cards.

    Eye-catching, I thought.

  • Jonathan Stoller says:
    22 May22 May 15:24

    A colleague holding the Gold (charge) Card was looking to upgrade to the Platinum Charge Card (and hopefully bag the 20k bonus), but instead made a new, distinct application for the Platinum card.
    When realising his mistake, and before he had activated the card, he phoned up to cancel and was able to do so with no charge, as he was within the 14 day cooling off period. Due to this, Amex said there shouldn’t be any record of the application etc, and this he is now going upgrade from Gold to Platinum.

    Might be worth doing the same (i.e. call up to cancel within cooling off period). Though of course you risk ending up with nothing! If you do so, ask Rob for a referral link for the BAPP which will net you extra Avios (again, if it works…).

    • Jonathan Stoller says:
      22 May22 May 15:24

      sorry this was meant to be in reply to an earlier post, pls feel free to delete!

  • Vivian says:
    22 May22 May 15:58

    Tesco Direct will cease trading on 9 July 2018. https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/may/22/tesco-shuts-its-online-non-food-website-tesco-direct

    • chris says:
      22 May22 May 16:12

      all those lego points tipped them over the edge 😉

      • the real harry1 says:
        22 May22 May 16:23

        Bad news for all stakeholders! 🙂

        Best of luck finding a new job to the real losers, ie those who will get made redundant.

        • Genghis says:
          22 May22 May 16:43

          Wowsers. Indeed. For a biz line of a FTSE 100 firm though, the control environment of Tesco Direct was shoddy.

    • Lev441 says:
      22 May22 May 16:29

      Hopefully we may see some better Clubcard deals in store now – they have been pretty poor in the past year.

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

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