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British Airways expands connection car transfers for premium passengers

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British Airways has announced an extension of its chauffeur driven executive car connection service at Heathrow.

Passengers travelling in First, Club World or Club Europe, plus British Airways Gold and Silver Executive Club members who are at risk of missing their connection, will be driven to their next flight.  Apparently an initial trial has proved successful and more vehicles are being added to the airline’s fleet.

British Airways expands premium car transfers

Other current initiatives to improve the Heathrow connection experience are in-air rebooking with your new flight details sent to the crew and a boarding pass waiting for you at the plane door, the allocation of planes with large numbers of connecting passengers to a gate in the same part of T5 and self-service boarding pass printers in the Flight Connections Centre.


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

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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

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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.

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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

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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.

Comments (178)

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

  • Cat says:

    Also – they take AMEX…

  • Ian says:

    Very much O/T, but as this is ‘Bits’:
    I have 2 flights booked (New Orleans-Miami on American Airlines, and Miami-Heathrow on BA), on 2 separate tickets but on the same day of travel.
    What are the chances of me being able to check through my baggage at New Orleans direct to Heathrow? Is it a complete no-no?
    Thanks in advance.

    • Rob says:

      Nil, under the new policy. And, in any event, don’t you have to collect your luggage anyway at your US arrival city to clear customs? This means it makes no difference.

      • Ian says:

        Thanks Rob, thought as much. Although I’m travelling US-UK, connecting in Miami…..not UK-US.
        Thanks anyway.

        • Anna says:

          All you will have to do is collect the bags and check them in again, though Miami airport is huge – are both flights in/out of the same terminal? There is a sky train between gates which I highly recommend, we weren’t aware of this and ended up running from one end of the terminal to the other for a tight connection this summer, it would have been about a 20 minute walk from the first gate to the last!

      • Alan says:

        He’s going the other way Rob. He’s leaving US not arriving there.

    • Simon Barlow says:

      Ooh – I have lon – mad and then mad – hab with BA/Iberia. Separate bookings though. Does your question mean I may be able to get the luggage checked through? If so, do I just ask nicely when we arrive at lon on first leg and same on return in Cuba?

      thanks
      S

      • Lumma says:

        BA won’t do it and I’m guessing Iberia will be the same so it’s probably a no

        • Simon Barlow says:

          thanks for the reply – wasn’t expecting it so no worse off. Would clearly make my life easier though!

  • Anon says:

    OT – I’m trying to get a stay added to my Marriott rewards account, I’ve emailed the bill to the Stay Add email account over a week ago (and chased up), no response. I’ve also called the Rewards line (both the UK and the US numbers) and have just been stuck on hold for ages. Is this just because they’ve been busy with Hurricane disruption and the merger, or is there another way to get the stay added that I haven’t tried yet?

    • Rob says:

      Unless you desperately need the points I would sit on it for a few weeks until things quieten down.

      Worth noting on my recent stays that the points did go on even though the stay refused to appear for ages!

      • Rob MC says:

        I am waiting on 13 days worth of points. Even had an email two days ago saying the points will be in my account within 24 hours…still nothing.

  • Brian S says:

    OT BA PP Amex – I am close to securing my 241 and still have 7 months to go in the time frame to achieve the spend.

    Will the spend counter reset and I’ll begin earning the next voucher from the yearly renewal date (for mine that will be April ’19) or is it one voucher per card per lifetime?

    • Anna says:

      It’s one voucher per card year, your online account will show the date this re-sets, you can earn another voucher from then.

  • r* says:

    Anyone know if theres an issue at Norwegian atm? A lot of the flights are showing the same prices in all months, like LAS 464.90 in jan/feb/mar, SIN 454.90 in oct/nov/dec? Seems a bit odd that the prices are the same every day, moreso that they more than doubled overnight?

  • Anna says:

    Great idea, we may love our travel but we don’t want to ruin the places we visit!

  • Tracy says:

    O/T I had made 2 marriott pre merger bookings using the book now and pay later with points. Post merger, marriott did not honour the original points booking, my bookings have now increased from 320k to 400k. Anyone else have this and queried with Marriott? To make matters worse, they changed the dates on one of my bookings. Now its 3-10 June 2019 instead of 3-10 July 2019, very strange…..

    • Craig says:

      I have one, they have said they will credit my account with the difference when I have the points.

    • Rob says:

      Lots of people are in this position. Marriott does not seem to be backtracking which I consider unfair, personally.

      • Tracy says:

        I see it in the same light as a £ booking that is paid at check in/check out. If the price has gone up since booking, the hotel doesn’t change the rate…..
        I’ll wait to hear what they come back with but unless they agree to honour the original points I will not be a happy bunny.

    • Go says:

      I had one which moved from 45k to 60k points after I merged accounts 2 days ago. I rang them yesterday and was told that as I booked it before the change it would be priced at 45k. The first agent hadn’t a clue but the second one was very clear that would be the case

  • Ian M says:

    Perhaps BA can use some of these cars to drive first class passengers to their plane when they’re parked at remote stands. I still don’t understand why there’s not enough gates at T5 foe Dreamliner flights to have one

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

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