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British Airways sending legal letters to people requesting compensation for the data breach

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A Head for Points reader sent me an interesting letter he had received after writing to British Airways to request compensation for the recent data breach.

Instead of responding directly, British Airways passed his complaint to DWF, a Manchester law firm.  He received a firm legal letter from an Andrew Harris at DWF which whilst totally correct in what it said was – to my mind – designed to scare the complainant off from pursuing any claim.

Since Harris is:

“Accomplished in significant shareholder disputes and other corporate litigation” (2011), –one of the best commercial litigators outside London” (2012) and –the standout choice for shareholder disputes” (2013).”

…. according to the “Legal 500”, it is likely that it will have cost British Airways £1,000 in legal fees to get Harris to write the fairly long letter sent to the reader telling him that he can’t have anything …..

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How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (April 2024)

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There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

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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.

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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.

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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 (222)

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

  • Ralphy says:
    15 Nov15 November 10:02

    Used mine for a business class flight Madrid to Santiago next February.Very happy with that.

    Incidentally, priced up my wife to join me.

    BA, London – Madrid – Santiago return, silly money!
    Iberia, same schedule, £2,400
    Latam, same schedule, different codeshares, £1,600.

    The only problem is that Latam seems to have an ongoing issue taking payment in the UK. In the end, I used a VPN and booked through Latam.com in the US.

  • Gareth says:
    15 Nov15 November 10:04

    I wonder if the Avios are moved into BA and some are spent, would IB know it was the same ones?

    • Margaret says:
      15 Nov15 November 16:39

      They told me they were ‘tagged’. I then questioned if that meant that Avios moved out to BAEC and then the same amount back would not then be tagged, as Avios are Avios in BA. My point was I’ve spent some of these mongrel avios on my Iberia account, but will they (maybe) be clawed back? No answer from them as yet……

      I figure the rest can wait in my BAEC account and be used with a 241, so at least I’ll have them, if not double should a clawback happen.

  • Jamie says:
    15 Nov15 November 10:09

    I’m intrigued in how Iberia will differentiate between the 90,000 promotional Avios and other Avios. I transferred about 25k out to BA, but then transferred in another 40k and have ‘spent’ more than 90k since the 90k landed in my Iberia account. All moot points. As I’ve jumped to Star now.

    • TM says:
      15 Nov15 November 10:33

      I think they will just check whether 90k Avios have been spent since they landed in your account, on the deadline.

    • FlyUpTop says:
      15 Nov15 November 14:59

      I thought I read a while ago that these avios points are marked so are identifiable if they decide to take back.

      • LewisB says:
        15 Nov15 November 15:10

        Was this from Iberia directly?

        • Margaret says:
          15 Nov15 November 16:41

          They told me that they were ‘tagged’ when I queried spending them with Iberia having moved them out and back. No reply to what will happen re; not countil those not (maybe) ‘tagged’ though.

          • Rob says:
            15 Nov15 November 16:51

            They clearly are tagged or Iberia wouldn’t have sent that email out. They are clearly trying to avoid any backlash after they are removed by being able to say “we told you so”.

        • Margaret says:
          15 Nov15 November 17:06

          But what happens to avios transferred to an Avios account and back again. Presumably they are no longer tagged??

        • LewisB says:
          15 Nov15 November 18:00

          Well I haven’t received this email and I’ve checked all junk folders. I have had emails offering upgrades on the flights for 48EUR though. I’ve moved all of my avios from IB to avios.com to BAEC. Perhaps mine are no longer tagged? Time will soon tell.

        • Shoestring says:
          15 Nov15 November 18:18

          I don’t believe the tagging theory. Think of the case where somebody already has 100K Avios in his IB a/c, then gets the promotional 90K on top. Then he gets another 25K Avios with existing flights.

          He redeems 100K for a new flight. Has he used up all the 90K and 10K of his old total? Or has he used up 90K of his original 100K stash? Etc etc. Which Avios has he actually redeemed? IMV a nonsense to think that IB’s IT dept would even know, an Avios point is identical to any other Avios point.

          IB have never said that the 90K promotional Avios will be used up as ‘priority’ Avios to be used first on redemptions.

          Much more likely to be a simple count of Avios used for redemptions in the period after you got your 90K promotional Avios, count to be made on or about 2nd December. If you haven’t redeemed all 90K, you’ll forfeit the balance. If the balance isn’t there to forfeit (because you transferred Avios to BAEC), you’ll run a negative balance.

  • Russ says:
    15 Nov15 November 10:13

    Spent then on returns to Doha then Muscat instead of spending own money which is always nice 🙂 I didn’t do as well out of this as I should as had to buy extra when I couldn’t get the transfer from BA working. Still a welcome promotion and hopefully they’l run again.

    • Wally says:
      17 Nov17 November 12:35

      Spent the lot:

      MAD-TLV-MAD in J
      BUD-MAD in J
      2 nts hotel stay in Istanbul
      1 nt hotel stay in London

      No issues at either hotel, flights are next June.

      All in all, excellent value 🙂

  • Kai says:
    15 Nov15 November 10:14

    Breaking: China Southern is leaving Skyteam on Jan 1, 2019, potentially joining Oneworld.

  • Ben says:
    15 Nov15 November 10:20

    Just got the e-mail through Vista about the “Festive Centurion Lounge” from the 13th-16th December – will include refreshments, cocktails and special gifts

    • TM says:
      15 Nov15 November 10:33

      It looks pretty good. It’s a shame I am away for that weekend…

    • Alan says:
      15 Nov15 November 14:24

      Good spot, I had deleted after seeing lots of the usual stuff in it that’s of no relevance but fished it back out of trash after seeing your message! Actually down in London that Thurs so might try and make it along.

      • TM says:
        15 Nov15 November 15:48

        Although I have now read Rob’s article from last year about how awful it was. Hopefully no repeats

        • Ben says:
          15 Nov15 November 15:54

          I popped in last year, it was small but good just to grab a drink and cake with a friend. Ill not be going out of my way but will swing by for a few (free) beers

        • Rob says:
          15 Nov15 November 16:19

          Yes, Amex messed it up by running a talk on the first evening which block-booked most of their capacity so those who turned up en spec could not get in. Those who went at other times did better. I proposed a HFP event at the Summer one but Amex wasn’t keen.

        • Alan says:
          15 Nov15 November 18:03

          It was pretty good when I visited last year.

        • Genghis says:
          15 Nov15 November 18:33

          @Alan. I could potentially make the Thurs if you’re down. I’ll def be in London that week.

  • Benylin says:
    15 Nov15 November 10:32

    OT: Curve: I can pay anything through my HSBC and Lloyds credit card, but for my IHG card it’s really “sensitive”, sometimes takes £25, sometimes £100/200. Majority of the time it takes nothing though. Appears to be a Creation issue? Anytning I can do?

    • Benylin says:
      15 Nov15 November 12:33

      To add, how is a deposit onto a trading account treated as, cash or normal payment via Curve?

    • Peter K says:
      15 Nov15 November 13:43

      I’ve been a long term user and not had problems with £1000s in one go. Building up a history seems to be the way round it.

      • Stephen C says:
        15 Nov15 November 13:56

        I’ve put through £45k+ this year and still get spotty acceptance. Comes up with some message about hitting a limit half the time when it’s the first transaction in a day and am only trying to put through ~£200

      • Benylin says:
        15 Nov15 November 14:19

        Are you talking specifically IHG card, or using other cards? I only have issues with IHG.

        • Stephen C says:
          15 Nov15 November 14:32

          IHG Premium Mastercard specifically, used to work perfectly until they made the change a couple of months ago

        • Stephen C says:
          15 Nov15 November 14:35

          But not this week as they cancelled it last Tuesday due to a data breach (I strongly suspect BA) and I am still awaiting the replacement card!

  • TM says:
    15 Nov15 November 10:42

    We managed to find two return economy CDG to SIN, for £500 after the £200 rebate. It did take ages to move from pending to confirmed, about a week IIRC.

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

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