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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 …..


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.

Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa

Huge 30,000 points bonus until 12th May 2024 Read our full review

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.

Comments (222)

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

  • GRIMZ says:

    OT, WH Smith – Just bought 6 x £15 M+S gift cards and all tracked with the £5 statement credit.

    • Lee says:

      I did that last week, email received but no credit yet. Has anyone else received their credits, it’s never took so long.

      • FlyUpTop says:

        No credit received yet from the Superdrug offer, spent & received conf on Mon.

        • LewisB says:

          Received my credit this morning for Wilko and WHSmiths. No Superdrug yet.

        • Mark2 says:

          I have received Wilko and WHSmiths and Superdrug on several cards, all for John Lewis gift cards

    • Cat says:

      Do they give Heathrow Reward points on gift cards?

  • nerock says:

    Has anyone tried to claim back airport taxes on the unused Iberia tickets bought under this promotion? Not that is wasn’t the crazyest bargain anyway but it’s always nice to bring the price further down.. 🙂

  • jtz says:

    I accidentally moved 20000 avios from iberia to BA yesterday, trying to use the cobine my avios feature on iberia as avios.com did not work. Iberia did not let me bring them to ba as it said transfers are only allowed to iberia.
    What’s the workaround? I tried making an aerlingus account, but it kees saying ‘The country code in your phone number has to match your country of residence.’
    Thanks

    • Rupert S says:

      Did the same I had a household account and couldn’t move the miles back.

      I then removed everyone from my account and it was no longer a household account and I could move the miles back. (It took around an hour or two for the systems to update.)

      • Ray says:

        Trying to move Avios from my Iberia account to BA, spoke to someone at Iberia just now she said it’s not possible, any ideas on how to achieve it. Rob suggested setting up an Avios.com account via Aire Lingus but then how can you transfer the points from your Iberia account as the only transfer facility on their site is to transfer the points to another Iberia member.

        • Riaz Shah says:

          It is possible, You can do it by calling them on on the site. Note Rupert’s message above – you have to get rid of household account members first.

  • Albert says:

    OT – does anyone have any experience booking AA redemptions (HAV-MIA) through BAEC?

    Flying to Havana then back from Miami next week – trying to book a connecting flight using avios from HAV-MIA with no joy

    Availability showing on BA and AA websites – BA site says there’s a problem and to call

    Just spoke to BAEC on the phone who said they as a company aren’t booking any flights to or from Havana?

    Is this correct?

    Does anyone have any advice on how to get this route booked using avios?

    Many thanks

    • KevMc says:

      Do a search online using BA – the flights come up when I do a search. Just use ‘HAV’ where it says ‘FROM’ and it will automatically search for Havana.

      • KevMc says:

        Sorry, I have just re-read your post correctly. Did you try calling back to speak to a different operator?

        • Albert says:

          No I haven’t, but I will do, if I can get through…getting a bit twitchy as flying out tomorrow

    • Anon says:

      Many airlines interpret the Trump administration’s sanctions as saying you can’t fly from Cuba to the US unless you can make the OFAC declaration – which you can’t if you are going for tourism purposes – but AA’s website is unclear on this point. So it may be that they won’t allow you to fly, which is why you can’t book.

    • Albert says:

      So I created an aer lingus account with the hope of transferring avios from baec to avios.com and redeeming there, but the HAV-MIA flights aren’t showing up there

      Could book on VS but a tad steep at 17500 VS miles + $40 each way compared to cash fares

      Tried to HUACA with BAEC but disconnected after an hour on hold

      I can’t think of any ways of garnering enough AAdvantage miles quickly enough

      I might try Amex MR to delta skymiles and redeem on DL there…stress levels undoubtedly rising.

      If any members of the HfP community have any tips I’d be very grateful!

      • Anna says:

        I don’t understand why you’ve left it so late, but if you really can’t fly direct from Havana to the US the only option seems to go via another island. Fairly close is Grand Cayman; Cayman Airways flies to/from Havana and to Miami (check their website for their schedule) but obviously it would be cash fares.

        • Anna says:

          Or you can quite often get AA award flights to Miami from GCM at short notice, so you’d just need to pay cash from HAV to GCM.

        • Callum says:

          If they’re going to pay cash they can just buy the HAV-MIA flight….

          I’m not sure if redemptions have ever worked – it’s always failed when I’ve tried. Quite possibly because AA require you to agree that you’re flying to Cuba legally before purchase, something BA obviously isn’t set up for.

          My advice is just pay cash. It looks like it’s only $130 or so most days I looked at – redeeming 7500 Avios to save $90 ($40 are taxes) isn’t a spectacular bargain anyway.

          As to the question of leaving it so late – I book late flights all the time. I find rigid plans rather dull and much prefer spontaneity. Many of my best adventures have happened because I didn’t book the flights I initially planned to!

  • Munch says:

    O/T Just received a new Platinum card – does the fee start from the activation date of the card or when I first applied? I haven’t activated the card yet. Looking at hitting the target spend quickly (starting in a couple of weeks) but minimising the pro-rota fee.

  • Ian says:

    And what happens if you close your IB account. Can you apply for a new one later?

  • BlueLabel says:

    OT as bits: IHG seems to have loaded the credit card free night voucher nights for Kimpton Fitzroy London now. Used mine for a cheeky Xmas break

    • Rob says:

      Yes, another reader had a LOT of trouble with this – including getting emails from the hotel itself where it specifically said it was telling credit card voucher holders to take a running jump – but he kept pushing back and may have been the person responsible for getting this fixed.

      I personally think it was confusion over the US credit card voucher (only valid at hotels under 40,000 points) and the UK voucher (valid anywhere).

      • Lyn says:

        And to confuse things further, there are still some US credit card vouchers that are valid anywhere, although only for the next year or so,

      • BP says:

        There are a few Kimptons in NYC that also refuse the UK voucher.

  • S**mo says:

    OT / Marriott

    Trying to make a redemption for a Ritz property in Miami for January. Cost is 60,000 points or $1100 a night.

    Looking to book using points, but the redemption mentions “Advance deposit policy” – We will need a credit card prepayment to reserve your room. To ensure you receive this special rate we will charge your credit credit a prepayment of $357.42 USD when you make your reservation.

    Deposit Instructions:
    Please send cheque or money order to (address of said hotel).

    Anybody know what this is for? Never seen it before…

    • Rob says:

      This tends to be an error with the site copying over the rules from a flexible cash booking onto a reward booking. Domes of Elounda had a similar issue.

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

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