British Airways lounge in San Francisco to close next week for refurbishment

British Airways has announced that its lounge in San Francisco will close on 2nd January ahead of some construction work.

It isn’t entirely clear what is happening or when the lounge will reopen.  ba.com talks of “working to bring you a brand new British Airways lounge in San Francisco”.

A few years ago there were plans, eventually shelved on cost grounds, to add a new floor to the lounge.  It isn’t clear if this is back on the agenda or if we will simply see some new furniture.  The latter would do nothing to solve the chronic overcrowding seen when A380 departures are scheduled.

BA will be sending passengers to the China Airlines Dynasty Lounge during the closure.  This is situated in International Terminal A on the second floor.

You don’t need to go there, however.  Cathay Pacific and JAL have their own lounges in San Francisco – albeit JAL is only open for three hours per day – and you are welcome to use those by virtue of their oneworld alliance membership.  Many regular BA San Francisco passengers were already choosing to use the Cathay Pacific lounge due to BA overcrowding.

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How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (September 2023)

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:

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

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points.

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.

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.

EDIT: Applications for this card are temporarily suspended due to IT issues with the British Airways On Business SME loyalty scheme.

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.

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.