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British Airways drops the Financial Times from its lounges

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British Airways has pulled the Financial Times from its flights, lounges and boarding gates.

The Sun, apparently, will continue to be available …..

This was clearly not a decision taken by the FT, since it has published the following advertisement encouraging people to fly with other airlines if they want to get their hands on a copy!

British Airways drops Financial Times

It would be interesting to see what was behind this.  Historically, publishers paid to have their magazines put into airport lounges – I’m not sure about newspapers. 

BA, to be fair, always seems to have imposed a quality threshold as well, something which many other airlines would do well to learn from.


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 (144)

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

  • xcalx says:

    OT SPG card I have 34500 points still showing on SPG CC, target was hit on 23rd March next statement date is 27th April . When do they transfer over to Marriott. Thanks

  • Chas says:

    If you go through the BAEC site first, you can also get 7 avios per £

  • Alex W says:

    OT BBC News story that CMA said non-refundable holidays are an unfair, unenforceable contract.

    Wonder if this applies to hotel bookings. I nearly booked a best-flexible rate IC Hong Kong Grand Stanford for Chinese New Year and pulled out at the last moment when the small print said non-refundable deposit required. Very unfair as they would have no problem re-selling the room on a peak date. Surely false advertising to call it flexible, too. I wouldn’t fancy taking IHG to court over it, though especially for overseas booking.

      • Dimitri says:

        I fail to see how this is unfair or unenforceable. Most of the time non refundable rates are cheaper than fully flexible rates so the consumer already has the choice to go for these or not. It would also be unfair to those that have paid flexible rates.
        I think that the BBC article is very unclear..
        Maybe someone with more insight can let us know!

        • Charlieface says:

          I think it basically comes down to whether the company themselves have cancellation rights. An unfair contact is one where the redress available to each party is different and one has the upper hand. So a non-refundable contract where the merchant can unilaterally cancel and refund is unfair, but one where the merchant must still come through on the contract (e.g. pay for an alternative provider) is not.

  • Leo says:

    OT: Sorry. Does anyone know if it’s possible to book different cabins out and back with BA holidays?
    TIA

    • Stewart says:

      Yes, but only over the phone, can’t do it on line

      • Anna says:

        Yes, another idiotic feature on BA’s IT (nearly as annoying as not being able to book the outbound and return legs of the 2 4 1 separately).

    • Waddle says:

      Book them as flights first and then at the final page add the hotel. Turns the flight booking into a BA holiday with your cabin preferences.

  • Chas says:

    I just placed my order twice (deliberately): first time on my Gold charge card, and though I have the offer (£10 off £20 spend) saved there I still (20 mins post order) haven’t received the email from Amex to say that the offer has been activated; second time on my SPG card I received the activation email from Amex immediately.

    From other people’s experience, how long do I need to wait before I call Amex to get them to manually credit the offer?

    • stevenhp1987 says:

      I haven’t had any Amex offer redemption emails for over a month.

      My Beer52 one went through fine without the email though!

  • Chris says:

    Is the FT not available in pressreader? Is this BA maybe winding down physical media as pressreader is going well?

  • Genghis says:

    OT points earning on petrol at Tesco petrol station in a Tesco store. Is the max earning still to use a Tesco credit / debit card as the clubcard and then to pay on a Tesco debit card for 1+1 = 2 clubcard points / £?

    • BJ says:

      I guess so, also the extra point for Pay+ if that’s still working. Halifax have 10% at Morrison’s up to £15 and was informed a few days ago that we can use their gift cards for petrol.

      • Genghis says:

        Thanks BJ. How can you combine Pay+ with using debit card as the clubcard though?

        • BJ says:

          Don’t know as we mostly get petrol at Sainsbury’s as cheaper near me and regularly get double or triple nectar points. If I’m not mistaken Liz posted something on doing this some time ago so maybe she can help if she’s around today.

        • Alex W says:

          You have to go in store to do it. Swipe debit card first then pay with Pay+.

        • stevenhp1987 says:

          On your Tesco Account you need to set your clubcard account as the number on your Debit/Credit card.

          Then just use Pay+.

          Works for me, get 1 point per £1 with my Tesco Debit Card clubcard number on my Pay+ account (paying via an Amex atm but will change back to Tesco Debit soon (after hitting 2-4-1 voucher) as 1 clubcard point from Tesco Clubcard spend is worth 2.4 avios…. Plus the 1 point per £4 Pay+ bonus.

        • Genghis says:

          Thanks guys.
          I’ve followed @stevenhp1987’s method. My online account shows multiple clubcard numbers but logging into Pay+ the number shown is my debit card clubcard number, somehow… Should in theory now all work for 2.25 clubcard points / £.

        • Liz says:

          I do what @stevenhp1987 does – had to reset the main Clubcard number to the one on your Tesco debit card then add it to your app. Works every time 1+1 CC plus bonus for every £4. Soon mounts up. For the first time in I can’t even remember how long I got coupons in the post for double points on 2 shops and coupons for 25 pts each on 7 things I buy regularly! Did a large stock up shop yesterday and will do another on Monday. Yesterday’s shop and petrol fill up got me just under 1k CC pts!

    • Alan says:

      Tesco debit card on Pay+ AFAIK?

  • Paul Stevens says:

    That’s a great offer. I’m sad that I don’t have it left on any of my cards. On all my cards I got the £18 back

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