Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

British Airways drops the Financial Times from its lounges

Links on Head for Points may support the site by paying a commission.  See here for all partner links.

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.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 12th May 2024, the Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa card is offering a bonus of 30,000 points, convertible into 30,000 Avios. You must have a Limited Company to apply. Click here to learn more and click here to apply.

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.

Category

British Airways and Avios

Comments (144)

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

  • Nick M says:
    17 Apr17 April 13:25

    I used a couple of £18 off £24 offers to get 3 boxes for £6 each (first one was the trial – just pay p&p).

    I now have a couple of £10 off £20 offers – and bought the MSE box last night, email from Amex received instantly

  • mart says:
    17 Apr17 April 13:41

    OT
    does anyone know that if converted tesco points to uber ,the credit will work in the USA?

  • TripRep says:
    17 Apr17 April 14:00

    Elegant trolling by Virgin

    https://loyaltylobby.com/2019/04/17/british-airways-ends-partnership-with-the-financial-times-virgin-atlantic-reacts-promptly/

    • Lady London says:
      17 Apr17 April 16:49

      A bit like that unfortunate adventure when British Airways changed their tailfins to weird irrelevant and exotic and Virgin Atlantic immediately changed their own tailfins to more ‘British’ traditional than British Airways’s own tailfins now were…!!!

      I’m glad this is looking bad for British Airways. It was a stupid decision.

      • Lady London says:
        17 Apr17 April 16:51

        If you were in any doubt about British Airways enacting true “British” whilst owned by the Spanish corporate group IAG, and if anyone still thinks of them as a flag carrier for wellknown high quality British things, well, now you know.

        • Shoestring says:
          17 Apr17 April 17:48

          But the shareholders ie owners are still nearly 100% British…

        • Shoestring says:
          17 Apr17 April 18:04

          Apart from Qatar, obvs 🙂

        • Lady London says:
          17 Apr17 April 19:59

          They might as well decorate a plane in Harrods colours then to make the point.

        • Doug M says:
          17 Apr17 April 20:11

          The ownership of BA via IAG is 21.5% Qatar Airways, and then a series of funds. I think assuming it’s British owned in any meaningful sense is quite a stretch.

        • Marcw says:
          17 Apr17 April 21:13

          45 (or 49)% is owned by shareholders from outside the EU (so hardly 100% British). It’s funny how BA and Virgin are not British ay all! (49% Delta and X% Air France KLM.). So funny

        • Doug M says:
          17 Apr17 April 23:29

          What’s funny? It’s a normal for a publicly quoted company to have broad ownership. Having shares quoted on a London based market doesn’t make you British. I’ve no idea but I’m sure someone will know roughly what proportion of the FTSE 100 is owned by non-UK.

    • Alan says:
      17 Apr17 April 22:03

      Haha love it 😀 my next long haul is with them so looking forward to it.

  • Journeying John says:
    17 Apr17 April 15:02

    Not sure about BA’s “quality threshold” given they used to always have the Mail and are still circulating the Sun… A little like their catering and cleaning there’s a significant gap between the marketing and the reality.

  • Anon says:
    17 Apr17 April 15:16

    I have been chasing Virgin for months as I haven’t received any miles due from from train tickets and partner airline trips (I’ve checked and all claims were eligible according to their terms and conditions). The response times have been awful.

    Any recourse aside from continually emailing the addresses on this page? https://www.virginatlantic.com/gb/en/flying-club/miles/missing-miles.html

  • nickj says:
    17 Apr17 April 16:16

    anyone know if Virgin Atlantic gift vouchers and gift cards can be used to pay for taxes and fees on a redemption booking?

  • Alan says:
    17 Apr17 April 17:55

    Yes, credited fine although only got 16 rather than 18 beers and no snack so have gone back to beer52 to request the missing items!

  • berneslai says:
    17 Apr17 April 18:47

    OT: Plaza Premium Lounge T5. Does Amex platinum only allow the main cardholder to enter the lounge? Are supplementary card holders also given access? I’m travelling to LAX (2 adults, 2 children) and trying to work out most cost effective way of using a T5 lounge.

    • Lady London says:
      17 Apr17 April 20:06

      Amex Plat has lounge entries for 2 people, per card and for each supp. so 2 parents each with a card could also get 2 kids in.

      If you don’t have access to BA lounges then IMV there is most definitely no other lounge worth accessing in T5. Spend your money in one of the restaurants like Gordon Ramsay’s instead.

      • Lady London says:
        17 Apr17 April 20:17

        *that’s “except Plaza Premium lounge”, other than the BA lounges, there’s no other lounge worth accessing – it;s either PP or BA. otherwise restaurants..

    • Rob says:
      17 Apr17 April 21:32

      Supp can go in with their Plat, plus a guest each.

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

New to Head for Points?

Welcome!  We’re the UK’s most-read source of business travel, Avios, frequent flyer and hotel loyalty news. Let us improve how you travel. Got any questions? Ask them in our forums.

Latest Forum Posts

Get 40,000 bonus points (worth 40,000 Avios) and £300 dining credit with The Platinum Card

Check reward flight availability instantly for free!

See a whole year of reward seat availability on one page at SeatSpy.com

Get £10 when you spend £150 on your free Currensea card

Booking a luxury hotel?

Our luxury hotel booking service offers you GUARANTEED extra benefits over booking direct. Works with Four Seasons, Mandarin Oriental, The Ritz Carlton, St Regis and more. We've booked £1.7 million of rooms to date. Click for details.

SME? SPECIAL OFFER TO 12TH MAY EARN POINTS WORTH 30,000 AVIOS WITH CAPITAL ON TAP

Get 20,000 bonus points, four airport lounge passes and your first year free with American Express Gold

The UK's biggest frequent flyer website uses cookies, which you can block via your browser settings. Continuing implies your consent to this policy. Our privacy policy is here.

Got it!