Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

British Airways adds more rebooking help for strike-affected flights

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

British Airways has made another tweak to its rebooking rules in order to help people who are impacted by the pilot strike on 9th and 10th September.

If your outbound flight has been cancelled due to the strike, BA is now protecting your inbound ticket.  The return would usually be cancelled automatically when the outbound was cancelled.

Assuming you have made your own alternative arrangements for the outbound, you can now turn up at the airport for the return and be accepted for the flight.

more BA strike rebooking guidance

With rebooking now mainly complete, British Airways has reopened flights for standard cash sale on 8th, 11th, 12th and 13th September.  If you wanted to fly on those dates but saw no availability – or only highly priced flexible tickets – you should check again.

More rebooking options are now available

A substantial number of additional airlines have agreed rebooking deals with British Airways this week.  If you changed your flights last weekend, I would recomend taking a look at this list to see who has been added during the week.

A lot of new options are now available and you may want to ring back and try to change your flight again if your original rebooking was not to your liking.

Some are restricted (Singapore Airlines is only accepting Economy passengers and will not allow connections beyond Singapore) but most are accepting BA passengers on any route in any class.

PS. If you are not a regular Head for Points visitor, why not sign up for our FREE weekly or daily newsletters? They are full of the latest Avios, airline, hotel and credit card points news and will help you travel better. To join our 65,000 free subscribers, click the button below or visit this page of the site to find out more. Thank you.

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (April 2025)

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

Get 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

30,000 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.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on the ‘free for a year’ American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card is increased from 20,000 Membership Rewards points to 30,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (30,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on American Express Platinum is increased from 50,000 Membership Rewards points to a huge 80,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (80,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 30,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

80,000 bonus points and great travel benefits – for a large 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, and the standard card is FREE. Capital on Tap cards also have no FX fees.

Capital on Tap Visa

NO annual fee, NO FX fees and points worth 1 Avios per £1 Read our full review

Capital on Tap Pro Visa

10,500 points (=10,500 Avios) plus good benefits Read our full review

There is also a British Airways American Express card for small businesses:

British Airways American Express Accelerating Business

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

50,000 points when you sign-up 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 (76)

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

  • Andrew M says:
    1 Sep1 September 14:47

    Anyone kind enough to confirm whether my lounge club card just gets topped up with 2 free visits upon Amex Gold card anniversary? Looking to use within a few days thereafter. Thanks.

  • Shoestring says:
    1 Sep1 September 18:17

    Sorry for swearing on HfP, you guys

    I was pissed & not feeling so good

    apologies

    • Lady London says:
      1 Sep1 September 19:10

      You swore ?
      When ?

      I missed it !

      • Shoestring says:
        1 Sep1 September 19:27

        I called Curve Cuntzve, which I regret & withdraw

        • Russ says:
          1 Sep1 September 19:54

          Oh for the Love of God Shoestring get over this melancholy will ya!

          I’ve seen you answer questions tirelessly when they’ve been asked for the umpteenth time, on the same thread, and you’ve never shown a lack of patience. You track deals down with the same tenacity a Jack Russell chases a rat so we all can benefit from. Ok, maybe you were being a bit optimistic buying all that cat food then moving to a house on a motorway, but hey, that’s what pet insurance is for! So stop being a Cuntzve and get your mojo back for next week’s round of HFP or Bust!

      • Rob says:
        1 Sep1 September 22:08

        That’s ‘cos we deleted it 🙂

  • Daniel says:
    1 Sep1 September 21:13

    Hi. Does anybody know why my BA flight on 8th is showing options to rebook & refund?

    • Federico says:
      1 Sep1 September 21:41

      my flight on the 13th shows the same, it might a domino effect of the strike.. your flight isn’t cancelled (as yet)

  • Benylin says:
    1 Sep1 September 21:13

    Does NatWest have the 10% off Etihad offer as well?

  • 3742 says:
    1 Sep1 September 23:00

    OT: Going to a resort property soon which, at the time of booking, had an executive lounge. Checking to see if the price was any better this evening, since I booked a few months ago, and it was my last chance before getting locked in without cancellation rights, I saw a banner stating the lounge is no longer available.

    My room selection alone would not have granted me access to the lounge, but my status would have.

    Would you expect compensation under these circumstances? I think it would be fair, as I factored in to the overall stay price the money I would save on free drinks in the lounge, which helped influence my decision on where to stay. I’m curious to hear the views of others though, not just on fairness but also likelihood of success, and what level of compensation to consider reasonable.

    • 3742 says:
      1 Sep1 September 23:01

      Just to clarify, the price today was worse/I’m still on the original booking made when the lounge was available.

    • BJ says:
      1 Sep1 September 23:41

      No grounds for compensation as you never paid for lounge access. Status is neither here nor there; even if lounge is a guaranteed benefit, say for Hilton Diamond, then it is only a benefit if there is a lounge available during your stay. Sometimes lounges close for a refurb and hotels open temporary alternatives, sometimes they use pool bars if they have new lounge, and sometimes they just give free drink voucher or nothing. With high status you should get something but compensation – no.

      • 3742 says:
        2 Sep2 September 00:04

        How about looking at it from the point of view that had you known at the time of booking, it might have been a deal breaker/you’d have booked a competing resort that would still have a lounge?

        Given your above opinion though would you be inclined to leave it, or would you raise it and hope to benefit from some good will?

      • Rob says:
        2 Sep2 September 00:15

        Your best bet would be to ask for a F&B credit per night to be applied to your bill – does no harm to ask. Otherwise I would cancel – if the booking is non-refundable and the hotel won’t play ball, ringing the programme should get it fixed.

        • 3742 says:
          2 Sep2 September 00:31

          Thanks very much Rob. I’m going to try that, as it might put me some or all of the way towards being in the position I expected to be in.

  • Camille55 says:
    2 Sep2 September 00:08

    IIRC emirates emailed ex MBNA cardholders a while back about the prospect of a new UK credit card. Any news or update on this?

  • Joan says:
    2 Sep2 September 06:28

    OT- no champagne in the Gatwick south BA lounge this morning for my holiday Buck’s Fizz ! They said they aren’t getting a delivery until 8am and had a busy weekend ! We suggested they go get some from the First Lounge but they said they didn’t have any either 🙄. First World problem I know but on top of cancelling our return flight because of the strike I’m not impressed.

  • Shoestring says:
    2 Sep2 September 06:35

    @Roger* – it has already been tested – the Ombudsman ruled that buying (say) 2 tickets with 1 card payment, £51 each, giving a total over £100 *was* covered by S75

    so BA’s quirky way of listing/ processing each ticket individually also doesn’t matter, provided your single card ‘swipe’ was over £100

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.

Get 25,000 Avios with the Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

GET A SIGN-UP BONUS OF 18,000 VIRGIN POINTS!

Latest Forum Posts

Get 80,000 bonus points (worth 80,000 Avios) and £400 of dining credit with The Platinum Card (Offer ends 27th May)

Check reward flight availability instantly for free!

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

Get up to 10,000 bonus Hilton Honors points

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? GET THE ONLY FREE SMALL BUSINESS CREDIT CARD WHICH CAN EARN AVIOS

Get points worth 30,000 Avios with 'first year free' American Express Gold (ends 27th May)

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!