Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

An update on the British Airways pilot strike

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I don’t want to spend too much time on the British Airways pilot strike, because it is being covered enough by the mainstream media.

Interestingly, British Airways did not make an effort yesterday to run even a skeleton service with non-BALPA pilots.  The only flights from Terminal 5 yesterday were:

Tokyo (due to Rugby World Cup commitments – this was the sole BA departure)

Cairo (which Air Belgium is currently flying on behalf of BA due to a shortage of operational Boeing 787 aircraft)

Madrid (the Iberia flights, not the BA ones)

British Airways 2019 strike update

I’m not sure what, if anything, departed from Gatwick or Terminal 3.  I doubt that Tuesday will be any different.

If your flight was cancelled and you accepted a refund or were moved to a non-oneworld carrier, remember to request the Avios and tier points you would have earned from British Airways.

Nothing stops you also earning miles from the carrier to whom you were moved – as long as you didn’t credit the flight to British Airways Executive Club – so you could double dip with a handful of Star Alliance, SkyTeam, Emirates, Etihad etc miles on top.

British Airways must announce cancellations for the 2nd wave of strikes on 27th September by Friday 13th September.  If not, British Airways will have to pay EC261 compensation on top of the costs of moving you to another carrier.  Once those cancellation emails have been sent, it is highly likely that the strike on the 27th September will happen regardless of whether discussions restart, as passengers will already have been moved.

You can find the latest official strike updates on this page of ba.com.

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 (129)

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

  • BJ says:
    10 Sep10 September 07:18

    OT: New amex offer for Lufty or Swiss, spend £100 get £15 back. On 1 card fro 4 for me.

    • Andrew says:
      10 Sep10 September 09:19

      I think I need a secondary card to get the flight and travel offers that are excluded from my BA Amex card. Preferably one of the free Amex ones.

      Which is the best option?

  • Nick says:
    10 Sep10 September 07:25

    I was interested in your comment that “If your flight was cancelled and you accepted a refund or were moved to a non-oneworld carrier, remember to request the Avios and tier points you would have earned from British Airways.”

    I tried to this when a connecting flight was cancelled during the latest BA IT failure on 7 August. This was totally refused by BA and despite having to wait in a queue at T5 for 4 hours to find out what was happening, a further 3 hours to get my bag and having a written confirmation that I would get the tier points – the only compensation I received was 5,000 avois that was grudgingly raised to 20,000. By BA totally refused to offer tier points and said in writing that is was not possible to do that.

    Is it worth taking them to CEDR as they sent me the final email saying that was my only option? It is slightly moot as I rearranged my travel plans to get the tier points I needed for a GUF2, but it would have saved me £400 and some hassle if they had given me the tier points as it appears is possible. Is it likely that CEDR will award me anything worthwhile?

    Any comments or advice welcomed.

    • Shoestring says:
      10 Sep10 September 07:37

      You probably won’t get anywhere with CEDR as it is a concession made my BA, not your right in law. Read the ORC thread on my link above, they suggest a template for formally making your TP & Avios restitution request in writing and report good success.

      • Nick says:
        10 Sep10 September 09:47

        @shoestring. Thanks for your comment, I would definitely like to do that and it will also be very useful when BA have the next IT failure which can only be a few months away.

        Thanks.

        • Shoestring says:
          10 Sep10 September 09:52

          now that I rack a few brain cells – ORC *is* actually in the BA T&Cs and somewhere on that thread is the reference

          though officially it only refers to re-ticketed flights you actually fly

          so you should definitely not accept being fobbed off

  • Jovanna says:
    10 Sep10 September 07:34

    I have an Ambassador Free Weekend Certificate showing in my IHG account when I log in. It has to be redeemed by 1 November. I’m not sure why it is there. Is this the new electronic version? I used the paper one, which was my certificate for the year, back in the spring.

    I’m very tempted to use it. However, when I look at bookings, it says proof of eligibility required. That’s simple with the physical certificate but not so with the e-version. Is that message just a throwback to the old system?

    • Andi says:
      10 Sep10 September 09:17

      I have similar. Used mine at IC Barlclay NY but it still shows in my account…?

    • John says:
      10 Sep10 September 09:26

      Many people have managed to use it again. If you aren’t prepared to pay the full rate in case there is a problem then don’t risk it.

      • Jovanna says:
        10 Sep10 September 11:01

        Yes, I think I’ll moderate my ambitions and settle on something that is a nice bonus rather than take the piss.

  • Anna says:
    10 Sep10 September 07:47

    OH didn’t get avios or tier points for our cancelled CE MAN-LHR last month. Can’t claim online as if the flight is cancelled it doesn’t appear on the form as one you can claim for. Emails are routinely ignored at the moment so we’ve written to BA but not holding our breaths. Still awaiting our EU261 from June as well!

  • Matt B says:
    10 Sep10 September 08:00

    Really don’t get virgin blocking RFF. On a previous call to upgrade a flight after getting the email notification the chap on the phone mentioned I had done well to get this redemption. I said I used RFF and he knew about it, saying it saved him a lot of time on calls endlessly searching multiple destinations for multiple dates and always recommended it.

    My wife had a similar comment from BA when she was moving us into F last year.

    • AJA says:
      10 Sep10 September 08:19

      +1

      I agree very short-sighted and frankly mean of Virgin to withdraw access. The website is brilliant and very easy to use. Frankly I don’t understand why BA or Virgin don’t incorporate the same functionality into their own websites and pay a royalty to Tim.

      The cynic in me says that Virgin would rather not have people find the flight availability to redeem so that they can seĺl the seats at very high prices to last-minute customers.

      • Polly says:
        10 Sep10 September 15:29

        You hit the nail on the head. Why should they make it easy for punters to find reward flights?? Cynic in me agrees with you.

  • Stuart says:
    10 Sep10 September 08:02

    Looked at flight radar last night and there was 6 BA flights flying around the globe, not sure if they were positioning or actually carrying fare paying passengers. One was the SIN-SYD and another was LGW-JFK. A few departures from the Middle East too

  • Scallder says:
    10 Sep10 September 08:31

    Anyone had experience of BA giving out airline miles for other airlines during strikes rather than Avios. Had a flight to JFK cancelled (thankfully could move to Virgin) and was planning on getting Alaska miles instead of Avios…

    • AJA says:
      10 Sep10 September 08:34

      No. I dint think BA will do that. If you dont want avios you can request a cash pay out or a voucher against future travel with BA.

      • Scallder says:
        10 Sep10 September 08:49

        Thanks AJA – I’ll take the Avios but AS miles would have been more helpful to me. Flying back on Thursday with BA so will at least be able to get some Alaska miles from that flight

    • John says:
      10 Sep10 September 09:09

      You would have to ask Alaska, as BA cannot award Alaska miles. Alaska would have to ask BA to pay them for a flight that you didn’t take, which is probably a manual process.

  • ChrisW says:
    10 Sep10 September 08:35

    OT – Does anyone know if i pay my monthly Amex with my Monese Current Account whether i get Avios points on the payment?

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