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 (October 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

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.

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

50,000 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, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios.

Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa

10,000 points bonus – plus an extra 500 points for our readers 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

Up to 80,000 points when you sign-up and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

Get up to 40,000 points as a sign-up offer 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 (122)

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

  • Graham Walsh says:

    I heard from someone the other day and they said when the staff decides to strike they lose their staff flight benefits for 3 years. Don’t know how true that is, but I’m sure that’s a big loss for staff and a win for BA.

    • Lady London says:

      There was coverage in the press on BA possibly threatening this. (possibly leaked deliberately from BA, I suppose).

      However I believe this might count as victimization which is a bit dodgy legally.
      BA would have to be very careful if they are seriously contemplating this.

      • Jonathan says:

        BA did this before for previous cabin crew strikes both the original Worldwide crew strike when Mixed Fleet were introduced & the more recent Mixed Fleet strikes. I know they reinstated flight privileges for Mixed Fleet as part of the settlement but can’t remember if & when they did so for the Worldwide crew.

        They also withheld bonuses from those who went on strike.

  • Hugh says:

    OT; Has anyone had any luck recently recommending themselves for a BAPP Card from gold?

  • Geoff says:

    OT: We must be some of the last to be changed over from Lloyds Avios Rewards. No new cards yet but got a FX fee from 2 weeks ago on the old amex card. Got it refunded after much protestation but they maintain it is a ‘goodwill gesture’ which I refuted.

    If you are still waiting for new cards, keep a close eye on your statement.

    • BJ says:

      And keep looking when you get your new card too, especially if you still have 0% interest.

    • Stewie Griffin says:

      Double check this carefully. If the switchover and annual fee refund took place before those transactions (which incurred FX fees) then it’s breach of contract on their part.

      Lloyds got this wrong month after month during switchovers. Ask for it to be escalated as a formal complaint.

  • Lawrence says:

    Sad to see the removal of Virgin Atlantic reward flight availability from RFF. It truly was a great help in finding reward space. Flying Club should actually be thanking Tim for helping their customers rather than them having to make the tedious trawl through their own site. Poor decision!

  • Memesweeper says:

    Who do I email at Virgin to complain to? their reward finding functionality isn’t a patch on RFF.

  • Oz says:

    OT. What would happen if I book a BA business class ticket on its current sale but find I have to change the date later? Would it be a just a change fee or would I have to pay the difference in fare? Last thing I want is to pay the different between the sale price and the non-sale price.

    • BJ says:

      It tells you the fare conditions when booking so look and see. You will certainly have to pay the difference in price and any fee that applies. The sale fares may even be nonrefundable and nonchageable.

  • Mark says:

    Is this part of the above article fully correct?
    “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.”

    All I can see in the T&Cs is this:
    14.6. Where a Member is involuntarily re-routed by British Airways onto another carrier, and the original flight on which the Member was booked would have qualified for Avios points, the Member may still claim such Avios points online at Ba.com.

    and this:

    14.21. Avios points for British Airways flights are credited to the Executive Club Member’s account 48 hours after the departure date of the booking. If your booking is cancelled no Avios points will be awarded.

    So no mention of tier points entitlement, and entitled to the Avios only if rerouted?
    In my situation my flight was cancelled, and I took a refund but chose not to travel at all.
    I might try a claim anyway, but not sure I have a leg to stand on?

    • Rob says:

      BA has, in the past, given them during industrial action. I mean, they are extending 241 vouchers expiring Sep/Oct on request and that never happens.

  • Tim Rogers says:

    Tim from Reward Flight Finder here 👋

    Just an update on this: we’re working closely with Virgin Atlantic to get back up and running. They’re being really helpful, and clearly do care about helping people to find availability! Watch this space! We’ll tweet from @rewardflightfdr as soon as we have more news.

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

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