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The British Airways virtual reality experience arrives in Gateshead

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The British Airways virtual reality experience, Fly, is opening at PROTO, Gateshead on Wednesday 16th October.

Fly is an ‘interactive, full motion, multisensory experience that traces humankind’s relationship to flying – the first of its kind’.  To quote:

“Through a full-motion, interactive 3D virtual reality pod, visitors will become a time-travelling pilot and navigate their way through aviation history from Leonardo da Vinci’s earliest day-dreams of soaring through the sky as a bird to his ornithopter design, followed by the Wright Brothers’ first successful attempt at flight on Kitty Hawk, to British Airways’ predecessor, AT&T’s, first passenger flight to Paris. Users will also experience travel on Concorde before piloting the brand new A350 and onwards to a vision of the possible vision of the future of aviation. The uplifting experience is a treat for the senses as Fly incorporates heat, motion, wind and scent on the travel through time and the imagined flight of the future.”

We reviewed Fly when it was in London in August as part of the airline’s BA 2119: Flight of the Future project.  Here is Rhys giving it a go:

Trying out the BA2119 Virtual Reality experience

You can book it online at the BA 2119 website here, picking a specific time slot.  It is availble until 17th November.  The price has been halved from the London run, and you will only pay £10 in Gateshead instead of £20.

This is how it looks from the outside:


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.

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.

Comments (61)

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

  • Harry Hv says:

    To get any Hertz bonus set aside plenty of time for follow-ups cos it wont post automatically

  • Roger says:

    Any other car hair offers?

    Thinking of using Marriott 2000 points offer.

  • Alan Wan says:

    I’m getting an error message for the Hertz hyperlink

  • Craig says:

    OT: Is anyone else having problems with Avios? I moved some from Iberia 2 days ago and they are not showing, also the combine my Avios page is blank? I’ve tried several computers and browsers?

    • Marcw says:

      Combine my Avios is broken. The upgrade was a disaster, so they are running maybe a week late.

      • Craig says:

        You would have hoped that the agent wouldn’t state that everything is OK on live chat in that case?

        • marcw says:

          I contacted them yesterday. They told me Combine My Avios is broken and they were working on it. They hoped to have it fixed yesterday afternoon (very optimistic). Obviously it’s still not working.

    • Steve-B says:

      Yes, I contacted them yesterday afternoon and they couldn’t access my booking at all because of system issues.

  • Seb says:

    Can you book several different bookings with National and get the 6000 bonus M&M for each booking?
    Thinking of booking a few separated by an hour or so, to stack on this offer…

  • Andrew says:

    OT (bits) – the final Clubcard points for our mortgage have hit my account today/yesterday pending the sale and transfer of Tesco Bank’s mortgage business to Halifax. 7099 CC points is a welcome bonus!

    • Jeff says:

      But what percentage were you paying on your Tesco mortgage?

    • Nick M says:

      Boom – 11k here…

      Tesco rates were competitive for us and (importantly) were able to lend us what we needed

  • Roger says:

    Any last minute Heathrow parking option with better rates?

    Official airport parking rate is exorbitant.

    • david says:

      did you try justpark or parkatmyhouse?

      • Roger says:

        Just tried Purple Parking and happy with price offered, so gone with that.
        haven’t tried Just park and alike due to extra time involved

        • TGLoyalty says:

          I find the cheapest most convenient deal is usually drivefly meet and greet vis MSE Holiday Extras link. Not failed me yet.

          • Roger says:

            Coming from M4 west, DriveFly location doesn’t seem too convenient for avoiding traffic.

          • Shoestring says:

            DriveFly M&G location is your LHR terminal’s short stay carpark about 1 minute’s walk away from Departures

            hard to think of a more convenient location

  • Roger says:

    Any experience collecting car from Sixt LHR T5?

    It seems to suggest collection is inside terminal.

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

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