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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 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.

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.

Comments (63)

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

  • xcalx says:

    OT

    BA paid card Hit the spend target in one go, do I need to wait for the Avios to transfer over to BA or can I pay off the card now and get the Avios transferred at that time.

    Thanks

    • fivebobbill says:

      If you are going to cancel the card you are best to wait until the Avios transfer over, this will happen as soon as your bill is produced.
      If you are considering downgrading the BA card to the free one it won’t matter, your Avios will remain in the same account under the new card.
      Be careful. I called BA in the past and cancelled the card whilst Avios were in my account, and despite being promised they would still transfer over they didn’t. I had an almighty battle to have them issued, and only after they checked the phone recordings.

      • xcalx says:

        Thanks I didn’t think of the downgrade option Think I will go for that.

    • Rob says:

      For safety, wait. Irrespective of what Amex says, if the IT goes wrong you will entering a deep pit of despair trying to get them.

  • david says:

    O/T: To experience business long haul lie back seats on LON – MOSCOW route with BA. Im I looking at Boeing 787 or Airbus A321?

    • Rob says:

      787 (321 is a short-haul plane)

      • Ben says:

        Rob – aren’t the mid haul/ex bmi planes used for this route? They definitely have lie flat seating…!

        • Rob says:

          Could be – but you wouldn’t know unless you got a seat map BBEdit booking. Thought they were mainly on Amman etc.

  • Nick M says:

    OT – Air Malta

    I’ve just received an email inviting me to bid for an upgrade to business for our flights next week… does anybody have any experience of what is likely to be accepted? – is it worth putting in a cheeky low ball offer incase nobody else does?

    • Pangolin says:

      Either bid the minimum or the minimum plus a nominal amount. Anything else is just throwing money away.

  • Harry T says:

    OT:
    Has anyone successfully used the current amex offer to purchase Harvey Nichols gift cards (Spend £100 or more, get £30 back)? The offer terms say gift card purchases are excluded but I can’t see how Amex would know what you’ve purchased.

  • Olly says:

    There were a few comments regarding an Avios deal through life insurance earlier in the week but I can’t find the info. Could anybody point me towards the offer please?

  • Concerto says:

    Hertz is just a cluster. Nothing works, so nothing has changed in the 2 or 3 years I have stopped renting cars and found other solutions for my needs. And getting those miles credited? Forget it. They would have to give me upwards of 20,000 for all the hassle and trouble I have to go to in order to get the miles credited. And even that wouldn’t be enough. Having said all that, I did try to push through a booking yesterday and today, but I couldn’t get past the last step, which was to click that I accept the TCs. Total cluster.

  • Roger says:

    OT – Is there Virgin CC refer a friend bonus?
    Any link via my account.

  • Octopus says:

    OT: Does anyone have a Tandem card referral link they would like to share? I’ll be applying this weekend.

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

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