Save up to £100 on your next British Airways flight

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• Liz says:

  25 Oct25 October 08:04

  OT our 3rd batch of Tesco 40% bonus Avios finally arrived this morning. I know a few others were waiting too. Time to convert some more.

  • Genghis says:

    25 Oct25 October 08:07

    What offer’s this, Liz? I seem to have missed it. Any link? Thanks.

    • Liz says:

      25 Oct25 October 08:14

      It’s the Shell one when you convert your Tesco CC to BAEC up to 31/12 but only if you had redeemed your Shell points to BAEC in the past 3 years. I didn’t get targeted but we are receiving the 40% bonus. We had over £800 of Tesco vouchers saved so converting batches over each month. Not going to blow them all though.

      • Will says:

        25 Oct25 October 09:18

        I’ll try mine again, I’d previously converted some years ago (too long ago I assume) but bizarrely in early october I recieved avios into BAEC from shell. Must have been a closing balance.

        • RussellH says:

          25 Oct25 October 10:45

          Yes, I got 2 avios directly from Shell at around the same time. I also got one 40% bonus from Tesco. I guess that I should transfer some more Tesco vouchers too…

      • Genghis says:

        25 Oct25 October 10:18

        Thanks Liz. I wasn’t eligible for the offer hence I didn’t note it.

  • Coocoo says:

    25 Oct25 October 09:10

    How likely is to have this bonus or similar on non-shell points? Has Tesco done that in the past?

    • Rob says:

      25 Oct25 October 09:58

      None. It was a sop to people who were Shell Drivers Club members, and who got Avios that way, to switch to Tesco petrol.

  • HayMow says:

    25 Oct25 October 17:05

    Ours too, Liz! Sounds like a big batch has landed together. Our transfer was from way back (well beyond the stated time for the bonus to transfer), but I couldn’t figure out who/how to contact (at BA?) to chase up so had left it, so am glad I didn’t have to intervene after all!

• Sean says:

  25 Oct25 October 08:26

  Hilton also has packages to the McLaren tour, 5 left at the moment for 110,000 points each.

  • Nick says:

    25 Oct25 October 14:27

    That’s getting really very ‘toppy’, especially as the offer is now for a “Buffet after the tour”, rather than dinner.

    Don’t get me wrong, it’s probably a very nice package, with excellent food, but I’ve done a couple now over the past 5 years and the first one was, I believe, 50K HH points, and included an excellent, 3-course sit down dinner, after the tour.

• Rob says:

  25 Oct25 October 08:44

  They take a while to come through – no good if you need them urgently.

• Lyn says:

  25 Oct25 October 08:59

  O/T question re advice for the best way to get from Heathrow T4 to Heathrow T3 on public transport with luggage please?

  Our usual flight has moved from T5 to T3 with the winter schedule. We are arriving short-haul at T5 the night before and have booked the Holiday Inn Express at T4, taking the free bus from T5 to T4. So far so good, but I’m really unclear on exactly how to get to T3 the next morning and would be grateful for advice. I have long-ago (pre T5) memories of trailing suitcases down horribly long underground corridors from the central bus station. Is there any practical difference between taking the TFL Rail trains (not sure I even know what they are) and the Picadilly line tube? Are they both free? Oyster card? Sorry for the novice questions.

  • Mark says:

    25 Oct25 October 09:52

    I believe both are free between airport terminals these days, though you probably need a contactless card, or Oyster, for the Piccadilly line. We’ve used the Heathrow Express to do numerous transfers between T3 and T5 in recent years, often to use the BA arrivals lounge when arriving long-haul into T3. It’s a bit of a walk but otherwise not too painful. No experience with transfers into or out of T4 but I’d imagine it’s similar.

    • Lady London says:

      25 Oct25 October 11:34

      @Mark why would you use the T5 Arrivals Lounge when arriving at T3? IIRC the T3 AA Arrivals Lounge is open to the BA J and F passengers arriving at T3 and is open longer.

      • Mark says:

        25 Oct25 October 17:43

        I know, although we tend to use the Elemis Spa and for us it’s a shorter Uber ride home from T5.

        Fair point though – just looking at the reviews the AA Arrivals lounge looks quite reasonable (alike some of the Admirals Club lounges we’ve been in) so maybe we’ll try it sometime.

        • Mark says:

          25 Oct25 October 17:46

          unlike some of the Admirals Club lounges…

  • Nick Burch says:

    25 Oct25 October 10:12

    Tube from T4 to T3 is free, but you need an oyster or contactless card to tap in+out. About every 10 minutes, direct from T4 to T3, 1 change if you needed to go from T3 to T4.

    The TFL rail train is free, when you get to the station there are special ticket machines that give you a free ticket for the transfer journey to get you through the barriers. Direct, every 15 minutes

  • Matt says:

    25 Oct25 October 10:15

    TfL Rail (formerly Heathrow Connect) runs 4 trains an hour (sometimes c.10 mins until next train, sometimes c.20 mins). The trip is free and you either get a free transfer ticket from a machine or use an Oyster (or contactless bank) card to get through the gates. It is free, you will not be charged although a authorisation may be held on account.

    Tube trains run more frequently, but the tubes run more slowly than TfL Rail so it takes about a minute longer (probably immaterial). You need to use an Oyster or contactless card to get through the gates. Again, it is free and you are not charged even if you use bank card.

    As for the walk, yes there are still the long corridors from the Central Transport area as the station covers T2&3. The train station (TfL Rail) is closer to T3 than than the tube station, so you will save a bit of a walk in those underground corridors there. I think tube and train are in the same place at T4.

    So I think it is a trade off between more frequent trains and a bit of a longer walk at T3. Its all a bit of the same! Will take you 20-30 mins door to door. Alternatively you could get an Uber which will take you door to door with little walking in 15mins, but cost you £15-20.

    • Lyn says:

      25 Oct25 October 11:00

      Thanks to everyone for their help.

      We do have Oyster cards, and now at least I understand what they mean by TfL Rail. We’ve probably taken Heathrow Connect before in it’s old guise, so thanks for solving that mystery. TfL Rail sounds like the best for our situation, simply to reduce the walk at T3 with our luggage.

      We’ll still have plenty of time to try out the Qantas lounge in T3, the one advantage I can see of our flight moving to T3! Not sure about the Cathay business lounge though. The last time we were there, several years ago, they surprised us as we were leaving by saying that they shouldn’t have allowed my husband in as One World Sapphire access didn’t include a guest. We were the only ones in the lounge at the time so it certainly wasn’t a capacity issue.

      • Lumma says:

        25 Oct25 October 11:24

        I’ve definitely taken guests into the Cathay business lounge when I had BA silver. In my opinion it’s a far nicer place than the Qantas lounge

      • John says:

        25 Oct25 October 15:17

        Was it when they just opened? Never had a problem with guests. They are one of the few lounges in the world that only scans the guest’s boarding pass maybe 1 in 3 times – most lounges scan guest BPs

        • Lyn says:

          25 Oct25 October 20:33

          It was definitely quite a few years ago. We normally fly BA from T5,although our regular long haul flight is now from T3.

• Js says:

  25 Oct25 October 09:47

  The BA code just says ‘something went wrong, please try again’
  Anyone else get it to work?

• Rimas says:

  25 Oct25 October 09:51

  Just booked BA flight with £50 discount. Even it shows on last page and amount authorization £585, my Amex charge was £635.. Email arrived with all the details and without discount.

  • Rob says:

    25 Oct25 October 09:57

    Oh …. impressive. Remember that BA has ‘fee free’ 24 hour cancellation.

  • Mark says:

    25 Oct25 October 10:02

    Grab a screenshot of that last page if you can and raise it with BA. I would expect they will sort it, but if not you can always get Amex to raise a dispute on the charge.

  • Rimas says:

    25 Oct25 October 10:13

    £685 and £585, and £100 discount, apologies 🙂 Did it twice, same result. Cancelled both flights now. Impressed with BA IT.. Even authorization is for £585 still charges £685..

• zaza says:

  25 Oct25 October 10:35

  OT: I was looking through rewardflightfinder the other day and it seems that on almost every route there are fewer Club redemptions available on returns to the UK than on outbound. Anybody got any idea why?

  It doesn’t seem to matter whether flying east or west, nor on the destination, nor on the time of year. That some months have no redemptions at all to return suggests that some people are staying for more than a month, and that a lot of people are redeeming either return only or at least across classes.
  Or perhaps that they book multiple returns on Avios knowing that they can cancel very cheaply.

  Thoughts?

  • Benilyn says:

    25 Oct25 October 10:55

    Agree, I was looking at Beirut and Istanbul, plenty for November to get there, only 1 date to come back. In economy.

  • Mark says:

    25 Oct25 October 11:01

    In the case of transatlantic services I’d expect it to be at least in part down to people taking an outbound day flight in economy or premium economy and booking a Club flat bed for the night flight coming back. It may also be the case that with people more willing to splash on Club cash fares for the return flight that fewer seats are released for redemptions.

    Obviously that doesn’t necessarily hold for destinations out east where the opposite is often true, though I’d prioritise a flat bed on the long night flights back from destinations such as Hong Kong and Singapore over the outbound services. Maybe also a factor that people on leisure trips are often heading back to work, and want to arrive back as refreshed as possible?

  • Anna says:

    25 Oct25 October 13:20

    I’ve noticed that for a long time and also assumed that it was pax wanting to sleep on the way back. I’m the opposite – I don’t sleep well in any cabin and don’t eat or drink much overnight so am happy to travel out in J or F but home in Y and save some money and avios.

    • Mark says:

      25 Oct25 October 17:57

      And of course trans-atlantic eastbound flights tend to be somewhat shorter, especially during the winter. We’ve never taken one of the day flights back from New York or Boston but those would certainly be ones to consider Y or W.

    • Shoestring says:

      25 Oct25 October 18:01

      you need to
      1. pop a pill, nothing illegal just the USA sleeping pills on Ebay
      2. drink up

      then you’ll sleep

      • Anna says:

        25 Oct25 October 21:20

        Tried them all, Harry, some work better than others but oddly the cabin I’m in doesn’t make much of a difference! So I’d rather save the avios/money for a day flight with bubbly and movies!

  • zaza says:

    25 Oct25 October 13:30

    I’d originally thought it might be people preferring a night flight with a flat bed, but many of these routes have day flights too; hence my comment about flying east or west. And if people were flying economy out and club back, you’d expect to see less availability in outbound economy, even notwithstanding that there are 6 seats per flight vs 4 in club. But that’s not the case either.

  • Charlieface says:

    25 Oct25 October 15:14

    Possibly people booking Club only inbound to avoid APD charge. Although I noticed that on some routes even in economy, I think people were booking easyjet or Norwegian on the outbound.

• RussellH says:

  25 Oct25 October 10:50

  OT: Concerning additional taxation on air travel

  I have just read that there was a debate recently in the French parliament during which banning domestic flights was considered (though not supported). French Government has now announced plans for additional eco taxes on air travel, to raise €180 million for investment in the rail network.

  • Karen Brown says:

    25 Oct25 October 11:43

    Tiresome isn’t it. ‘Eco’ another excuse for tax.

    • RussellH says:

      25 Oct25 October 15:00

      I thought it rather a good idea,
      And they do say it is a tax – nothing intrinsically wrong with taxes either, they are the price of a civilised society!
      TBH I have never understood the demand for flights between London and Edinburgh or Glasgow, except when connecting to long haul. When living in central Scotland I took countless train journeys on both routes, took the plane twice, in 30 years.
      Both the flights were free: one on air miles (as they then were) when train fares were sky high because of a bank holiday, the other was in 1973 when my father had routed a Chicago-London ticket ORD-BDL-JFK-PIK-LON and not used the PIK-LON leg. I used it GLA-LGW with no problem – no ID checks back then! I was still a student then, albeit post-graduate.

      • John says:

        25 Oct25 October 15:20

        Some people live closer to airports than the city centres of Edinburgh or Glasgow, or it’s easier to get there by car and park. Not everyone wants to arrive in the city centre or take connecting trains.

        • RussellH says:

          25 Oct25 October 16:46

          I lived around an hour from both Edinburgh and Glasgow, but just 2.5 miles from a station where I could park for free and get a train to either. My usual destination in London was much closer to Heathrow than to central London.
          Flying still made no sense to me.

  • John says:

    25 Oct25 October 15:21

    I think the French train network will still suck after investment. The Germans and Swiss run generally good train networks but it will take a lot more money than that to bring the French railways up to that standard.

    • RussellH says:

      25 Oct25 October 16:54

      The French rail network manages to combine some very high quality services with some seriously poor ones. The service at stations and on board is not brilliant, though, I agree.
      From what I read, Germany has slipped significantly since 2013, when I stopped getting customer feedback. Seems to be lack of infrastructure maintenance.
      Switzerland still ‘just works’. And that is without any competition. Instead profits from profitable routes are used to subsidise unprofitable rural buses.

      • Shoestring says:

        25 Oct25 October 17:01

        if the French & German rail networks miraculously found a way to charge travellers the real unsubsidised fare for their journey, the numbers travelling would fall by 65% – completely unaffordable

        which is why in the UK, cars make so much better sense in terms of cost/ journey

        • Shoestring says:

          25 Oct25 October 17:41

          even the Greens admit that as soon as 2 people share a car journey, it’s more environmentally friendly that the train or bus

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