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British Airways offering ‘overnight bag drop’ at Heathrow airport

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British Airways is now publicising the fact that you can check in your bags at Heathrow on the day before you fly.

Take a look at this page of ba.com.

Whilst it has only just been added to the website, it appears that this has been quietly offered since last Autumn to anyone who turned up and asked.  British Airways has now decided to make it an official part of its service.

Here are the times it is available, plus times for Gatwick and Edinburgh where it has been offered for a while:

Heathrow Terminal 5 – check-in between 16.00 and 22.00 for flights departing before 13.00 the next day

Heathrow Terminal 3 – service not available

Gatwick South – check-in between 16.00 and 22.00 for flights departing before 13.00 the next day

Edinburgh – check-in between 04.00 and 20.00 (18.00 on Saturdays) for flights departing before 09.30 the next day

It is not available at any other airport at present.  Whether it rolls out further will depend partly on take-up but also on the ability of the airport to handle luggage which is checked in early.

PS.  If you missed it, take a look at our recent article on the top benefits of the British Airways American Express credit card.


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 (177)

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

  • Mark says:

    Used twilight check in at LGW twice last autumn; definitely made the process of getting an early morning flight with a toddler much easier!

  • Ansy says:

    Clubrooms Luton seems to want £15 not £10 for me to reserve a place using my priority pass…

    • TGLoyalty says:

      Yep £10 for clubrooms Upgrade from PP and £5 reservation fee this would be the same regardless of what type of No 1 lounge it was.

    • Lady London says:

      Getting into not-worth-it territory even for Luton…

  • Andrew says:

    O/T I signed up my kids for the Red by Dufry/DragonPass deal, but they don’t have their own mobile phones yet.
    Will screenshots of their barcodes saved to my phone be ok to get us into a lounge?

    • Shoestring says:

      should be OK, on day 1 of the deal here ISTR somebody sending a screenshot to his mate, who successfully got into lounge

  • Nick says:

    OT is anyone else a RBWM resident? They now offer a paypoint card for CT – officially they say it’s ‘cash only’ but does anyone know if/how it’s enforced (e.g. – purely hypothetically of course – at the co-op)? I’m sure you can see where I’m going with this… just wondered if anyone else has got there first and can offer advice, particularly about what they do with direct debit, etc.

    • mark2 says:

      IME that depends on the person behind the counter at the time. I have very rarely been reused, and just go to a different PayPoint.;

    • Andrew says:

      Hmm, according to Eton Town Council:-

      “PayPoint will accept payments via cash. A debit card may be accepted in exceptional circumstances and is purely at the discretion of the retailer who may insist on a fee to take that payment. We therefore advise that PayPoint is cash only.”

      “Retailers Discretion” – I suspect that means if you go to a main branded outlet, they won’t care.

      • Shoestring says:

        hopelessly out of date anyway as it’s illegal to charge a transaction fee now

        but that’s just the council trying not to pay the credit card fee, try any old credit card incl Amex & it works fine for CT at most Paypoints

  • Tanya says:

    42 minutes waiting to get through to BA. Total joke. the 0191 number doesn’t even allow you to wait, it just has an automated message and then disconnects. BA need t urgently address this

    • Roberto says:

      You may be aware but there is rather unusual Weather and Virus issues currently… Not a normal day, a business cant scale up to cover these massive issues overnight.

    • Lady London says:

      Only 42?

      Try a number for them from another country. Even if it goes to same call centre it’s possible you could find yourself in a shorter queue. Use Skype or similar to save cost of calls to intermational number.

      • Lady London says:

        PS Watch out if you are holding on the phone waiting to be answered for anything getting close to 1 hour. Around then BA has often played me a message about being busy and cut me off.

    • ali says:

      I always use the “if you’re calling from overseas, call +44…” which is typically local rate and covered by inclusive minutes

  • Lumma says:

    Luton clubrooms was terrible when I went. Apart from coffee and cake it’s all waiter service and I really struggled to get any!

    • Lady London says:

      Was that recently @Lumma?

      Early reports were all bad. Especially with the Aspire Lounge at Luton closed for renovations till March, was hoping perhaps Clubrooms might have got over their teething problems?

      • lumma says:

        It was September. Staff were actually getting a group of 4 loads of booze (like two drinks at a time) and taking selfies with them, whereas the solo travellers were getting ignored. I even asked once for a glass of red with about a quarter of a bottle of beer left and was told “as soon as you finish that I’ll get you one”. Didn’t see him again

    • Jody says:

      I agree, have done them twice there, and I have to say I actually prefer the Aspire lounge!

  • Rash says:

    OT: Does anyone have any go-to or default codes they use when booking with Hilton? I’ve got the Amex offers but I’m looking to book outside Europe. Thanks in advance 🙂

  • David says:

    i wonder if they will check our bags through on a connection that arrives from Glasgow to Gatwick at 1420, departing next morning at 0900 ?

    • Rich says:

      One ticket or two?

      If one ticket, they would check the bags through anyway. Two tickets, you’ll have to claim your bags and wait until 1600.

    • Lady London says:

      If same ticket yes. However for an overnight stop you’d be fine asking them at check-in to check the bags only as far as the overnight stop. Then you’d have to recheck them onto the next flight.

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

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