Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

British Airways agrees to pay for customers stuck in Italy to reach non-Italian airports

Links on Head for Points may support the site by paying a commission.  See here for all partner links.

If you have any friends or relatives stuck in Italy, pass this on.

A revised BA travel advisory, issued at 1pm today, states that British Airways will now pay the costs of passengers who wish to leave Italy and pick up a British Airways flight elsewhere.

It also applies in reverse, to any Italian resident who is in the UK and unable to return home.

On the – unlikely – chance that you can get through to British Airways, you will be rebooked onto a flight to/from your choice of:

Zurich

Geneva

Grenoble

Innsbruck

Munich

Salzburg

Zagreb

Lyon

Nice

The wording states that:

“Advise the customer that British Airways will reimburse them for any public transport (train, express coach, local bus) costs to travel between the new gateway and their original departure/arrival point in Italy. Receipts will be required and send these through the Customer Relations form in ba.com.”

Given the near impossibility of reaching BA by telephone, I would be tempted to head off for one of the airports above anyway and get your ticket changed on arrival, even if it means you can’t fly for a day or so until a seat opens up.

Rebooking on Alitalia remains an option for passengers.

PS. If you are not a regular Head for Points visitor, why not sign up for our FREE weekly or daily newsletters? They are full of the latest Avios, airline, hotel and credit card points news and will help you travel better. To join our 70,000 free subscribers, click the button below or visit this page of the site to find out more. Thank you.

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (July 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 Card

30,000 Avios and the famous annual Companion Voucher voucher Read our full review

British Airways American Express Credit Card

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 Credit Card

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 points worth 0.8 Avios per £1 on the FREE standard card and 1 Avios per £1 on the Pro card. Capital on Tap cards also have no FX fees.

Capital on Tap Visa

NO annual fee, NO FX fees and points worth 0.8 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 Card

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.

The American Express Business Platinum Card

50,000 points when you sign-up and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

The American Express Business Gold Card

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.

Category

British Airways and Avios

Comments (6)

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

  • KSB says:
    12 Mar12 March 14:18

    Fortunately I am not currently impacted by this (unless it drags on for many more months). I just wanted to say that I have been very impressed by HfP’s coverage of all the relevant news events and help articles during these very turbulent times.

    Thank you for providing the information in a clear manner so that we can make informed decisions

  • Algor says:
    12 Mar12 March 15:52

    I’m due to fly from Dubrovnik tomorrow, online and airport self service check-in is not available.

    There might be some new policy of checking every passenger with maybe a temperature scan or interview of recent travel destinations.

    Or just simply unlucky.

    • Nick says:
      12 Mar12 March 17:34

      Or maybe you’re flying from an offline destination (that doesn’t use FLY), which means that every customer on every flight needs to check in at the airport, regardless of current corona issues.

      (DBV airport is run by Swissport, who mandate that all airlines use exclusively their departure control systems. Not everything is a conspiracy.)

      • Algor says:
        12 Mar12 March 18:41

        Thank you, didn’t think of this.

        Over last 3 days I had my flight destination changed 4 times and feels like I’m losing my mind slowly.

        Time to get home and relax.

  • NS says:
    13 Mar13 March 05:20

    Thanks Rob, continued information is extremely helpful. I’m currently in Cape Town coming back in a few days. Flying back via Joburg and even getting through to the local office when calling at opening has been impossible. I was hoping to change my redemption seats to a direct Cape Town to London flight to avoid an extra flight and airport particularly as travelling with babies. Shame you can’t just do this online. No luck but they’ve clearly got bigger issues and more pressing passengers to deal with so fair enough.

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

New to Head for Points?

Welcome!  We’re the UK’s most-read source of business travel, Avios, frequent flyer and hotel loyalty news. Let us improve how you travel. Got any questions? Ask them in our forums.

Get 25,000 Avios with the Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

GET A SIGN-UP BONUS OF 18,000 VIRGIN POINTS!

Latest Forum Posts

Get 50,000 bonus points (worth 50,000 Avios) and £400 of dining credit with The Platinum Card

Check reward flight availability instantly for free!

See a whole year of reward seat availability on one page at SeatSpy.com

Special offer: Get 30,000 bonus Hilton Honors points until 14th August 2025

Booking a luxury hotel?

Our luxury hotel booking service offers you GUARANTEED extra benefits over booking direct. Works with Four Seasons, Mandarin Oriental, The Ritz Carlton, St Regis and more. We've booked £1.7 million of rooms to date. Click for details.

SME? Get the only free credit card with points which convert to Avios

Get points worth 20,000 Avios with 'first year free' American Express Gold

The UK's biggest frequent flyer website uses cookies, which you can block via your browser settings. Continuing implies your consent to this policy. Our privacy policy is here.

Got it!