Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

British Airways cancels BA1, London City to New York, and Beirut

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

The A318, ‘all business class’ British Airways flight from London City Airport to New York JFK may have met its match.

The last flight (for a while) will be Wednesday 25th March, allowing British Airways to escape its EC261 compensation obligations by cancelling more than 14 days in advance.

In theory, the flight is set to return in September and tickets can still be purchased for the autumn.  Nothing is certain, of course, and we may have seen the end of it.

BA1 A318 interior view

Of course, when I reviewed the flight last year I titled the first part “Review: Should British Airways scrap BA1, the ‘all business’ London City to New York service?“.

I felt that the lack of property IFE and the 2×2 open seating was no longer good enough.  The extension of Global Entry meant that the ability to clear immigration in Shannon was also becoming less of a draw, and Crossrail will soon make Heathrow a lot nearer to Canary Wharf.

British Airways drops Beirut

Talking of dropping flights, British Airways has dropped – permanently – flights to Beirut.

This is not linked to coronavirus, and indeed the cancellation does not take effect until 12th May.

As it happens, this is exactly the same time that British Airways gets back 12 daily slot pairs from Flybe.  Beirut uses an ex-BMI A321 short-haul aircraft, albeit with proper business class seats, and this aircraft could cover a number of short-haul flights in the Flybe slots.

The economic situation in Lebanon has been troublesome for some time and it appears that the volume of passengers is no longer there to make the route viable.  Royal Jordanian will remain a oneworld option via Amman.

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 65,000 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 (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.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on the ‘free for a year’ American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card is increased from 20,000 Membership Rewards points to 30,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (30,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on American Express Platinum is increased from 50,000 Membership Rewards points to a huge 80,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (80,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

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.

Category

British Airways and Avios

Comments (298)

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

  • Balloon dur says:
    12 Mar12 March 07:31

    I worry this could cause insurance companies to start seeing ex-eu travel differently to ex-uk if claims spike because of this.

    It’s beside the point that I’ve never claimed in twenty years. I prefer not to, unless the airline or hotel cannot make good on their promises. People here don’t like this approach, but I am against the claim culture etc.

    • Jcp says:
      12 Mar12 March 08:00

      I think we can conclude that whilst you should always have travel insurance, it’s actually pretty useless when you actually need it

      • mr_jetlag says:
        12 Mar12 March 09:54

        insurance works in micro i.e. individual misfortunes, but not in the aggregate. Claims for global events and force majeure would bankrupt the industry hence most policies have those exemptions. It’s unfortunate but take comfort in the fact that everyone is feeling the same collective pain. We have Sri Lanka holidays for Easter that are unlikely to happen if they adopt the Indian stance. I grind my teeth and cross my fingers (and post on HFP!), but hey ho.

      • Lady London says:
        12 Mar12 March 14:26

        I am exactly the same. Two times in past 12 months I was offered eu261 accommodation for flight delay but I could stay longer at moderate cost to myself and the flight delay was not the fault of the airline so I swallowed the extra cost myself. In a widespread catastrophe though I would need to claim. I only take any form of insurance to cover for extremes and also haven’t had to claim but bought decades of annual travel insurance.

        Trouble is, smarter people on here do claim for everything based on the fact that the insurance industry will rapidly change its ts and c’s to exclude claims for large scale events and many insurers contest claims unjustly.

  • Alex W says:
    12 Mar12 March 07:35

    Thanks for the heads up! 55k points needed for Spire now instead of 75k. I might be able to make that now even though Revolut is game over.

  • PaulC says:
    12 Mar12 March 07:54

    OT – Does Virgin allow payments to Brighton via Curve?

    • xcalx says:
      12 Mar12 March 07:59

      Works for me.

      • John G says:
        12 Mar12 March 08:18

        Interesting. So you can use curve linked to your VS card to pay off your “Brighton” bill? I’ve been missing out!

        • Waribai says:
          12 Mar12 March 09:05

          It does work but………..after a couple of large transactions via that route expect some contact from Curve…….That was my experience………YMMV

        • Polly says:
          12 Mar12 March 23:28

          John, always best to do some normal spends a few times before and after the seagulls are due a visit. Then you avoid the warning email.

    • stevenhp1987 says:
      12 Mar12 March 09:58

      It even works paying off Necker Island itself…

  • Brian says:
    12 Mar12 March 08:03

    Lack of property IFE??😛

  • james says:
    12 Mar12 March 08:27

    Due to fly tomorrow LHR to Atlanta, this is not good news…..will AMEX travel insurance still provide cover?

    Nothing on BA website about USA ban

  • Donal says:
    12 Mar12 March 08:35

    It’s a pity BA are cancelling Beirut. We’ve just come back from there (companion voucher in Club!). A really interesting destination and the people are great. Lebanon really needs more tourism.

  • TGLoyalty says:
    12 Mar12 March 08:46

    In other news 10% off Morrison’s back on my Gold valid until 5/4/20. I think I have enough for a while though.

    7% on my Bonvoy.

    Nothing else interesting.

    • Shoestring says:
      12 Mar12 March 08:54

      7% for me on Gold as I had 10% on that 2 rounds ago – I’ll ignore it this time round and aim to get 10% next time

      • Shoestring says:
        12 Mar12 March 08:55

        10% for my wife on her SPG

        • Shoestring says:
          12 Mar12 March 09:25

          Virgin Atlantic/ Morrisons offer currently nothing offered but worth keeping an eye on it

          • Anuj says:
            12 Mar12 March 12:18

            ?
            It shows as running till the 25th for me

          • Shoestring says:
            12 Mar12 March 12:22

            I’ll log in again/ wife’s a/c and see what it says

          • Shoestring says:
            12 Mar12 March 12:43

            definitely none for myself or my wife, my earlier ones are in pending though – maybe they took the offer away because I hammered it? 🙂

          • TGLoyalty says:
            12 Mar12 March 16:55

            yup 25th for me too but i didn’t use it the first time round.

          • aDifferentSimon says:
            12 Mar12 March 17:11

            mine was running until 25th but it’s gone, not sure when it disappeared as haven’t checked it in a while. Shame as I bought some more vouchers last night which prob won’t hit. I didn’t hammer it – £775 of vouchers.

    • JRC says:
      12 Mar12 March 08:58

      How long does it normally take for Morrison’s 10% to credit back to Amex. Bough £150 of Amazon/ JLP vouchers a few days ago but no sign of credit

      • Shoestring says:
        12 Mar12 March 09:05

        3 days but I am also waiting for the last one to credit, on Day 3 today

        • JRC says:
          12 Mar12 March 11:13

          Thanks

        • Polly says:
          12 Mar12 March 23:31

          On day 4 here, so hopes it’s credited tomorrow. Finally got 10% on plat, but ran up several 100 at 10% on the daughters gold, so stocks of GCs cards are high probably til May or June.

    • Anna says:
      12 Mar12 March 09:16

      Amex website and app seem unable to save offers right now?

  • jack bloggo says:
    12 Mar12 March 08:47

    people need to be careful about the USA. If they are under reporting due to lack of testing, then its highly likely that they are in a similar position in the curve as the UK. When its time to come back in say a week or 2, there must be an increased risk of either travel from the US into UK being banned by UK, or mandatory quarantine.

    so one has to way up the risk of not going on the trip, with the risk of going

    • Rob says:
      12 Mar12 March 08:48

      But given relevant population densities I think, in general, you are better off there.

      • jack bloggo says:
        12 Mar12 March 09:03

        “given relative population densities”, seems a weird thing to say, given that many/most will be going to major US cities. Is new York less dense that Edinburgh, Cardiff ?

    • jamie says:
      12 Mar12 March 08:55

      I don’t think UK could ban repatriation.

      • Anna says:
        12 Mar12 March 09:18

        We can’t even stop people coming into the UK illegally, they are never going to ban people coming in legally. Human Rights lawyers would have a field day.

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 80,000 bonus points (worth 80,000 Avios) and £400 of dining credit with The Platinum Card (Offer ends 27th May)

Check reward flight availability instantly for free!

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

Get up to 10,000 bonus Hilton Honors points

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 SMALL BUSINESS CREDIT CARD WHICH CAN EARN AVIOS

Get points worth 30,000 Avios with 'first year free' American Express Gold (ends 27th May)

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!