Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Another British Airways Boeing 747 will be preserved, this time at Cotswold Airport

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

One of the two final British Airways 747s to depart Heathrow will be preserved at Cotswold Airport near Kemble, Gloucestershire.

G-CIVB, which is painted in the Negus retrolivery from the 70s and 80s, will be converted into a business, conferencing and private hire venue. There are also plans to open a cinema inside, although I can’t imagine an aircraft makes a particularly good screening room!

British Airways Boeing 747 Cotswold Airport Kemble

Plans are for the aircraft to be open to the public from Spring next year.

Money raised from the aircraft will be used to support Cotswold Airport’s scholarship programme and charity. This allows 10 students per year to get the opportunity to undertake some flying instruction or experience other aviation career environments.


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 (17)

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

  • Tom says:

    I’m excited about the preserved 747 at Kemble. It’s close to where I live. 🙂 I went recently to see all of the 747s lined up at their graveyard… felt very strange and quite sad.

    • MD says:

      “If you aren’t familiar with JUMP bikes, they are the bright-coral coloured e-bikes you are likely to have seen dotted around London.”

      Er, aren’t Lime bikes the green bikes I frequently see abandoned in the most inconvenient places? The clue is in the name! Coral is a shade of pinkish orange.

      • Jonathan says:

        Lime bought Jump. Lime are lime as you say, Jump are indeed coral coloured (closer to the red end of the spectrum IMHO). The Jump bikes are better/more durable in my experience so would suspect Lime would shift to the Jump design moving forward.

        Consolidation is a good thing as the main issue with these bikes currently is the way they end up scattered around with irregular sweep ups to shift them to more appropriate locations.

        • MD says:

          Interesting, never seen an orange/red one, thanks. But Lime’s base bikes are still green, I see them every day. Mainly abandoned on narrow pavements making it difficult for wheelchair users and prams to get past.

  • Chris L says:

    There was a report in the 747 at Cotswold Airport on BBC Points West News last night if anyone is interested (from 6:13) http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000nyzz via @bbciplayer

  • krys_k says:

    Whatever happened to Mobike? They were all over west london and super handy. And then one day…pfff…they were gone!
    Lime are ok but not competitive on price like Mobike.

    • Rich says:

      They pulled out of the market after realising that Brits can’t be trusted with dockless bikes. I don’t know what Lime do differently to avoid abuse

      • Jonathan says:

        Lime are electric so much heavier. Presumably if you manage to disable the lock & GPS it’s still nigh on impossible to get anywhere without getting the motor activated/battery charged whereas the Ofo/Mobike etc were manual with rubbish locks so seen as an easy target for local kids to pinch & treat with no respect for others.

  • Melonfarmer says:

    Re. Accor: As of yesterday (26/10) Amex have a £200 off a £200+ booking with their “onefinestay” brand too.

  • Jill (Kinkell) says:

    Saw these bikes set up in the business centre of the Conrad StJames yesterday , just beside the entrance. Wondered what they were doing there.

  • RussellH says:

    Surprised at just how limited the Accor offer is. Only six countries in Europe and mostly in the big cities. There is the Mercure Blackburn Dunkenhalgh Hotel & Spa in Clayton-le-Moors, but I was not impressed the one time we stayed there.

    • Anna says:

      Well it’s the only 4 star hotel in the local area so it doesn’t have to try too hard! And just to annoy everyone they have given their parking contract to one of those horrendous private firms which gives the 9 circles of hell a run for their money if you are unfortunate enough to have to deal with them.

      • RussellH says:

        Sounds worse than when we were there then! Accor website tells me it was 14 March 2010. And it was very cold too.

        I am sure that some of the small country inns around there are actaully much nicer, even though they do not have 4*.
        We were quite taken with the Inn at Whitewell a couple of years aga drink, but it was a gorgeous June day.

  • cinereus says:

    Email link to this story is broken.

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

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.