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News: free £15 Uber vaccination ride, Malaysia increases LHR, BA’s French credit card closes

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News in brief:

Get a free £15 Uber ride to a covid vaccination centre

Yesterday we covered a 25% discount code that Addison Lee is offering in London for rides to the main vaccination hubs.

Uber is running a similar deal. It is more generous – you get a flat £15 discount on your ride – and it is valid across the UK. The only downside is that the offer ends on 28th February.

Full details are on the Uber website here. Each part of the country is restricted to 4,000 free rides, so you may find that your area has run out even if others are still able to book.

Malaysia Airlines A350

Malaysia Airlines increases services to London Heathrow

Malaysia Airlines is planning to return to daily London Heathrow flights in July, according to plans released in recent weeks.

This will pick up the slack caused by the permanent withdrawal of British Airways from the Kuala Lumpur route.

As a member of the oneworld alliance, you can earn and spend Avios, and earn Executive Club tier points, on Malaysia Airlines flights. The only downside is that you cannot use a BA Amex 241 companion voucher.

There are also plans to increase its Australia service to daily from July, allowing an easy connection in Kuala Lumpur for anyone wanting to return to Australia from the UK. The medium term plan is to operate 39 weekly flights to Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, and Perth by the end of 2021. There are no current plans to restart Brisbane.

British Airways closing its French credit card

For our French readers, British Airways and bank Sofinco have announced that their British Airways-branded Visa credit cards will close on 10th April.

It isn’t clear if the cards will be picked up by a new issuer. One option is American Express Gold or Platinum, converting Membership Rewards points to Avios, but those cards carry a far higher fee than the €24 charged by Sofinco on its basic card.

It is not clear if the Iberia credit card issued by Sofinco is also closing. If not, this would be an obvious alternative, using ‘Combine My Avios’ to move your points across. I don’t hold out much hope, however, given that their Vueling credit card is also being shuttered.


Want to earn more points from credit cards? – April 2024 update

If you are looking to apply for a new credit card, here are our top recommendations based on the current 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

5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

You can see our full directory of all UK cards which earn airline or hotel points here. Here are the best of the other deals currently available.

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

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

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard

18,000 bonus points and 1.5 points for every £1 you spend Read our full review

Earning miles and points from small business cards

If you are a sole trader or run a small company, you may also want to check out these offers:

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points sign-up bonus 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

Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa

Huge 30,000 points bonus until 12th May 2024 Read our full review

For a non-American Express option, we also recommend the Barclaycard Select Cashback card for sole traders and small businesses. It is FREE and you receive 1% cashback on your spending.

Barclaycard Select Cashback Business Credit Card

1% cashback uncapped* on all your business spending (T&C apply) Read our full review

Comments (29)

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

  • Aston100 says:

    Are MH planning on restoring the 2nd daily flight from LHR? They cancelled the overnight flights towards the end of 2020 leaving only the daytime flight as far as I can tell.
    Would much prefer an overnight flight heading east.

    • Rob says:

      I can’t see that happening this year. Even one per day may prove tricky – Malaysia is not in a great financial position and unlike, say, Emirates or Qatar, they are not going to run flights for national pride or image. They also don’t have a strong connecting network.

      • Aston100 says:

        Thanks Rob.
        I feel that you did a review of the first/business suite cabin on the MH a350.
        Since I’m currently booked in first outbound (daytime) and business inbound (overnight), would you say this is currently the best seating arrangement for those flights?
        Thanks.

        • Rob says:

          That was Rhys

        • Rhys says:

          Obviously the best option is Business Suite (First) both ways, but that’s the way I did it too and it was great. I would do it depending on timings and on which flight you would rather sleep for, although they’re both long enough that you can enjoy the service and sleep for 6-8 hours!

          • Aston100 says:

            Thank you Rhys.
            Just out of interest, which better known airline J product is the MH J most similar too?
            Thanks.

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

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