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British Airways news: more lounges open, BA and Kenya Airways launch codeshare

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BA news in brief:

British Airways reopens more European lounges

British Airways is reopening three of its directly controlled lounges in Europe. Rome and Milan opened this week and Geneva will follow next week.

These are all modern lounges which are BA branded and fitted out to a high specification. You can see our review of the British Airways lounge in Geneva here and a picture is below.

A photo from Rome is further down below – sadly we haven’t managed to make it down there since the makeover.

British Airways Geneva lounge reopens

British Airways launches codeshare with Kenya Airways

British Airways and Kenya Airways have launched a new codeshare agreement.

A British Airways flight number will be added to Kenya Airways flights to 20 destinations from Nairobi. These will include Douala, Zanzibar, Lusaka, Mombasa, Addis Ababa and Entebbe, as well as leisure routes to Mauritius and Seychelles.

Benefits of the codeshare deal include:

  • you can book flights from the UK to, say, Mombasa on ba.com with a protected connection in Nairobi
  • you will earn Avios and tier points on the Kenya Airways connecting legs to and from Nairobi

Two things you can’t do, unfortunately, are:

  • book Kenya Airways flights from Nairobi under a BA flight code without a connecting BA flight from London
  • book Kenya Airways flights on Avios (Kenya Airways is in the SkyTeam alliance and not alongside BA in oneworld)

A codeshare deal has also been agreed in the opposite direction, with Kenya Airways flight numbers being added to 26 short-haul British Airways routes from Heathrow.

HFP-Barclaycard-Avios-Card

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (September 2023)

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

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

25,000 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 £12,000 Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points.

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

30,000 points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a 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, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios.

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You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus.

EDIT: Applications for this card are temporarily suspended due to IT issues with the British Airways On Business SME loyalty scheme.

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

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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

40,000 points 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

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 (49)

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

  • JandeW says:
    23 Oct23 October 08:38

    As of 22 October, still no BA lounge in Schipol

  • KK says:
    23 Oct23 October 10:57

    Got the £100 off £400 Amex travel offer on my Gold Business and Supplementary cards.
    Can anyone confirm has worked ok for them on cumulative spend booking flights and hotel in separate transactions on the same day?
    Speaking to CS , seems to be unsure and cannot confirm if will qualify and trigger the £100 off.

    Much appreciated

    • Alan says:
      23 Oct23 October 11:24

      It always has historically, plus flight bookings often get out through as separate transactions (eg one per pax), so I think they have to have the system setup to cope with multiple transactions.

      • KK says:
        23 Oct23 October 12:07

        Same. Historically ( couple of years back) booking flights on a single transaction( 2 pax), showed up as 2 line items individually on the card statement but triggered the offer nonetheless.
        This time the ask is if the transactions are 2 separate ones albeit in the form of flights and hotels , would that still be applicable?

        • Alan says:
          24 Oct24 October 15:09

          It certainly has been previously for me – booked items weeks apart. I don’t think their IT would be good enough to tell the difference so if they had to code it to accept being in more than one transaction I don’t think the day will matter.

    • Kirsty says:
      23 Oct23 October 19:49

      I can confirm the offer was triggered when I booked a rental car (£350) and a hotel stay (£75) in two separate transactions on the same day. I had asked on the online chat in advance and they had confirmed that cumulative spend would trigger it.

      • KK says:
        24 Oct24 October 16:00

        Thank you for sharing. Will go ahead with the planned flight and hotel bookings.

  • Andrew says:
    23 Oct23 October 13:01

    Is there a disadvantage to booking a complex BA 125- ticket / itinerary with Amex vs BA direct in terms of IRROPS / rebooking?

    • Doug M says:
      23 Oct23 October 13:28

      Yes. For the inevitable changes you’ll be dealing with Amex, and not the airline directly. Amex Travel obviously legit, but any intermediary makes things harder later on. IRROPS not a problem as at that point ticket is under airline control.

    • ChrisC says:
      23 Oct23 October 13:42

      Unless it’s a routing only Amex can create and / or it’s significantly cheaper I’d book direct with BA.

      Best to eliminate any middle men at the moment.

  • pigeon says:
    23 Oct23 October 16:55

    No offer on personal gold here – is it targeted or should I check back later?

    • Kirsty says:
      23 Oct23 October 19:53

      My other half and I have it on his Platinum (personal card, not business, and on the main card only, not on the supplementary), and my Business Gold (both main card and supplementary) but not on our Personal Gold card.

      • KK says:
        24 Oct24 October 15:59

        Thank you for sharing. Will go ahead with the planned flight and hotel bookings.

    • Rob says:
      23 Oct23 October 23:08

      Amex hasn’t said its open to all but no-one else seems to be saying they don’t have it ….

  • Luke says:
    23 Oct23 October 19:48

    Hi, for Amex travel, can I make payment from multiple cards for flight booking over the phone? Thanks

  • Lynsey says:
    24 Oct24 October 15:01

    I have the Amex travel in my Platinum offers, my supplementary card (my mum) also has it in her offers, can we both use it or does one knock out the other (sorry if that’s a daft question it’s my first time with a supp cardholder)

  • PHILIP HALLY says:
    24 Oct24 October 23:55

    peas anyone know when the BA Codeshare with Kenya Airways starts?

    • Rob says:
      25 Oct25 October 01:55

      Now. If you search London to Entebbe for 26th October you will see it in action. Nairobi to Entebbe is BA7738.

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

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