British Airways will trial a new ‘Group 0’ boarding process from Tuesday

The question of ‘what is the best way to board an aircraft?’ has never been solved.

The only trial I saw which seemed to work was boarding all window passengers first, then all middle seat passengers and then all aisle passengers. Clearly this falls apart when people are travelling with others and are unwilling to separate for boarding.

British Airways is making another tweak to the current system on Tuesday as a trial, but it won’t impact most people.

Under the new structure there will be a ‘Group 0’. This will consist of:

• Gold Guest List members, of which there are only 5,000 or so, and

• Premier members (see here for how to get a Premier card) of which there are only a few hundred

The new structure will allow GGL members and Premier cardholders to board before other passengers.

The trial will cover the following routes:

• London Heathrow to New York JFK
• London Gatwick to New York JFK
• London Heathrow to Boston

…. and reverse.

I suspect that most HfP readers would be happier with better enforcement of the current system.

When I returned from Dusseldorf last month, for example, passengers were split into two lines – Group 1-3 and Group 4+ – and then both lines started boarding at the same time using two desks. Genius ….

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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:

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

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

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

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.

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.