British Airways increases Chicago flights

British Airways has added an extra flight to Chicago next summer, taking the total number of daily flights to three.

The new flight slots in nicely between the existing 11:05 and 15:35 departures:

• BA299 departs Heathrow at 13:10 and arrives in Chicago at 15:50
• BA298 departes Chicago at 19:10 and arrives in London at 09:00 the following morning

Flights start on 11th May and run until the end of BA’s current booking window. Assuming it is a seasonal addition, I would expect it to operate until sometime in September or October.

This is a real capacity increase with an additional 787-10 being added to the existing 777 and 787-10 services. The 787-10 comes with eight First Class seats and is fitted with Club Suite.

The flight is currently wide-open for Avios redemptions, with the full four Club, two World Traveller Plus and eight World Traveller seats open on most days. An off-peak business class redemption costs 160,000 Avios plus £350 return if you take the ‘most Avios, least cash’ option.

You can book on the BA website here.

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How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (December 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. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 9th January 2024, you will receive 30,000 Membership Rewards points (convertible to 30,000 Avios) with American Express Preferred Rewards Gold. You receive 25,000 points if you spend £3,000 in three months and a further 5,000 points if you hold the card for 15 months. You can apply here.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 9th January 2024, you will receive a huge 100,000 Membership Rewards points (convertible to 100,000 Avios) with The Platinum Card. You receive 75,000 points if you spend £10,000 in six months and a further 25,000 points if you hold the card for 15 months. You can apply here.

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.

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.

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.