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BA news: earn Avios at Gail’s, Bangkok Airways codeshare relaunched

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News in brief:

Earns Avios at Gail’s bakeries

Gail’s has become the latest retailer to join the ‘in-store’ list of Avios partners.

Effective immediately, you will earn 5 Avios for every £1 you spend in a Gail’s store.

(If you’re not a Gail’s fan, French bakery group Paul is also an ‘in-store’ Avios partner at the same rate.)

To receive Avios, you need to register your credit or debit card number on the shopping.ba.com site. It may take a day or so to go live, but after that you will automatically receive Avios on every Gail’s purchase without having to lift a finger.

Earn Avios at Gails

British Airways brings back its Bangkok Airways codeshare

Back in 2013, British Airways launched a codeshare arrangement with Bangkok Airways. When BA dropped flights to Thailand it went into hibernation, but it has now been relaunched.

British Airways resumes flights to Bangkok on 28th October, departing from London Gatwick. There will be three flights per week, increasing to five between January and March.

Under the codeshare deal, you can book flights from London Gatwick to:

  • Phuket, Thailand
  • Koh Samui, Thailand
  • Chaing Mai, Thailand
  • Phnom Penh, Cambodia
  • Siem Reap, Cambodia

…. on one ticket on ba.com, with an aircraft swap in Bangkok. You would be fully protected against any misconnections due to delays on the first leg.

You will receive Avios and tier points in British Airways Executive Club for the Bangkok Airways flight.

You can include a stopover in Bangkok if you wish.

Note that:

  • you cannot book Bangkok Airways flights on ba.com on a stand-alone basis – they must connect to a British Airways long haul flight
How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (October 2024)

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 – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

50,000 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, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios.

Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa

10,000 points bonus – plus an extra 500 points for our readers 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.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 22nd October 2024, the bonus on American Express Business Platinum is increased to up to 80,000 Membership Rewards points, worth 80,000 Avios. You will receive 8 points per £1 spent for the first three months, on up to £10,000 of spending. Click here to read our full card review. Click here to apply.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 22nd October 2024, the bonus on American Express Business Gold is increased to up to 40,000 Membership Rewards points, worth 40,000 Avios. You will receive 4 points per £1 spent for the first three months, on up to £10,000 of spending. The card is FREE for your first year. Click here to read our full card review. Click here to apply.

American Express Business Platinum

Up to 80,000 points when you sign-up and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

Get up to 40,000 points as a sign-up offer 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 (83)

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

  • meta says:
    8 Aug8 August 03:38

    Paul is a French chain, not Belgian.

  • PabloF says:
    8 Aug8 August 04:43

    Does the RJ status match to OneWorld Sapphire from Airlines still work?

  • QFFlyer says:
    8 Aug8 August 04:54

    This (RJ part) doesn’t surprise me in the least, given the value of OWS and the ease of obtaining hotel status – massively weighted in the hotel status holder’s favour, too far it seems.

  • BJ says:
    8 Aug8 August 05:53

    Spelling: Chiang Mai

    Just a guess but I think buying the through tickets will be more expensive most of the time than purchasing them separately. Unusually these days Bangkok Airways tickets include both seat selection and a 20kg checked bag if my memory serves me right. Lounge access can be added for a fee.

    • BBbetter says:
      8 Aug8 August 06:25

      Isn’t Bangkok airways a monopoly on the Koh Samui route?

    • Lewis says:
      8 Aug8 August 06:34

      Includes food as well which is is quite amazing on such short flights. But actually in the last BA sale I was pricing up London to Chiang Mai for my parents and it was ~£650 which is better than I’ve seen for this routing in a long time.

    • Gordon says:
      8 Aug8 August 07:48

      Last time I flew Bangkok airways, pre pandemic lounge access was included in the ticket price, albeit a basic lounge? Also very good in offering F&B vouchers that can be used anywhere, on a delayed flight.

      • Kathryn says:
        8 Aug8 August 08:13

        Yep it is, on the Koh Samui side anyway, when flying out of DMK couldn’t find a lounge so used my amex to get into one of the pay for lounges which was fine. Bangkok Airways was great though, really cute little airline.

        • BJ says:
          8 Aug8 August 08:19

          I didn’t know they had any flights from DMK. Last three flights I booked required extra fee for lounge but none were from Samui.

    • Gavin says:
      8 Aug8 August 07:49

      I thought lounge access was included as standard, or perhaps I booked a tier of ticket that includes it without realising. The lounge was not good though, the “Coral” domestic lounge at BKK accessed with PP was much better.

      • BJ says:
        8 Aug8 August 08:28

        They have about 4 seats on every flight (or promotion event) the sell for pennies to get their marketing headlines. It’s those I usually book and maybe that’s why no lounge included or maybe they don’t have their own loubge at HDY and some other places. Never bothered with tge detail as I usually have Priority Pass.

  • Lewis says:
    8 Aug8 August 06:37

    The BA Bangkok flight is also going to 5 days a week between January and March.

    • Lewis says:
      8 Aug8 August 06:38

      WHICH I’ve just seen mentioned in the article. Ignore me. The BA site is struggling to show options when I search for London to Chiang Mai this morning. Classic BA IT 😛

  • Paul76 says:
    8 Aug8 August 07:17

    Quite a long list of excluded locations for Gail’s might be worth checking before visiting.

    • Andrew J says:
      8 Aug8 August 08:12

      Very odd that some locations work with some cards and not others – for example Westbourne Grove works with Amex and Mastercard but doesn’t work with Visa.

      • Lumma says:
        8 Aug8 August 10:26

        On airtime rewards, deliveroo is exclusive to Visa and I’ve never understood why (only visa card I have these days is a natwest debit card)

  • Milo100 says:
    8 Aug8 August 07:43

    I am not too surprised at the RJ upgrade to Gold Sparrow being pulled, it opened up a very valued status to a wide audience. Will those that have been approved still get the status? I applied earlier in week, got approved and am waiting for my new status to be applied to my RJ Royal Club account.

    • d4ve says:
      8 Aug8 August 07:54

      Mine was updated to Gold overnight (applied Tuesday) so if you paid the high price and were confirmed in an email, it looks like it will go through.

    • Occasional Ranter says:
      8 Aug8 August 08:15

      Based on data points given in comments to the main article, it can take 2-3 days to show. I’m at 2 days so far…

      • Milo100 says:
        8 Aug8 August 09:22

        I have just checked again, mine has come through now. Very happy.

  • Dave says:
    8 Aug8 August 08:14

    At the rate my wife spends in Gail’s, that’s a free F return to Sydney every year.

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

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