I have been travelling to Tampa with Virgin Atlantic to review their A330neo this week. In the meantime, there have been some interesting stories out this week, so here are the latest things you need to know and new offers.
In this post:
Major strike at Heathrow announced
There seems to be a never-ending list of strike announcements at Heathrow and all of them have been settled before it actually got to the point of any action taking place. So I wouldn’t be too worried about this one at the moment just yet.
Ground staff at Heathrow Airport have announced three days of strike action that would affect passengers travelling with many major airlines such as Qatar Airways, Emirates, Virgin Atlantic, Singapore Airlines and Cathay Pacific. It is not expected to affect British Airways customers.
It involves 700 staff employed by ground handling agents Menzies Aviation and Dnata. It is interesting that Dnata is involved as it’s part of the Emirates Group, which is owned by the government of Dubai. Personally, I can’t see Emirates allowing the strike to go ahead, but we will see.
The walkout is expected to start on 18 November and continue for 72 hours until the morning of the 21 November.
Avios redemptions to Nectar devalued
In the continuation of bad news for Avios collectors, which started with the announcement that BA would be moving to a revenue-based earning model, there is more devaluation about to happen. This time it will affect you if you regularly move Avios to Nectar points (personally, that seems rather dull to me when you could use it to upgrade a flight or save some money on a flight.
From 16 November, the rate at which you convert Avios into Nectar points is changing.
Currently you can convert 250 Avios into 400 Nectar points. From 16 November you need 300 Avios to get 400 Nectar points.
If you transfer from Nectar to Avios, then so far you are not affected at 400 Nectar points = 250 Avios. However, you will now lose out if you decided to transfer into Nectar points but then reverse the transaction. So the moral is, don’t convert Avios into Nectar points unless you are sure you will use them and won’t need them for something else.
Changes to Barclays Premier accounts BA upgrades
Barclays offer some good deals for Avios collectors with their Premier Bank account and Avios Barclayard. When you have the Premier Account you can pay a £12 monthly fee to collect Avios and get an anniversary award through Barclays Avios Rewards.
To qualify for the Premier account is slightly tricky as you need:
-
- or
- At least £100,000 in savings with us and/or Barclays UK investments
You currently receive a free cabin upgrade voucher after paying 12 monthly fees, which is called the anniversary reward. This will continue, but you will now need to hold Barclays Avios Rewards for 12 months and pay 12 monthly fees to qualify.
From early next year, you will get a choice of anniversary reward between a cabin upgrade voucher and a specified amount of Avios. AS yet we do not know how many. Personally I’d opt for an upgrade voucher since that should not be affected by a devaluation. Barclays will write to you to tell you if you have a choice of reward, how you can confirm your choice and when you’ll receive it. If you haven’t made a choice a month before your anniversary, you’ll be awarded the free cabin upgrade voucher.
Your cabin upgrade voucher will be added to your BAEC account within five working days. If you choose Avios as your reward, this will be added to your BAEC account on the second working day of the following month.
It’s worth pointing out that the 100,000 extra bonus for holding both the Barclays Premier Account and Avios credit card is still available until 30 November 2022. You can find out more here.
14 comments
Dnata provides support to Virgin Atlantic cargo operation but passenger services will not be affected by the strike.
I don’t follow this paragraph? What’s changed? Thanks
“You currently receive a free cabin upgrade voucher after paying 12 monthly fees, which is called the anniversary reward. This will continue, but you will now need to hold Barclays Avios Rewards for 12 months and pay 12 monthly fees to qualify.”
You need to be a member for 12 months. Before it said 12 monthly fees. No idea why they’ve published it like that but there must be some circumstances where they are not the same.
Ah ok thanks – perhaps it’s just a clarification as after paying 12 fees (over 11m because you pay at the start of the month) I was one of many chasing them up for the voucher – however after 12m actually elapsed, it then appeared. Thanks
That would explain it then.
I’m a BA Gold member. Is there any way to transfer this to Finnair along with my Avíos balance, or do I need to start again with Finnair once my membership renewal occurs in April?
Unfortunately there is no way to transfer Avios or tier points to Finnair. You will have to start crediting flights to Finnair. But you don’t need to wait unless you need to secure status with BA first. Start crediting immediately. Finnair’s scheme works differently to BA.
“ From early next year, you will get a choice of anniversary reward between a cabin upgrade voucher and a specified amount of Avios” – this is a gesture to those north of Watford for whom the Barclays voucher is about as useful as a Priority Pass. On connecting itineraries involving a domestic (regional) UK airport as origin, the BA search engine won’t return any long haul results. Even adding stopovers at LHR for a day in each direction. For short haul, it is possible to get the search engine to generate a result e.g. MAN-LHR-Euope but the domestic flight MAN-LHR gets charged at full Avios cost, not the sliding scale Avios + £ options on usual RFS flights. So, in short, BA have decided a bung of points to those cardholders north of Watford is easier than sorting their woeful IT to make the voucher work properly.
Yes there has been an issue with that for ages. Like many other things with BAs IT they seem in no rush to fix it!
I have been loyal to BA but am disheartened with their cost cutting service to BA…….less avios when you fly or need more to convert. Really fed up and don’;t think I’ll bother being loyal anymore!
converting nectar to avios is not changing that will remain the same. I agree about the cost cutting approach to avios
Hi Michelle
How easy is it to change from the free Avios credit card with Barclaycard to the paid card? I didn’t think I stood a chance of achieving the £10k per year (on top of my AMEX BA Premium Plus card) but now think I can. What is the procedure please?
What part of ‘Heathrow International Airport’ was that Adobe stock image at the top of the article taken from? Do HAL not have a media library of their own?
Yes they do but often I just use something generic if it’s about the staff there rather than Heathrow itself.
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