BA version of the ‘125,000 Avios’ promotion found – but only for non-UK EU residents

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• Richard says:

  4 Oct4 October 06:02

  >>open a 2nd British Airways account at a European address…you have no way of adding the Avios to your main balance

  Couldn’t you create a household account with this new european account and your main UK account together. In this way you can spend the miles you earn from your european account using your UK account.

  • Adam Mosey says:

    4 Oct4 October 06:45

    A household account is for people living at the same address, so no I don’t think this would work.

• Callum says:

  4 Oct4 October 06:23

  While I wouldn’t normally point out typos where it’s obvious what you mean, it’s quite amusing that there’s a typo in your apology for making typos!

  • Erico1875 says:

    4 Oct4 October 07:58

    School teacher?

    • Worzel says:

      4 Oct4 October 08:38

      I would hope that a School Teacher would start out with “Whilst” or ” Whereas”.

      Just hoping that further correction is with an “S” and not a “Z” 🙂 .

    • Callum says:

      4 Oct4 October 18:55

      I see no reason why a school teacher would be expected to know the (seemingly old fashioned) intricacies of “while” and “whilst” – bar maybe a particularly pedantic English teacher.

      I merely found it amusing that there’s a typo within an apology for making a typo. Clearly it’s just me being an uneducated grammar pedant though.

      • Fenny says:

        4 Oct4 October 18:58

        It’s an old Usenet belief that a post pointing out speeling mistakes usually has at least one mistake in it.

• Mark says:

  4 Oct4 October 07:06

  Or the 4th option would be to credit to the Iberia version of the offer then combine the avios later

  • TimS says:

    4 Oct4 October 08:18

    If you got the targeted email yes.

    If you didn’t, it isn’t an option.

• Mr(s) Entitled says:

  4 Oct4 October 07:40

  I thought you could move your account every 6mths. Option #4 register your BAEC to your ‘weekend place’ in Europe. ‘Move back’ in 6mths complete with Avios and TPs?

• Mark says:

  4 Oct4 October 11:17

  Bit cheeky of BA. EU law demands that all EU citizens have equal rights to goods and services no matter what EU country they’re from. Apple got landed with a pretty hefty lawsuit doing things like this, targetting to specific EU countries.

  I would suspect if challenged, they would be forced to open this up to UK residents too.

  • Sussex bantam says:

    4 Oct4 October 11:24

    As did Eurodisney and SNCF recently with cheaper prices for French residents.

    I suspect you are right and this may not be valid under EU law if anyone (not me!) can be bothered to challenge it !!

    • harry says:

      4 Oct4 October 13:14

      This is more correct, ie a promotion may be only for French residents but it would be unlawful to deny it to a Brit passport holder with a French address.

      • Sussex bantam says:

        4 Oct4 October 13:40

        I wonder if it is to do with the location of service ? So – i can certainly sell a widget at one price in France and a different one one in the uk but if you are getting on a sncf train then I can’t charge a uk citizen one price and a French citizen another. Does that sound right ?

        • Callum says:

          4 Oct4 October 18:57

          Sounds right to me. If I go to France however then I must get the French rate.

          Just like Tesco isn’t breaking the law by selling doughnuts cheaper in the UK than in Ireland.

        • Fenny says:

          4 Oct4 October 19:01

          Tesco sells things at different prices in stores a mile apart. Our Tesco Local is more expensive for some items than the main store in town. I live half way between and tend to use the local for odd things on the way home from work or on a Sunday evening. Unless I absolutely need it, I refuse to pay more for something than in the main store.

        • harry says:

          5 Oct5 October 22:02

          You didn’t think it was worth including this bit?:
          You do not necessarily enjoy the same rights with certain services, notably financial and transport services.

        • harry says:

          5 Oct5 October 22:51

          Simply excluded:

          (d) services in the field of transport, including port services, falling
          within the scope of Title V of the Treaty;

          Try telling Raffles he has to open up his competitions to all EU.

          He’s been correctly advised that opening up the competitions to non-UK leaves him liable to all sorts of potential bad consequences.

  • harry says:

    4 Oct4 October 13:09

    EU law demands nothing of the sort, at least not in the sense you mean. In other words, a supplier of goods/ services can certainly charge different prices in different EU countries; can refuse to supply in any country it chooses; can run promotions for residents of 1 country and exclude residents of other countries.

• Danksy says:

  4 Oct4 October 19:27

  Isn’t this against EU rules? I.e discriminating against one EU country ?

  • harry says:

    4 Oct4 October 19:33

    No

• Lady London says:

  4 Oct4 October 20:31

  Am pretty sure BA has run this same highly lucrative promotion in 2014 and also in 2013 at exactly the same time. It was offered only to Continental Europe members and not offered in the UK.

  IIRC it was followed in both those last two years by a considerably watered down and pretty much useless promotion for the UK only. It was a bit of a slap in the face for loyal UK members, really.

  • Mr(s) Entitled says:

    4 Oct4 October 20:49

    You want a slap in the face? Try being a loyal UK member outside of London.

    • harry says:

      4 Oct4 October 21:02

      Not that silly kettle of fish, please.

      Just because you lot got free flights down to London on Avios redemptions in the past, does not make BA bad to deny you that in the future.

• george says:

  7 Oct7 October 13:31

  Hi – can someone please explain the following:

  -using the BA avios calculator for a discounted economy flight from LHR to EWR gives me 865 avios (one way for Blue members), while
  – it gives me 4325 avios for the same flight for Gold members

  …I thought Gold provided for only 100% avios bonus over Blue
  Thanks

  • george says:

    7 Oct7 October 15:00

    thanks, harry – but it doesnt tell me much. i understand that after the april’s deval discounted economy only earns 25% of avios (which is 865). however, i am confused about why the calculator shows x5 that amount for the same discounted economy flight for Gold card holders (where Gold is supposed to get only 100% more)

    What am i missing?

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