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Bits: did you get 15,000 free Avios?, 20% off Loyalty 2017 tickets, Etihad / Times promo

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News in brief:

Get 15,000 free Avios from American Express

I got a very pleasant surprise when I ran my AwardWallet update yesterday morning to refresh the balances of all my loyalty accounts.  My British Airways Executive Club balance had gone up by 15,000 Avios.

When I looked at my account at ba.com the description was:

“Special Promotion   15,000 Avios”

…. which was not very helpful.

However, opening up the BA app on my phone was more useful:

“Special Promotion -) BA Amex cobrand 15yr Surprise and Delight    15,000 Avios”

Whilst I have not received an email about this – I get a feeling that my card may be set to ‘no marketing’ – other people have had an email from BA confirming that this is to thank them for being a cardholder for 15 years.

BA told me that this bonus is going to 6,500 people who have held the card for 15 years and are ‘active’.  If your free BA card has been in a drawer for the last three years, you don’t receive the points apparently!

15,000 Avios is certainly not to be sniffed at.  If I was being cynical, you could argue that this is a fop to long-term cardholders who may be thinking of cancelling now that the annual fee has been raised to £195 whilst the value of an Avios has been devalued – but that is a very negative way of looking at it.  Even on my low valuations, 15,000 Avios is still worth over £100 so I won’t say no.

BA Premium Plus American Express card BAPP

Get 20% off Loyalty 2017 tickets

This is one purely for the industry readers of Head for Points.

Next year the massive annual Loyalty conference heads to London for a 3-day stint at the Royal Garden Hotel in Kensington from 20th to 22nd February.

If you look at the agenda for Wednesday 22nd you will see that I am speaking on “The Role of Bloggers In Your Communication Strategy“.  Please note that I did not write the slightly cringe-worthy description of what I will be talking about.

If you are in the trade and want to sign up to go along, HFP readers can get a 20% discount using code RGP21485.  You enter this code on the first page of the booking process and it gives an extra £299 discount on top of the current ‘early bird’ discount.

Etihad 350

Etihad clarifies the rules of its Times promotion

Etihad has clarified the rules of its current promotion with The Times this week to give Etihad Guest status to anyone who signs up and takes one flight.

The offer is only open to new members of Etihad Guest who sign up via the link on this page.  If you already have an Etihad Guest account which is empty, you may want to create a new one with different address and email details.  This isn’t ideal, of course, but Etihad should have made the rules more flexible …..

You will receive Etihad Silver status if you take an Economy flight with Etihad before 10th May 2017.

You will receive Etihad Gold status if you take a Business or First Class flight with Etihad before 10th May 2017.

The following rules have now been added:

your flight must depart from the UK

your flight must be a return flight

….. which means no short hops from Abu Dhabi to Dubai and back!

It is worth noting that a similar deal for Silver status (but not Gold) is freely available to everyone, all year round, if they take out the Etihad Guest credit cards.  Full details are in my Etihad Guest credit card review.

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How to earn Etihad Guest miles from UK credit cards

How to earn Etihad Guest miles from UK credit cards (April 2025)

Etihad Guest does not have a UK credit card.  However, you can earn Etihad Guest miles by converting Membership Rewards points earned from selected UK American Express cards.

Cards earning Membership Rewards points include:

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on the ‘free for a year’ American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card is increased from 20,000 Membership Rewards points to 30,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (30,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on American Express Platinum is increased from 50,000 Membership Rewards points to a huge 80,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (80,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

Membership Rewards points convert at 1:1 into Etihad Guest miles which is an attractive rate.  The cards above all earn 1 Membership Rewards point per £1 spent on your card, which converts to 1 Etihad Guest mile.

The American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card earns double points (2 per £1) on all flights you charge to it, not just with Etihad but with any airline.

Category

British Airways American Express, British Airways and Avios, Etihad and Etihad Guest

Comments (99)

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

  • Lux says:
    16 Nov16 November 03:14

    Only 6,500 of us have been paying for a BA Amex for 15 years? I shall wear those Avios as a Medal of Honor! Be interesting to see how many read your blog Rob.

    • John says:
      16 Nov16 November 07:04

      I don’t think all 6500 people are even paying for the card. Raffles isn’t.

      • Rob says:
        16 Nov16 November 08:06

        Very few of the 6500 will be, as holding ANY other Amex card at the launch entitled you to a free or heavily reduced BAPP.

        • David says:
          16 Nov16 November 08:30

          Have to feel sorry for anyone who has been paying for it for 14 years that. I would put the promotion in the ‘too generous, too targeted’ category. Any good will potentially cancelled out by hostility for those who miss out. Especially if they literally could not have held the card at the time (age, etc).

    • Sean says:
      16 Nov16 November 09:12

      Is 6,500 the number of “originals” or have 6,500 of these been chosen. I think it must be the latter as:
      A) I didn’t get this
      B) 6,500 seems to be a pretty low number of people who took out the card 15 years ago.

      • Rob says:
        16 Nov16 November 10:58

        6,500 chosen. Inactive cards have been excluded. It also seems that anyone who switched from a BA to a BAPP is excluded (or vice versa).

        • Chris Cannon says:
          17 Nov17 November 06:25

          Not true. I switched up from BA to BAPP

        • HayMow says:
          18 Nov18 November 05:53

          Hmm so my BA to BAPP seems to be excluded yet neither have been inactive. Amex UK have replied to my DM saying it’s not an Amex promo (as far as they can see) and must be a BA promo (since the em was from BA). Scowls.

  • Charlie Whiskey says:
    16 Nov16 November 05:19

    Indeed! Sitting in the sun bigh up
    in the Himalayas (LHR – DEL – LHR in First on 241!) and found this unexpected e-mail and gift today. A real enhancement and very welcome!

  • BlackBerryAddict says:
    16 Nov16 November 05:27

    Nice to see ‘muggins’ is speaking at this event – if I’m in the country I’ll come along 🙂

  • s879 says:
    16 Nov16 November 06:02

    I can see the 1000 auto transfer I got from Tesco has now been reset to zero! Anyone got that?

    • Graeme says:
      16 Nov16 November 07:13

      Same here, likewise the 500 points bonus on the train ticket purchase promoted recently on here. Strangely my balance has not changed so I assume this a statement view error rather than the miles actually being removed from your account.

      • Genghis says:
        16 Nov16 November 07:52

        I noticed that too. Individua line items have disappeared from the statement but the total has remained the same.

        • Genghis says:
          16 Nov16 November 07:52

          However, the 500 points for the virgin trains promo remains. strange…

          • Liz says:
            16 Nov16 November 10:43

            I can’t log in at all to Virgin – not received the new membership number yet. It says you can log in using your old ID and you will see your new number but it’s not working for me. Hoping it will sort itself out over the next few days.

          • Leo says:
            16 Nov16 November 13:50

            Can’t login either. Haven’t been able to since Sunday.

  • James67 says:
    16 Nov16 November 06:14

    Agred 15k avios is a pleasant surprise but in reality it’s a poor gesture and miniscule in the bigger scheme of things. It can be trumped by a couple doing a single churn on a card each year, and there are many doing much more than that year after year if comments on HFP are anything to go by.

    • Mr(s) Entitled says:
      16 Nov16 November 07:17

      But those that churn don’t have the benefit of the Amex insurance, status etc. If you don’t churn this is obviously something you value and therefore have benefited from. Given that to churn or not is a free choice it seems poor form to them complain about a free gift you weren’t expecting and weren’t working towards. Yes, they could do more but they could have done nothing!

      • Brian says:
        16 Nov16 November 08:03

        Which status are you talking about? And is the insurance of the BA cards particularly good?

      • James67 says:
        16 Nov16 November 08:31

        I’m not suggesting people should have cause for complaint. I appreciate your point but only insofar as a couple can achieve, use and get real value out of 2x241s per year from both holding a BAPP. However, even that is stretching it a bit because with churning a couple can still get 3x241s every two years I believe. Despite some good amex offers i still fail to see how the other benefits a couple holding two BA cards simultaneously long term could possibly outweigh the advantages of churning. It is against this background that I feel the 15k avios is nothing to be excited about. I know some peopke feel churning is ultimately self-defeating for our hobby and I’m not hugely into churning cards myself but I don’t see much wrong with it in the case of amex who seem, to me at least, to actively encourage it.

        • Leo says:
          16 Nov16 November 08:40

          I know this is heresy but I find churning a huge PITA. Once a year is all I can really manage. Other half flatly refuses to do it. On that basis the 15000 would be at least a nice surprise over ones’s cornflakes.

  • andy L says:
    16 Nov16 November 06:15

    I too was delighted to see this “land” yesterday and benefited from the nice gesture from Amex.

  • Talay says:
    16 Nov16 November 06:55

    I had a few disappointing emails with Etihad regarding this Gold give away.

    My premise was that as I pay for 3 x business LHR-BKK a couple or more times a year plus a few single business trips, I routinely remain in Silver despite £20k plus per year with the airline. At present I am hovering under Gold as mileage for one item has not been awarded.

    As a single £1500 trip (£1166 LHR-BKK last week) would give Gold status, against my annual £20k plus, I asked that they advance me to Gold. No, no can do.

    This leaves a bitter taste in my mouth but I presume I can “churn” Etihad, use my miles and create another account ? If not, it seems a silly way to lose a customer to Emirates.

    • James67 says:
      16 Nov16 November 07:11

      You do have a choice of airlines with which to fly. I was totally unimpressed with Etihad, gave up on them after my second trip.

    • Brian says:
      16 Nov16 November 08:02

      Yes, just create another account and get Gold on that one.

  • HayMow says:
    16 Nov16 November 07:12

    No 15k Amex Avios for self (BA Amex since Jan01) or hubby (Oct01) – any ideas why? At that time we both took the free card but moved to Premium Plus a few years after. thx

    • Rob says:
      16 Nov16 November 08:05

      Perhaps upgrading somehow changed the tracking?

      • HayMow says:
        16 Nov16 November 09:28

        Maybe – still shows me as a cardholder since Jan01 on my profile (and the card no’s effectively the same) – have dropped them a secure message & will report back!

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

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