Bits: BA strike off, 100% Heathrow Rewards bonus, Blacklane / Lufthansa bonus

News in brief:

The BA strike is called off

The British Airways strike by mixed fleet cabin crew, scheduled for Christmas Day and Boxing Day, was called off last night.

BA will now run a normal schedule on both days.

Heathrow Rewards transfer bonus launched

Heathrow Rewards is offering a 100% transfer bonus on transfers to Lufthansa Miles & More made before 31st January.

This is a generous offer as Miles & More miles are not so easy to obtain in the UK, as they are not an American Express partner and do not sell miles – although there is a UK credit card.

You will receive 500 Miles & More miles for every 250 Heathrow Rewards points you transfer.

Unfortunately this offer does not apply to any of the other Heathrow Rewards airline partners – Etihad, Emirates, BA or Virgin.

Earn Miles & More miles with Blacklane

Whilst on the subject of Miles & More, you can still earn 1000 Miles & More miles for taking a trip with chauffeur firm Blacklane between now and the end of the year.

The basic earning rate is 1 mile per £, $ or € depending on the country you are using the service in. You can book your ride via the app or website by entering your pick up and drop off points and choosing a time and car. Unlike Uber you will get a fixed price and not be charged anything extra if, for example, traffic is slow.

If you sign up between now and 31st December, you will get a 1000 Miles & More miles sign-up bonus when taking your first ride.  The Blacklane home page is here.  The company operates in 250 cities worldwide so they are a potential option in many places you may be travelling to this Christmas.

Get 2,500 Heathrow Rewards points as a sign-up bonus

Given the bonus above, it is worth giving a final mention to the very generous 2,500 points Heathrow Rewards sign-up bonus that has been running this year.

2,500 points is as good a sign-up bonus as you will ever see for Heathrow Rewards although the minimum spend this time is higher than in the past.  If you transfer these points to Miles & More before 31st January, you would receive 5,000 miles.

The offer you choose will depend on how you spend money at Heathrow:

This offer is sponsored by BA although you can send your points to any airline partner.  It triggers your 2,500 bonus points (= 2,500 miles) with a £150 spend in one day before December 31st.  The sign-up link for this deal is here – make sure the code BAAPR16 is the ‘promotional code’ box.  

If you can’t manage £150, you will receive 1,000 points with a £75 spend in one day before December 31st.

Full details of the Heathrow Rewards scheme are here but to join and get the bonus you need to use this link.

Check the small print before you make your purchases at Heathrow as some items, such as tobacco, do not count.  Foreign currency transactions are not meant to count but I know that some people have changed £150 at Travelex and found that it triggered the bonus …. I cannot promise that this will work for you.

It is not clear if your first purchase on the card must be for £75 or £150 or if you simply need to spend that in one day at some point between now and the end of the year.

You may well already have a Heathrow Rewards account. If so, you have three options:

open an account for someone else who shares a BA or Avios household account with you, then transfer the Avios to that account

Heathrow Rewards now lets you transfer points between different people – you could get a card in a random name, spend the £75 or £150 and then ring Heathrow Rewards to transfer the points to yourself

if you have only previously converted to one airline programme, you could open another account in your name (different email, different postal address) and then send the points over to Virgin, Etihad or Miles & More if you usually send them to Avios (or vice versa). Do not use the same Avios number on two accounts.

Note that Heathrow Rewards only allows one account per address.

Your card won’t arrive in time for any flight you are taking before 31st December, but you can either post in your receipts later or download your membership card to Wallet on your iPhone.