Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

British Airways updates its guidelines on getting Avios and tier points for strike-affected flights

Links on Head for Points may support the site by paying a commission.  See here for all partner links.

Yesterday we ran an article explaining how British Airways was planning to deal with the issue of awarding Avios and tier points for flights impacted by strike action.

It seems that British Airways was not planning to give Avios or tier points to anyone who had their flight changed or cancelled during the strike. 

If you had read the original version of the strike FAQ, it did actually say this but only by implication.  This is also what the call centre had started to tell HfP readers who called to request their missing points and what BA had confirmed to me when I made an official enquiry.

Their position changed on Thursday, which by coincidence was after I gave BA advance notice that we were planning to address this.  Their revised feedback led to my article yesterday.

The official guidance on ba.com was updated yesterday evening.  This reflects what British Airways told me on Thursday would be the new policy and which we summarised in Friday’s piece.

The BA strike page now says in the FAQ section:

“If your flight was cancelled as a result of the industrial action, and you were rebooked onto an alternative service operated by British Airways or a oneworld partner airline, you will automatically be credited with the applicable Avios and Tier Points once you have flown the rebooked flight.

If your flight was cancelled as a result of the industrial action, and you were rebooked by British Airways onto an alternative service operated by a non-partner airline, we will award you the Avios and Tier Points for your original cancelled British Airways flight. Please raise a claim online by logging into your Executive Club account and click the option “claim missing Avios on BA” and submit your original British Airways flight details.

In all other cases where you believe you would have upgraded or retained your Tier status had your flight not been affected by the industrial action, please contact your local Executive Club Service Centre who will review cases on an individual basis.”

There is actually one element here which goes beyond what we wrote yesterday.  Whilst British Airways is still refusing to credit Avios or tier points to anyone who chose to take a refund and arranged their own alternative transportation, these people can contact BA at year end for a manual review if their tier points show that they would otherwise have gained or retained status.

If you have travel planned over the next strike, on 27th September, you will have been contacted by now if your flight is cancelled.  BA CityFlyer has added extra capacity from London City Airport to Munich, Berlin and Amsterdam so customers on those routes should still be able to choose a BA option.

Having read the document that BALPA sent out to its members yesterday, I do not see any sign of compromise.  If anything, some of the alleged actions taken by the airline appear to have inflamed passions even further.

PS. If you are not a regular Head for Points visitor, why not sign up for our FREE weekly or daily newsletters? They are full of the latest Avios, airline, hotel and credit card points news and will help you travel better. To join our 65,000 free subscribers, click the button below or visit this page of the site to find out more. Thank you.

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (April 2025)

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.

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.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 30,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

80,000 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, and the standard card is FREE. Capital on Tap cards also have no FX fees.

Capital on Tap Visa

NO annual fee, NO FX fees and points worth 1 Avios per £1 Read our full review

Capital on Tap Pro Visa

10,500 points (=10,500 Avios) plus good benefits 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.

American Express Business Platinum

50,000 points when you sign-up and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus 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 (72)

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

  • Richard says:
    14 Sep14 September 14:30

    Had a nightmare 24 hours – my BAEC year end is 8 sept and I’m 35 TP short of retaining silver, so I booked LCY-MAN on BA7310. That can heavily delayed until this morning after sitting on the plane last night and hitting the LCY curfew – then exactly the same thing happened today, and we were on plane at 1pm when the Saturday curfew came down! Now on a train as just need to get home – believe I should get a refund and compensation as it was a late arriving plane yesterday and a booking mess today then led to manual pre flight checks. From above I take it I’m not going to get TPs automatically, but could call and see if they make a manual exception?

    • Anna says:
      14 Sep14 September 14:43

      I’m currently chasing my OH’s tier points from a cancelled MAN – LHR last month. The cancelled flight doesn’t show on line and emails seem to be mostly ignored at the moment so I’ve written to BA. Fortunately the rest of the itinerary just squeezed him to Bronze otherwise I would be fuming!

    • Shoestring says:
      14 Sep14 September 17:08

      Sounds like you are due 2x compo, as it was 2 different flights cancelled. Make your first online claim for flight #1, wait a few days then make your second claim for flight #2. ie don’t roll them into one claim.

      • Richard says:
        14 Sep14 September 18:44

        Hmm – could try, but all the BA boards and app were showing the original was delayed until the necmxt day, albeit I believe it was originally cancelled and whilst we were awaiting news on Friday evening it was reinstated for the Saturday.

        • Lady London says:
          14 Sep14 September 20:21

          Did it have the same flight number both days? Even if it did I’ve got a vague feeling moving to same flight number but on a different day counts as a cancellation.

          • Shoestring says:
            14 Sep14 September 20:30

            I think it might unfortunately have been the same plane/ flight – BA7310 is an 8pm flight so they feasibly could argue the ‘delayed but same flight’ logic if they tried to get it off the ground again at 1pm Saturday

            still good for 1x cancellation compo – and I’d be asking for a bit more in points given all the faffing around for 18hrs

    • Lady London says:
      14 Sep14 September 20:19

      Sounds like compo for cancellation or at least massive delay is.due unless they can come up with exempt reason. Make sure you get the official reason both flights were delayed.

      Original routing credit is in BAs ts and cs and there isn’t any wording separating treatment if Avios and tier points so I assume you can ask for both to be credited as if you flew on the original booked date.

      Sounds like BA responsible for overnight hotel and meal expenses under duty of care part of eu261too.

      What a miserable experience.

      • Richard says:
        14 Sep14 September 20:28

        Thanks – yes utterly miserable!

        Yes both flight numbers were the same – BA7310. BA paid for hotel and food vouchers at hotel, and taxi there – one less thing to claim!

        • Shoestring says:
          14 Sep14 September 20:34

          what was the face value of the food vouchers?

          • Richard says:
            14 Sep14 September 21:55

            In the hotel, £20. I forgot to ask for some in the airport…

          • Shoestring says:
            14 Sep14 September 22:03

            just for future reference, there’s nothing stopping you spending whatever is reasonable on duty of care meals, eg £25 per head for lunch & dinner is fine by BA and they have paid out more in the past in places where £25 doesn’t go very far – obvs with receipts & a ready rationale if over £25

    • Lady London says:
      15 Sep15 September 10:20

      PS defo ask for ‘original routing crédit’ – it’s in the ts and cs. I.e.tier points and Avios. Call thé Exec Club first as i think you might avoid BA’s Indian call centre and their idiotic intransigeance (IME) that way.

      • Richard says:
        15 Sep15 September 12:18

        Thanks – even though I abandoned and have requested a refund?

        • Lady London says:
          15 Sep15 September 12:51

          Yes. You were forced to. Anyone would say that after a delay of the length of the ultimate delay after it failed to take off on the second day, you were effectively forced to.

          Would have been better if you’d asked BA to reroute you though. Most likely they’d have wanted you to go to LHR for a late flight if there was one on a Saturday.

          If the tier points are thé most important to you get them while watching here for how policy and crediting them develops. Have you managed to accurately record the official reasons for both delays? Did BA make themselves contactable and offer a further reroute or were you forced to decide to take the train before this could be achieved?

          I suppose the thing to do is to take a refund if it’s worth more than the compo for late or cancel and refuse a refund if the compo is worth more?

          • Richard says:
            15 Sep15 September 20:19

            Many thanks for the responses.
            Tried BA Exec Club today and believe I got through to India 3 times. All said given I hadn’t flown I could get TPs. Told me to try customer relations tomorrow when open (assume UK centre?)
            Said there was typically 2 exemptions – two weeks extension and 20 TP – given I need 35 they werent willing to help me retain silver. Will try again tomorrow!

  • Anna says:
    15 Sep15 September 18:03

    The CAA should be able to impose sanctions on an airline with such a horrendous record of trying to avoid its legal obligations.

  • Sam says:
    20 Sep20 September 11:29

    Has anyone been successful in claiming missing Tier Points and Avios? My situation is I was re-routed onto Air France. All stayed on the same booking code and ticket number was 125-. Trying to claim for Original Credit – it doesn’t accept the 125- ticket number (only says it was the return leg) and I can’t claim ‘partner’ airlines because Air France isn’t a partner airline.

    I tried submitting through an online form and just nothing.

    Slightly irritating! How did you all manage it?

  • Ioannis says:
    21 Sep21 September 17:42

    Is this quote available anywhere on the BA website, please? I was just on the phone with BA and they asked about that, the agent had never heard of headforpoints.com unfortunately.

    • Ioannis says:
      23 Sep23 September 12:16

      Thanks, Shoestring. I’ve now contacted them via the website, too. Let’s see 🙂

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

New to Head for Points?

Welcome!  We’re the UK’s most-read source of business travel, Avios, frequent flyer and hotel loyalty news. Let us improve how you travel. Got any questions? Ask them in our forums.

Get 25,000 Avios with the Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

GET A SIGN-UP BONUS OF 18,000 VIRGIN POINTS!

Latest Forum Posts

Get 80,000 bonus points (worth 80,000 Avios) and £400 of dining credit with The Platinum Card (Offer ends 27th May)

Check reward flight availability instantly for free!

See a whole year of reward seat availability on one page at SeatSpy.com

Get up to 10,000 bonus Hilton Honors points

Booking a luxury hotel?

Our luxury hotel booking service offers you GUARANTEED extra benefits over booking direct. Works with Four Seasons, Mandarin Oriental, The Ritz Carlton, St Regis and more. We've booked £1.7 million of rooms to date. Click for details.

SME? GET THE ONLY FREE SMALL BUSINESS CREDIT CARD WHICH CAN EARN AVIOS

Get points worth 30,000 Avios with 'first year free' American Express Gold (ends 27th May)

The UK's biggest frequent flyer website uses cookies, which you can block via your browser settings. Continuing implies your consent to this policy. Our privacy policy is here.

Got it!