Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

News: £150 brunch compo, Air Canada lounge closes, Tesco / Amex cashback deal

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

News in brief:

Get a £150 voucher from BA if you’ve been served brunch

I’ve now had multiple readers contact me to say that British Airways is paying £150 per person compensation if you complain about the new brunch service (on Club World flights up to 11.29am) or the new evening meal panini service (Club World flights from 9pm).

To lodge your claim, you need to fill in the feedback form on ba.com after your flight. The money is paid in the form of a British Airways voucher.

Use the money to buy a takeaway meal to bring onto your next flight.

That said, I think the level of compensation now being handed out gives a good indication of how long we can expect these changes to last, given that you are receiving £150 to compensate for BA saving £2ish on your meal.

Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge Heathrow entrance

Air Canada lounge in Heathrow T2 closes for refurbishment

It’s the 10-year itch …. the Singapore Airlines and Aer Lingus lounges in Heathrow Terminal 2 underwent refurbishment this year and the Lufthansa lounge is currently closed for a refit.

Air Canada has now joined in.

The Maple Leaf Lounge in Heathrow Terminal 2 closed on Sunday. It is due to reopen on 13th December, give or take.

Eligible customers can use the Singapore Airways SilverKris lounge or the United Club lounge instead. These are also in the T2B satellite so it’s not much of a diversion.

Our review of the new Singapore Airlines lounge in here and our review of the new-look Aer Lingus lounge is here.

Our review of the Maple Leaf Lounge pre-refurbishment is here.

Tesco American Express deal

Save £5 at Tesco with American Express

Yes, you’re not getting rich here, but it is worth flagging that a Tesco cashback offer has appeared on some American Express cards.

My Business Platinum card, oddly, has it with £5 back on a £50 spend. It runs to 24th November. If nothing else you could pick up an Uber, Netflix etc gift card and use it yourself.

Weirdly only 2,679 people can register – and I had it on my Business Platinum supplementary card too, so that’s two gone.

A better value ‘£5 back on £40’ version is also available on some cards according to reader reports.

There is also ‘£10 back on a £100 spend at Battersea Power Station’ which covers a lot of brands you may be considering visiting. It is valid to 24th November.

Comments (91)

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

  • Matt says:

    I had £5 back on £60 Tesco spend.

    Partner had £5 back on £40.

  • AndrewF says:

    Re the Tesco offer – I have a different variant on my Plat card – a less generous but eminently usable £5 off £60 spend (first 1,667 signups only).

  • G says:

    Can confirm on the spent £40, get £5 back offer from Tesco (gold card).

    • G says:

      Only 2,500 offers. I’ll still likely do the bulk of my shopping at M&S though.

    • G says:

      Only 2,500 offers. I’ll still likely do the bulk of my shopping at M&S though.

    • danimal says:

      Spend £40 get £5 back on my Biz Gold Card – and there’s me worrying about supermarket shopping not looking very business-like to Amex!

  • BJ says:

    BA are mad paying out £150 for this. I wonder how many claiming they wouldn’t fly BA again will now be rushing to get their vouchers…

    • TGLoyalty says:

      Reports on flyertalk suggest nothing, 5k Avios or £50 per person so interesting there’s £150 going to multiple people Rob knows of

      • ed_fly says:

        £300 has been reported on FlyerTalk for a passenger who received the new supper service, their travelling companion was awarded 6,000 Avios. So appears to be somewhat of a range of compo offered.

      • Lady London says:

        Wel Rob with what? 40,000 spending flyers in the UK? has just set the price bar by publishing this 🙂

        Hope I can have further delectation by bresking through The Times’s firewall later today.

      • Alan says:

        That sort of wild variation in range is more what I’d expect from BA CS!

    • BB says:

      I got £150 for no white wine in club Europe the other week! I think this is their standard ‘go away’ response to catering complaints, maybe the amount varies with executive club status or something.

  • Ben says:

    BA win here and I assume that’s why they are no longer giving out Avios for complaints (I just got £100 for no pre-departure Champagne).

    You either make another booking with them (win) or you let the voucher expire.(zero cost).

    • The real Swiss Tony says:

      Does seem a lot I agree, but I guess £150 covers the entire cost of many short haul returns.

    • TGLoyalty says:

      Even for Avios they win unless you cash out at 50% of the value to Nectar.

  • Can says:

    That’s truly surreal — shows how confused the management is, too.

    • TGLoyalty says:

      Your voucher can only be used on a future cash flight …

    • can2 says:

      Or that shows BA now knows enough what percentage of people file complaints and how it stacks against the savings they make, including the food waste. To me, unless BA are delusional, it sounds like a simple math.

      • Nick says:

        Or it shows how huge and disjointed BA is in real life. Customer had no budget left for this year so had to cut meals. CR have budget left so can spend generously. No one in A talks to anyone in B, and it’s close to impossible to transfer surplus between departments even if they did.

      • Fuggi says:

        Complaints for stats is not a sound business strategy.

        I for one am seriously thinking twice about BA even on my next transatlantics…especially with the new Lufthansa allegris setup or most of the Skyteam seats which have also seriously improved.

  • MF176 says:

    I’ve got £5 off £70 on my Plat, first 1,875 to save. Why so many variants of this offer and such small numbers!?

    • Andrew J says:

      And such small rebates. £5 is hardly going to shift anyone’s spending pattern.

      • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:

        Funny.

        Did you not read the caterwauling and keening when AMEX limited the “shop small” rebates to stop people using multiple cards for the same purchase?

        People absolutely will change their habits for a £5 rebate!

        • Andrew J says:

          How bizarre.

          • TGLoyalty says:

            Not really it was 50% off

            This is 8-10% but I’ll still go to Tesco and buy 3x£50 gift cards and some groceries to use all the £5 off I have because frankly why not.

          • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:

            What is it you find bizarre about this?

            Some people on here will do all sorts to pick up a few flight / hotel points or save a few quid.

      • DarrenS says:

        It will change mine. I will use Amex for the £5. Then revert to Curve for the 1%. May even use a staffed checkout to split the bill.

        • TGLoyalty says:

          So net loss for Tesco 🙂 because you go there anyway and now they’re funding you getting more money off

  • The Streets says:

    Westfield has also been hanging around too

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

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.