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Hello, I hope you've all had a good week! It's been a year since British Airways retired the Executive Club and launched the British Airways Club, so we've taken a fresh look at what's changed, what's worked, and whether the rebrand was really just a rebrand. We've also got a big one on the tier point changes coming from 1 April. Your fare type is about to matter, and American Airlines and Iberia flyers are finally being brought into the fold. Elsewhere, we dig into whether u

Virgin Red is celebrating its fifth birthday, and to mark it, they're giving away one million Virgin Points to one lucky member. Ten runners-up will each win 100,000 Virgin Points. It costs nothing to enter, takes about 30 seconds, and the deadline is next Monday. How to enter Head over to the competition page on Virgin Red , answer one quiz question correctly, and you're in. That's it. One entry per person, and the draw closes at 23:59 on Monday 16 March 2026. Winners will b

Did you know you can spend your Avios on things other than flights? Not just hotel bookings or seat upgrades, but actual stuff. It’s called "The Edit", and if you haven’t heard of it, that’s probably because we haven't got round to it yet, sorry! It’s essentially a separate part of the Avios Shop that allows people to use Avios to part-pay for products from Apple, Antler, Aspinal of London, Smythson and a handful of other brands. When it first launched, you could only cover u

Just when you'd got your head around the spend-based tier point system that launched last April, British Airways is tweaking the formula again. From 1 April 2026, how you earn tier points on flights is getting a fairly significant upgrade, and for once, these changes are mostly in your favour. The headline? Your fare type now matters. And if you fly American Airlines or Iberia, you're finally getting a piece of the action too. Let's break it all down, including how it compare

British Airways has started emailing members of The British Airways Club today to let them know the Avios Shop, the programme that earns you Avios when shopping, is moving to a new provider. So far so boring. There's more to it though. New card registrations for in-store purchases are being paused between today and 15th April 2026 . If you haven't registered your card yet, you've got until 4pm GMT today (11th March)  to do it. (If you don't know what we mean when we say you c

We've talked a lot recently about status matching, but I wanted to address a commenter the other week who wondered could you just keep matching status in perpetuity, thus keeping some sort of elite status alive. Is this some sort of status match loophole? In theory, yes. You could keep airline elite status alive indefinitely without earning it through flights. Match your British Airways Gold to Air France/KLM . When that expires, match it to another airline. Rinse and repeat.

Well I got more than I bargained for this past week... You can read all about the pivot to rescue my trip, the curious case of the rise of points earning debit cards, a strategy to help you hit your sign-up bonuses, how to extend your companion voucher, and the culmination of Helena's points challenge to see how many Avios she can earn on her trip! As always, if you want to get in touch to change your subscription to a weekly only email, or from weekly to daily, then please d

If you have a trip that has been, or will soon be cancelled thanks to the conflict in the middle east, you might be thinking your luck is running out. People plan their holidays up to a year in advance, and with no sign of this conflict dissipating, that trip you booked a year ago might now be in the crosshairs. But what if you booked your British Airways flight using Avios and a Companion Voucher, what happens to the Companion Voucher? What is a Companion Voucher? The Ameri

United Airlines and IHG (the hotel group behind Intercontinental, Holiday Inn, and Six Senses) are both launching new cards in the UK, exciting! Full details on earning rates and annual fees are still to come, so once we hear about the actual important details, we of course will give you the full write-up. But one thing is clear about these cards, they're both debit cards. That might sound like a footnote. But I don't think it is. United and IHG are joining Hilton, and Marrio

On the morning of Saturday 28th, the United States and Israel launched air strikes targeting Iran. This is occurred whilst I was sitting at Heathrow waiting for my flight to Helsinki, before connecting onto Doha, Qatar, and then onwards to Clark, Philippines. Yes, my route was convoluted ( here is my detailed post very excitedly explaining it ), but to many of you I am "the Avios man", and I planned my route to show you how you too can use your Avios on a variety of airlines