BA news – restrictions on kids to South Africa, service changes, special meals dropped

A few British Airways service announcements have dropped into my inbox in the last few days.  Here is a round up:

New restrictions on taking children to South Africa

This seems to have come out of the blue, and does sniff of excess bureaucracy.

From 1st October (EDIT, September 2014 – this has now been delayed until June 2015), you MUST take a FULL birth certificate with you for each child if you are travelling to South Africa with children under 18.  You will not be allowed into the country without one.  The birth certificate must name the parents and those must be the two people travelling with the child.

Even worse, if only one of the two parents is travelling, you must produce an affidavit (presumably a formal one drawn up by a solicitor) from the other parent giving permission for the child to enter South Africa.  If the other parent is dead, a death certificate must be produced.  If the parents are separated, a court order must be produced to prove this.

If you are with a child who is not your biological child, you must produce a copy of the passport of the biological parent and an affidavit from them, as well as the birth certificate of the child.

Don’t even ask about the situation for unaccompanied minors which is even more complex.

I can see the market for family holidays in South Africa taking a big dip ….

Special meal changes

British Airways is dropping the following special meals across all travel classes from 1st October:

• Fruit platter
• Bland meal (no jokes please)
• Jain meal
• Seafood meal

Existing bookings which include one of these meals will be respected.  If you have already booked but have not already selected one of these special meals, you will not be able to do so after October 1st.

Service changes for Summer 2015 timetable

British Airways is dropping a number of flights from the Summer timetable, which runs from the end of March.  If you are booked to any of these destinations you may want to check that your flight has not been cancelled.

New York Newark – 6 of the 20 weekly services are to be dropped.  This is an aggressive reduction.   BA is also removing the Boeing 787 from this route with all services operated by Boeing 777’s.

Buenos Aires – 2 of the 7 weekly services are to be dropped (it will return to 7 for the Winter timetable)

Cape Town – 1 of the 10 weekly services to be dropped.  The Boeing 747 service will not be selling First Class but will be sold as Club World with customers able to book themselves into the old-style First Class seats if demand justifies it.

Accra – 3 of the 10 weekly services to be dropped. The upside is that it is the Boeing 767 services which are going, the Boeing 747 flights will remain.

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (December 2021)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up, no annual fee and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending ….. Read our full review

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the UK’s most valuable credit card perk – the 2-4-1 companion voucher Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points, such as:

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & two airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

30,000 points and an unbeatable set of travel benefits – for a 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, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios:

Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa

The most generous Avios Visa or Mastercard for a limited company Read our full review

You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus:

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios 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.

(Want to earn more Avios?  Click here to visit our home page for our latest articles on earning and spending your Avios points and click here to see how to earn more Avios this month from offers and promotions.)