Bits: did you get 15,000 free Avios?, 20% off Loyalty 2017 tickets, Etihad / Times promo

News in brief:

15,000 free Avios from American Express

I got a very pleasant surprise when I ran my AwardWallet update yesterday morning to refresh the balances of all my loyalty accounts.  My British Airways Executive Club balance had gone up by 15,000 Avios.

When I looked at my account at ba.com the description was:

“Special Promotion   15,000 Avios”

…. which was not very helpful.

However, opening up the BA app on my phone was more useful:

“Special Promotion -) BA Amex cobrand 15yr Surprise and Delight    15,000 Avios”

Whilst I have not received an email about this – I get a feeling that my card may be set to ‘no marketing’ – other people have had an email from BA confirming that this is to thank them for being a cardholder for 15 years.

BA told me that this bonus is going to 6,500 people who have held the card for 15 years and are ‘active’.  If your free BA card has been in a drawer for the last three years, you don’t receive the points apparently!

15,000 Avios is certainly not to be sniffed at.  If I was being cynical, you could argue that this is a fop to long-term cardholders who may be thinking of cancelling now that the annual fee has been raised to £195 whilst the value of an Avios has been devalued – but that is a very negative way of looking at it.  Even on my low valuations, 15,000 Avios is still worth over £100 so I won’t say no.

20% off Loyalty 2017 tickets

This is one purely for the industry readers of Head for Points.

Next year the massive annual Loyalty conference heads to London for a 3-day stint at the Royal Garden Hotel in Kensington from 20th to 22nd February.

If you look at the agenda for Wednesday 22nd you will see that I am speaking on “The Role of Bloggers In Your Communication Strategy“.  Please note that I did not write the slightly cringe-worthy description of what I will be talking about.

If you are in the trade and want to sign up to go along, HFP readers can get a 20% discount using code RGP21485.  You enter this code on the first page of the booking process and it gives an extra £299 discount on top of the current ‘early bird’ discount.

Etihad clarifies the rules of its Times promotion

Etihad has clarified the rules of its current promotion with The Times this week to give Etihad Guest status to anyone who signs up and takes one flight.

The offer is only open to new members of Etihad Guest who sign up via the link on this page.  If you already have an Etihad Guest account which is empty, you may want to create a new one with different address and email details.  This isn’t ideal, of course, but Etihad should have made the rules more flexible …..

You will receive Etihad Silver status if you take an Economy flight with Etihad before 10th May 2017.

You will receive Etihad Gold status if you take a Business or First Class flight with Etihad before 10th May 2017.

The following rules have now been added:

your flight must depart from the UK

your flight must be a return flight

….. which means no short hops from Abu Dhabi to Dubai and back!

It is worth noting that a similar deal for Silver status (but not Gold) is freely available to everyone, all year round, if they take out the Etihad Guest credit cards.  Full details are in my Etihad Guest credit card review.

How to earn Etihad Guest miles from UK credit cards (December 2021)

Etihad Guest does not have a UK credit card.  However, you can earn Etihad Guest miles by converting Membership Rewards points earned from selected UK American Express cards.  These are:

• American Express Preferred Rewards Gold (review here, apply here) – sign-up bonus of 20,000 Membership Rewards points converts into 20,000 Etihad Guest miles. This card is FREE for your first year and also comes with two free airport lounge passes.

• The Platinum Card from American Express (review here, apply here) – sign-up bonus of 30,000 Membership Rewards points converts into 30,000 Etihad Guest miles.

• American Express Rewards credit card (review here, apply here) – sign-up bonus of 5,000 Membership Rewards points converts into 5,000 Etihad Guest miles. This card is FREE for life.

Membership Rewards points convert at 1:1 into Etihad Guest miles which is an attractive rate.  The cards above all earn 1 Membership Rewards point per £1 spent on your card, which converts to 1 Etihad Guest mile. The Gold card earns double points (2 per £1) on all flights you charge to it.

Etihad Guest is also a partner with the HSBC Premier Mastercard (0.5 miles per £1 spent) and HSBC Premier World Elite Mastercard (1 mile per £1 spent).