Bits: 10% off pre-ordered BA duty free, should BA use EU261 as a marketing gimmick?

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News in brief:

Save 10% on pre-ordered British Airways duty free

You have been able to pre-order duty free items for delivery to your aircraft seat on long haul British Airways flights for some time. Not that I know anyone who has ever done it ….

To give you some encouragement, BA is offering a 10% discount on pre-ordered duty free items until 30th April. You will also receive the usual 2 Avios per £1 spent on inflight duty free items.

Here are the rules:

You need to order via highlifeshop.com

Tobacco and clearance items are excluded

Offer not available for home delivery

You need to use promo code H01EXEC17 at checkout

What is not clear is whether you need to be flying by 30th April or whether that is the deadline for placing your pre-order.

British Airways BA 777X 777 9X

Should BA use EU261 as a marketing gimmick?

Bear with me on this one 🙂 I’ve never had a marketing job and I haven’t read a marketing book since “The Long Tail” by Chris Anderson was published eight years ago.

We have discussed EU261 compensation – the compulsory EU legislated compensation for flight cancellations, delays or downgrades – extensively on Head for Points recently. Here is Anika’s guide to claiming EU261 from British Airways for her own benefit after a delayed flight.

There is one tweak to EU261 rules. Inbound flights operated by non-EU airlines do not qualify. If your Thai Airways flight TO Bangkok from Heathrow is delayed by four hours, you get €600. If your inbound flight is delayed by four hours, you get nothing.

British Airways is legally bound to pay you this money – so why don’t they make a virtue out of it? Perhaps put a little logo in their ads reminding readers that flights on non-EU airlines don’t quality coming home.

There is, after all, very little to choose between long-haul economy carriers these days when you balance out seat width, pitch and service. The chance of losing out on €600 compensation if your flight home is delayed may be enough to swing a few potential passengers, especially when their ticket is likely to cost less than €600 in the first place.

How to earn Avios points from UK credit cards

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 BA Amex American Express card

British Airways American Express

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British Airways BA Premium Plus American Express Amex credit card

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

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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:

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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:

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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.)

Category

British Airways and Avios

This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.

hugh says:

15 Mar15 March 10:18

as I’m in the middle of “discussions” with SK/LH

my tips
get names of people, what they say and at what time, get them to write any instructions/reasons they give you on the boarding card – easier said than done I’m aware – people less likely to write bull shite which may be shown as evidence

flightradar24 is your friend – you can get data on a flight for upto a few days after for free – arrival/departure times,
Flightstats can help too, may show if an aircraft has been swapped, if departure time was changed and at what time – not definitive, but may give you an idea if they’re playing silly buggers.

take photos of departure boards – remember metrological conditions as an extraordinary circumstance is only applicable for your flight, not any previous flights/legs, so you can show aircraft were coming and going.

get an airfield weather app like aeroweather lite (free version) and grab a screen shot

in a previous EU261 claim from Easyjet, I also engaged with their social media team which provided a timeline – they paid up within 14 days of my claim being received, without arguement – it was a technical failure with part coming from LGW to EDI
- Michael Jennings says:
  
  15 Mar15 March 13:42
  
  >remember metrological conditions as an extraordinary circumstance is
  >only applicable for your flight, not any previous flights/legs,
  
  So “Flight delayed due to late incoming arrival of the aircraft due to bad weather somewhere else” is not a valid reason for denying compensation. Interesting.
  
  >so you can show aircraft were coming and going.
  
  Bad weather can reduce the capacity of an airport without actually closing it, though. The fact that some aircraft are taking off and landing does not necessarily mean that the delay to yours is not due to local weather issues. (Of course, if yours is the only flight that is delayed, it might).
  - Andrew says:
    
    15 Mar15 March 23:16
    
    I have successfully claimed from BA in these circumstances. Icy weather requiring de-icing of all aircraft before departure. The aircraft I was on sat at the gate for 45 minutes after the scheduled departure time waiting for a de-icing truck, whereas other aircraft on the same route/city pair (EDI-LON) were de-iced and departed on schedule. The delay meant I missed a connecting flight at Heathrow and was 5 hours late to my destination. I argued that it wasn’t weather-related – rather that it was poor organisation by ground staff – and they paid up.
David says:

15 Mar15 March 11:14

I pre-ordered 2 bottles of gin for our return flight from Grenada as it was on a special. Worked a treat (no chance of an upgrade as we were in Club on 3 class LGW service)
aliks says:

15 Mar15 March 11:48

Looks like the onboard delivery option is restricted to selected flights – we are flying to Oakland and BA 2279 does not appear on their list.
Sam Wardill says:

15 Mar15 March 12:02

To the original question, it would be great for customers if BA and other European airlines saw EU261 as giving them competitive advantage. It would be great if they changed their practices to reduce delays, involuntary downgrades and cancellations (that is, after all, the intent of the law). Instead airlines have decided to fight the regulation all the way. What a great society we live in! I just hope that the European Commission on Aviation holds steadfast. I’m pretty sure the UK government will cave into airline lobbying post Brexit.
Dominic says:

15 Mar15 March 13:17

I used to pre-order Duty Free, and I don’t think it has any impact on changing cabins. Indeed, I think only the cabin crew even know about it – it is done through the DF company and not BA, and I don’t think it is even in a record. I stopped as the choice started to be unrewarding (there were some nice whiskies once upon a time).
BruceN says:

15 Mar15 March 13:30

A very good short video about the history of airline classes for anyone who hasn’t seen it yet – definitely worth a watch https://youtu.be/BzB5xtGGsTc
- Genghis says:
  
  15 Mar15 March 13:50
  
  I’ve not seen this before. Excellent video
- Anon says:
  
  15 Mar15 March 20:30
  
  +1 Great stuff, esp the bit about First class V Business class. Was thinking that somewhere as desirable as the Maldives could maybe support First Class, but maybe it’s only just viable for cities & business destinations?
- Nate1309 says:
  
  15 Mar15 March 20:38
  
  Thanks BruceN, really enjoyed watching that. Very interesting. Especially the $/sq ft difference between business and first.
- Alan says:
  
  15 Mar15 March 22:35
  
  Great video – ex-EU routings get a look-in and also very interesting to see the impact of Concorde. The revenue from C vs F at the end also certainly explains the trends we’re seeing!
roberto says:

15 Mar15 March 16:12

Currently in Gibraltar’s lounge waiting to be bused to Malaga to pick up our diverted Heathrow flight. Its too windy apparantly si i guess i wont be able to claim.

The bigget pain is I live in malaga and drove 90 mins to get the Gib-Lhr flight in the firat place.

The second pain is that it looks like we are waiting here for the coaches to come from there to collect us and and take us back further extending the delay

And thirdly I think the crew might go out of hours having left LHR at 12:30 GMT although i dont know the rules on that – can anybody advise how long they have…
- roberto says:
  
  15 Mar15 March 16:13
  
  Too many beers to spell correctly i would seem.. opps
  - Anna says:
    
    15 Mar15 March 17:15
    
    I had a similar problem last year – flying to Lanzarote it was too windy to land, got diverted to Fuerteventura then sat on the plane for 2 hours while RyanAir staff refused us so much as a free drink of water. We were then allowed to collect our bags, next put on a bus to the ferry terminal, then on the ferry over to Lanzarote. After that it was another bus ride to Lanzarote airport, our original destination.
    
    Total delay – 10 hours
    Amount of compensation entitled to – nada!
  - the real harry1 says:
    
    15 Mar15 March 17:45
    
    haha! if you live in Cornwall you sneer at 90 mins there & 90 mins back 🙂
    
    an extra few in the lounge does seem a good coping strategy
    - Anna says:
      
      15 Mar15 March 18:31
      
      There’s a lovely exterior terrace at the Gibraltar lounge with great views over the runway to the Rock. Hope it wasn’t too windy to enjoy it!
      - roberto says:
        
        15 Mar15 March 19:39
        
        It is and it was.. there was also and easyjet and a monarch plane there since yesterday waiting for clearence to take off.. Spoke to the airpoet manager who said they ahould go tomorrow if things improve. Apparantly gusts of 100mph over the last 24 hours have blocked all flights in and out.
        
        Currently at Malaga seated on board waiting for a slot to materialize.
        
        Travel is fun.. Just not here today.. Ho hum
Mike G says:

17 Mar17 March 21:56

What will happen to EU261 once we leave the EU? I’m guessing to goes on the bonfire?
- the real harry1 says:
  
  17 Mar17 March 22:09
  
  of course not – it gets incorporated into UK law
  - the real harry1 says:
    
    17 Mar17 March 22:12
    
    as in – all EU laws become UK laws from now on – we reserve the right to change them as we see fit from now on
    - Alan says:
      
      17 Mar17 March 23:38
      
      Although of course if we change them too much (in particular Data Protection) this has a major impact on our ability to trade with the EU…
- Alan says:
  
  17 Mar17 March 23:37
  
  Should be incorporated into UK law, but of course going forwards I’d imagine it’s one that the government will receive heavy lobbying on from the airlines and they may well pull back on. Also won’t be able to rely on European court cases any more and unlikely we’ll keep up with any changes that are made at that level either.