Bits: see BA’s new BOB menu, 25% off Radisson Blu and Park Inn, BA / Avis deal renewed

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News in brief:

Changes to BA’s buy-on-board menu

British Airways has made changes to their short-haul economy buy-on-board menu – and, if you click the link, you’ll see they don’t look great.

There is a new tapas meat and cheese platter with a couple of crackers, a new roasted falafel and spinach wrap as well as a turkey sandwich. But several (healthier) options have been taken off the menu and if you are avoiding wheat or gluten, you’ll have to be happy with cashews and crisps.

The couscous salad and the fruit salad have disappeared without a decent replacement. You can’t get olives any longer and the sweets selection has been reduced from 12 items to 5. Yoghurt seem to have disappeared too. Basically, if it was at risk of going off, it has gone.

If you want to know what the menu was like before, here is a link to our buy-on-board article in January.

The new menu can be found on this ba.com page.

25% off Radisson Blu and Park Inn

Radisoon Blu and Park Inn have launched a half term offer aimed at families.

Club Carlson members can get up to 25% off during the Autumn holiday, free wifi, kids under 16 stay for free in the UK and Ireland and kids under 12 eat for free.

This offer is valid for stays between 16th October and 27th October in the UK and Ireland and stays between 13th October and 12th November in Belgium and France.

The Radisson Blu page to book is here .

The Park Inn page to book is here.

You must book by 24th October to get up to 25% off. The offer is also available at Radisson Red and Quorvus Collection.

IAG renews its exclusive Avis / Budget car rental deal

Avis Budget Group has renewed its car rental partnership with IAG.

The brands will remain the exclusive car rental partners of British Airways, Iberia and Iberia Express, with Aer Lingus to be added later. The two brands will also remain the only car hire brands to earn points in any of the Avios loyalty schemes.

In general, I think the Avis partnership has worked well. It does offer good benefits via avisba.com including a free second driver . The ability to earn bonus Avios by paying with a British Airways American Express card is a rare example of partner brands working together.

Regular Hertz renters will have to stick with crediting to Virgin Flying Club, although their 1,000 miles per rental deal is attractive.

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

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

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

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.)

Category

Avis and Avis Preferred, British Airways American Express, British Airways and Avios, Radisson Rewards

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

Egg says:

15 Oct15 October 15:47

wonder how long before BA stop you bringing food on board
- Alan says:
  
  16 Oct16 October 08:52
  
  I’m surprised Ryanair haven’t done this yet so I wonder whether there is something in the regulations that mean they can’t?
  - Angmo says:
    
    16 Oct16 October 19:12
    
    UN Convention on the right to access food. Not all states are signatures but the UK are as I believevare Ireland.
    - the real harry1 says:
      
      16 Oct16 October 19:27
      
      BA are also perfectly OK about you bringing your own booze on board – this is legal & permitted
      
      they won’t be OK about you getting sloshed on half a bottle of Scotch
      
      however, a few beers or perhaps a bottle of decent wine should be acceptable
      
      unfortunately the real issue is supply airside – not at all difficult to get spirits in Duty Free – but spirits will be frowned upon/ very quickly removed from your possession for the duration of the flight
      
      if you go for wine, then white will be unchilled so a bit desperate – red would be OK but try finding DF outlets that sell it by the bottle plus you’ll need a corkscrew
      
      don’t think you’ll find beer in DF but you might find a bar that will sell you a few tinnies for the journey
      
      I’ve pondered this problem since BA introduced BOB – obviously pinching something from the lounge would be an option but possibly not a very honest one if done in quantity
    - the real harry1 says:
      
      16 Oct16 October 19:39
      
      coming back to UK doesn’t always present such a problem – eg our airport back from the place in the sun sells chilled premium beers for under £2/ half litre in the convenience stores, airside
      
      shame UK airports don’t do this
    - HAM76 says:
      
      16 Oct16 October 21:32
      
      @TRH1 miniature bottles like Gin are actually fine to get through security, if you don’t mind placing them in the plastic bag along with toiletries during the security scan. Judging from the reactions of the security personnel it doesn’t happen often, though.
    - the real harry1 says:
      
      16 Oct16 October 21:55
      
      10 of these? http://www.justminiatures.co.uk/beefeater-london-dry-gin-miniature-5cl-12-pack-p-11815.html?cPath=902_2_8&zenid=tu4p0vlmbtm1ngonqo9bkjpj64
    - Genghis says:
      
      16 Oct16 October 22:24
      
      They’re actually quite reasonably priced. Difficult to get tonic water airside though? Lemon is easy but precut (otherwise where’s the knife coming from?)
Jason Hindle says:

15 Oct15 October 17:59

I still keep the faith that one of these days BA will make a change that turns out to be an actual improvement for the paying customer.
thehornets says:

15 Oct15 October 18:28

O/T: just like last week, there are 1,000 free Marriott Rewards points TODAY for those on Twitter. Just answer today’s question (the answer is canton, ohio) and within 10 minutes you will have 1,000 points in your Marriott Rewards account.

Click here:
https://twitter.com/MarriottRewards/status/919608855625007105

There is a new (easy) competition each sunday to tie in with the NFL season = at least 8,000 free Marriott points!
- BLT says:
  
  15 Oct15 October 19:05
  
  Thanks for the reminders. Worked really well last week on 2 accounts.
- thehornets says:
  
  15 Oct15 October 19:18
  
  Oh, don’t forget to use the hashtag #RewardsPoints
  - Genghis says:
    
    15 Oct15 October 19:21
    
    Thanks. Missed it last week but done it this week.
- Alan says:
  
  15 Oct15 October 20:05
  
  Fantastic – thanks again for posting about these (& posting the answers!) – much appreciated and look forward to next week 😀
  - Liz says:
    
    15 Oct15 October 22:20
    
    +1 Ta very much!
- Pid says:
  
  15 Oct15 October 23:44
  
  Thank you – how do they know your account details?
  - Liz says:
    
    15 Oct15 October 23:56
    
    You have to register for the Rewards
Anthony Dunn says:

16 Oct16 October 03:28

Remarkably straightforward: if I am flying in the Economy section, I buy my own food and drink and before I get onboard. That way, I choose just what I want and have the drink of choice. Most UK terminals have a pretty wide choice of food and drink offerings airside these days.
Andrew-A says:

16 Oct16 October 11:23

OT slightly but just did an Edi-Lgw then Lgw-Tfs in CE using a 2 4 1. On the Edi flight down we randomly got upgraded to CE , my wife has just hit bronze so not sure if that had any bearing on it. Once seated however we were informed that they had only catered for the original CE passengers so could only offer breakfast if anything was left over. This wasn’t a problem for us as we had 4 hours to wait in gatwick and had planned to eat there anyway ( ate at Grainstore using PP cards which was good) then into BA lounge.
On the way back from Tenerife on Saturday they ran out of champagne within the first half hour of the flight so some people didnt even get the chance of a glass. Food was ok though on both CE flights.
To summarise our BA experience was fine, just a bit inconsistent.
- Alan says:
  
  16 Oct16 October 19:36
  
  Must say it didn’t look great on recent LHR-EDI flight. Crew seemed surprised I didn’t want any of the delectable food or indeed anything to drink, but hopefully anyone that was upgraded to the cabin got it instead!
Diane says:

16 Oct16 October 15:24

Flew to Turkey last week. Had eaten in the airport, so just ordered a couple of drinks and a packet of Percy Pigs ! Delivered swiftly and instant payment with contactless card. I actually think the food and drinks prices are ok and comparative with other airlines. No complaints from me.
Geoff says:

21 Oct21 October 16:17

We have had good results using the avis and ba but why is the avisba website so appalling?!