British Airways settles with CBRE over May 2017 power outage

This is not, by any means, ‘new’ news.  It was reported in the IT press back in February but I never saw it picked up by the travel press.

You will remember the huge British Airways IT outage in May 2017 when the entire airline was crippled over a Bank Holiday weekend by a major power failure.

The exact cause has never been publicly stated, but it was traced to an outsourced data centre run by the managed services arm of property group CBRE – even though it was in a British Airways building – on behalf of British Airways.

It isn’t clear how much money CBRE agreed to pay to British Airways.  It was presumably nowhere near the £58m which BA stated it had lost in refunds and compensation.  As you’d expect, CBRE paid up without admitting liability, and apparently is still managing data centres on behalf of BA today.

You can read more over at Computer Weekly here and Data Center Knowledge here.

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.)