LATAM drop its flat-bed Frankfurt to Madrid flight …. not that it matters now
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If you wanted to earn some easy British Airways Executive Club tier points in comfort, LATAM offers a great opportunity.
LATAM runs a Boeing 787 between Frankfurt and Madrid, which continues on to Santiago. You can buy tickets separately for Frankfurt to Madrid (or vice versa) and they are usually under £100 each way. Given that the trip gets you 40 BA tier points each way plus a flat bed seat for the trip, you can see why it was a popular option for aviation enthusiasts keen to try something different.
Anika reviewed the LATAM Frankfurt to Madrid service for us three years ago – see here.
LATAM is leaving the oneworld alliance on 30th March. This means that you won’t be able to earn tier points (and potentially not Avios, although LATAM may retain a BA partnership) from April.
This means that it doesn’t matter much that LATAM is ending its Frankfurt-Madrid service on 30th June. There is a good reason for this. LATAM has decided that it can now justify running a direct ‘three times per week’ service from Frankfurt to Santiago as well as from Madrid to Santiago.
It’s a shame to see the service go as these ‘Fifth Freedom’ flights are becoming an endangered species.
If you want to learn more, this article looks at ‘Fifth Freedom’ flights in Europe plus other intra-Europe flights which use long-haul aircraft. It is 18 months old so please double-check the information.
If you want to book this LATAM flight before it ends (and preferably before 30th March whilst it still earns tier points) you can do so 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.)
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