[RCHammer]

BAFAN2026 wrote:

Qatar not mentioned in those articles, a search brings up hundreds?

Where is the Qatar guide mentioned please?

This is a helpful article https://hfp2026mar.kinsta.cloud/2025/02/17/use-avios-fly-to-australia-new-zealand/

[RCHammer]

Also I can concurrently access The Times Live app on my iPhone and The Times website via web browser.

[RCHammer]

I subscribed and dowloaded the Times Classic app on ipad. I then gave my login details to my wife who can access the app on ipad concurrently with me and we have not experienced being locked out by the other. I signed up pretty much immediately after this offer was available so we’ve been using this for a good few weeks now.

[RCHammer]

It worked for me last year but I just requested it when I got the email. It may become active if you wait a bit and may be giving you an “expired” message because it is still set to last year. Where did you get the link?

[RCHammer]

First time I’ve tried the cancel / retention. Went on chat this morning and said I was considering leaving and quickly got offered 50k MR points. Had the card since 2018 and spent £8k on it last month.

[RCHammer]

Thank you for the excellent info everyone. A few for me to look at more closely 😀

[RCHammer]

Thanks both! I had looked at Vij’s and that was on my shortlist but will look at the Nightingale and Carlino

[RCHammer]

Trying selecting the latest date you can then when the search result appears scroll forward on the bars at the top of the outward and inward bars to the date you actually want. This was reported on another thread here recently as a workaround so worth a try.

[RCHammer]

I went to the Grand Prix a few years ago and just used the machines in the train station in Milan to buy the tickets on the day. We then had to get the tickets validated before we got on the train. I’m not sure if that is still the case but I’d read online beforehand to do this. Once arriving in Monza it was a short walk from the station to join the queue to get into the circuit and then an amazing walk through the park with parts of the old banked circuit with huge trees grown up all around – it was amazingly eerie.

[RCHammer]

JDB wrote:

can2 wrote:

UK passport holder here.
Most of the time I use the eGates and do not deal with the border force officers.
Recently when I was coming back with the family with a 6yo on tow, I was kinda bothered by the border officer asking where I travelled.

What is the legal basis of such questions for British citizens?

Immigration Act 1971 Schedule 2 Para 2. I can’t see why you would be concerned about being asked such a simple question. It seems fairly self evident and appropriate that Border Force officers have fairly extensive powers necessary to execute their duties.

There is no legislation allowing a Border Force Officer to ask a question, they don’t need it. Anyone can ask anyone else a question as long as the question itself does not break any laws, e.g. is racist etc., but rather it is your legal right to not answer. Even if you were placed under caution you do not need to answer. The job of a Border Force Officer is to secure the UK border and, whilst you know you’re a UK citizen, the officer doesn’t initially and is trying to establish that you are who your passport says you are. As has been mentioned by another poster they don’t typically care what the answer is but they are looking for any signs of deceit. It is not beyond the realms of possibility that the person in front of them is travelling with a stolen, borrowed from a family member, doctored / forged UK passport to gain illegal entry.

Hopefully officers ask these questions politely and maybe even cheerily but they are not there to meet and greet you on your return, they are trying to protect us all so I’d rather they did their job first and foremost. If being asked a civil question allows an experienced officer to help identify a “bad actor” (in more ways than one) then I’ll try to take it with good grace.

[RCHammer]

Got this on my BAPP and also got spend £200 get 9,000 MR points on my Amex platinum

[RCHammer]

I got MAN-MEL for Feb. I kept checking as it led up to the tickets being released and seat availability for the days before I wanted to go varied every day, not just going down but sometimes going up. Seats that were double did not always go to standard Avios but no idea if this was due to them being taken or just the vagaries of the QR system. I had a flexible window of 4 days and no standard availabilty appeared for some of those days but I did manage to bag 2 seats for a date towards the end of my date range. It may be worth checking from the regions because although MAN was my preferred departure point I did monitor EDI as well and there was availability.

[RCHammer]

AFKAE wrote:

Thanks RCHammer, I will probably include Melbourne, GOR and Great Barrier reef too.

I’m a bit confused on your travelling, you say MAN-MEL on Qatar and returning BA 2-4-1 SIN-MAN does that mean you are using your 2-4-1 one direction only?

Yes, just using it for the return leg only. Avios booked on Qatar website without 241 for outbound leg MAN to MEL, then had to wait a few months to collect enough Avios and used one of our 241’s to reduce the Avios needed to book SIN to MAN on BA website

[RCHammer]

I am doing Aus early next year, Feb to March. We are flying to Melbourne to see my daughter and take her on the trip with us. We booked MAN – MEL using Avios on Qatar (business) since that got us to Melbourne and was recommended in Rob’s article on using Qatar versus BA for Avios redemptions to Aus. We then do the Great Ocean road, Tasmania, Port Douglas (not ideal in Feb but can’t miss the GBR), then Sydney.

Lots of hotels / motels on GOR, in Port Douglas and in Tasmania that have 2 bedrooms and cooking and washing facilities so can travel light and not have to return to a base.

Return journey is Sydney to Singapore PE cash flight on Singapore Airways, a few days there before BA CW on Avios return to MAN using 241. Lots of availabilty using a new style 241 to a regional airport from SIN

[RCHammer]

At last! Checked today and the 100k Avios bonus has finally arrived 🙂

[RCHammer]

JamesCNW1 wrote:

I have contacted Barclays UK Help on Twitter and they are asking me to raise the issue with BA… I’m really not sure that this issue is anything to do with BA yet, surely it is Barclays’ responsibility to process everything?

Unless you’re in the situation where they can confirm they have sent it to your BAEC account and it hasn’t arrived for some reason then it is squarely with Barclays. Even then you’d want Barclays to produce details of what they sent, where and when. Much more likely is that the Barclays UK Support Twitter team, who are great at responding with platitudes and stock answers, don’t know what they’re talking about. I only feel I’m finally getting somewhere after raising a formal complaint via the agents on the app messaging system

[RCHammer]

I just chased via messaging on the Barclays app and received a phone call where they have promised the missing 100k Avios by end of July. They have logged that commitment onto the log of the formal complaint they openened and for which I have the reference number. At last a commiited timeline!

[RCHammer]

hw-99 wrote:

In their defence I beleive the usless support staff have missunderstood your query. Since there is a currenty issue with Barclaycard avios not showing/accruing on regular card spend. So probably what they thought you were referring to.

Maybe but I have been very clear to reference 100k Avios initially and repeat it in the Twitter DM thread with them

[RCHammer]

I raised a complaint and now they say the expert team have opened an investigation into why we haven’t received them. Still awaiting anything useful like a proper explanation, timeline or the actual Avios

[RCHammer]

AlSno wrote:

RCHammer wrote:

As a further update I have now logged a formal complaint via the app chat. They claim that there is a technical issue and every customer is facing this. They still cannot give a timeline for a fix but asked me to wait a few days. I pointed out that I am a member on a number of travel forums whilst a few are still waiting there are a lot of people who have received the 100k Avios. Let’s see what my complaint brings….

I think this is a stock response so the app chat ‘advisor’ can get rid of you. I’ve been told the same thing for a completely different ‘technical issue’ with missing Avios points.

I’ve found the app chat to be close to useless, bordering on aggressive and intimidating for a chat last week. This cost them £50 when my complaint was upheld about the inappropriate responses from the advisor (I’m also waiting to see what my complaint about the technical issue brings…)

Yep, I don’t believe the chat agents or those on Twitter have any idea what’s going on. I get a different stock response each time and never anything useful like a timeline.

[RCHammer]

As a further update I have now logged a formal complaint via the app chat. They claim that there is a technical issue and every customer is facing this. They still cannot give a timeline for a fix but asked me to wait a few days. I pointed out that I am a member on a number of travel forums whilst a few are still waiting there are a lot of people who have received the 100k Avios. Let’s see what my complaint brings….

[RCHammer]

Still no 100k avios and whilst the Barclays Support team respond quickly to my chasing DMs on Twitter they apparently have not even had a response from the “expert” team to my request for a timeline 9 days ago. I’ve been a Barclays customer for 40 years and, ironically, this fantastic avios bonus opportunity has led to me strongly consider moving to another bank since they have highlighted their incompetence and demostrated their lack of recognition for customer loyalty.

[RCHammer]

Geoggy wrote:

Luca M wrote:

Sorry, I have been travelling and busy with work. You raise a complaint as normal but it gets assigned by default to the complaint team dealing with Premier customer as a priority (it is still slower than it use to be)

@Geoggy did you actually meet the T&C of the offer? (E.g. opened at least one of the two required products during the offer term and kept both for 4 months?) if you did not (e.g. you already had both products before the offer was launched) Barclays can argue that you did not meet the t&c and that you were at no loss as you already had the products, and the communications sent was from general information (unless there was clear reference to one of the accounts in question) and FOS would likely side with Barclays.

Long story short – I applied for the card 2 days before the offer was advertised here. I hadn’t even got the card so I called Barclays to ask what my options were. They said I could cancel the application and wait 6 months. After a to and fro he went off to speak to a manager. Then he came back with “good news, we can offer you the 100k if you meet the ts and cs” – i did, and I had 2 subsequent emails from them telling me I was “on the way to 100k Avios”

Then I had numerous messages from chasing the points saying I was eligible, including a formal complaint letter.

Barclays simply refuse to listen to that original call. They’ve reopened the complaint, checked the date of my card application and said go away here’s an FOS leaflet.

I haven’t closed my account or changed anything since converting the current account to Avios rewards and applying for the Barclaycard Avios

[RCHammer]

Same here. Went on Twitter again and asked if the “expert team” dealing with this that they keep contacting had an actual timeline rather than the stock “you are eligible, the team is busy, you will get them, please be patient” reply. No response back from the expert team. Now at 4 weeks beyond the 8 weeks in their Ts&Cs

[RCHammer]

Barclays called as promised. The agent confirmed that the 100k is due to us but said they weren’t expecting such a big response so the team have had trouble processing the Avios deposits. He couldn’t give a timescale and suggested a call or Twitter DM in 2 weeks if not arrived. Luckily for us we managed to scrape together the Avios required for the return leg from SIN and that’s all booked for March next year, so the time pressure is off for getting this bonus….for now