BAA WorldPoints - 1,500 DC miles on sign up for a £10 spend
 

Raffles has posted news of an offer on Head for Points of 1,500 DC miles (or free miles for other FF programmes - see the below link for more details) on opening up a new BAA WorldPoints account.

When I opened an account this morning, the welcome email also offered a further 100 WorldPoints for updating your travel and shopping preferences in your online account.

The link to the blog post is here.

Nice one, only one person in our household hasn't got the worldpoints card yet, but I'll sign them up.

BAA WorldPoints - 1,500 DC miles on sign up for a £10 spend
 

Am I correct in thinking you need to spend a small amount to receive the points ?

Ie you need to be at a baa airport and swipe the points card when buying something ?

cs

Ten pounds must be spent, but Raffles notes that tickets purchased on the Heathrow Express website seem to qualify for this promotion (T&Cs specifically exclude purchases at kiosks, on train, etc.). There is a separate promotion mentioned on the BAA page for double points for Miles & More members that specifically excludes HEX online purchases; no similar exclusion is mentioned for earning the 1000 bonus WorldPoints.

As I see no exclusion in the T&Cs for Americans, HEX tickets purchased are good for three months, the promotion does not end until 9/30, and I have a London trip planned for December, I think it's time for me to join WorldPoints! The only question would be whether the bonus kicks in at the time of purchase or time of use, and I could not find that answer in the T&Cs.

Raffles also notes that there have been two promotions recently offering a 100% bonus on conversions to Avios so although you could earn 1500 DC miles through this promotion, if your interest is in converting to Avios, it might be worthwhile to hold onto the WorldPoints to see if the promotion is repeated because a transfer under the bonus would provide 2400 Avios.

One of the commenters observed that there's also a 100 point bonus for updating shopping and travel preferences.

It should be stressed, that another option would be that the bmi route disappears, and the only route is converting to Avios at the lower rate and without a bonus before point expiry.

500 WP > 750 DC > 750 Avios.
therefore 1000 WP goes to 1500 Avios via DC.

250 WP > 300 Avios.
therefore 1000 WP goes direct to only 1200 Avios directly.

Personally, I think a bonus probably would come during the period, but it is certainly not guaranteed.

And indeed, assuming you get up to 250 WP above the 1000 - i.e. 100 from updating shopping preferences plus 150 further from spending (and you will be on double points briefly, so the £10 will get you at least 20 of them), then direct to Avios with the lower hurdle of 250 required for redemption would be a route out for surplus (everyone should have atleast 120 surplus).

I actually wrote that tickets for the Heathrow Express MAY qualify! No guarantee that it will, but of course you don't lose anything by trying as long as you were going to book a ticket anyway.

If you can't swipe your card - but instead give them the card number at the counter (or email them later with the receipt), will you still get the bonus? The T&C specifically mention swiping card at the till, hence wondering.

Sorry if I was a little unclear in attempting to convey that your post made the HEX ticket online purchase a possible, but not certain qualifying purchase under this promotion (I think you also mentioned the uncertainty about whether purchase versus use would trigger the bonus). I take little for granted in the miles (specifically in this case, Avios) game. The T&Cs leave open the possibility that purchasing a HEX ticket in an attempt to qualify for this promotion might be worthwhile, even if my plans fell through or even if it is use, rather than purchase, that triggers the bonus. After all, if everything worked out (including another 100% WorldPoints to Avios transfer bonus), it's possible that a ten-pound purchase (if the right HEX code comes along before September 30) might result in 2400 Avios. Even with the current 30% purchase bonus, 2100 Avios would cost approximately 50 pounds. That's an angle well worth playing at a cost low enough that if I receive nothing, I should have no complaints.

By the way, wonderful blog--well written, very straightforward. I'm becoming a regular reader.

Just go and pick someone up from the airport and have a coffee while you are waiting for them.

The car park and coffee will easily come to £10, if not, grab a bag of crisps from M+S or a magazine from WHS.

No need to be airside, pretty much all spend at any BAA airport counts.

True. I picked up some stuff landside last year whilst dropping off my Mum for a flight, picking up 4 x WP for my trouble! (double points x my usual double points rate)

Excellent! Thanks for this, signed up both parents.
And another +1 for your site. ^

Having somehow managed to avoid this for many years, and now having a trip to LHR coming up in a few days I've signed up.

A question on getting worldpoints for the Heathrow Express online - how does one do that? Going to a booking I got all the way through to the screen to enter card details without having the chance to enter my worldpoints number, is it post payment (a little unusual) or do I have to log into my account?

When it launched they said that there would be a box during the booking process!

Thanks for this - I didn't think you could get worldpoints on the landside shops as well!

PS - Just realised there are two threads on this, other one is in the BA forum and I posted (different) questions to both without really noticing they are two different threads! :)

The T & Cs state that the £10 must be within one transaction, not across multiple...so that's either a lot of coffee or an extra few minutes in the car park.