Earn avios from BoB?
 

I know you can opt to pay for items from the M&S buy on board selection using avios but I just wondered if there's the capability or ability to earn avios on the items purchased if using a credit/debit card.

When purchasing items from the Highlife Shop tax free selection I can earn 2 avios for every £1 spent. The merchant / operator of Highlife Shop is Tourvest. The same company who operate the over branded BoB selection.

The payment terminal on the back of the crew members iPad appears to be the same for both products. I know the avios earned on BoB are going to be relatively few in comparison but it just occurred to me whether I was missing out when ever I make a purchase using a payment card.

Apologies if this has been raised before but I couldn't find any links to similar threads.

If BA start shelling avios on BoB...how will they make money? I'm guessing the margins on BoB are very low...which takes us back to the main question - has BoB been a commercial success ?

BA AMEX ?

Not sure it's even theoretically possible, but I would not want to hand over my BAEC number only to find they had actually paid for the purchase in Avios by mistake.

BA AMEX BoB purchases will not register as a BA purchase for bonus Avios, unbelievably. Or at least, they did not for me!

I think that the sale of BOB ( and duty free ) is subbed out to Tourvest and therefore excluded from double Ba miles when using a Ba Amex card as its not with Ba directly.

Was it ever intended to make money for BA? Or was it just to cut the cost of the free service and have a cost neutral service?

As Tourvest are the provider for which BA contracts to provide BoB, I thought it a fair question to pose.
I know crew earn a small commission from the items sold so there has to be a mark up to allow this. The fact items are marked up above and beyond what they cost equivalently on the ground (for the convenience factor) is expected and anticipated. Therefor is incorporating the net price of a cost of an avios point per pound spend really going to increase the sell cost significantly to warrant the item too expensive to purchase? If I'm hungry or thirsty and choose to buy a sandwich (£4ish), a cup of tea (£2.50), a G&T (£6) (all current sell prices) on board it's going to be out of necessity rather than a whimsical aspirational purchase just because I fancy one. I don't think it would affect the sell price much anyway.

BA Amex of course, but always looking to double dip wherever possible (as is the case with Highlife Shop) 😊

Was there ever a cost apart from to provide the logistics..... Which DHL provided most recently in the last years of free service anyway. I always thought comp products offered were provided gratis by the brand for product placement / advertising rather than to entice anyone to buy. Hence goodbye Gordons gin, hello Bombay Sapphire in the dawn of BoB.

I might be tempted to splash out on a bacon sandwich if I could earn a few extra Avios via BoB.

Exactly!
And possibly in the process keeping a soon to be dormant Exec Club account active.

there is no bacon butty now. it went in the September 2018 menu and has not re-appeared in the January 2019 one https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/30599173-post144.html

If you are flying, would your BAEC account not be active anyway?