British Airways

What's the deal? British Airways has a promotion to entice people to sign up for a new Visa Signature affinity credit card. First-time cardholders with new accounts will earn 50,000 miles with their first purchase and another 50,000 miles for spending $2,000 in the first three months after the account is opened. That's 100,000 miles, enough for two coach round-trip tickets or one business-class round trip to parts of Europe, including Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Switzerland and the U.K. You also can redeem miles for flights on codeshare partner American within the continental U.S., and to Canada, Hawaii and Mexico.

OneMain Financial branch event supports local food bank OneMain Financial's replica race car will be on display Thursday, Sept. 22 from noon to 6 p.m. at 14196 Baltimore Ave. In addition to the display of OneMain Racing's No. 2 Chevrolet Impala show car, food and beverages will be served. Visitors are asked to bring canned goods to donate to the Capital Area Food Bank. Tower Federal Credit Union hosts fundraiser for cancer research and prevention Employees of Tower Federal Credit Union's headquarters in Laurel raised $1,160 after hosting an employee-based fundraiser of ice cream sales and an iPad raffle.

Ever since a friend snagged a $200 round-trip ticket to Paris, including taxes and the like, I've been decidedly unexcited by the typical airline promotional deals. (I've also been green with envy.) But yesterday when Travelzoo sent info about a British Airways sale offering $150 off the lowest published fare for flights anywhere in the world, I felt a little tingle in my leg. The 96-hour sale - for travel April 15-June 11 - boasted flights from Baltimore starting at $226 each way, after the discount.

Ever since a friend snagged a $200 round-trip ticket to Paris, including taxes and the like, I've been decidedly unexcited by the typical airline promotional deals. (I've also been green with envy.) But yesterday when Travelzoo sent info about a British Airways sale offering $150 off the lowest published fare for flights anywhere in the world, I felt a little tingle in my leg. The 96-hour sale - for travel April 15-June 11 - boasted flights from Baltimore starting at $226 each way, after the discount.

LONDON -- After two years of intense feuding with Richard Branson's Virgin Atlantic Airways, British Airways admitted yesterday that it had made improper attempts to undermine its upstart rival.British Airways agreed to settle the case by apologizing to Mr. Branson and paying him and his company $945,000 in damages. It also agreed to pay all court costs stemming from a suit brought by Mr. Branson, estimated at $3 million.In agreeing to settle a libel case brought by Mr. Branson, one of Britain's wealthiest and best-known entrepreneurs, British Airways said an internal investigation had found "incidents involving our employees which we accept were regrettable and which gave Richard Branson and Virgin Atlantic reasonable grounds for concern."

British Airways PLC announced yesterday that it would purchase an additional $86.3 million of USAir Group stock, giving the Arlington, Va.-based airline its second major infusion of cash since its alliance in January with the profitable British carrier.In connection with USAir Group's planned sale of 10 million shares of common stock, British Airways said it would exercise its option to purchase a new series of preferred stock."British Airways' decision to exercise its right is confirmation of its confidence in the future of USAir and the value of the new alliance," said Marge Vodopia, a spokeswoman for British Airways in New York.

WASHINGTON -- USAir Chairman Seth E. Schofield charged yesterday that the U.S. government is holding USAir hostage, using its alliance with British Airways as a bargaining chip in the ,, on-again, off-again bilateral talks with the United Kingdom.In three weeks, the U.S. Department of Transportation is expected to decide whether USAir and British Airways should be allowed to continue linking flights, under a process known as "code-sharing."Code-sharing allows passengers traveling on both airlines to buy one ticket and have their bags transferred automatically just as if they were flying one airline.

With the consolidation of the U.S. airline industry almost complete, the North Atlantic is now the industry's hottest competitive battleground, and new marketing schemes to tap into the business seem to pop up weekly.The latest are from the two biggest European airlines.British Airways, trying to hang on to customers it has worked hard to attract in recent years, last week set up its own frequent-flier program and cut or changed its ties to the programs of its biggest two competitors, American and United.

WASHINGTON -- Transportation Secretary Federico F. Pena has recommended approval of a $300 million investment by British Airways PLC in USAir Group Inc., aviation specialists said yesterday.The White House has not made a final decision, they said, but was believed to be leaning toward approval.The proposed deal has caused considerable controversy over the extent to which foreign airlines should be allowed to own and control American carriers, which have lost $10 billion in the last three years.

British Airways announced yesterday that it was reluctantly making a $200 million provision against the value of its investment in the financially troubled USAir Group Inc.The London-based airline, which bought its 24.6 percent stake in USAir more than two years ago, said changes in both U.S. and British accounting rules forced it to set aside the funds, valued at half the carrier's investment. Even so, British Airways officials emphasized their confidence in USAir."We have every confidence that USAir is going to succeed in their cost-cutting programs and the various elements they have to do to get back on the road to profitability," said John Lampl, a spokesman for British Airways in New York.

William George "Bill" Homewood, a retired British Airways executive and an accomplished transocean sailor who set a record in 1984 for a westbound Atlantic crossing during the Observer Transatlantic Singlehanded Race, died Sunday of a pulmonary embolism at Hilton Head Island Medical Center in Hilton Head, N.C. The former longtime Edgewater resident was 75. The son of a British military officer and a homemaker, Mr. Homewood was born in London....

Gaye and Frank Novak had been on call since last Thursday. Their 25-year-old daughter, Jenna, had been scheduled to arrive on a British Airways flight from London to Baltimore that day. But like thousands of others, she'd been out of luck since volcanic ash grounded airliners across Europe, stranding passengers and keeping travel on that continent confined to land. "We've just been on pins and needles waiting to drop everything to come get her," said Gaye Novak of Bel Air. Finally, on Wednesday night, she arrived.

Warm bread and pastries. Open bar. Extra-wide seats. Use of a private lounge at London Heathrow Airport with a complimentary glass of champagne. These are the perks available to those fortunate enough to fly business class on British Airways. Just ask senior officials at the Maryland Aviation Administration. Between 2005 and 2008, aviation administration executives flew British Airways business class 67 times, chiefly to attend business meetings with British Airways officials. According to a recent legislative audit, that cost the state $543,000 and violated Maryland regulations for foreign travel.

Warm bread and pastries. Open bar. Extra-wide seats. Use of a private lounge at London Heathrow Airport with a complimentary glass of champagne. These are the perks available to those fortunate enough to fly business class on British Airways. Just ask senior officials at the Maryland Aviation Administration. Between 2005 and 2008, aviation administration executives flew British Airways business class 67 times, chiefly to attend business meetings with British Airways officials. According to a recent legislative audit, that cost the state $543,000 and violated Maryland regulations for foreign travel.

I would like to refute M Hadley's description of lax security at Heathrow Airport on a recent trip. (Readers Respond, Dec. 30) I flew to Paris, arriving at Heathrow's new Terminal 5 on British Airways on Dec. 10 and connected to a flight to France. I went through all the security all over again that I went through at BWI. I had a half-finished bottle of water which they fished out of my hand baggage and asked me to drink a sip, and then they discarded it. I also had to take off my shoes and had them screened.

Head to England for holiday events like the Burning of the Clocks, a lantern procession in Brighton, or the Peter Pan Christmas Day Race where swimmers brave the waters of Hyde Park. $672 American London $722 Northwest London $823 British Airways London Restricted round-trip fees as researched online Wednesday, the day the Travel section goes to press. Fares are based on departing and returning on a weekday and may include Web specials.

LONDON -- British Airways PLC cabin crews and ground staff have called a 24-hour strike for midnight local time tonight.After talks failed to resolve a dispute over pay and conditions, the Transport and General Workers Union announced last evening that its 17,000 members would go strike, but that "the union remains willing to resume negotiations whenever the company is ready to reconsider its position."A union spokesman predicted the action, involving cabin crew, clerical and ground staff, would severely disrupt the airline's operations worldwide.

British Airways sent another strong message to USAir's labor unions yesterday, saying it may be forced to take a write-off against its $400 million investment in USAir if its U.S. partner fails to win cost-cutting concessions from its workers.The warning came from Chairman Colin Marshall as he announced that pretax profits soared at British Airways PLC from $279 million to $454.5 million in 1993 as the carrier continued its own cost-cutting efforts."It is difficult for us to put an ultimate time scale on this, but we do expect USAir to get their house in order," John Lampl, a spokesman for British Airways, said later yesterday.