Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Bonus Avios Part 2 – Heathrow Rewards, valet parking, Holiday Extras, Gate 365

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I am running two articles today featuring all of the new British Airways Executive Club promotions that have just launched.  These appear to be aimed at grabbing your attention in the run up to the main holiday season.

This post covers Heathrow Rewards, valet parking, Holiday Extras and Gate 365.

Avios wing 14

Heathrow Rewards

Heathrow Rewards is the Heathrow Airport loyalty scheme, offering points for any shopping spend at the airport as well as parking, currency exchange and Heathrow Express tickets.

There are a number of decent sign-up deals for Heathrow Rewards available at the moment.  The new British Airways deal offers 1,000 bonus points when you spend £25 in one transaction.

As you can convert 1,000 Heathrow Rewards points into 1,000 Avios (or Virgin, Miles & More or Etihad miles) this is a good return on your spending.

There is a better deal though.  The current Virgin Atlantic deal offers 1,000 points for spending just £10.

The Virgin deal expires on 31st May however.  Unless you can spend £10 at Heathrow before then, you are better off with the BA deal which runs until 14th July.  Full details of the BA offer can be found here – scroll down to the Heathrow Rewards bit.

Remember that Heathrow Rewards memberships are one per household and it will reject duplicate addresses.  To sign up another member of your household you need to change your address slightly, eg use 18a High Street if your main account is at 18 High Street.

Heathrow Rewards

Valet Parking

I doubt many HfP readers would use this but you can earn double Avios if you use valet parking at Terminal 3 or Terminal 5 at Heathrow.

You drop your car at the dedicated valet drop-off point and it will be waiting for you in the short stay car park on your return.

More details on ba.com here if you scroll down.  The offer runs to July 14th.

The earning rate is pathetic – you only earn 50 Avios per day, doubled to 100 per day under this offer, with a cap of five days.  As far as pricing goes, I was quoted £79.90 for 23 hours of valet parking at Terminal 5 ….

Holiday Extras

Holiday Extras is BA’s partner for ‘off airport’ car parking and for booking airport hotels with inclusive car parking.

The standard earning rate is 5 Avios per £1 spent.  Under this promotion, if you book any ‘hotel with parking’ package before 14th July you will receive 600 bonus Avios.

More details on the Holiday Extras site here.

Gate 365

Finally, a slightly eclectic offer from BA’s Gate 365 online shopping portal.  It is offering double Avios for purchases over £150 at johnlewis.com until 9th June.

This takes the earning rate to 4 Avios per £1.


How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (April 2024)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus card

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios card

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending £15,000 Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable 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

Huge 30,000 points bonus until 12th May 2024 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

There are also generous bonuses on the two American Express Business cards, with the points converting at 1:1 into Avios. These cards are open to sole traders as well as limited companies.

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points sign-up bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and FREE for a year 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.

Comments (21)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Phillip says:

    And for those with a Gold Amex, John Lewis online sales come with a travel bonus so 2 MR points per £1 spent!

  • Andy says:

    Do Heathrow rewards ever run any promotions or bonus for converting to Avios? Just wondering whether to convert my points now or leave them put for now?

    • Rob says:

      Yes, they have run 3 (I think) since the November 2011 Avios launch, all at 100%.

  • Redwood says:

    Raffles I don’t know if the one membership per household rule was an old one but Heathrow Rewards do accept more than one application per household. After reading your previous article on the 1000 point bonus I signed myself and my husband up using our home address (no tweaking!) … Both applications were accepted, got the 100 points sign- up bonus and then the 1k points after spending £10. We have received our cards and have transferred the points to our respective Avios accounts.
    I also hold another card, which is in my maiden name, from back when it was still Worldpoints… Only because it was far more appealing to set up a new account in my new name and get the bonus than to send them my marriage certificate for a name change.

    • Andy says:

      Same experience for me Redwood. I recently signed up my partner and I with no tweaking of the addresses. Our cards arrived on the same day and we both got the 100 + 1000 bonus points.

    • Rob says:

      Perhaps if you do both at once it goes through because the first one takes a while to be formally added to the system? There are plenty of comments on older posts (months old, not years old!) about people having issues if they already had a card.

      • Redwood says:

        It was weeks apart. I received the first card before applying for the second account.

  • AndyGWP says:

    I received the Shell Drivers Club email yesterday / newsletter yesterday… it stated the following – don’t think it was a targeted offer just for me but could have been I guess

    “From 12th May to 31st July, we’re offering you double Avios every time you swipe your Shell Drivers’ Club card.

    The more you swipe, the more you earn – getting you that much closer to your dream trip.

    This double points offer is for Shell Drivers’ Club members who have chosen Avios or British Airways Executive Club as their reward.”

    • John says:

      Well, unless Shell is your only option or you actually prefer their petrol, Tesco is stil better for avios.

      • AndyGWP says:

        Agreed – though it’s nice to know options 🙂

        As it happens, neither are convenient for me… I tend to use Sainsburys 🙂

        Just thought it would be worthwhile sharing / highlighting it

  • Linda says:

    Thanks for the 1000 Avios bonus tip about Heathrow Rewards, have to remember my card this week when i fly out.

    • Fenny says:

      My HR card lives in my “overseas” wallet, so I always have it with me when I fly. It’s more remembering to buy something on the way. A bottle of Absolut Mango will do nicely 🙂

  • Lloyd says:

    If you search for Airport Parking through the MSE website you can get a straight discount at or around the same magnitude. Usually I find it cheaper this way over the extra avios on offer when compared to the BA site.

  • Sam says:

    Has the 1000 point promotion died – seems to show me 100 points only now? Forgot to do previously and flying out on Saturday so would like to take advantage!

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

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