Up to 7,000 bonus Avios with BA’s weak new flying promotion

British Airways has launched a new bonus Avios promotion to drive traffic on a few specific routes.  This can earn you up to 7,000 points between now and early December.

Unfortunately it is not incredibly generous.  As you will see from the fare code letters in the list below, which refer to the ticket types you must hold, you will only receive a bonus if you book a flexible or semi-flexible ticket.

Call me old and cyncical, but 500 Avios is not an exciting bonus in return for booking an expensive semi-flexible short-haul ticket. 

It is not enough to persuade me to upgrade my ticket type, it would not be enough (for Dusseldorf, for eg) to persuade me to travel to London City instead of Heathrow and – if I was wedded to another airline for a particular route – it would not be enough to swing me to BA.

The bonus points you will earn are, per return flight:

7,000 Avios in First Class (F, A)

5,000 Avios in Club World (J, C, D)

2,500 Avios in World Traveller Plus (W, T)

1,000 Avios in World Traveller (Y, B)

1,000 Avios in Club Europe (J, C, D)

500 Avios in Domestic or Eurotraveller (Y, B)

Participating routes are:

Heathrow to Aberdeen, Baku, Bangkok, Buenos Aires, Cape Town, Edinburgh, Geneva, Hong Kong, Houston, Istanbul, Luanda, Moscow, Nice, Rome, Sao Paulo, Stockholm, Tel Aviv

Gatwick to Bari, Bordeaux, Edinburgh, Glasgow

London City to Dublin, Dusseldorf, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Rotterdam

The key dates are:

Booking dates 13 October – 28 November 2014
Outbound travel 13 October – 28 November 2014
Inbound travel 13 October – 12 December 2014

You can earn the bonus on a maximum of four return trips.  Depending on your travel patterns, it might make sense to move some trips AWAY from British Airways to preserve your ability to hit the higher bonuses later.

If I had a Club World trip coming up, for example, after four short-haul European flights, it would be more lucrative to do one of the short-haul flights on another airline in order to ensure I got the Club World bonus.

You must register for the bonus via this page at ba.com where you will also find full details.

The promotion is only open to UK members of the Executive Club.

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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:

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

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.

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.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 12th May 2024, the Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa card is offering a bonus of 30,000 points, convertible into 30,000 Avios. You must have a Limited Company to apply. Click here to learn more and click here to apply.

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.

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.

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.