Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Get an additional £100 off British Airways Holidays in the BA sale – today only

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For just three days, of which today – Thursday 8th – is the last day, British Airways has knocked an additional £50 or £100 off British Airways Holidays prices in the BA January sale.

£50 extra discount on Flight & Hotel holidays to any destination for bookings with a minimum spend of £1000

£100 extra discount on Flight & Hotel holidays to any destination for bookings with a minimum spend of £2500

£100 extra discount on Fly Drive holiday bookings (14+ days) to the USA, Canada, South Africa & Australia

BA Holidays

There are a couple of things worth remembering about BA Holidays:

It can occasionally be cheaper to book a holiday package rather than just flights.  This is especially true with Fly Drive bookings.  Nothing bad will happen to you if you don’t bother picking up your car, assuming you don’t need one.

British Airways Holidays bookings can be paid in instalments.  For holidays under £999 (total for all passengers) you only need to pay a deposit of £150 in total.  More expensive holidays only require a £300 deposit per booking.  The balance is due 10 weeks before departure.

If you have a British Airways Premium Plus American Express, BA Holidays counts as British Airways spend and you receive 3 Avios per £1 spent

I am pretty sure – but I have never done this myself – that the balance can be paid off in small chunks using 3V cards from Tesco, generating 360 Avios (ie 150 Clubcard points) for every £50 of these gift cards you buy.

Details of these BA Holidays offers can be found here.

It is also worth noting that you can avoid the credit card fee by paying the deposit on a debit card (no fee on debit cards) and the final balance on a credit card.


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 (10)

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

  • Thomas says:

    Good discount if you are booking a BA holiday anyway! For people thinking of going on holiday, maybe consider GOI (Goa)? When you book a package on BA in April and May (certain dates) and you select J seats and hotel, the return flight puts you in FIRST! strange as when you check availability in J their are still seats available!!! London to Mumbai in J, Mumbai to Goa in J, Goa to Mumbai in J and Mumbai to London in First (777) so a free one way First included in your discounted holiday fare, good deal?

  • Waffles1 says:

    I’ve paid off a BA holiday with 3V, only downside (apart from taking a while) was that it took a £1 authorisation on each card so I could only pay off £24 each time. I ended up with a lot of £1 Amazon vouchers that month.

    • Phillip says:

      Now that’s interesting – sometimes my 3V cards go through on BA.com OK for the entire £25 and sometimes they are constantly declined. I wonder if that’s because of the £1 authorisation.

    • Simmo says:

      Same for me!

      Paid off a £2500 BA Holiday mostly using gift cards! (some paid on card when i couldn’t find gift cards).

      Either £24 or £49 depending on the cards I found in Tesco.
      With using a mixture of the extra 100 points per gift card in Nov/Dec and the standard 150 points per £50 + Gold Amex I have ‘earnt’ around 25,000+ Avios.

      If I would have been wise enough to open a new card for a sign up bonus too I’d be laughing!

  • Phillip says:

    Unless it’s changed, the last one I booked in December did incur a credit card charge for the deposit, but no subsequent credit card charges after that.

  • David Courtney says:

    “I am pretty sure – but I have never done this myself – that the balance can be paid off in small chunks using 3V cards from Tesco, generating 600 Avios (ie 150 Clubcard points) for every £50 of these gift cards you buy!”

    Sorry if I have missed something but I thought 150 clubcard points equates to 360 avios?

    • JQ says:

      Some people have grandfathered rates

      I haven’t found any 3V since Christmas, even in Tescos that usually had plenty before that. Have they stopped 3Vs now?

    • Rob says:

      Typo, sorry!

  • Magarathea says:

    3v cards have been very thin on the ground in Tesco stores recently near me in Yorkshire, although I did get some a few weeks ago. Previously Morrisons have had plenty but I haven’t seen any recently in my local stores. I’m hoping the pegs will be restocked soon.

  • trickster says:

    The sale appears to be extended as the offer is still showing and says book by midnight tonight.

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

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