Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Earn 5,000 Avios on ANY hotel booking with new BA Amex / Kaligo.com promotion

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If you have a British Airways American Express card and are opted into emails, you should have received details yesterday of a tie-up between online hotel booker Kaligo.com and American Express.

It is a very good deal.

You will receive 5,000 bonus Avios points for ANY hotel booking made via Kaligo.com before September 30th.  The stay itself does not have to be made until July 1st 2016.

Kaligo 350 2

The stay must be paid for with a British Airways American Express card.

You can only earn the bonus once per person.

Anyone can take part, even if they are an existing Kaligo.com customer.

You must register in advance for this deal via this link here.

You can see that there are some exceptionally good deals to be had here.  For a random July weekday in Sheffield I had no problem finding a number of decent hotels for under £50 – all of which would earn you at least 5,200 Avios points.

If you value an Avios point at 1p, this offer even creeps into ‘mattress run’ territory.  It may be worth booking a cheap room, checking in and leaving immediately with no intention of spending the night.  That said, I’m pretty sure that most HfP readers could divert one night to a Kaligo.com booking over the next few months.

There is also a generous cumulative promotion for bigger spenders which could earn up to 20,000 additional Avios points.

The cumulative bonus is based on your spending with Kaligo.com over July, August and September.  It is based on booking and not stay date, which can be as far out as 1 July 2016, although you will not receive the Avios until after your stay.

The bonus below does NOT require you to use a British Airways American Express card and is open to anyone who is a member of British Airways Executive Club.  The cumulative bonuses you can earn are:

3,000 Avios if you spend £250 – £499

10,000 Avios if you spend £500 – £999

20,000 Avios if you spend £1,000+

This is on top of the 5,000 bonus Avios points you earn with your first BA Amex-funded booking.

As usual with Kaligo.com and its competitors PointsHound and Rocketmiles, you should check competing sites before you book.  They will not always be the cheapest every time, but if you factor in the value of the Avios points then they should be very competitive.  Business users should note that none of the sites above can provide VAT receipts – if that is an issue, you should wait until you need to book a hotel outside of the EU.

You must register for this promotion in order to receive the bonus Avios.  If you don’t have a BA Amex card, you can register for this promotion on its own here.  BA Amex cardholders will be automatically registered when signing up for the ‘5,000 Avios in one stay’ promotion.

If you do not have a British Airways American Express card, you could think of this promotion as an additional 5,000 Avios sign-up bonus.  You would receive your card within 7-10 days of applying which would give you plenty of time to make a booking via this promotion.

My review of the free BA Amex is here and my review of the Premium Plus fee-paying version is here.


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 (59)

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

  • Rich says:

    Anyone know the score with a (partial) refund of my prepaid reservation and still getting Avios from Kaligo? It’s 3am and I can’t sleep, thanks to a speaker outside my room playing muzak! They can’t turn it off apparently – what a bizarre design! I’ve a good mind to commission in the morning, but not if a £20 refund will cost me 5000 Avios.

    • Rob says:

      You’re fine, should have zero impact.

      • Rich says:

        *complain, obviously, not commission!

        Thanks @Raffles. Just about to check out, so will see what they have to say.

        • Rich says:

          1000 IHG points and an apology that it’s a radio station they’re contractually injured by IHG to play, and have no way of turning down?! Not as much as I would have hoped for, but better than nothing.

  • Steve says:

    Do you have to actually check into the hotel to trigger the bonus? Or can you book and “no show” and get charged daily rate and still get the 5000 bonusd avios?

    Thanks

    • Rob says:

      I imagine you need to show, otherwise Kaligo lose lots of money when you book a hostel in Delhi.

  • Oliver says:

    Thanks for the tip Raffles! Just cancelled a Hilton reward stay at heathrow and got the thistle for £56 and 5200 avios 🙂 (and got my 30000 hilton points back)

  • Vin says:

    The link provided does not have any facility to “register” for this promotion, simply a page stating the offer and a form to search for hotels etc. Am I missing something, or has the page changed?

    • Rob says:

      The first time you visit the page you see a registration page. On subsequent visits you go straight to the booking page. As you register during the booking process I don’t think it matters.

      If you’re concerned, open the same link using a different browser to your usual one (or clear cookies, or use In Private browsing) and you should see the registration box again.

  • kevino says:

    Anybody found how to enter your avios number on the site, and is it BA or avios itself that is allowed?

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

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