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Get a 100% bonus on Heathrow Rewards transfers – sign-up promo now worth 6,000 Avios

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Heathrow Rewards, the loyalty scheme for shopping at Heathrow, has quietly launched a 100% bonus on transfers to various airline programmes.

This is not mentioned on the front pages of the Heathrow Rewards website.  However, when you go to the page to redeem Avios (log-in required) it says:

Earn double miles on all Heathrow Rewards Points to Avios transfers before 31 December 2015

Heathrow Rewards

The same message appears under:

Emirates Skywards

Virgin Flying Club

It does NOT appear for:

Etihad Guest

Lufthansa Miles & More

This is why the deal is especially interesting:

As I wrote last week, you can currently earn 3,000 Heathrow Rewards points by opening an account and spending £100 in one day.

This is a very generous offer – the most generous I have ever seen, actually.

Combined with this transfer bonus, it is fantastic.

Open a Heathrow Rewards account, spend £100 in a day and you will receive your 3,000 points.  Convert these to Avios, Emirates or Virgin and you will receive 6,000 miles.

Whilst the 3,000 point offer runs until February, the ‘double miles’ offer requires you to make the transfer by 31st December.  You should therefore try to make your £100 spend before Christmas to ensure the points arrive at Heathrow Rewards before 31st December.  You might be pushing your luck if you make a transaction between Christmas and New Year.

You can read more about the 3,000 points sign-up bonus in this article.

It would also double up with the ‘up to 15,000 points for a jewellery or electronics purchase’ promotion that is currently running.  I wrote about that one here.  Spend £4,000 and your 19,000 points (15,000 bonus points plus 4,000 base points) would earn you 38,000 Avios.

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.

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.

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.

Category

Heathrow Rewards

Comments (68)

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

  • Ian says:
    19 Nov19 November 09:51

    Shame I will not be using Heathrow this year.

  • 241 says:
    19 Nov19 November 10:04

    Can anyone confirm you would get points for whsmith vouchers?

    And that it includes landside shops? My husband is flying into Heathrow tomorrow! But can’t do reserve and collect unless flying out… may be sending him on a shopping spree in arrivals.

    If I sign him up now will he need to wait for a plastic card or is there an app etc that he could access?

    • ankomonkey says:
      19 Nov19 November 11:45

      I have definitely had points for spend at landside T5 Carluccio’s. I’ve never tried buying gift cards at an airport.

    • mark2 says:
      19 Nov19 November 13:45

      Town centre W H Smith stores sell gift vouchers including John Lewis/Waitrose.
      Cannot speak for Heathrow; probably less likely.

    • Felix Flyer says:
      19 Nov19 November 16:09

      Regus Business Lounges excluded but would Aspire at T5 on a Priority Pass earn any? I have used my free visits and my next one will cost £15. WHS also doing double HR points till 30 Nov. Finally I know World Duty Free IT excludes points for tobacco but not sure how smart other retailers I T is.

      • Rob says:
        19 Nov19 November 16:49

        Unlikely that the Aspire lounge would count – never heard of anyone getting points for lounge access anywhere else in Heathrow (Aspire is too new to be sure).

        • Felix Flyer says:
          19 Nov19 November 21:28

          Thought that would be the case but I’ll show my card and see if anything happens!

  • JK says:
    19 Nov19 November 10:09

    Just to make sense of this part of the T&C’s:

    “Terms and conditions – …Only one Avios redemption per day is permitted up to a maximum of 40 rewards equivalent to 10,000 Avios. Please contact Customer service if you wish to redeem more than 40 rewards.”

    Would you interpret that as being able to redeem 40 vouchers today, but there being on issue doing another 40 tomorrow? Or that you can only redeem 40 total for the life of this promo?

    • Raymond Hennessy says:
      19 Nov19 November 10:22

      It quite clearly states “per day” But I would screenshot that just in case.

  • phil g says:
    19 Nov19 November 11:59

    Rob, On the original thread you suggest “Even £1k may not work. You would earn 100 points but that does not mean HR treats it as a £100 purchase.2 in regard to forex at the airport
    The bonus reads to me as £100 spent not 100 points earned. Is there a reason you don’t think a £100 foreign exchange purchase would work. If it is points based then as WHS is double points this month would therefore a £50 purchase there qualify.

    • Rob says:
      19 Nov19 November 12:24

      I know how it is written but I am sure that the HR IT system would not let the FX one wash.

      It is possible that 100 points from WHS on a £50 spend may work but I would not want to bet on it

    • ankomonkey says:
      19 Nov19 November 13:31

      In the past when I’ve given my Heathrow Rewards card when buying currency the points rate has always been 1 point/£10 spent. I suspect their systems can recognise forex spend. I also suspect they would not give the bonus for £100 of forex spend.

  • matt says:
    19 Nov19 November 19:59

    I can’t confirm if WHS has 3rd party gift vouchers at Heathrow but would bet on their own ones counting towards spend. Despite the t&cs, stamps from WHS definitely counted for a previous sign up. If you still send physical Christmas cards it’s a good time to stock up. On another tack, does anyone know if you can “churn” addresses for HR accounts? Yes, I know I can add d, e and f to an address but it does start to qualify for “how far would you go”… Can I empty a, b and c at double avios, close accounts and start again?

    • Sandgrounder says:
      19 Nov19 November 20:32

      I made a mobile phone topup at WH Smith last time I took advantage of a bonus, credited no problem. My local store is usually well stocked with prepaid debit cards of various flavours, hopefully such things are available at LHR.

    • Sandgrounder says:
      19 Nov19 November 20:33

      I have found that a well-placed full stop is enough to allow the re-use of an address.

      • harry says:
        19 Nov19 November 20:40

        You would presumably – flying within the EU – be able to buy £100 of stuff @ Heathrow, then get a refund in your local High St WHS.

  • thomas says:
    19 Nov19 November 21:25

    Sadly I don’t think the bonus is applicable if the heathrow points were earnt by transferring from emirates …

    • Rob says:
      20 Nov20 November 00:25

      Correct. Those points are ring-fenced and can only be redeemed for shopping vouchers.

      • TomTom says:
        20 Nov20 November 08:36

        Raffles – Here you could convert 6000 Emirates miles to 2000 HR, then create a £20 voucher. Would the £20 voucher be able to be used towards the £100 spend (ie. only £80 of cash, but still a total of £100 spend)? Thoughts?

  • Fenny says:
    19 Nov19 November 21:35

    This reminds me I must get round to sending in the receipts for some points I didn’t get added earlier.

    I may also set up a new account. I do legitimately have 2 addresses here Number and Numbera. I generally only use Numbera for spam email addresses, and only the relief postman ever delivers to the other door.

    • Guy says:
      19 Nov19 November 22:46

      Landside Caffe Nero takes Heathrow Rewards and just happens to be selling £25 gift vouchers with a £5 extra (made up to £30) if bought this week. £100 probably a bit steep for coffee – but might suit some for gifts

  • TomTom says:
    20 Nov20 November 18:11

    Could this work?

    Convert 6000 Emirates miles to 2000 HR, then create a £20 voucher. Spend the £20 voucher towards the £100 spend (ie. only £80 of cash, but still a total of £100 spend)? Thoughts?

    • Rob says:
      20 Nov20 November 18:47

      That works fine, yes

      • TomTom says:
        21 Nov21 November 12:30

        Hmm interesting! Could a voucher be created from account 1, a new account created (account 2), spend the £100 signup (£20 as a voucher from account 1), and then credit the purchase to account 2? Basically can you use a voucher from one account and credit the purchase to another? I’m ready to press the button on this 🙂

        • Rob says:
          21 Nov21 November 15:02

          Yes, because the voucher can be requested as a paper one and so presumably valid on any purchase.

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