LAST CHANCE: 100% bonus buying IHG points and BA Black Friday £495 Club World

Two good offers close today – you should have a think about whether you should miss out or not.

IHG Rewards Club ‘buy points’ bonus

Today is the last chance to buy IHG Rewards Club – the InterContinental, Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza etc scheme – points with a 100% bonus.  It is as generous an offer as you will ever see for IHG points.

You receive a 100% bonus with ANY order, however small.  This is an improvement on when this offer ran last year, when small orders did not get the full bonus.  With a 100% bonus, you would be able to buy 120,000 IHG points for (at current exchange rates) £453.

The page to buy points is here.

At the top end of the IHG Rewards Club portfolio, you have InterContinental properties which top out at 50,000 points per night. That’s what you would pay for InterContinental Le Grand in Paris or the InterContinental Amstel in Amsterdam.

With a 100% bonus, IHG is effectively selling you a night at these properties for £189 all-in.

There is no doubt that this could be a great deal. Taking a random night in December (7th), InterContinental London Park Lane is £245 (surprisingly cheap, it usually £350ish), InterContinental Paris Le Grand is €354 and InterContinental New York Times Square, pictured above, is an astonishing $726 including tax.  All three had reward nights available.  In addition, remember that these prices are for non-refundable rooms whilst your reward booking would be cancellable.

Of course, I could run a different list of low season dates at the same properties – or other hotels in the group – where this would not look like such a great deal. That said, I doubt you will ever pay less than £184 for the IC’s above at any time of year.

At a more prosaic level, hotels like the Holiday Inn Commercial Road in London (which is only a couple of years old) are 30,000 points.  That would be £113 per night if you bought the points via this deal.

The maximum number of points you can buy is 120,000 (ie 60,000 plus the 60,000 bonus).  This ‘buy points’ offer only runs until tonight. You can buy via this link.

Last chance to book British Airways Club World tickets for as little as £495 + 30,000 Avios

Of all the Black Friday / Cyber Monday deals I covered last week, the British Airways one was clearly the most attractive.

Full details are on ba.com here – but they do not tell the whole story.

Last year BA offered Club World flights for £1,007 return over Christmas.  This year the prices are higher and the range of destinations is narrower – you won’t be getting any deals to South Africa this year, for example.

However, there is one twist this year which makes the deals far better than in 2014.  You can use ‘part pay with Avios’, at a hugely advantageous rate, to discount your ticket even further.

Here are the discounts available.  Note that these savings only apply to departures from the UK.

• £700 off for 30,000 Avios
• £350 off for 15,000 Avios
• £260 off for 11,250 Avios
• £175 off for 7,500 Avios
• £105 off for 4,500 Avios
• £35 off for 1,500 Avios

Here are the destinations and prices for a Club World return flight in the Black Friday sale, assuming you redeem the maximum of 30,000 Avios.  Add back £700 to get the headline ‘cash only’ price.

• Toronto £597 + 30,000 Avios
• Chicago £649
• Vancouver £683
• Calgary £683
• Washington DC £689
• New York £685
• Boston £689
• Miami £698
• Las Vegas £1,120
• San Francisco £1,149
• Los Angeles £1,163
• San Diego £1,189
• Seattle £1,189
• Dallas £1,189
• Phoenix £1,189
• Chennai £494
• Delhi £495
• Bangalore £495
• Mumbai £495
• Hyderabad £515
• Dubai £573
• Bahrain £695
• Chengdu (China) £501
• Hong Kong £800
• Kuala Lumpur £895
• Seoul £2,135
• Sydney £2,197

You will definitely earn Avios and tier points for your flight even though you have used ‘part pay with Avios’.

Here are the travel rules:

• Book by Monday 30th November
• Travel outbound between 21st December and 3rd January
• Travel inbound before 10th January

You can see full details of the British Airways Black Friday deals here.

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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.