Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Bits: new BBC ATC series starts tonight, Virgin economy sale, 30 Avios per £1 on flowers

Links on Head for Points may support the site by paying a commission.  See here for all partner links.

News in brief:

‘Skies Above Britain’ starts tonight on BBC2

I have been asked by a NATS employee to plug ‘Skies Above Britain’, which I’m happy to do.  Starting on BBC2 tonight at 9pm, this five part documentary focusses on the work of air traffic controllers across the UK.

Virgin Atlantic launches economy sale

Virgin Atlantic has launched an economy seat sale running until 21st September.  Headline prices to the US start at £398, presumably aimed to match the current Aer Lingus ex-UK sale.

Hong Kong at £449 looked one of the better non-US deals.  You need to travel between Christmas and March for the US deals, dates vary elsewhere.

Full details can be found here.

If you live in the regions and want to visit the US, look at the Aer Lingus deals here which include the connecting flight to Dublin.

Virgin A350

Earn 30 Avios per £1 on flower deliveries

Finally, I wanted to mention that you can currently earn 30 Avios for every £1 you spend on flowers from Appleyard.

You need to order via the Appleyard page of the Gate 365 shopping portal here.  There are even some discount codes, valid until 21st August, on that page which can be combined with the deal. 

The offer runs until 30th September at which point it will return to the usual 7 Avios per £1.

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

Aer Lingus and AerClub, British Airways and Avios, Virgin Atlantic and Flying Club

Comments (83)

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

  • Matt says:
    17 Aug17 August 15:28

    Cost is £0 for 11 months, they don’t charge the fee until you hit year 2 😉

    • James67 says:
      17 Aug17 August 15:57

      Might not be true anymore, the £450 annual fee was applied to my amex plat on second statement after upgrading my PRG. However, I discussed this with Rob and we believe it may be because the anniversary of my PRG arrived as opposed to a change of policy by amex. If this was indeed the case Tom should be fine for about a year. If not, he can just cancel for a pro rata refund as soon as he has hit the £1000 upgrade spend target and banked and transfered the 21000+ MR points.

  • Daniel says:
    17 Aug17 August 16:01

    PLEASE look at trustpilot before thinking of using Happyrooms

  • Gavin says:
    17 Aug17 August 16:31

    Ref payasyougym – that’sa good find. I’ve just signed up for another year through Gymflex though so no good for me. Also my current gym is perfect for my needs and not available through that site anyway.

    • Joe says:
      17 Aug17 August 22:12

      You can use CC vouchers for Paug, at 3x value so arguably better than avios conversions

  • Scallder says:
    17 Aug17 August 17:37

    OT but BA cabin crew have backed industrial action short of striking 9 to 1 over new performance measurement. Anyone have a clue if that’s actually impact anything, or chances of it moving up to strike action?

  • roer says:
    17 Aug17 August 17:42

    OT

    Rob do you know any BA Amex or BAPP sign-up bonus returning this year, same as this time last year?

    cheers
    Roger

    • Rob says:
      17 Aug17 August 19:01

      No. However, something is up overnight tonight on the BA cards. Don’t know what but there will be a change tomorrow. Could be good or bad!

      • Genghis says:
        17 Aug17 August 19:26

        How do you know something is up?

        • Rob says:
          17 Aug17 August 19:30

          They told me 🙂

          Perhaps the Premium card is officially coming back for new applicants? It may also be something small like another interest rate change. I genuinely have no idea.

          • roger says:
            18 Aug18 August 07:55

            you may be right Rob.
            Just checked Amex website and for referral from my free BA Amex to someone else is 4000 Avios for myself and referred person gets 10000 Avios points.

            Bring on better sign up bonus BA!

          • Genghis says:
            18 Aug18 August 08:00

            That’s decent for the free card isn’t it? Hasn’t it been only 3k?

          • roger says:
            18 Aug18 August 08:06

            yes its only ever been 3000 for fresh or 4000 for referral until last night.

          • RTS says:
            18 Aug18 August 16:46

            Son of…. B…

            I signed up for the BAPP last week ¬_¬

          • Rob says:
            18 Aug18 August 16:55

            Ring. Some people in the past have managed to get an extra bonus when this happens.

  • Simon Schus says:
    17 Aug17 August 21:49

    Hi all 🙂
    Any idea if there is a Virgin reward sale coming up soon? Last time, I feel like the reward sale tends to come out half-way through the Virgin standard fare sale. I’ve got my eye on a one-way flight which I can’t book right now due to needing confirmation on other aspects of the trip, so I’m just musing about the reward flights while I’m waiting.
    Simon

  • electrical apprenticeship dayton ohio says:
    17 Aug17 August 23:49

    electrical apprenticeship dayton ohio

    Virgin Atlantic economy sale launched

  • Alan says:
    19 Aug19 August 20:20

    Mine is on hold too. First one (March stay) paid out and was uplifted to the increased rate, but others all just sitting at pending at the lower rates just now.

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

New to Head for Points?

Welcome!  We’re the UK’s most-read source of business travel, Avios, frequent flyer and hotel loyalty news. Let us improve how you travel. Got any questions? Ask them in our forums.

Latest Forum Posts

Get 40,000 bonus points (worth 40,000 Avios) and £300 dining credit with The Platinum Card

Check reward flight availability instantly for free!

See a whole year of reward seat availability on one page at SeatSpy.com

Get £10 when you spend £150 on your free Currensea card

Booking a luxury hotel?

Our luxury hotel booking service offers you GUARANTEED extra benefits over booking direct. Works with Four Seasons, Mandarin Oriental, The Ritz Carlton, St Regis and more. We've booked £1.7 million of rooms to date. Click for details.

SME? EARN POINTS WORTH 10,500 AVIOS WITH CAPITAL ON TAP

Get 20,000 bonus points, four airport lounge passes and your first year free with American Express Gold

The UK's biggest frequent flyer website uses cookies, which you can block via your browser settings. Continuing implies your consent to this policy. Our privacy policy is here.

Got it!