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See the ‘Pay with Avios’ for food and drink prices

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As a follow up to my main story below on charging for food and drink on board, BA has now sent me some sample ‘pay with Avios’ prices:

Mature cheddar cheese ploughman’s – £3 or 375 Avios

Lightly salted hand cooked crisps – £1 or 125 Avios

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Water – £1.80 or 225 Avios

Tea or coffee – £2.30 or 300 Avios

G&T (Anika, please note 🙂 ) – £6 or 750 Avios

Wine – £4.50 or 575 Avios

It could have been less generous, I suppose. At around 0.8p per point there are worse ways to spend your points (but obviously far better ways too).


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 (77)

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

  • Andy says:

    I can see the screen the only people buy food on board will be those paying with avios points!

  • Dwadda says:

    They bloody better provide free food to status holders that have lounge access otherwise I’m taking a bottle of champagne and a picnic with me from the lounge when I fly economy and I expect thousands of other status holders will too.

    I just flew Club Europe on a short trip. The outbound was on an ex-BMI A319, it had the blocked off middle seat but the larger (34″?) seat pitch. It was OK, though I missed the wider, more comfortable, 2×2 seats. The seat and the meal reminded me of what it was like to fly economy 15 years ago. Standards have fallen but it was OK.

    The return leg was unacceptable. The A320 had the new 29″ seat pitch. It’s one thing to offer club passengers a decent meal on porcelain plates, and it was a good meal. However, I’m 5’9″ and not pudgy and I had to eat with my elbows out to the side because the plate was too near. It was awkward to eat and no one else was able to eat with dignity either.

    Speaking of dignity, I was on another club Europe flight in March. An large but not obese American was in 1D in front of me. The seats are narrower in the first row because of the tray tables in the arm rest. The poor man literally whimpered while stuffing himself into his seat (I would have offered to swap but I was travelling with my partner). He probably booked club expecting a true 2×2 layout as the US carriers have, and a couple years ago he would have been able to fly comfortably with his dignity intact.

    I spend 10k+ a year on flights. Less of that will go to BA. If you are going to give me the same mean space as a low cost carrier, not provide me food or even with complimentary soft drinks, and charge 50% more for the privilege why should I fly BA. Oh of course, it’s the bottle of champagne from the lounge..

    • Callum says:

      I think they’ll just about manage to cope without you…

      • Cate says:

        But it isn’t only one person BA are alienating., it’s people paying biz rates.

        Put together with the lounges being full of third party payers to the point that biz custs can’t get in then what’s left for biz pax apart from the little dividing curtain between Club Europe and econ?

  • CV3V says:

    What is not mentioned that you will have to pay tax, handling fees and service charges in cash, about £3.50 per item.
    😉

  • Egg says:

    going to be cheaper to pay for lounge access & fill your pockets

  • David says:

    Whoops! 🙂

  • British Airways continues to blur the lines between Full Service and LCC - Buy on Board coming - Economy Class & Beyond says:

    […] how many Avios you earn in Economy Class these days, using it on food is a VERY poor use of Avios. Head for Points has done the mathmatics already calculating it at […]

  • tim says:

    So what about existing bookings. I have 4 return flights coming up which promised free food and drink when I paid for the ticket and entered into a contract with BA.

    I typically have 2 G+Ts on a flight plus a snack.

    (2( £6 G+T) + £2 snack)8 = £112 BA has cheated me out of. And the same again for each of my three family members.

    £112 x 4 = £448 which is enough to make a Small Claim Action worth it.

    Any chance of getting £448 out of BA (or 60,000 ish Avios if they would prefer)

  • Rob says:

    I will cover it tomorrow. Even I’m jumping in at 40k, should be worth £400 if used smartly.

    • Clive says:

      You can use Nectar for Easyjet flights can’t you

      • Save East Coast Rewards says:

        Just at the usual Nectar rate of 1 point = 0.5p. It’s best to use them for offers where you get more than the base rate. For example the past two summers they’ve offered 2 pizzas (at Pizza Express) or two cinema tickets for 1000 points.

    • Roger says:

      Yes .

      Please let us know how smart use of nectar points can be.
      I have offer showing on my app. I think the spend is £3000 in 3 months.

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