Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

New promo: earn 1,000 Avios in BA and avios.com for collecting with a new partner

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Avios.com and British Airways Executive Club both launched an interesting new promotion yesterday which could get you 1,000 Avios in each scheme.

Full details are here on avios.com.

You will receive 1,000 Avios if, between now and 21st November, you earn Avios from a partner you have not previously earned from since 3rd October 2015.

Each programme has its own exclusions and rules:

avios.com

The obvious rule which might trip you up is ‘Flight partners’.  These are treated as one partner.  If you have credited a BA flight to avios.com in the last year, crediting an Iberia flight will NOT trigger the bonus.

Similarly, Avios e-store shopping is treated as one partner, irrespective of which retailer you used.

The following are excluded: “Purchase, Gift or Transfers of Avios; Survey Partners (E-rewards, Reward for Thoughts, Survey Sampling International); Member Get Member (MGM) referrers; Shell Drivers’ Club; Avios awarded for refer a friend”

If you have a Household Account, the account will only earn the bonus once irrespective of the number of account members who use a new partner.

So, how can you trigger the avios.com bonus?

The easiest options are either a Tesco Clubcard transfer or a TopCashback transfer.  The latter is what I will be doing, I think, with the smallest transfer I can manage – which will be the size of the smallest cashback item waiting to be paid.  I am certain I have not transferred to avios.com in the last year.

Crediting a BA flight is fine – unless you have BA status, in which case you will lose your status bonus which will cost you Avios.

Heathrow Rewards points transfers are also an easy option.

British Airways Executive Club

The same restrictions apply as for avios.com.  In particular, earning from flying counts as one partner so using a different airline is not good enough.

The same merchants are excluded.

Hotel partners are NOT grouped together so if you have transferred from one hotel scheme this year you CAN transfer from another and trigger the bonus.  If you are a top tier Starwood Preferred Guest member, the minimum airline transfer is just 1 point.

Personally, I will either do a Tesco Clubcard transfer (I need to check if I have done one in the last year) or move the minimum 1,000 American Express Membership Rewards points across.  That will do the trick.  Heathrow Rewards is another possibility.  Most people will find TopCashback the easiest although I have already done that this year.

Most of us should be able to earn 1,000 Avios in each scheme easily enough, especially as there are 6 weeks to manage it.

Note that the deadline for awarding you your 1,000 bonus Avios is 31st January, so don’t do this if you need the points to post quickly.


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 (184)

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

  • Brian says:

    Bit OT but hopefully someone can assist.

    Re the Amex 241 BA voucher, I believe the terms say the booking has to be made using a BA Amex card.

    However, in practice, is this really the case? Will BA reject an Amex companion voucher booking made with a Visa/Mastercard?

    Thanks

    • daftboy says:

      Yes – the payment option defaults to Amex when booking. It can be any Amex though, so if you no longer want to pay the fee for the paid card then better to downgrade to the free version rather than cancelling outright (so you can still use the voucher)

      • Brian says:

        Ah okay thanks for confirming.

        Yeah going to downgrade to the free card as already hit the £10k spend this year.

        However was hoping to use the IHG card to help with the £10k spend on that.

        Pity the IHG card doesn’t let you have two companion cards, hopefully they may introduce that at some point.

  • Tilly71 says:

    Purchase a birthday or xmas card on notonthehightstreet.com for £1.00, easy points.

  • Wally1976 says:

    Completely OT sorry – in Raffles’ article about getting your SPG status matched by Marriott he says that the Marriott status is valid until the end of 2017. Not that I want to doubt Raffles but can anyone confirm that that’s correct? I can’t find an expiry date on my account anywhere. Thanks.

    • Raffles says:

      The current plan is to close both schemes 31/12/17 and relaunch the new one immediately. If the timetable slips you would get a little longer.

      • Wally1976 says:

        That’s great, I was checking that it wasn’t going to be shorter.

        In that case, can anyone recommend a Marriott hotel in Europe with a bit of a wow factor for a weekend away with the wife? I’ll have about 90k points for 3 nights so preferably category 6 or below but would consider category 7 with an Amex MR top-up. Needs to include the free lounge access/breakfast for golds. Thanks.

        • Brian says:

          The Renaissance in Hamburg is a very nice hotel, I think. Great breakfast, though no lounge. Decent location in the centre, close to the inner lake, the shops, the opera etc…I’m not sure it would qualify as having a wow factor – but is there a Marriott group hotel that does??

        • North says:

          The Autograph in Granada – the Palacio de Santa Paula is really nice. It’s in an old monastery so lots of character. I’m Marriott Platinum now but was only Gold when we stayed there and they treated us very well. We got a nice upgrade to one of the rooms with character overlooking the old courtyard. No lounge but you get free breakfast. It’s gone up to a category 7 now unfortunately but you could have a look and see if it fits what you’re looking for.

        • Wally1976 says:

          Thanks for the suggestions; I’ll check them out

    • AndyR says:

      I thought Marriott status expires when your SPG status does and not necessarily end of 2017? So if your SPG gold until Feb 2017 then your Marriott status expires then too.

  • Samuel says:

    I just signed up for club card last weekend and have not used it. So if I buy in Tesco for the next weeks, I should be getting 1000 avios automatically right? I only have to link my club card and avios account (automatic conversion), is that correct?

    • ringingup says:

      I’m interested in the answer to this!

      • Raffles says:

        Samuel – the next set of Clubcard vouchers are sent out late October. If you dont earn 250 points by 20th October Tesco will roll them over and not issue vouchers this quarter, so you would miss the offer.

  • James67 says:

    Rob, I think theveryone household rule only applies to avios not BA?

  • Dave says:

    So if I already have a flight booked with TAM airlines to credit some points to my BAEC on the 19th of november this should count for 1000 bonus point as well?

    And i can use TBC for avios account

    • Raffles says:

      Only if you have not earned from an airline in the past year, inc BA.

      • Dave says:

        I have earned from Flybe although not received any miles still, my other flights this year have all been Iberia credited to Iberia

        So should be good, if I can generate some Heathrow Rewards before then ill credit this to be safe, ta

  • Denis says:

    Is there a landing page for BA version of promo? Just want to make sure before initiating transfer (e.g.country of residents restrictions and so on).

  • Concerto says:

    If I make an Avis rental and credit it to Avios.com can I still profit from the 1,700 Avios promotion cited in the other article?

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

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