Generous Avios deals with package holidays ending 31 December

Avios.com (not British Airways Executive Club) is, technically, a travel agency.  You may not be aware that you can use them to book a package holiday and earn yourself bonus Avios points in the process.

Until late 2015 this was a very generous deal.  You earned 10 Avios per £1 spent on your booking which, for an expensive family package holiday, often meant a lot of Avios points.  About a year ago the earning rate was cut to 5 Avios points per £1 although occasional ‘double up’ offers meant it remained generous.

This is all now to end.  From January 1st, it will no longer be possible to collect Avios points from package holiday bookings.

You can see the announcement on the avios.com homepage for package holiday deals here.

This means, of course, that you CAN still earn Avios on your package holiday bookings for the next six weeks.  They do not just work with ‘bucket and spade’ operators. The list includes some decent names (this is just a sample of the list):

• Club Med
• Cox & Kings
• Elegant Resorts
• First Choice
• Inghams
• ITC Luxury Travel
• Kuoni
• Mark Warner
• Neilson
• Thomas Cook
• Thomson
• Travelsphere
• Villas4You

The list of Avios cruise partners is here and includes:

• Celebrity Cruises
• Cunard
• Fred Olsen
• P&O
• Princess
• Royal Caribbean
• Silversea
• Viking Cruises

The recommend way to book is to search for whatever you are after directly on the website of the tour operator and then simply call Avios to make the booking.  They accept Amex and there is no surcharge for using any credit card.

Historically, the holidays team appears to have leeway to reduce prices if you can find a comparable deal – and you will still earn your Avios on the bookings

It is worth noting that you can also REDEEM Avios points for a discount on a package holiday until 31st December – see here for details.  I do not recommend this.  The discount is just 0.5p per Avios point you redeem which is poor but, to be honest, I could just about live with it if Avios rich. 

More important is that you will not receive any Avios points for the portion of the booking which you pay in cash. This makes the net outcome substantially worse.

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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.