Bits: €100 status credit for an Avis rental, Qatar sale extended, airberlin restructuring

News in brief:

€100 status credit with any Avis rental

A reader sent me a link to this new Avis offer.  If you are signed up to Avis Preferred and make a booking in the current Avis sale, for collection at any point up to 6th April, you will receive a €100 Avis status credit.

If you are a regular user of hire cars, this could be an easy way to boost your Avis Preferred status to Plus (€1,000 spend needed) which comes with a free weekend rental voucher.  You don’t get the €100 to sepend as rental credit, however.

The current Avis sale runs until 31st January.

Qatar Travel Festival extended

Just a quick note that Qatar Airways has extended the huge Qatar Travel Festival sale by 48 hours.  This means that you can still book until tonight.

The best of the availability has gone, unfortunately, but some deals remain.  The highlight was a flash sale to Tokyo last Thursday evening from Brussels or Amsterdam at €630 return in business class.

My two articles on the best deals on offer are here and here.

Remember that all flights on Qatar Airways earn Avios and British Airways Executive Club tier points.  Return flights to Asia from Europe will generate 560 tier points (140 x 4) which is 90% of a BA Silver card.

airberlin restructuring unveiled

I have run a couple of articles about the restructuring at airberlin.  The airline is now unravelling under its huge debts, despite massive investment from Etihad, and will not survive in its present form.  There are even rumours that Lufthansa is poised to swallow the remaining long haul routes.

Phase 1 of the restructuring has now been unveiled and you can find the route-by-route details here.

What you have is:

a lot of airberlin routes being dropped

a lot of airberlin routes being transferred to its Austrian subsidiary NIKI

NIKI being injected into a three-way joint venture between Tui and Etihad

airberlin will now consist of its long-haul routes from Berlin and Dusseldorf, mainly to the USA, and feeder short-haul flights into those two cities.  It is this rump which may now be injected into Lufthansa.

If you want to take advantage of those outstanding Avios redemption opportunities on airberlin, time is getting short.  Here is Anika’s review of her £4 taxes business class flight from New York to Berlin last year.

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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.