Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Bits: interesting Iberia / Avis deal, 1950’s British Airways amenity kits

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

News in brief:

Intriguing Iberia / Avis promotion

Iberia and Avis have launched an interesting new promotion to win a share of 25,000,000 Avios.

This is how it works.  You book and complete an Avis rental, anywhere in the world, between 1st and 31st July.  You then go to this website and input the 11-digit booking reference.

You will instantly receive a prize of between 250 and 100,000 Avios into your Iberia Plus account.

In theory you must be based in Spain to play.  However, it may well work for others unless Iberia is blocking the posting of miles to non-Spanish accounts.

Here is the odd thing.  The rules make no mention of having to credit the original rental to Iberia.  In theory, you can take an Avis rental you credited to another airline, put the number into this website and claim some Iberia Plus Avios too.

Will it work …..?  If anyone has booked and completed an Avis rental this month, please give it a go and let us know.

Avis 350

Old 1950’s BA amenity kits

Reader Kate – who, bizarrely, recognised me in a remote Austrian ski hotel when we were away in February – was at the IWM Duxford (the Duxford Air Museum) recently and kindly sent me these pictures of old British Airways amenity kits from the 1950’s.

For the man (click to enlarge – you should be able to read the notes):

British Airways amenity kit a

and for the woman:

British Airways amenity kit b

Things have definitely gone downhill since then …. although I haven’t seen the new Liberty First Class bags yet.  I found out last week that Anika got one on the British Airways press flight at Easter but it never made it into the office.

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

Avis and Avis Preferred, British Airways and Avios, Iberia and Iberia Plus

Comments (98)

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

  • NickS says:
    10 Jul10 July 07:31

    Just tried the Avis promo on an Avis booking I made (funnily enough using the BA website ) a. Couple of days ago. I just inputted the 11 digit Avis (ref) from the BA voucher and then my Iberia Plus number which is registered to me in the U.K. And received a note instantly saying I had won 18,000 avios which will be credited to my IB account within 6-8 weeks once I have completed the rental so great result thanks for the tip!!

    • NickS says:
      10 Jul10 July 07:37

      NB just FYI I had already credited the Avis booking to my BAEC account so that doesn’t seem to be a problem. Maybe different with other non IAG airlines?

  • Charlie says:
    10 Jul10 July 07:50

    1,000 Avios. Thanks! I too have it credited to BAEC.

  • Derek says:
    10 Jul10 July 07:51

    Re the BA Holidays changes, I was doing some research into routing and pricing options for next year, with hotels at some stops but a big gap in the middle with no hotel selected. I discovered that the difference in price between a package, and Flight Only with separate Hotel Only pricing… was Zero.

    This was multiple routing combinations, so wasn’t just a fluke. So maybe the pricing won’t actually be that much different with the new booking directions?

    • Anna says:
      10 Jul10 July 08:54

      I think you would have to pay the full cost up front though. Try a dummy booking going right through to the payment page and see how much it asks for.

      • Derek Scott says:
        10 Jul10 July 20:10

        If a holiday on the above criteria, it had deposit option. If it was flight with multiple hotels separately, the flight was full payment, and the hotels had deposit option

        • Derek Scott says:
          10 Jul10 July 20:12

          Btw.. you don’t need to go as far as Payment page, pricing page tells you if deposit option available

  • Mr David Glickman says:
    10 Jul10 July 08:09

    Worked like a dream. Just entered reference for an existing Avis booking for this month and have been awarded 9000 avios!

    • the real harry1 says:
      10 Jul10 July 09:55

      unfortunately Avis have pretty onerous cancellation conditions & you stand to lose a lot of money if you cancel any time after midnight on the day of booking

      theoretically you could make a booking, get the reservation number to win some Avios then cancel later the same day

      but looks a bit risky for what is likely to be 500 Avios

      • NickS says:
        10 Jul10 July 13:50

        Remember they make it clear when the bonus avios win shows up that they dont plan to credit your bonus Avios until up to 6/8 weeks AFTER you have completed the rental so cant see how you will get any at all if you then cancel immediately!

        • the real harry1 says:
          10 Jul10 July 14:32

          thought there might be an angle 🙂

          with europcar you can cancel for a full refund up until 24hrs before the hire…

  • our_kid says:
    10 Jul10 July 08:11

    Avis worked fine on a GB reservation – 500 avios 🙂

  • Ruth4325 says:
    10 Jul10 July 08:16

    I’m currently in Stockholm having hired an Avis rental yesterday through BA website using avios (rental ends in a week) Spotted this article, joined Iberia Plus and input all the details on the website. I’m UK based and won 18,000 avios! Thanks to HFP of course

  • Dave Barron says:
    10 Jul10 July 08:37

    Slightly OT / advice please – Since technical problems on the BA website and iOS App were “fixed” a couple of days ago am I alone in now finding it much much more difficult to book a regular cash fare with BA? Unless I’m very much mistaken it now doesn’t appear possible to book a return fare where each different fare classes are used in opposite directions (e.g. Economy out and Premium Economy return?) I had hoped to price up options using part pay with Avios given the bonus advised my Rob the other day. I’m looking to book 3 adults, 1 child (aged 3) and an infant to either Chicago or Toronto from Newcastle for a few weeks commencing early October. Sadly I don’t have anywhere near enough Avios for a premium reward trip this time – only have 140k (albeit I can book economy reward seats to Chicago on suitable dates, just getting a poorer deal in terms of points required). Premium Economy rewards simply don’t exist but are available for cash bookings and I was thinking Economy outbound and premium return using part pay, however I really don’t like the BA improvements. Previously I thought the app was great and at a glance you could review prices across different flights and classes on the same day? The app now appears more web like and far from user friendly in my view. Has anyone else had more success in making a booking in last few days???

  • Barry cutters says:
    10 Jul10 July 08:53

    Duxford is the home of Barry cutters don’t you know

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.

NEW: Sign-up bonuses boosted to 3,000 and 18,000 points

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? SPECIAL OFFER TO 12TH MAY EARN POINTS WORTH 30,000 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!