Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

GOOD DEAL: Get 18,000 Avios for £146 – minimal effort required

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

I’ve written before about the generous deal between AerClub, the new Aer Lingus Avios-based frequent flyer scheme, and Ireland’s Irish Independent / Sunday Independent newspapers.

The deal has now got even better and you do not need to live in Ireland to take part.

You don’t even need to have an AerClub account.  The Avios can be dropped into a British Airways or avios.com account instead.

Sunday Independent

What is the deal?

You will earn 18,000 Avios points when you take out a DIGITAL subscription to the Irish Independent or Sunday Independent newspapers for €160 (£146).

This works out at 0.81p per Avios if you use a credit card with 0% FX fees.  If you use a card with a 3% FX fee the cost rises to 0.83p per Avios.

You can sign up via this website here.  At no point during the sign-up process are you asked for your home address, so you don’t need to be concerned about living outside Ireland.

This is a new deal.  You could previously only subscribe for home delivery.

If you live in Ireland, you may find the physical bundles to be more valuable.  These allow you to order a physical home-delivered copy of the Irish Independent and Sunday Independent every day for six months for €349 and earn 30,000 Avios on top.  If you don’t live in Ireland, or don’t have a relative who wants some free newspapers, the new digital offer is more suitable.

Note that you will need to cancel your subscription before it expires otherwise it will roll over.

Irish Independent digital offer

Is 0.81p per Avios a good deal?

Yes.  It is difficult to lose money redeeming Avios for flights on this basis.

This is my general ‘what is an Avios point worth?’ article.  You’ll see that you should be getting well over 1p per point in most redemption scenarios.

Of course, if you are would actually read the digital newspapers then it is a very good deal indeed.

How do you get your Avios?

The process is explained on this page of avios.com, which has not yet been updated to reflect the new digital package.

You will be sent a voucher code by email – a reader in the comments section was told it would arrive within 21 days.  You head to the Avios voucher redemption website, select which programme you want to drop the Avios into and then input your code.  Easy!

The offer runs until 30th November.  The sign-up page is here.

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

Aer Lingus and AerClub, British Airways and Avios

Comments (166)

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

  • James says:
    21 Aug21 August 06:55

    Can you do this multiple times, I’ve been offered €400 or 40,000 avios from BA, I may as well take the money and buy these subscriptions if possible to keep repurchasing.

    • John says:
      21 Aug21 August 07:00

      Sure, if you use different emails and cover your tracks

      • the real harry1 says:
        21 Aug21 August 07:20

        I think you would need to use different names/ Avios a/c numbers/ details – see ‘This offer is valid for new subscribers to INM only.’

        perfectly possible, though

  • Julian says:
    21 Aug21 August 07:52

    Sadly though I still can’t seem to make this work for someone I know who is now in a UK prison and would dearly love to receive a daily newspaper (which his family seem quite incapable of setting up for him and/or are perhaps not wanting to pay for) of almost any kind. Prisoners in the prison concerned can receive a daily newspaper from a regular newsagent that is local to the prison.

    And I presume the physical newspaper can still only be retrieved in conjunction with an address in the Irish Republic?

    He would in any case have preferred a UK newspaper but if I could have bought this number of Avios at this reasonable price and he could have received a physical daily newspaper in to the bargain it would still have seemed like a possible option.

    • Julian says:
      21 Aug21 August 07:54

      In case its not obvious I should have added that prisoners in UK prisons do not have internet access of any kind but can receive items in the post and can also make monitored outgoing phone calls of up to 10 minutes at a time.

      • Gareth says:
        21 Aug21 August 11:26

        Maybe prison should be for reflection and not for reading newspapers

      • John says:
        21 Aug21 August 18:46

        Guys – far from taking any stance – maybe cut Julian some slack. He’s simply being friendly and decent to someone enduring much tougher times than the rest of us (for whatever reason).

        • the real harry1 says:
          21 Aug21 August 18:52

          well – yes – but it was pretty obvious from the get go that you can’t normally get Irish newspapers delivered dailyt to the UK

          so Julian is guilty of various things, certainly including ingenuousness

          • the real harry1 says:
            21 Aug21 August 18:53

            would it be helpful to list some of the other things?

          • the real harry1 says:
            21 Aug21 August 19:08

            1. ingenuousness
            2. friendly with a crim
            3. “sadly” – boo hoo hoo – ah, at least you sort of tried
            4. “dearly” – you want to persuade us he wants to rehabilitate through newspapers – but is probably already on the cannabinoids
            5. your heart bleeds, provided you can get some Avios out of it
            6. I do good – I’m a do-gooder by nature

          • Rob says:
            21 Aug21 August 22:45

            Irish Independent, and pretty much every other major European newspaper, are freely available within 10 minutes walk of my Zone 1 front door!

  • Beppo says:
    21 Aug21 August 07:56

    Cancellations
    In order for a recurring payment from an account to be cancelled it should be applied for by calling customer service on 1890 130 130 at least 5 working days before your next bill is due.

    Can you call that number from outside Ireland?

    • Julian says:
      21 Aug21 August 07:59

      What is the recurring payment method? If its credit or debit card then you can always use a card that will have expired by the time the renewal comes around a year hence from now. Of course if its only direct debit then that isn’t possible and you will have to remember to cancel in time.

      • Rob says:
        21 Aug21 August 08:26

        You can cancel immediately for next year. This is something I learnt years ago. No-one ever has a rule that you can only cancel a recurring payment 1 week / 2 weeks / 4 weeks before it is due.

      • Clive says:
        21 Aug21 August 08:29

        Julian, remember you can cancel a direct debit with your bank directly, online, and so that would be more convenient than having to contact them.

        • Beppo says:
          21 Aug21 August 08:53

          My question was easy, Is that number reachable from outside Ie?
          I would have no problem in calling them (not the first time I had to cancel something over the phone) but having to fly to Ireland is obviously not an option.

          • Clive says:
            21 Aug21 August 09:17

            Beppo, here’s another easy question for you – can you give an example of a number which is not reachable from abroad?

          • Beppo says:
            21 Aug21 August 09:52

            Either where I grew up or I leave these days those toll-free numbers are not always reachable from abroad (and they always map with a number to be dialled from abroad. I have no clue how things work in Ireland.

      • Callum says:
        21 Aug21 August 11:34

        In the past it was possible for them to debit the replacement card with a recurring card payment set up on the old one, I don’t know if that’s changed?

        • Alan says:
          21 Aug21 August 12:54

          Indeed – I would be very wary – even if the card account is closed the card company may honour it and chase you up. I certainly wouldn’t rely on a card expiry date.

  • Briandt says:
    21 Aug21 August 08:01

    How are most people paying….Lloyds Avios……Curve ?

    • Isa says:
      21 Aug21 August 08:29

      Going to go with the Amex Gold. I know I’ll get the 2.99% FX fee but I have a minimum 1.75p value per Avios so with double MR points on non-Sterling transactions, it works for me 🙂

      • Premgenius says:
        21 Aug21 August 08:58

        Only Visa & Mastercard sadly no AMEX

      • wolf says:
        21 Aug21 August 09:24

        You can’t. Only Visa and Mastercard are available as payment options.

      • Genghis says:
        21 Aug21 August 11:17

        I’m interested in hearing how you get to your 1.75p value per avios. I’ll sell you some for 1.25p?

        • Isa says:
          21 Aug21 August 11:38

          Off-peak RFS from LCY 😉 For instance the last return I booked was £179; paid 8000 avios + £35. So 179-35= 144/8000= 0.018
          And not interested at 1.25p, sorry!

          • Sunny M says:
            21 Aug21 August 12:27

            Not considered in that calculation is the number of avios you would have earned if a cash ticket was purchased.

          • Genghis says:
            21 Aug21 August 12:33

            @Sunny M which wouldn’t rock the boat too much in terms of the numbers. Assuming Isa would pay that for cash and there are no good alternatives around / LCY is very convenient etc, it’s a very good use of avios.

            I wouldn’t necessarily value avios that that. If so, paying 3% on Amex Gold foreign spend would yield 2 avios (2 x 1.75 = 3.5p) so would in theory be a good deal (but those avios can be picked up much more cheaply!).

          • Isa says:
            21 Aug21 August 12:48

            Not considered in this example is that the cash price was for HBO and that on that specific outbound, I would have paid the £10 or so to pick a seat as far forward as possible (not bothered about the return flight). The reason in this specific case is that said outbound is the 7am to ZRH, which is a packed full E170, lands out in the sticks in ZRH (E gates) and I have a train to catch from Zurich HB 1 hour after landing…..

            And yep, LCY is very convenient – 10 to 15 minutes cab ride away so I usually leave home 1 hour before my flight.

          • Genghis says:
            21 Aug21 August 13:09

            @ Isa Good luck in making it. It normally takes me just over an hour from landing to get to Tiefenbrunnen on S-bahn.

          • Isa says:
            21 Aug21 August 13:28

            Thanks, I’ve been doing this for several years ( for the bobsleigh & skeleton world cup in St. Moritz) and I usually get to HB between 30 to 45 minutes after landing. Worst case, the next train is 1 hour later so not a disaster…

        • JamesB says:
          21 Aug21 August 12:30

          It’s simple enough to get 5+ppa value but that doesn’t make me any more likely to pay you 0.5ppa 🙂

      • Mr Dee says:
        21 Aug21 August 23:16

        No idea why you would pay the 1.5p for an Avios point with the Amex Gold unless you really don’t have any other point opportunities available, I will also sell points at 1.25p which is cheaper than your 1.5p you would be paying.

    • Nick says:
      21 Aug21 August 09:33

      On a related topic-does anybody know how to cancel the subscription to the travel magazine that paid 4,500 for subscription? I think it’s the Sunday Times magazine. I signed up but can find no record of the transaction so cannot work out how to cancel! Thanks

      • Dan says:
        21 Aug21 August 10:54

        They recently changed management of the product so had a transition period where they couldn’t process anything. That has now been resolved – my request from 07/08 was resolved on 17/08.

      • Nick says:
        21 Aug21 August 11:42

        Thanks!

  • the real harry1 says:
    21 Aug21 August 08:15

    0.81p is fair, particularly if it helps you reach a target/ redemption

    it does highlight just how good the Avios + Money option can be on BAEC

    I’ve been getting 20K Avios for £160 for the last few bookings

    just out of interest I put in LHR-LAX Economy and the table shows
    16250 Avios + £ 260.77
    13000 Avios + £ 290.77
    10550 Avios + £ 310.77
    8150 Avios + £ 325.77
    6500 Avios + £ 335.77
    5700 Avios + £ 340.77
    so if you went for the 5700 option, you’d be ‘paying’ 0.76p/ point to get back 10550 Avios

    in Business you get
    62500 Avios + £ 388.77
    56250 Avios + £ 513.77
    46900 Avios + £ 678.77
    37500 Avios + £ 838.77
    35000 Avios + £ 903.77
    31250 Avios + £ 953.77
    so if you went for 31250, that’d be 1.8p – obviously all rubbish options compared to Economy

    PE works out better:
    32500 Avios + £ 338.77
    26000 Avios + £ 393.77
    22750 Avios + £ 418.77
    19500 Avios + £ 443.77
    16250 Avios + £ 468.77
    13000 Avios + £ 488.77
    here the 13000 option = 0.77p/ point to get back 19500, rather good – in fact the £150 is money better spent than my £160 to get 20K Avios

    not being a LH expert, can you buy PE on Avios then upgrade to Club? with money &/or points?

    as always, check the math

    • Doug M says:
      21 Aug21 August 08:22

      Surely the real price of the Avios is the difference between no Avios and £. Your examples show exploiting the difference between varying amounts of Avios.

      • Clive says:
        21 Aug21 August 08:32

        Yes Harry it would’ve be good if you had listed the cash only price on the breakdown too, because that seems like the default. 🙂

        • the real harry1 says:
          21 Aug21 August 08:39

          bit late for that as I lost the date, it was early 2018

          not sure it matters as looking at typical prices, they look horrendous, presumably because of 1-way, eg
          Economy £1685
          PE £2489
          Business £7713

          so you’d never use your own money instead, anyway, if you enough points for a redemption

      • the real harry1 says:
        21 Aug21 August 08:33

        if you’ve got the Avios already, not using them & paying part Money instead gives exactly the same effect as buying them (& no 3% FX fee 🙂 )

        no tier points or Avios earned, of course

        • Clive says:
          21 Aug21 August 08:37

          …but so does not using any of them. Not using half of them gives the same effect as buying half of them and not using any of them gives the same effect as buying them all – that would be the more interesting benchmark.

        • Doug M says:
          21 Aug21 August 08:44

          And of course factoring the Avios you’d earn on a cash booking, particularly if you have status and get more, and the value of the TP to you if you’re looking to maintain status.

        • JamesB says:
          21 Aug21 August 12:38

          There is another point I think you are all missing here…cancelling cash and avios bookings is a disaster so the method is best avoided unless the trip is a certainty. Much better to buy the avios at 0.81 and have what is almost a fully refundable ticket.

          • Nick says:
            21 Aug21 August 17:53

            There’s also a point here that you’re missing. (Sorry, couldn’t resist!)
            This is NOT ‘cash and avios’. This is ‘points plus money’. And with this, there is no ‘issue’ with refunds.

          • the real harry1 says:
            21 Aug21 August 18:09

            yep & it gets me 160,000 Avios pa @ 0.8p, not to be sneezed at 🙂

  • Clive says:
    21 Aug21 August 08:44

    Could people please report back if this offer works well for them? I’m a bit hesitant after an Economist one where the avios didn’t turn up for months.

    • Sohan says:
      21 Aug21 August 09:00

      I did the paper offer previously. Points didn’t post so I had to email them. Posted them same day.

  • Sohan says:
    21 Aug21 August 08:54

    As before, I’m happy to provide the postal addresses of (willing) friends in Ireland – if anyone wants to take up the physical paper offer. sohanlon2 (at) yahoo.co.uk

  • Tom says:
    21 Aug21 August 08:59

    I tried calling the number on Skype (+353 1890 130 130) to cancel the recurring payment and it said it’s not in service. Am I doing something wrong?

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.

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!