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Bits: BA launching Seychelles today?, new Avios in-store shopping partners

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News in brief:

British Airways (re)launching the Seychelles today?

According to the rumour mill, which includes tweets from BA pilots, a new route is being announced today.  There is a good chance that it will be the return of the Seychelles to the British Airways network.

If you have some Avios and potentially a British Airways American Express 241 to spend, get thinking.

As soon as the announcement is made, two Club World seats for Avios will be released for every flight.  No restrictions.  It obviously depends when the route is due to start of course – if it is launching in March then only March 2018 to early September 2018 will be available, which is not peak season.

It might not Seychelles of course.  I’ll let you know tomorrow.  We do know, for certain, that it will be a Boeing 787 route.

New Avios eStore and Virgin Shops Away in-store partners

Avios and Virgin Shops Away have added eight new in-store partners to their respective eStores.

If you haven’t linked a payment card to your eStore account yet and you like eating at places like Byron, Prezzo and Flaming Grill, you should do so before your next meal.  Do NOT link the same card to both stores as you won’t be able to control which site receives the miles.

The new places and earning rates are:

Byron 5 Avios/£1 or 4 Virgin Flying Club miles/£1

Chef & Brewer 5 Avios/£1 or 4 Virgin Flying Club miles/£1

Old English Inns 5 Avios/£1 or 4 Virgin Flying Club miles/£1

Hungry Horse 5 Avios/£1 or 4 Virgin Flying Club miles/£1

Flaming Grill 5 Avios/£1 or 4 Virgin Flying Club miles/£1

Fayre & Square 5 Avios/£1 or 4 Virgin Flying Club miles/£1

Eating Inn 5 Avios/£1 or 8 Virgin Flying Club miles/£1 (not a typo)

Prezzo 3 Avios/£1 or 2 Virgin Flying Club miles/£1

Virgin also has a long-established deal with Jamie’s Italian at 2 miles per £1.

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

British Airways and Avios, Virgin Atlantic and Flying Club

Comments (61)

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

  • Sam Bessey says:
    19 Sep19 September 06:41

    Les Sablettes has been open and operating as a Hilton property for a few months now. Me and my girlfriend did a redemption stay there in August. It was very pleasant but had a couple of minor teething issues that are hopefully rectified now.

    • Rob says:
      19 Sep19 September 07:35

      Official opening is 27th, it had had a ‘soft opening’ already.

      • Sam Bessey says:
        19 Sep19 September 08:05

        I see… the one thing that I found a bit rubbish was their much-vaunted ‘private beach’ which consisted of a weird roped off section of sand about 50m from the hotel (so not connected in any way at all), surrounded by ‘public’ beach on both sides

    • Chris Palmer says:
      19 Sep19 September 13:12

      I have been to the new Hilton. The decked area out the front is great for breakfast. However, the service is absolutely terrible. The rooms also have lots of problems (broken items, things not working, etc.) Check the TripAdvisor reviews and proceed with caution.

  • Nate says:
    19 Sep19 September 07:23

    OT. I flew from London to Dubai last week on BA first with my wife and son using avios and my 2-4-1 voucher. Overall it was nice but there were a couple of problems.

    Firstly our IFE was not working. It seemed like it affected other passengers in first too (not sure about other cabins) and it took about 2.5 hours to fix via system resets. By the time it was rectified we had finished dinner and it was midnight so we decided to sleep (overnight flight).

    Secondly there appeared to be a problem with the temperature of the cabin. We were sitting in 5E and 5F at the back – it was cold throughout and the cabin kept apologising and did their best to rectify the situation.

    I politely complained and at the end of the flight CSM offered 7k avios each to me and my wife. Points are yet to deposit and just waiting for them in my account.

    Do you think that is adequate compensation?

  • Roger I* says:
    19 Sep19 September 07:35

    Not quite the first Hilton in the South of France. There was a Noga Hilton in Cannes but that relationship ended a while ago.

  • Boi says:
    19 Sep19 September 07:40

    OT: Marriott 1000 avios landed in our 6 BA accounts yesterday. Thanks Rob.

  • Alex W says:
    19 Sep19 September 08:11

    OT – anyone been having issues with Tesco on Awardwallet recently? Thanks.

  • Bill says:
    19 Sep19 September 08:31

    Recently got an avios statement about the Bryon in store avios, was a nice surprise when that came through.

    O/T just flew into Miami on WTP on the 747-400 was really shocked to discover that all the seats had the food trays tucked in the arm rest which reduced the width of the seat. I’m quite a big fella so it was a a little uncomfortable. I must say the extra leg room did compensate for it.

  • Gavin says:
    19 Sep19 September 09:57

    Avios after the premium market with Hungry Horse!

  • James says:
    19 Sep19 September 10:07

    Is it safe to link your cards to both stores and assume purchases will track in one or the other randomly if you’re not to bothered which gets it? Waitrose shopping is only valid on Virgin for example so I want to capture everything without having to think which card is in which store. For me a few Avios is good but if it goes to Virgin I’ll just shift that to IHG each year.

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

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