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Use your Avios to enjoy a cheap repositioning cruise

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Cruising does not fall under the usual remit of Head for Points – there are specialist sites and forums such as CruiseCritic dedicated to the subject if you are interested.

However, Head for Points readers are obviously interested in travel and in getting a good deal, so I was interested when reader Tim contacted me to tell me about the ‘repositioning cruises’ he regularly enjoys.

For the cruise companies, time is money.  Any day when the ship is not full of passengers is a day when they are losing money.  However, it is occasionally the case that a cruise will finish in a particular port and the next cruise is to due to depart from somewhere else.  The ship needs to get back to Britain or wherever the new cruise starts, but the cruise line does not want it to travel empty.

Allue of the Seas cruise ship

The solution is the ‘repositioning cruise’ – a cruise which takes in a slightly odd routing, from an often odd starting point to an odd destination, but with all the usual on-board service and benefits.  And sold to you for a bargain price.

Repositioning cruises are especially interesting for solo travellers, or those travelling with friends who prefer separate cabins.  Cruise lines often reduce their sole occupancy supplements sharply for these cruises.  MSC Cruises, for example, will charge NO single occupancy supplement when a repositioning cruise first goes on sale, compared with their usual 100% premium.  If the cruise is 50% of the standard daily rate for that ship, a solo traveller is effectively getting their trip for just 25% of what they would otherwise pay.

However, for a lot of people, taking a repositioning cruise is difficult.  By default, you only need a one-way flight to wherever you will join the ship.  And most airlines still do not sell cheap one-way long-haul flights.

This is where Avios can come in very handy.  Most frequent flyer schemes, including Avios, allow one-way redemptions.  And even economy redemptions – usually a bad deal because of the taxes charged – look like a good deal when you compare them with the cost of a one-way cash ticket.  (Or indeed the cost of buying a return cash flight and throwing away the return half.)

Tim believes that such cruises offer real value:

The current bargains are all with MSC.  Their (UK-only) pricing on repositioning cruises is £25 / £35 / £45 per night for  inside / outside / balcony cabins with zero solo-occupancy supplements. Flights are never offered and these would otherwise work out pricey – a one-way to South America is often the same or more than a return.

The MSC loyalty scheme is called the MSC Club and after just two cruises, I now get 8% off their cruise fares so have paid just £230 for the 10-night repo from Sharm el Sheikh to Venice.

Travel agents are (illegally) not allowed to discount MSC cruise fares so the best place to find fares and book is probably with MSC’s own website. Here is the list of repo cruises in price order.  2014 availability is currently being loaded.

This post is obviously only a basic introduction to the subject.  However, if it whets your appetite for a few days at sea, there are plenty of other online resources out there.

(You can, by the way, also experience the Queen Mary II on short, cheap post-engineering cruises.  The Queen Mary II undergoes its routine maintenance work in Hamburg, after which it needs to sail back to Southampton to start its next cruise.  Cunard sells tickets for the 2 day cruise from Hamburg (which itself is easily reached with an Avios Reward Flight Saver ticket).  This one, for example, starts at £259 per person.)

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How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (April 2025)

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

Get 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

30,000 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.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on the ‘free for a year’ American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card is increased from 20,000 Membership Rewards points to 30,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (30,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on American Express Platinum is increased from 50,000 Membership Rewards points to a huge 80,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (80,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 30,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

80,000 bonus points and great travel benefits – for a large 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, and the standard card is FREE. Capital on Tap cards also have no FX fees.

Capital on Tap Visa

NO annual fee, NO FX fees and points worth 1 Avios per £1 Read our full review

Capital on Tap Pro Visa

10,500 points (=10,500 Avios) plus good benefits Read our full review

There is also a British Airways American Express card for small businesses:

British Airways American Express Accelerating Business

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

50,000 points when you sign-up 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

Comments (14)

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

  • Andrew (@andrewseftel) says:
    17 Apr17 April 09:34

    How does catering work on these trips? Included or extra? Sensible prices or captive market? £350ish to the Caribbean is tempting, but not if they make it back on the extras.

  • Louie says:
    17 Apr17 April 09:34

    Sadly now the exact opposite is true – Avios would be the least attractive FF scheme to use as BA are the only airline that charge fuel surcharge from Brazil.

    • Rob says:
      17 Apr17 April 09:49

      Good point! Not the best example for me to pick …..

    • Rob says:
      17 Apr17 April 10:39

      Iberia taxes are substantially lower than BA anyway, if you book via Iberia Plus.

      However, your Iberia account must be ‘active’ before you can transfer Avios across, which means you must earn an Avios in it. This means crediting a flight, hotel stay or car rental. Not sure if buying Avios via Iberia Plus counts.

  • Keith Jenner says:
    17 Apr17 April 09:48

    This is actually how I got involved with collecting Avios.

    In two weeks I’m going on a cruise from Southampton to New York (not particularly cheap as it’s a new ship on it’s first proper journey). When I started looking at return flights, I found that it was going to cost significantly more for the flight back than the cruise itself.

    I signed up for the BA Amex and used the signup bonus Avios to get the return flight for about £250 plus 20,000 Avios. Shortly afterwards I cancelled that and have upgraded to CW (£290 plus 40,000). Most of the other people on the same cruise, who I am in contact with via cruise critic have either paid over £1,000 or are on routes via Iceland etc to keep the prices down, and they’re all in economy.

    Answering Andrew’s question, I can only answer relating to the cruise line I use (NCL), but they are all relatively similar.

    Meals are included in the price, although many lines offer “speciality restaurants” which will cost extra (maybe $20-30).

    The main extra costs would be: Drinks (packages are often available), tips (many lines charge a daily “service charge”), excursions (unlikely on a transatlantic), casinos and other things like spa services. We usually budget for around $1,000 a week for 2 adults and one child, but other spend considerably more and many spend hardly anything.

    • Eileen says:
      17 Apr17 April 16:15

      Keith are you on the Breakaway? A few of my cruise critic friends are on that cruise as well, one of them has set up a facebook page for the cruise

      • Keith Jenner says:
        17 Apr17 April 22:47

        Yes Eileen, the Breakaway.

        My first Transatlantic, and it’s just me, so a week to just relax with a few drinks, some good books and hopefully make some new friends.

  • Daniel says:
    17 Apr17 April 10:01

    Excuse my ignorance, but is it a given with most cruise lines that ‘buffet’ style food is included in the price of the room?

    There seems to be absolutely no mention of food on the MSC website and when you look at the link above that Raffles has posted to the available cruises it just says ‘Include: Cruise’. Using Google to search ‘Price of food on MSC cruises’ brings up no useful results, so I’m starting to think that it must be included as standard??

    Also, has anyone done one of the super short cruises such as UK to Hamburg, or UK to Lisbon? I’m a bit wary about going on a ‘proper’ cruise for the first time, particularly investing a fair amount of money and a big chunk of annual leave at work not knowing whether it’s the kind of thing I would enjoy or not. So one of these 2 night re-positioning cruises could be perfect just to get a feel for it. However, I can’t imagine they fill these short ones up and so would everything be open and available to use on-board, or would there be a reduced service compared to what you’d have available on a full cruise?

    • Keith Jenner says:
      17 Apr17 April 10:16

      I know nothing about MSC, but it is a given that with most cruise lines not just “buffet” style food but also the food offered in the main dining rooms is included in the price of the room.

      • Rob says:
        17 Apr17 April 10:37

        Quick note – Tim, who knows all these answers, is travelling at the moment. I am sure he will pick up these points, but it may be later today or even in a day or so.

  • Eileen says:
    17 Apr17 April 16:13

    Transatlantic cruising is our holiday of choice, we collect avios solely for our one way flights. Something worth noting is if you book your cruise through avios you collect 10 avios for every £1 spent. We did this for our last cruise and paid no more doing it this way.

  • Ian says:
    19 Apr19 April 06:55

    I did a MSC report from Dover to Hamburg, via Amsterdam, last weekend for £89 per person.

    The one way from Hamburg to Heathrow was £47 with BA.

    All food is included, buffet and main dining room.

    We bought an additional beer package which was £40 for 21 beers.

    They have 2014 Transatlantics on sale from about £300 for a couple of weeks.

    • Ian says:
      19 Apr19 April 08:29

      In addition to above, what we’ve done in the past is use a return award to cover 2 repos from the same point.

      e.g. Royal Caribbean, San Juan to Barcelona in May, and the return in October. One return flight LGW-SJU.

      It makes for a bargain couple of fortnight holidays.

  • Tim says:
    20 Apr20 April 19:14

    Yes Raffles, here I am (currently in Turkey). MSC in common with all mainstream cruise lines include all food. This is not just buffet and you can have breakfast, lunch and dinner in one of the main dining rooms with waiter service. Dinner on MSC is seven courses! Then you can go to the buffet which is open 20 hours per day. Drinks are extra, though most MSC itineraries offer an all-inclusive package to include unlimited wine, beer, spirits, cocktails, coffes, ice creams, smoothies etc. everywhere on the ship except the extra-charge speciality restaurant(s) for £20 per day.

    I transferred my Avios to Iberia Plus for a business class flight to Brazil which was 50,000 Avios plus around €55 in taxes. Ryanair connected me from Manchester to Madrid for £30 which was as convenient as connecting in Heathrow when I had the Iberia lounge waiting.

    Tim.

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