Earning Avios points with mytrainticket.co.uk

A few days ago I wrote about how to earn Avios when booking a package holiday via avios.com.

I thought I would take a look at some other avios.com partners. If you are a British Airways Executive Club member, you will need to have an avios.com account to collect from these partners, and then use ‘Combine My Avios’ to move them across.

mytrainticket.com has been an Avios partner since the scheme relaunched in November 2011. 

Basically, you earn 2 Avios points for every £1 you spend on train tickets via their site which is accessed via the Avios e-store.

(This seems to have been changed from the original 20 Avios points per £10, which offered a poorer deal as they only paid in multiples of £10.)

Now, train tickets are fundamentally commodity products, but the various booking sites have got very crafty recently when adding extra fees.

mytrainticket adds £1.70 to receive your tickets by post (free for station collection) plus a £1 booking fee and 2.9% for using a credit card.

This is in line with thetrainline.com (with a 2% credit card fee and a £1.50 booking fee, albeit no postage fee). However, newcomer redspottedhanky.com has no booking or card fees at all (and last week – although now all gone – was giving out 3 x £5 vouchers to all Clubcard holders as I wrote here).

It is also important to remember that some train companies offer exclusive discounts on their cheapest tickets for booking via their own website – East Coast, for example, deducts an extra 10% from its cheapest seats.

mytrainticket.com also offers 2% cashback if you go via Quidco instead of via the e-store. This means that you are effectively paying 1p per Avios point, which may be more or less than you value them.

Last year I wrote a two long posts how to maximise your rewards when booking train travel – see here and here. East Coast Rewards was my preferred option, with the possibility of getting up to 10p of value back per £1 spent in rewards, albeit in East Coast train tickets.

All-in-all, I do not consider the Avios / mytrainticket deal to be a great deal – although, of course, it is better than nothing.

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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.