Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Have 3,000 Avios dropped into your avios.com account?

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Yesterday, a voucher for 3,000 Avios points dropped into my avios.com account.  You can check if you have one by logging in and going to Your Statement and then Vouchers.  It is called ‘Happy Birthday 3000 Avios Hotel Voucher’.

My wife didn’t get one, however, so I’m not sure how they have chosen people.

Avios wing 12

The voucher gives you 3,000 Avios off a hotel booking which is paid for entirely in Avios.

It is surprisingly free of conditions:

You must book a hotel room by 1 December

You must stay by 1 April

Room must be paid wholly in Avios, not cash or part cash, part Avios

And that’s it.

Let’s do the maths.

When used for hotels, Avios points are worth 0.58p each.  Your voucher is therefore effectively worth £17.40 off a hotel booking.

Obviously this is a great deal on a £40 one-night stay and a lot less interesting on a 10 day, £100 per night stay.

Remember that when you book a hotel via Avios, any status benefits you have with that chain are unlikely to be given and you will not receive any points for your stay (except possibly for incidental spend).

If you’re off to Thailand, you could even get a totally free 1-star room somewhere.


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.

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.

Comments (40)

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

  • Simon says:

    Nothing here but it’s not my birthday, I’m still waiting for my Avios from the Shell / Mighty Deals offer to drop into my account!

    • thesaver79 says:

      Mine did last week!

    • Justin says:

      Simon, I called Shell Drivers Club yesterday (as I too hadn’t had the points from the Mighty Deals offer). They said they didn’t have an Avios account on record for me, despite the fact they had created a duplicate Avios account and credited 50 welcome Avios into it (and I had previously called Avios and ‘merged’ the accounts together). They said they would look into it and call me back within 2 days. I would recommend calling them.

      • M says:

        Same thing happened(2 accounts merged) I’ve been told same thing. 10days later, no points and no update on the case,

      • Simon says:

        Thanks Justin, I’ve got in touch and they are investigating my Avios transfer issue.

        Had some good Avios news today though, checked my account to see if the Shell points were there and to my amazement my 15,000 bonus points from the Lloyds TSB card had dropped into my account!

    • Rob says:

      I got my £20 Waitrose voucher two weeks ago

  • Paul says:

    Nothing into my account.

  • Ian says:

    No voucher dropped in my Avios account but then I am new to Avios 🙁

  • Jamie says:

    Nothing in mine either unfortunately 🙁

  • ups says:

    I got it last month as well, they must be sending it to people who have birthdays coming up.

    • Rob says:

      Mine isn’t for ages, although it is before the final booking date of the promo.

      When it said Happy Birthday Bonus, I was assuming it related to the birthday of Avios, which is in November.

      • ups says:

        Well they gave it to me just over a month before my birthday, and was given exactly 2 months to book (though travel can be done until Mar 14). Avios also sent an email about giving the voucher. Do check your spam folder…

  • Neil Spellings says:

    Nothing in either of mine or my wife’s accounts

  • Roger says:

    No voucher for me, though I had a credit (no conditional spend) for 500 Avios last month for my birthday, six weeks ahead of my birthday.

    I’m still waiting for the LTSB 4,500 bonus, having spent 3x £200 in the summer.

    • thesaver79 says:

      Have you contacted them about this?

      • Graeme says:

        They said in an e-mail some weeks ago that the LTSB (L?) 4,500 bonus will appear in mid-October. No idea why it takes so long.

        • Max says:

          It works on a quarterly basis.
          So if you were due for a transfer to Avios at the end of June, the points appear in your account on 1 October

        • Trevor says:

          Agreed, the T&Cs said the bonus would post 15 Oct, so let’s wait 2 weeks and then contact them if need be (hopefully not, it’ll no doubt be a nightmare!), but considering the emails I received about it during the promotion updating my status, they know I have qualified.

          Not sure what quarterly basis you are refering to, Max. Whenever I am due points from LTSB from credit card spend, they transfer within 2 days. And with other promotions such as this for bonus points, they have always specified a date, and they have always posted on the date for me.

          • Max says:

            I was referring to the Shell Drivers Club re: quarterly transfers.

            For those who have a query, please call the Shell Drivers Club free phone number on
            0800 7318888

  • Max says:

    Just checked my Avios Ac and I can see a credit for nearly 12,500 avios :)))
    from
    SHELL DRIVERS CLUB POINTS JUN 2013

    • Nick. says:

      Result. Mine added about 2 weeks ago.

    • Trevor says:

      That’s a serious number of Avios from Shell – 6 promotional cards, or a lot of petrol bought!

      • Max says:

        not sure how many cards, but spent £60 during the promotion 🙂

        • Phil says:

          I also spent £60 but only two of them have posted – one to BA and one to Avios balances. Still waiting for four more.

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