Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Avios hotels sale now live – get 50% off on cash as well as Avios bookings!

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The Avios ‘50% off hotels’ sale is now available for booking.  However, I recommend you use this ba.com booking link as that one seems to be working properly (ie displaying all the hotels, not just a few).

What I did not expect is that the ‘pay with cash’ price has also been halved. 

Avios wing 11

This means two things:

You are only getting 0.57p per Avios if you choose to use your miles to pay, since they have halved both the ‘pay with Avios’ and ‘pay with cash’ prices.  I wasn’t expecting that.

With cash prices halved, there are some exceptional deals to be had.

The super-luxe Conrad Algarve, for example, is available through the peak Summer season at half-price.  Even the half-board packages are half-price!  August 3-9th, for example, is £1,290 (or of course you can use Avios) for a Deluxe Double half-board. On hilton.com, you would be paying €3,546 Euro for (advanced purchase) dinner, bed and breakfast.

In Prague, 14-16 March, the InterContinental is available for 950 Avios and £105, the total for 2 nights, WITH breakfast.  The cheapest rate at intercontinental.com is €192 WITHOUT breakfast.

In Budapest, one of the best hotels in Europe – the Four Seasons Gresham Palace – is available for Valentine’s weekend (14-16 February) for £230 + 4,400 Avios for two nights, with breakfast.  fourseasons.com wants €590 for the same thing.

You need to book by noon on Monday for travel by 30th September.

The small print says “Amendments and cancellation are permitted subject to the Avios cancellation and amendment terms where a fee as stated on avios.com will apply.”  Not sure what these are though!

The participating cities in this round are, as a reminder:

Vienna
Dubrovnik
Prague
Copenhagen
Berlin
Budapest
Istanbul
The Algarve

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

Comments (115)

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

  • Daniel says:
    10 Jan10 January 22:33

    Does anyone know if you cancel the booking will the avios be refunded ?

    • Rob says:
      11 Jan11 January 14:10

      Presume so, it seems that Avios treat it the same whether you pay cash, miles or a mix.

  • pazza2000 says:
    10 Jan10 January 22:41

    Had no success with BA.com whatsoever, although having some success with Avios.com! Finding good prices although not as low as has been quoted (IC Prague / 4S Buda). Perhaps if anyone finds something really ‘special’ they could share it 🙂

    Thanks

  • Mogensen says:
    11 Jan11 January 00:03

    All my ba.com hotel bookings are being cancelled anybody else experiencing this?

    • squills says:
      11 Jan11 January 09:46

      Would tend to indicate unacceptably low-priced glitch price(s) – did you get great/ unbelievable prices by any chance?

    • Daniel says:
      11 Jan11 January 09:56

      The booking I made yesterday has disappeared from my BA account – not sure what is going on yet as not had any communication from them.

      • squills says:
        11 Jan11 January 10:02

        Daniel what price/ deal did you achieve? I’m trying to work out if there was an obvious glitch…ie that anything unbelievable (such as some of yesterday’s deals) was indeed wrong & will no doubt get cancelled. Or possibly not if borderline.

        • Rob says:
          11 Jan11 January 13:58

          There was no glitch. The prices were genuinely half-price. Whether BA planned on just making the ‘book with 100% Avios’ deal half price or not is debatable. However, they are actually better off taking your cash so I doubt they’ll complain.

          • Mogensen says:
            11 Jan11 January 15:23

            Talked to BA this morning. Was given all kind of excuses, credit card declined, wrong availability shown etc. Now a good friend in UK has helped book via avios.com and these vouchers look much better than the confirmations ba.com sent me yesterday night. Funny enough the rates were a bit different between avios.com and ba.com

            Has anybody succeeded in having a ba.com half price hotel booking confirmed today?

          • Daniel says:
            11 Jan11 January 17:08

            I phoned BA to chase up the issue I had as they assured me the booking I made was there just some glitches they said in the voucher and other links not working.
            So guess if there is a problem its worth chasing things up on the phone with them!
            So it all looks good !

  • Andy says:
    11 Jan11 January 00:16

    IC Prague still coming out at 950 avios + £105 for 3 nights on certain dates in Feb and March. Just booked

    • Anonymous says:
      11 Jan11 January 11:12

      Does your hotel voucher show your address along with your name? I don’t live in UK but wanted to book this deal. So, I’ve create an Avios account using my friend’s address in London. But, if the UK address shows up in the hotel voucher, I might have a problem getting a visa. Thanks for your help.

      • Ben says:
        11 Jan11 January 11:18

        Looking through the docs that Avios sent me after making my booking, the only thing that has my address on is their covering letter. The actual booking confirmation does not. Just the name of the lead passenger, the details of the hotel and the check in date.

        • Anonymous says:
          11 Jan11 January 11:32

          Awesome! Thanks!

          • Simon says:
            11 Jan11 January 12:33

            Can’t get this to price out – seeing 3,200 + £165 for two nights.
            Any example dates so I can check?
            Or is there a way of dumping the car hire?

          • Ben says:
            11 Jan11 January 12:42

            Hi Simon,
            try booking it through Avios.com.
            Just tried March 10 to March 13, 1 person.
            Comes out at 900 Avios + £100.

      • Jary says:
        12 Jan12 January 01:07

        I based in Germany, the deal works using my Germany address BAEC. I booked PRG IC 2 nights in Jan. The price is 1800+115 EUR, a little different with UK based.

  • MightyTravels says:
    11 Jan11 January 02:08

    I can’t find anything that resembles a deal for Istanbul in November. Guess I need to wait for another sale…

  • Waribai says:
    11 Jan11 January 07:31

    Would IC Prague honour ambassador benefits on an avios booking? Not sure whether to take the risk!

    • e14 says:
      11 Jan11 January 08:46

      Unlikely, the stay won’t be a qualifying stay from a points perspective and it would be up to the hotel if they allow any benefits to apply

    • Rob says:
      11 Jan11 January 14:07

      No, its a third party booking.

  • Scott says:
    11 Jan11 January 09:39

    I booked the same Keith! Looked at the offers and thought that it was well liked on TripAdvisor too! I did mine through BA holidays though, as it worked out cheaper (including flights). I got 4 nights in March for £250 including flights, breakfast and free room upgrade! Could of got it for £150 plus 15,000 Avios, but the flight times weren’t as good, so didn’t bother and just went cash.

  • Anon says:
    11 Jan11 January 10:22

    Anyone noticed that when booking a hotel inclusive with breakfast, BA makes no mention of breakfast in the booking voucher. Just wandering if this will create problems when we finally arrive at the hotel. Am seeing this for the IC Prague that I booked.

    • Rob says:
      11 Jan11 January 13:56

      I would print out the original page from the website just in case. Should be OK – the majority of Avios hotel deals include breakfast and I assume a hotel like IC Prague gets a decent number of Avios bookings per week, they will know the score.

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