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.

  • Rob says:
    11 Jan11 January 14:09

    The Regent used to be the Four Seasons until Four Seasons decided they couldn’t make any money in Berlin. It is furnished to Four Seasons standards.

  • Geoggy says:
    11 Jan11 January 19:00

    Finally got the Conrad to come up. Was 1600 quid for the week I wanted in July, half board in a deluxe with pool view. Add in two club Europe flights to Faro for 60k avios and a hundred quid and I’m very happy

    • Linda says:
      12 Jan12 January 15:42

      Thank you very much for this 🙂
      I’ve been looking at villas in the Algarve for this summer, it didn’t occur to me that this offer would be any good for our summer holiday.
      Last night on the Avios site I booked 2 junior suites with breakfast in Vilamoura for £2320 for 15 nights, the Booking dotcom price is over 5K – hubby is very chuffed. The hotel is by the beach, restaurants etc.
      Having 2 older teens Vilamoura should work out ok and the suites will give us some space albeit not as much as a 3 bed villa.

  • np115 says:
    12 Jan12 January 19:03

    Thanks for the heads up. Booked MO Prague via Avios.com 9650 + £315 for 3 nights.

    • Rob says:
      12 Jan12 January 20:48

      That’s a great price. We’ve stayed there, it is very impressive (albeit slightly odd atmosphere as per a converted monastery!). Great part of town, very central but amazingly quiet.

  • Louise K says:
    12 Jan12 January 21:31

    What a nightmare I’ve been having – firstly, 8/10 time I can only book with a car. Secondly, when trying to book two rooms for two people, it pulls through to to two rooms with single occupancy. Checked availability for two rooms, this looked fine then booked one room and when returning to book the other it no longer shows availability. Spent over an hour on the phone to BAEC only for them to tell me perhaps their availability is wrong as it’s all done via their back office system and best to call back tomorrow morning to actually check the correct availability. Very annoyed.

  • Tom says:
    12 Jan12 January 23:08

    Booked 3 nights at the IC Berlin for £165 with breakfast… awesome.

    Thanks Raffles!

    • pazza2000 says:
      12 Jan12 January 23:10

      What dates did you get? I was looking at here also, although never saw under £275

      • Rob says:
        13 Jan13 January 08:09

        7-10 March (a weekend) it is coming up at £135 for all 3 nights!

        • Tom says:
          13 Jan13 January 13:51

          Yes – trick is to remove the car hire.

          Weekends seem cheaper than weekdays..perhaps because it is a more business-focussed hotel?

          • pazza2000 says:
            13 Jan13 January 14:04

            This is now finished by the looks if it, at least on Avios.com it is.

  • EvilGazebo says:
    13 Jan13 January 08:40

    Thanks for this. Got 2 Seaview rooms inc breakfast x 3 nights at the Hilton Imperial Dubrovnik and 4 x CE returns all in half term for 117K Avios plus £630 via ba.com

    Could actually have done slightly better paying pure cash for the hotel via avios.com if it hadn’t been playing up (120K plus £562 total) but still very happy.

    I know spending 120k avios for European travel is sacrilege in these parts but this works for me. I nearly made it worse but resisted the temptation to use an Amex 241 🙂

  • Susan says:
    13 Jan13 January 09:17

    4 nights bed & breakfast in deluxe room at Palais Hansen Kempinski Vienna in July for 8,900 avios +£455 via Avios.com. Cheapest B&B rate for this on hotel’s website is £1276. Oddly, on Avios, the deluxe room was cheaper than superior although the former is the higher grade. 🙂

    Whilst not a “real” saving as £300 a night hotels are rather out of my league usually, it’s a birthday plus wedding anniversary treat so one very happy bunny here.

  • PR99 says:
    13 Jan13 January 09:50

    Just got 3 nights in the Real Marina Spa B&B for £166 (plus 332 Avios earned) for a weekend in the middle of August. On Trip adviser the cheapest for this was shown as £328 with hotels .com.

    Hotel.com is the non refundable rate, Avios.com can be refunded less £25 up to quite close to departure.

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

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