How I flew to Manchester for 0 Avios and £0 tax, return
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On Wednesday, I flew up to Manchester for the day to have lunch with a friend. The total cost was a grand total of £0 in tax and 0 Avios, which made it excellent value for money.
How I did I do this? By tagging a free UK domestic flight onto the start and end of two other Avios redemptions.
You may remember that I was in Amsterdam last month, to check out how easy it was to do a back-to-back flight there. My actual flight back to London was ticketed like this:
XX February – Amsterdam to London Heathrow
(stopover)
XX March – London Heathrow to Manchester
The cost of this ticket (4,500 Avios plus Reward Flight Saver tax) is the same whether you fly Amsterdam to Heathrow or fly Amsterdam to Heathrow (long stopover) to Manchester. This is because Avios allows UK domestic connecting flights at no charge on Reward Flight Saver redemptions.
Coming back from Manchester, my ticket actually looks like this:
XX March – Manchester to London Heathrow
(stopover)
XX April – London Heathrow to Hamburg
Again, the Manchester to London leg is effectively free because I was booking the Heathrow to Hamburg flight anyway.
There is only one thing to be wary of here. All of your trips suddenly become inter-connected, so it is difficult to cancel one. If I had not taken the Manchester to Heathrow flight on Wednesday, my Heathrow to Hamburg flight next month would have been automatically cancelled. (Of course, I could have called BAEC and paid £25 to cancel the first leg before the date of travel – that would have preserved the Hamburg leg.)
You should also note that this only works for European Reward Flight Saver redemptions.
Whilst you can add a domestic leg to long-haul redemptions for 0 Avios, these WOULD incur an additional tax charge for fuel surcharges and Air Passenger Duty if you wait a few weeks before flying the domestic leg. As an example:
New York to London in Economy is 20,000 Avios + £149
New York to London (2 month stopover) to Manchester in Economy is 20,000 Avios + £190
In this scenario, it is relatively pointless adding on the extra leg. Compare that to:
Paris to London in Economy is 4,500 Avios + £17.50
Paris to London (2 month stopover) to Manchester in Economy is 4,500 + £17.50
If Manchester doesn’t appeal, there is always Edinburgh, Glasgow, Newcastle etc etc ….
Note: these tickets can only be booked at ba.com, because avios.com does not allow stopovers. If your Avios points sit in avios.com, you will need to move them to BA via ‘Combine My Avios’ on either website.
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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 Mastercard
Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review
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.
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