Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Avios sale – get 50% off economy flights to selected long-haul destinations

Links on Head for Points may support the site by paying a commission.  See here for all partner links.

British Airways has launched a January Avios redemption sale.  It is rather modest in scope – certainly nothing like what we saw last January – but it may work for you.

The following long-haul routes from London Gatwick are discounted by 50% in economy only:

Antigua

Barbados

Dominican Republic

Orlando

Tampa

Mauritius

The discount takes these routes down to 25,000 Avios per person, apart from Mauritius which is 30,000 Avios.

You must book by 4pm on Friday 23 January.  You must travel out by 19 March and return before 2 April 2015.

Taxes and charges are NOT reduced unfortunately and will set you back between £321 and £386 per person.

The one upside of these destinations is that they are available over the end of the peak season and into the shoulder season.  Whilst economy redemptions are usually not great value long-haul, this offer would be OK if a cash ticket would set you back £550 – £600 or so.  That would value your Avios points at 1p each.

Full details can be found here at ba.com.

PS. If you are not a regular Head for Points visitor, why not sign up for our FREE weekly or daily newsletters? They are full of the latest Avios, airline, hotel and credit card points news and will help you travel better. To join our 65,000 free subscribers, click the button below or visit this page of the site to find out more. Thank you.

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

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 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

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.

Category

British Airways and Avios

Comments (30)

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

  • Rich says:
    17 Jan17 January 08:34

    A friend of mine travelled to Barbados last week and said that F was full, J was full, W was full but economy had only about 35% loading. ……… Not necessarily indicative of what is going on but perhaps a snapshot?

    • Raffles says:
      17 Jan17 January 10:43

      Barbados has never really recovered from the crash. We were there 3 years ago and some beach resorts were shuttered. The Four Seasons may never be finished. I think the Middle East has taken some trade and high oil prices, pushing up air fares, hit the middle market.

    • Zoe says:
      17 Jan17 January 11:41

      We always go during October half term on the last two trips we have had WTP redemption seats on one leg. This year all 3 of us were upgraded at check in at Gatwick (only blue status) on the way out. The year before 3 out of the 4 of us were upgraded coming home.

  • Jeremy i says:
    17 Jan17 January 08:42

    Hey rob, just to let you know this didn’t come through by email this morning for me. Jeremy

  • Dave says:
    17 Jan17 January 09:34

    The link in the email is also wrong.

    • Raffles says:
      17 Jan17 January 10:45

      Worked for me, top offer on the landing page.

    • Henry C says:
      17 Jan17 January 12:32

      I got the email but it was in the old wordpress style (not mailchimp), and the link didn’t work as per Dave.

      • Rob says:
        17 Jan17 January 17:20

        That was because I messed it up via the new system and I cannot send stuff on demand, so all I could do was turn on the old system and repost the article. I can get away with it because the list is 98% the same as it was last Monday – that won’t be an option if I mess up in 2 months time!

  • Dale says:
    17 Jan17 January 18:24

    Anyway….. just a post about the offer as opposed to the email issues – checked random date for Tampa and was 25000 avios + 324 cash – same cash flight was £470. So only about .58p per avios, less the earnings…pretty poor value.

  • Rob says:
    17 Jan17 January 20:58

    That article is what I quoted – MailChimp, as I read it, uses its own DKIM and technically the emails come from them. The ‘from’ address you see is only a dummy, in effect.

  • snail says:
    17 Jan17 January 23:01

    Does anyone know when the next bigish redemption sale will be? I have 2 2for1 lloyds vouchers I need to burn, economy only. And I’m just sat here crying, waiting for something decent to come up like Tel Aviv, so I can cry on the beach.

  • Daryl says:
    18 Jan18 January 22:59

    I’m trying to book 2 f or club tickets to muc for September, I was going to bite the bullet and just get the pe seats that were available but someone on another forum said they areclikely to release more seats after this sale is finished so hold on I may get lucky – does anyone else think this likely? Daryl

  • Daryl says:
    18 Jan18 January 23:02

    Sorry nyc not muc

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

New to Head for Points?

Welcome!  We’re the UK’s most-read source of business travel, Avios, frequent flyer and hotel loyalty news. Let us improve how you travel. Got any questions? Ask them in our forums.

Get 25,000 Avios with the Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

GET A SIGN-UP BONUS OF 18,000 VIRGIN POINTS!

Latest Forum Posts

Get 80,000 bonus points (worth 80,000 Avios) and £400 of dining credit with The Platinum Card (Offer ends 27th May)

Check reward flight availability instantly for free!

See a whole year of reward seat availability on one page at SeatSpy.com

Get up to 10,000 bonus Hilton Honors points

Booking a luxury hotel?

Our luxury hotel booking service offers you GUARANTEED extra benefits over booking direct. Works with Four Seasons, Mandarin Oriental, The Ritz Carlton, St Regis and more. We've booked £1.7 million of rooms to date. Click for details.

SME? GET THE ONLY FREE SMALL BUSINESS CREDIT CARD WHICH CAN EARN AVIOS

Get points worth 30,000 Avios with 'first year free' American Express Gold (ends 27th May)

The UK's biggest frequent flyer website uses cookies, which you can block via your browser settings. Continuing implies your consent to this policy. Our privacy policy is here.

Got it!