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Double Avios from Flybe in March & 50% ‘buy Avios’ bonus returns

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Flybe has launched a new Avios promotion for March, offering double points on all flights booked and taken during the month.

As a reminder, these are the standard earning rates with Flybe:

Just Fly – 2 Avios per £1

Get More – 2 Avios per £1

All In – 4 Avios per £1

Flybe 350

This means that you could be earning up to 8 Avios per £1 on your ticket price, excluding the Government taxes element.  If you are flying from London City on one of the routes where Flybe competes with British Airways, you may be better off with the former!

Note that, in theory, flights must be BOOKED and flown during March.  You may or may not receive double Avios on existing bookings.

Full details can be found on the Flybe website here.

My understanding is that the problems that Flybe had with the non-posting of Avios points are now resolved.  Some flyers actually did OK out of the confusion, receiving both Rewards4All points (the old Flybe loyalty scheme) and Avios for the same flight!

I was told that a compensation bonus would also be paid to the people impacted.  From my discussions with the company I believe that they are keen to keep everyone happy, although I accept that this did not come across from the tone of the emails they sent out!

Double Avios is not a bad deal if you have a flight planned for March.  Once the cuts to Avios earning on British Airways short-haul flights begin on April 28th, Flybe flights will be more lucrative than BA for many people.

50% ‘buy Avios’ bonus back until Thursday

If you missed the 3-day Avios sale via British Airways Executive Club last week, you haven’t missed out.

avios.com is having its own 3-day sale this week with a 50% bonus on every purchase.  The link to buy is here.

I discussed the pros and cons of buying at this price in my article on the ba.com sale last week.


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 (17)

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

  • Adam W says:

    So happy to hear about the 50% promo being back! Kicked myself for not taking advantage last time!!!

  • Adrian D says:

    I’m guessing you can still buy these even if you took advanatage of the BA offer?

  • Smid says:

    Flybe are ludicrously overpriced when booked at short notice, and don’t even reflect a full plane, so for instance 10 days notice, booking a Friday to Sunday return, can easily cost 300 odd euros. And you see 17 people get on the plane, mainly because it was so overpriced in the first place.

    So booking AND flying in March tends to mean these sort of tickets. And avoiding those sort of 20% discounted tickets they quietly announced late last month, because that’s expired.

    So as a frequent flyer on one of their routes, this is absolutely and totally useless to me.

    Booked in March, flown in April? Would have been good.

    • The_Real_A says:

      ..but you still paid the price and went with them. So for them the price was OK. Demand and Supply 🙂

      • Smid says:

        They are the only ones who fly that route, from Birmingham, a route previously in the area of BA…

  • Will says:

    re: 50% buy avios I only have a BAEC account. do i need to create an avios account, buy the avios then do a “combine avios” to BAEC? how long does that take to transfer?

  • Ton T says:

    I’m still having problems getting Avios from FlyBe for the flights Ive already done. Every one of 6 I have had to email them about, paid 3 so far with more to deal with. It appears that the Avios number you file in the ‘my account’ page of their website doesnt automatically pick up you flew with them.

    Hopeless.

  • Will says:

    any sign of a tesco or amex bonus coming along? I am on the verge of cashing both pots in for avios before the devaluation but wondered if anyone knew of any conversion bonus (unlikely i know!)

    • Rob says:

      Tesco bonus would not come before the next round of statements and that would be too late.

  • VP says:

    Rob,
    If you do another article combining various bits and pieces soon maybe it is also worth mentioning that till 15th March avios portal is giving 6 avios per £ at Debenhams, Argos, HoF (50% bonus) and 8 avios per £ at M&S (100% bonus). Debenhams also has giftcards with tesco so a £100 gift voucer can potentially give 1320 avios + CC spend points (not to mention a free coffee and make up appointment I believe if you purchase a single 100 GBP voucher..though I have never used it myself) . Can be interesting for those who have plans to buy something online in near future.

  • John from Aberdeen says:

    Just had an email from Flybe, they are pulling their Aberdeen to Leeds Bradford route in March, I had a flight booked in Sept. Another disappointment for Abz travellers – another route pulled. As this route served oil industry and Eastern also fly this route perhaps not a huge surprise. Offered me a Manchester alternative, no thanks, managed to get an Eastern Airlines flight ABZ LBA rt. for £84 on same dates/similar times. Also had another email yesterday from Flybe advising they had cocked up on crediting me avios for previous flights, they hadn’t, but I get an extra 500 points thank you very much. I remain a Flybe fan (at the moment). I notice they have set up a base in Cardiff so are probably relocating aircraft etc as part of this expansion.

    Unconnected, just had a letter from mbna re my Diamond Club MasterCard. They are reducing 2 miles for every £1 spend benefit to 1.25 miles per £1 With effect 31 March. Another step towards Avios devaluation. Harder to earn, harder to spend…. Looks like my Diamond club card will be going…

    The ups and downs of being a points collector/traveller !

    • Rob says:

      Let me know what MasterCard deal you find that is better than 1.25 per £1 ….!

      • John from Aberdeen says:

        Rob, after hitting £10k spend requirement on BA Amex card to earn companion voucher, I or SO would then move to spend on the DCMC to earn 2:1 as opposed to 1.5 :1 with Amex. Now it would make sense just to continue to spend on BA Amex at 1.5 rate. Or other cards with spend bonuses I suppose I could retain DCMC only for where Amex not accepted. Would this be best strategy I think ? John

        • Rob says:

          I would focus on churning other cards after hitting your BA Amex £10k. Pick up a couple of sign up bonuses and then cancel when your new BA Amex year comes around.

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

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