Earn Avios with Travelex at Heathrow – but it is a really bad idea

At the end of May, Moneycorp – the British Airways bureau de change partner – lost its offices at Heathrow.  Travelex took over, making it the de factor monopoly currency provider.

A few years ago, Travelex lost the British Airways partnership contract to Moneycorp.  With Moneycorp now out of Heathrow, the two partners have been forced to make up their differences.

Since May 30th, you have been able to collect Avios points from Travelex at Heathrow.

Full details can be found on the Travelex website here.

You will earn 1 Avios point per £1 exchanged.  In addition, if you change £500 or more during July, you will be entered into a competition to win a weekly prize of 25,000 Avios points.  One person who exchanges over £1,000 will win a price of 50,000 Avios points at the end of July.

However, under no circumstances should you enter this competition.

You can ONLY earn Avios points from Travelex for walk-up purchases.  Currency which is pre-booked via the Travelex website does NOT earn Avios points and does NOT get you into the competition.

Your currency will, however, be SUBSTANTIALLY cheaper if you pre-order.  On a €500 currency purchase, I estimate that you would be around €35 better off by pre-ordering.  There is no way that 500 Avios points are worth €35.

There is no way, at the moment, of earning Avios points for pre-ordered currency at Heathrow.

I will be taking an in-depth look at how to earn other miles and points when ordering foreign currency later this week as part of our ‘Holiday Tips’ series.

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How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (December 2023)

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:

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

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 9th January 2024, you will receive 30,000 Membership Rewards points (convertible to 30,000 Avios) with American Express Preferred Rewards Gold. You receive 25,000 points if you spend £3,000 in three months and a further 5,000 points if you hold the card for 15 months. You can apply here.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 9th January 2024, you will receive a huge 100,000 Membership Rewards points (convertible to 100,000 Avios) with The Platinum Card. You receive 75,000 points if you spend £10,000 in six months and a further 25,000 points if you hold the card for 15 months. You can apply here.

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.

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.

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.

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.