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25% bonus Avios on First / Business returns to New York or Los Angeles

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British Airways has launched an interesting – and slightly risky! – promotion in association with its transatlantic partner American Airlines.

Between now and October 31st, you will receive 25% bonus Avios for any First Class or Club World / Business return flight between London and New York or Los Angeles.

Here is the catch though:

You must fly one direction on British Airways and the other direction on American Airlines.

American Boeing 777 200 business class seat

Full details can be found here.

The offer runs until October 30th.

The reason I said that this was a ‘risky’ promotion for British Airways is that the new American Airlines business class seat is generally agreed to be substantially superior to Club World.

You can see a picture of the new AA seat above (I thought it was the 777-200 but the comments below assure me it is the 777-300 variant).  I haven’t flown it myself yet but the feedback is excellent.

You receive full British Airways tier points and status bonuses whether you fly on BA or AA so mixing carriers is not an issue from that point of view.

Registration IS required via this website.

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

American Airlines and AAdvantage, British Airways and Avios

Comments (16)

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

  • Sean says:
    24 Jul24 July 07:32

    You will be getting the new 772 layout on these flights. Subs do appear though.

    • Sean says:
      24 Jul24 July 07:35

      The picture is from the 77W

      • Dave says:
        24 Jul24 July 07:50

        No, sorry. The picture is from the 772.

        On the 77W all seats face forward in 1-2-1, not the front/rear-facing-alternating seats on the 772 in the photo.

        • James says:
          24 Jul24 July 09:13

          The pic is definitely the refurbished 772 (known as 77D in the AA system) as the seats are forward/backward. The 77W all face forward and are roomier.

        • Sean says:
          24 Jul24 July 10:23

          Sorry. Lack of attention to detail! Yes – there will be 1 x 77W and 2 x 77D on the JFK rotations.

  • Jovan says:
    24 Jul24 July 07:47

    My understanding is that B772 that replaced B77W on thr JFK-LHR is the 77D version (no first class and new business).

  • Jan says:
    24 Jul24 July 08:01

    Great that you make some promotion for American Airlines. It’s new business class product is indeed superior to the one of British Airways (and so is its loyalty program). However, I think you have some wrong information. AA’s new business class is available on some Boeings 777-200ER and all of its Boeings 777-300ER (two slightly different versions though). And on the London-LAX and London-JFK routes, all AA flights are currently operated by the Boeing 777-300ER (which features the new business class), so there is nothing risky about it. You can read my trip report on the AA B77W on my blog: http://wp.me/p4d1XU-di2. It’s a fantastic product!

    • Rob says:
      24 Jul24 July 08:07

      Thanks Jan. AA is not my strong point!

      • Jan says:
        24 Jul24 July 09:32

        You’re welcome! Be sure to fly AA soon (you will be impressed). By the way, the photo is one of the Boeing 777-200ER (all seats on the Boeing 777-300ER face forward). Kind regards

    • SpeedbirdABZ says:
      24 Jul24 July 15:19

      I think Raffles article means it’s risky for BA since the AA product is far superior. I’m one of those who used it for the first time a few weeks ago and won’t be going back to Club World.
      Has anyone been on both the 77W and 772? My flight to JFK has just been changed and I don’t know how to choose a good seat. I’ve been on the 77W as I said and know the good seats on that one but they’ve thrown backward facing seats into the 772 now which has flummoxed me! I did like backwards on the BA 747 when I tried it.

  • Manu says:
    24 Jul24 July 08:07

    Another one I am not eligible for

  • Robert says:
    24 Jul24 July 11:04

    AA J is excellent! just wish I could use GUFs with them…

  • Michalis says:
    24 Jul24 July 11:29

    Do codeshares count? I am flying one way on a BA operated but with AA codeshare to LAX in August and return on a BA operated flight with a BA flight number.

    I couldn’t see something like that excluded in the T&Cs

    • haasha says:
      24 Jul24 July 19:51

      It’s not very clear but I believe codeshares are included. Your problem though might be clause #14, if you bought tickets before this week:

      14. Promotion cannot be used retrospectively. This promotion only applies to those who make a booking on or after 20 July 2015, for travel within the Promotional Period, and subsequently complete the outbound sector of their booking and the return sector of their booking between by 31 October 2015 inclusive.

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