BA version of the ‘125,000 Avios’ promotion found – but only for non-UK EU residents

I wrote an article yesterday about the American Airlines offer which gives you a bonus  of 2,000 to 25,000 AA miles for up to five transatlantic return flights you credit to AA by 31st January.  This is open to UK residents.

I mentioned that Iberia has a version of this offer which is valid for UK residents but it is targetted.

I have now found details of the British Airways version.  This is ONLY for residents of Continental Europe, however.

To be precise:

Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, Hungary, Kosovo, Iceland, Israel, Italy, Latvia, Libya, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Malta, Moldova, Monaco, Montenegro, Morocco, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, San Marino, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine

The British Airways offer differs from the American Airlines version in two respects – you earn nothing on cheap economy tickets and less than half the miles on Premium Economy / World Traveller Plus.

You only receive:

25,000 bonus Avios for every Club World or First return tickets (same the AA offer)

7,000 bonus Avios for every full-fare Economy or World Traveller Plus return tickets (the AA offer earns 15,000 bonus miles)

no bonus on discounted Economy return tickets (the AA offer earns 2,000 bonus miles)

Note that – unlike the American Airlines version of this offer – existing bookings do not count.  You will only receive the bonus for new bookings made on or after 1st October.

Qualifying flights are anything on BA, Iberia, Finnair, AA, US Airways or OpenSkies to the US, Canada, Mexico or Puerto Rico, flown before 31st January 2016 and booked after 1st October 2015.

The offer can be found on ba.com here (this is the French version).

If you live in the UK and will be flying to North America before the end of January, you have three options:

credit your flights to American Airlines in order to earn the bonus miles, whilst remembering that you won’t earn any British Airways tier points and will also miss out on any status bonus if Bronze, Silver or Gold.  If you are flying Economy long-haul on discounted tickets, you should be crediting flights to AA instead of BA anyway as AA still gives 100% of miles flown.  BA only gives you 25%.

credit your flights to British Airways as usual, missing out on the bonus but earning the usual Avios and, perhaps more importantly for many people, tier points.  Status members would receive their status bonus as usual.

open a 2nd British Airways account at a European address – keeping all of your personal details out of your profile so that BA does not notice the duplication – and credit your flights to that.  You will be losing out on the tier points – at least to the extent that you can’t add them to your main UK balance – and you have no way of adding the Avios to your main balance either.  If crediting Club World flights, however, you would soon have enough miles in the European account to do a full redemption anyway.  (Obviously BA does not look kindly on this sort of behaviour and you do it at your own risk.)

The registration page for the offer on the French version of ba.com can be found here.

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How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (May 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 Card

30,000 Avios and the famous annual Companion Voucher voucher Read our full review

British Airways American Express Credit Card

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 Credit Card

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 Card

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.

The American Express Business Platinum Card

50,000 points when you sign-up and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

The American Express Business Gold Card

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.