Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Bits: 1000 Virgin Atlantic miles with Shops Away, free London transport with Apple Pay

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UPDATE – JUNE 2025:  This is an old article, and the credit card information given is likely to be out of date.

To learn about current credit card bonuses, benefits, terms and interest rate information, take a look at our directory of the top UK travel credit card offers – please click HERE or use the ‘Credit Cards’ menu above.  Thank you.

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News in brief:

Virgin Atlantic shopping bonus via Shops Away

Shops Away is the Virgin Flying Club equivalent of BA’s Gate 365 or the avios.com e-store.  Use it for your shopping this Christmas and you earn miles back.

Until Sunday 20th December, Shops Away is offering double miles at Apple Store, Selfridges, NET-A-PORTER, John Lewis, Marks & Spencer, Argos, notonthehighstreet.com and Currys.  Smaller bonuses are on offer from other retailers.

My wife, who has never used Shops Away, was also offered an extra carrot.  She will receive 1,000 miles if she makes any purchase via the site before 20th December.  This offer is not mentioned on the Shops Away site so, if you didn’t get the email, you should assume that you are not targetted.

Virgin Atlantic 747 Upper Class cabin

Free London travel with Mastercard and Apple Pay

If you have an iPhone 6 with Apple Pay, you can travel for free on public transport in London on Monday 30th November, Monday 7th December and Monday 14th December.  It was also valid this Monday.

You need to set a Mastercard as your main Apple Pay card and use it for your contactless travel on Monday.  You will be charged as usual but Mastercard will refund your fare back to your card.  It covers the tube, buses, tram, DLR, London Overground and most National Rail services in London.

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earns points from credit cards

Want to earn more points from credit cards? – June 2025 update

If you are looking to apply for a new credit card, here are our top recommendations based on the current sign-up bonuses.

In 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

You can see our full directory of all UK cards which earn airline or hotel points here. Here are the best of the other deals currently available.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 15th July 2025, the sign-up bonus on the Marriott Bonvoy American Express Card is TRIPLED to 60,000 Marriott Bonvoy points. This would convert into 25,000 Avios or into 40 other airline schemes. It would also get you at least £300 of Marriott hotel stays based on our 0.5p per point low-end valuation. Other T&C apply and remain unchanged. Click here for our full card review and click here to apply.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 14th August 2025, the sign-up bonus on the Hilton Honors Plus debit card is TRIPLED to 30,000 Hilton Honors points. You will also receive Gold Elite status in Hilton Honors for as long as you hold the card. Click here for our full card review and click here to apply.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold Credit Card

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

British Airways American Express Premium Plus Card

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

The Platinum Card from American Express

50,000 bonus points and great travel benefits – for a large fee Read our full review

Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard

18,000 bonus points and 1.5 points for every £1 you spend Read our full review

Earning miles and points from small business cards

If you are a sole trader or run a small company, you may also want to check out these offers:

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

Capital on Tap Pro Visa

10,500 points (=10,500 Avios) plus good benefits Read our full review

Capital on Tap Visa

NO annual fee, NO FX fees and points worth 0.8 Avios per £1 Read our full review

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

Category

Virgin Atlantic and Flying Club

Comments (38)

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

  • Louise says:
    25 Nov25 November 13:01

    My MasterCard is not supported by Apple Pay

    • Jonny says:
      25 Nov25 November 13:32

      you won’t be able to benefit then…!
      Tesco Mastercard works through Apple Pay (even if your physical card hasn’t been updated to the contactless variety yet)

  • Liz says:
    25 Nov25 November 13:36

    OT: Bizarre thing just happened. I tried to pay my Avivia Household and Motor policies with my IHG Visa credit card. It kept rejecting saying it wasn’t a credit card. I called IHG and was told there was no problem at their end with the card. Called Aviva again to try again. The guy tried putting it through as a debit card and it went through fine – I saved the 1.5% charge! Never had that before – has anyone else had the same problem ?

    • Luke says:
      25 Nov25 November 13:37

      The Barclaycard and IHG card will always go through as a debit card because before they used their current bin (first 6 digits). Barclays used it on their debit cards.

      • Liz says:
        25 Nov25 November 13:57

        Wow – I didn’t know that. I have been paying my daughter’s rent while she is at Uni on this card and been getting charged each month. Next month I will try putting it through as a debit card!

        • Danny says:
          25 Nov25 November 14:12

          I spot a potential with HMRC and BARCLAYCARD then..

          • Funtime says:
            25 Nov25 November 14:31

            Too right.

            Just paid my council tax, as a visa debit, went through OK, without a surcharge.

            Shall be paying my self assessment in Jan 16, will make the £10000 spend on the Hilton card very easy to hit.

          • Charlie says:
            25 Nov25 November 15:07

            This is news to me too, how long has this been around?! Is it a temporary glitch?

          • mark2 says:
            25 Nov25 November 18:08

            This will vary between councils. Mine considers a Hilton Barclaycard to be a credit card, but it does add the surcharge to prepaid Visa debit cards from Gospendit.
            On the other hand, I can pay my council tax on Amex using AllPay at the Coop.

          • BLT says:
            25 Nov25 November 20:42

            Didn’t work for me. HMRC worldpay picks IHG card up as a credit card payment.

  • harry says:
    25 Nov25 November 17:57

    Sorry O/T question from a newbie 🙂

    Never had to do it before.

    So I can cancel an Avios RFS flight online? And lose the £17.50 but we get the Avios back?

    I had to book my wife a different date flight.

    How late can I cancel the Avios flight? – as it would make sense to keep it open until the last minute to keep our options open.

    • Rob says:
      25 Nov25 November 18:31

      BA or Avios.com? BA – cancel online, lose £17.50, Avios back immediately

      Avios.com – ring Avios, pay £35, get Avios back (immediate?), get £17.50 back in a few days

      Must cancel 24 hours before departure or lose the lot.

      • harry says:
        25 Nov25 November 18:35

        It’s Avios.com. I don’t quite understand. I already paid £17.50. So I have to pay another £35 but I’ll get back 1 lot of £17.50? So cancelling costs me £35?

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