Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Excellent SriLankan business deals from Paris to Asia (earn Avios and BA tier points)

Links on Head for Points may support the site by paying a commission.  See here for all partner links.

SriLankan Airlines joined the oneworld alliance in May 2014.  From that time it has been possible to earn Avios and British Airways tier points when you fly with them, and to redeem your Avios for flights to Colombo and beyond.

I haven’t covered the airline much on Head for Points because the route network is limited and it was not aggressively priced.

SriLankan seems to have taken a lesson on pricing from Qatar Airways, however.  It is currently selling some very attractive business class fares from Paris:

Paris to Tokyo (via Colombo) – €1,074 return (£811)

Paris to Hong Kong (via Colombo) – €1,035 return (£781)

Paris to Singapore (via Colombo) – €1,035 return (£781)

Paris to Shanghai (via Colombo) – €1,026 return (£775)

Other destinations may also be available.  Keep an eye on the connection times as you could be stuck with a long stopover in Colombo.

Flights from London are available for around £300 more and from Frankfurt for around £150 more.

The SriLankan website is here.

The Paris flights are on new Airbus A330-300 aircraft.  This would appear to get you a Virgin / Cathay style herringbone 1-2-1 layout with a fully flat bed, presumably this:

SriLankan business class

…. which seems more than acceptable.  Looks like SriLankan is another one for the ‘better business class than British Airways’ list …..

You need to book before 29th January for travel before 30th June.  A five day minimum stay is required.

As I wrote in this article, Opodo has some ‘flight only’ discount codes at the moment which in theory you could use in conjunction with these fares.  In my tests yesterday, however, I could not get Opodo to match the fares showing on the SriLankan website.

Note that, for tier point purposes, Singapore only earns 360 points return (140 + 40 + 140 + 40) because the 2nd flight is under 2,000 miles.  Tokyo, Hong Kong and Shanghai should earn 560 points return (140 x 4).


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 (46)

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

  • James says:

    BA calculator says that CMB-NRT only earns 40 TP which is incorrect. There is a thread on FT about people struggling to get this corrected by BA.

    Also worth nothing that UL have a stopover paid by carrier if no connection under 8 hours where they will pay for a hotel, transport and meals.

    • Joe says:

      How do you arrange the free hotel? Is there any information about this on their website? Thanks.

        • JamesW says:

          Interesting, unless the other Ts&Cs state that there can not be a flight with transit time under 8 hours which you could have taken then it seems as though you could deliberately pick a transit time of 20hrs or so and go for some sightseeing in Colombo and still get the free hotel. No link directly to the other Ts&Cs from the page identified by Joe (Thanks for that by the way).

          Text from the link from Joe:
          NIGHT STOP
          Passengers arriving in Colombo on flights operated by SriLankan Airlines and transiting in Colombo for a minimum of 8 hours and a maximum of 24 hours may be eligible for hotel accommodation, airport transfers and meals with the compliments of SriLankan Airlines.
          Passengers must hold a SriLankan Airlines through ticket valid for travel out of Colombo on SriLankan Airlines. Passengers holding two separate tickets will not be eligible for Night stop facility.
          Conditions do apply. Please contact your travel agent or your nearest SriLankan Airlines Office for further information.

  • James says:

    Also to add, CDG to NRT is only possible due to days of week operating on Saturdays outbound and Sat and Thu inbound

  • Imbruce says:

    Hi Rob,
    You have a typing error change the J to H on Hong Kong in this article

    • Brian says:

      I was just about to put Jong Kong on my must-visit list, since it sounded so interesting! :))

      • Raffles says:

        Already fixed before I saw the comment – bit worrying that I missed it last night though!

  • Jonathan says:

    Can you spend a few days in Sri Lanka with those fares or do you have to connect directly onto Tokyo?

    Without the extra stop, Paris to Tokyo via Columbo is a massive detour presumably given how far south Sri Lanka is in relation to both Paris and Tokyo

  • guesswho2000 says:

    I flew SIN-CMB-LHR in UL J in December, was a very good product and their Serendib lounge at CMB was excellent in my opinion. The 40+140 tier points took a couple of weeks to post to BAEC.

  • JamesWag says:

    I’m guessing a return to Colombo isn’t attractively priced or it would have earned a mention given it’s the hub 🙁

    Big shame there’s no stopovers allowed (even for a smallish fee) especially for Tokyo or I would be booking one of these (friends in Sri Lanka so would be great).

    The J product looks nice and well worth trying, especially if they offer devilled chicken on the menu; Spicy !

  • Matt says:

    Any idea of travel dates and any other fare rules? I know QR has a min stay of 7 nights on their specials.

    • Matt says:

      Moron, just spotted this in the article. Ignore me! Haven’t had my coffee yet!

  • Matt says:

    Saying that the best fare I can get through is £1109 unfortunately.That’s in I class using the right fare rule. 🙁

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

The UK's biggest frequent flyer website uses cookies, which you can block via your browser settings. Continuing implies your consent to this policy. Our privacy policy is here.