Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Get 20,000 bonus Avios with a subscription to The Times & The Sunday Times

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Avios has teamed up with The Times and The Sunday Times to launch a generous subscription offer.  If you buy either newspaper then you will find this deal very interesting.

There are four deals to choose from, as you can see here.

The cheapest is the Classic 6 Day Pack.  For £5 per week (£260 over the minimum one year term) you receive:

Times membership

  • The Times in print form Monday to Saturday
  • Access to the smartphone app and the websites (but NOT the tablet app)
  • Access to the Times+ membership scheme
  • 20,000 Avios, credited within 28 days

Pay £7 per week (£364) and you receive the Classic 7 Day Pack.  This is everything listed above plus The Sunday Times in print form.

If you don’t want printed newspapers, the cheapest option is – oddly – more expensive than the cheapest print option!  For £6 per week (£312) you receive The Digital Pack which gives you seven day access to the tablet newspaper.

For £8 per week (£416), The Ultimate Pack gets you seven days of print newspapers plus full access to the tablet app.

Purely as an exercise in buying Avios cheaply, this is clearly not the greatest deal ever.  £260 for 20,000 Avios is still cheaper at 1.3p each than buying them from BA.  I would not be a buyer at anything above 1p, however, unless you are topping off an account.

On the other hand, if you currently pay for The Times, or would swap from your existing newspaper, it becomes more interesting.  If you are self-employed, perhaps ordering a daily newspaper for your office could be a business expense.

You can find full details on The Times website here.

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How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (March 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 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

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

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

30,000 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.

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

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

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.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 8th April 2025, the sign-up bonus on American Express Business Platinum is increased from 50,000 Membership Rewards points to 120,000 points. You receive 80,000 points when you spend £12,000 within three months and a further 40,000 points if you spend on the card between Month 14 and Month 17. Points convert 1:1 into Avios and many other programmes. Click here to apply.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 8th April 2025, the sign-up bonus on American Express Business Gold is increased from 20,000 Membership Rewards points to 60,000 points. You receive 40,000 points when you spend £6,000 within three months and a further 20,000 points if you spend on the card between Month 14 and Month 17. Points convert 1:1 into Avios and many other programmes. Click here to apply.

American Express Business Platinum

Up to 120,000 points when you sign-up and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

Up to 60,000 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

British Airways and Avios

Comments (68)

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

  • Tilly71 says:
    30 Jan30 January 15:32

    So what’s the general opinion of using a pre paid card, yes or no?

    • Waribai says:
      30 Jan30 January 16:16

      My own twopenny’s worth is that in terms of risking the closure of your avios account, it’s a big gamble

      • Tilly71 says:
        30 Jan30 January 18:23

        How could by not being able to pay for a subscription cancel enable an external company being able tp cancel your avios account?

        • Waribai says:
          30 Jan30 January 20:59

          They can’t do anything but Avios could. After all, they don’t want potential partners thinking they’ll have their pants pulled down. At the end of the day, it’s all about risk vs reward. If you have a stack of avios, you’d potentially be putting them at risk. If not you’d probably be fine.

    • James says:
      30 Jan30 January 16:27

      You can use a prepaid card.

    • Johnnycl says:
      30 Jan30 January 19:13

      For me the hassle of creating new accounts and risk of points being reversed (if using one’s own account) outweighs the upside. Personally this method would be a notch above simply exploiting a good deal for me to consider it, but I understand there are people that will, and probably not have any issues doing so.

      • Leo says:
        30 Jan30 January 19:53

        +1

      • James says:
        30 Jan30 January 19:57

        It’s hardly a risk free opportunity I admit, and will be a fair amount of aggro. Each to their own though, some are risk averse some not.

      • Lochlann says:
        30 Jan30 January 20:04

        +1 with multiple transfers to the same account I’d expect an audit pretty sharpish, and if it were really taking the p**s they might even go legal given clear attempt at fraud (there’d be a big chunk of outstanding subscription fees to be paid…)

        • Mrtibbs1999 says:
          30 Jan30 January 21:52

          I’ve downloaded the terms and there is 0 chance of legal action. The proposed path is not contractually prohibited.

          • Rob says:
            30 Jan30 January 22:00

            You have agreed a one-year contract with The Times. You have also agreed to Avios and The Times sharing personal data about you in order for your account to be credited with the 20,000 points.

            As this personal data may include your name and address, you are obviously exposed to some risk from The Times.

          • John says:
            30 Jan30 January 22:14

            I imagine they’d calculate the outstanding balance, send an invoice and if not paid place the account in default and pass it to a debt collection agency.

            Presumably Mr Murdoch’s minions do this all the time with broken Sky contracts.

          • Mrtibbs1999 says:
            31 Jan31 January 06:17

            Have you read the contract? There’s nothing in there about defaulting.

            There’s no regulated credit agreement.

            Check out the terms for special offers, they’ve forgotten to create any for this promo.
            ( as of yesterday at 09:00)

            I have a full copy of that website! The terms are missing

  • Tilly71 says:
    31 Jan31 January 09:44

    Think they have people reading forums such as this one to change their terms so quickly. Why they don’t just put rewards will not be awarded for atleast 3 x Months after signing up, this would stop a lot of people trying it on in the first place.

    • James says:
      31 Jan31 January 10:27

      I’d be interested to know how either the times or a debt collection agency could obtain your contact details, given that all you need to sign up with is a name and an email address.

      • Danny says:
        31 Jan31 January 11:18

        As Rob mentioned above ‘you have agreed a one-year contract with The Times. You have also agreed to Avios and The Times sharing personal data about you in order for your account to be credited with the 20,000 points’.

        • James says:
          31 Jan31 January 11:25

          The only data you are sharing is your avios number. I asked their customer service yesterday if, by me giving a third party my avios number, they could access my personal details and she said no, due to the data protection etc. By the way I’m not considering doing this but the whole situation has piqued my interest in this subject.

    • Mr Chips says:
      31 Jan31 January 11:39

      And who can blame them when there are scammers and swindlers around with such a sense of entitlement they think they should be able to take a bonus without upholding their side of an agreement.?

  • James says:
    31 Jan31 January 13:09

    I see the moral police have arrived to look down on us all daring to have a theoretical conversation.

    • sabby says:
      1 Feb1 February 13:16

      I joined on Sunday decided to cancel today rang them they offered me 3 months half price at £10.84 i said no they then offered me 6 months at half price £10.84 i accepted then

  • MintWasabe says:
    5 Feb5 February 16:50

    Hmm, It looks like the Classic 6 Day Pack for £5 per week is no longer available- a shame since that was the cheapest option for the 20K Avios…

    • Matthew says:
      11 Feb11 February 13:56

      It is – you just have to use the tool at the bottom to help you select the 6 pack edition. It even says min 3 months contract on that bit!

      • harry says:
        11 Feb11 February 14:07

        The Classic 6 Day pack is ideal for you…

        Enjoy The Times every weekday & The Saturday Times
        Also receive our smartphone app and Times+ worth over £100 a month
        Includes 20,000 Avios

        £5
        per week
        3 month minimum term

        • harry says:
          11 Feb11 February 14:09

          nah

          you take it 1 step further and …
          initial term. Simply contact our Member Services team.
          •Minimum 12 month contract applies

          Just a typo IMV

  • Roberto says:
    18 Feb18 February 10:18

    FWIW – My 20,000 Avios hit today

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