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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 (April 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.

American Express Business Platinum

50,000 points when you sign-up 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

British Airways and Avios

Comments (68)

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

  • Jamie says:
    30 Jan30 January 10:17

    I think I’ll just stick to my daily free paper and latte at Waitrose instead.

    • Mark says:
      30 Jan30 January 11:16

      Good if you live in / next door to Waitrose!

    • takke says:
      30 Jan30 January 12:35

      Also relies on spending £5 every day there…

      • AndrewM says:
        31 Jan31 January 18:36

        But you can subscribe to The Times, and use your voucher at Waitrose in conjunction with the free newspaper offer – you are being paid 40p to take the paper away!

  • mrtibbs1999 says:
    30 Jan30 January 10:20

    So you can sign up with any name and a pre paid visa. You get the avios after 4 weeks, meaning 20k Avios for £21. This is a poorly thought out offer, the abuse potential is massive.

    • Tilly71 says:
      30 Jan30 January 10:36

      Do you not need to pay the years subscription on joining up?

    • James says:
      30 Jan30 January 11:20

      Im sure they would steal back the Avios..

      Dont Tesco do it if you for example: buy something, convert to avios then refund the item?

      • John says:
        30 Jan30 January 11:41

        You could send them over to BAEC though as soon as they hit your Avios account. Don’t reckon The Times would be able to get them back from there.

        • James says:
          30 Jan30 January 11:49

          I was more concerned with them tracking you down through your avios details (which wouldn’t be “any name” and be YOUR name) in order to get the other 11 months worth of subscription from you!

          • John says:
            30 Jan30 January 11:56

            Oh right…see what you mean. Yes, I guess that it is possible for them to do that if they really wanted to – whether they would bother though, I’m not sure.

          • James says:
            30 Jan30 January 12:58

            With 20k Avios on the line though… Might even be worth the risk!

          • mrtibbs1999 says:
            30 Jan30 January 13:46

            1) Get a few prepaid visa.
            2) Get some new avios accounts with different email addresses and contact details to your existing accounts.
            3) Sign up for the offer multiple times
            4) Move points to ba exec club making new accounts.
            5) After a while create a household account with the new points.
            6) Enjoy you pot of avios, or if caught lose a few quid for the chance of getting lots of avios.
            7) Alternatively, redeem Avios ASAP after posting and ignore steps 4-6

          • Tilly71 says:
            30 Jan30 January 14:24

            Can’t see that happening somehow. They would simply close your account if no money could be taken.

  • Sussex bantam says:
    30 Jan30 January 10:33

    Excellent. I shall be cancelling my existing sub on Monday and taking out a new one in the Mrs name.

    Thanks raffles !

  • Tina says:
    30 Jan30 January 10:40

    Just threatened to leave them and I got 10,000 avios to stay.

    • Mark says:
      30 Jan30 January 11:12

      That’s interesing – thanks! I have been a subscriber for several years and was planning to do what Sussex bantam mentiioned. I rang and found out that “you cannot get a refund on existing newspaper tokens, but ring up >15 days before they exprire and we cancel from then”.
      But the extra 10,000 avios for no change is very tempting…
      “If you wish to discuss or end your existing membership, please call freephone 0800 018 5177 and choose option 2.”

      • Keith says:
        11 Feb11 February 11:18

        I have an existing subscription, unfortunately it just started a new quarter while I was away spending my 2for1 voucher :), so can’t cancel for another 2 months. I just called to see what was on offer – they offered me the 10k Avios to stay – if you’re thinking of this, be aware that you are signing in to a new 12 month contract.

        The alternative (for me) is to take out a new subscription (needs a different address and email address) and get the 20k, but then I would have 2 subscriptions running for 2 months.

        My situation is a bit unusual, as the subscription is for my mother, and she pays – so the Avios are effectively free to me – I’d just have to pay the 2 months overlap (£60.66) to get the additional 10k Avios. Hmm, choices…

  • DAVID HARROP says:
    30 Jan30 January 11:17

    Phoned them up to cancel and resubscribe – and they offered to do it for me and gave me the 20000 avois !!

  • Craig says:
    30 Jan30 January 11:20

    Just signed up, had cancelled a while ago. Anybody know how we supply our Avios membership number?

    • Craig says:
      30 Jan30 January 11:26

      Answering my own question:

      Collecting your Avios
      As a Times member you are also entitled to complimentary Avios to spend on anything from flights and upgrades to hotels. You don’t need to do anything right now; we will send you detailed instructions on how to claim them within the next three weeks.

      • Tilly71 says:
        30 Jan30 January 13:34

        So you don’t supply any avios details at this stage but in three weeks they ask for your account details, then they have to process them and transfer the bonus avios to your account before a months up.
        Sounds a risky option using one months money on a pre paid card, if they havnt processed the reward by the months end and go to take next months money and it gets declined, they won’t process the reward so money down the drain. I was think having two months money on the card but then £50 for 20k avios, not sure if that’s good value!

  • Mark says:
    30 Jan30 January 11:55

    £20 in Tesco vouchers buys a one year subs to Telegraph tablet app.

  • Oli D says:
    30 Jan30 January 12:06

    Hi All,

    Have just looked at my BA Amex account and noticed that my Avios haven’t transferred to the Executive Club for quite some time. I thought this happened every month? Has somehting changed that i haven’t noticed?

    Thanks in advance and sorry for the slightly off topic!

    Oli

    • John says:
      30 Jan30 January 12:12

      I had some arrive in my BAEC a day or two ago from my BA Amex. I’ve not noticed a problem – they seem to be going in every month as usual.

    • Rob says:
      30 Jan30 January 13:42

      Very odd, call Amex

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