British Airways launches new ‘Visit California’ campaign in run up to San Jose launch

British Airways announced a new route yesterday – to Tehran.  I will cover this later in the week, but for most people the highlights of the expanded BA route network in 2016 will be Lima, Costa Rica and, from 4th May, San Jose in California.

San Jose will utilise one of the new Boeing 787-9 aircraft which means that it will be a four class service, including the latest version of the British Airways First Class seat.

Operating daily, this is, fundamentally, the ‘silicon valley’ flight.  Expect it to be full of Google and Apple employees shuttling back and forth.  Amazingly, it is the first direct flight from anywhere in Europe to San Jose.

If you are looking for Avios availability to California or Nevada, it is another option to add to the existing choices of Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, Phoenix or Las Vegas.

‘Visit California’ promotion now on

Until 14th February, British Airways is running a special California promotion with discounts on flights and holidays to Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego.  Details can be found on this special BA webpage.

As part of this promotion, Head for Points will be running three extra articles over the next week to highlight interesting new tourist opportunities in the area.  These articles are on top of the usual three HfP stories each day and are being underwritten by British Airways (but written by us) as it wanted to support the site.  I hope you find them interesting.

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How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (May 2022)

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. You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

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

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points.

The Platinum Card has doubled its sign-up bonus to 60,000 Membership Rewards points, which convert to 60,000 Avios, if you apply by 1st June 2022.

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 10,000 Avios.

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.

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.

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.

(Want to earn more Avios?  Click here to visit our home page for our latest articles on earning and spending your Avios points and click here to see how to earn more Avios this month from offers and promotions.)