Bits: free Heathrow Express upgrade for Star Gold, 2400 Avios with £100 of Tesco Wine

News in brief:

Free Heathrow Express upgrade for Star Alliance Gold members

Heathrow Express has brought back the offer it ran last year.  If you are have Star Alliance Gold status via any of the 21 Star Alliance frequent flyer schemes, you can upgrade to First Class for free on Heathrow Express.

There is a snag.  You need to have to buy a full fare Heathrow Express standard class ticket.  Cheaper Advance Tickets are excluded.  It is not clear if a full fare ticket bought via the 12% Mastercard discount would be OK.

You simply buy a standard class ticket as normal, sit in First Class and show your Star Gold card to the conductor when he passes through.  Full details can be found here.

The offer starts on Monday – so don’t try it this weekend – and runs indefinitely.

25% off Iberia flights from the UK to Spain

Iberia is running a special offer this weekend on Iberia and Iberia Regional flights from the UK to Spain.  It is a bid fiddly and less generous than it appears.

The rules are: two people must travel together, you must book a return trip, BA codeshares are excluded, you must fly back from the same city you land at and – critically – the 25% discount only applies to the base fare before taxes and charges.  This means that the real saving will be less than 25%.

The saving will show automatically on iberia. com when booking.  You must book by Sunday for travel between 5th April and 15th June, excluding the May Bank Holiday weekend.

2,400 Avios or 2,500 Virgin miles with £100 Tesco Wine purchase

Finally, Tesco Wine is running another promotion – but this is the most generous of the year so far.

If you spend £100 at Tesco Wine before Sunday evening, and use code XXPKMR at check-out, you will receive 1,000 bonus Clubcard points.

This will convert into 2,400 Avios or 2,500 Virgin Flying Club miles – potentially more if you convert during a transfer bonus.

The Wine Cellar Sale is still running as well, so you can make a saving on their clearance lines and get the miles as well.

The Tesco Wine home page is here.  The Wine Cellar deals are here.

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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:

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. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

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.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 12th May 2024, the Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa card is offering a bonus of 30,000 points, convertible into 30,000 Avios. You must have a Limited Company to apply. Click here to learn more and click here to apply.

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.