Bits: 50% bonus miles with Kaligo, see Sunny Afternoon and earn Avios, BA cancellation fees

News in brief:

50% bonus Virgin miles when you book hotels via Kaligo.com

Online hotel booking site Kaligo.com, which gives airline miles on every booking, is offering 50% bonus Virgin miles on every booking made by 30th June – see here.  Your stay must be completed by 31st December.

There is no small print – both new and existing customers can take part and there is no minimum spend.

Remember that you will NOT earn hotel points or receive status benefits when you book via Kaligo.com, so this option is best used for non-chain hotels.  Compare prices before you book as Kaligo.com can vary sharply from hotel to hotel versus booking direct.

The special link for the Virgin Atlantic offer is here.

See ‘Sunny Afternoon’ for half price AND earn Avios

A few weeks ago my wife and I went to see ‘Sunny Afternoon’, the musical based on the story of The Kinks, as the guests of new Avios partner LOVEtheatre.com – and a good night out it was too.  It won the 2015 Olivier Award for Best New Musical so you don’t need to take my word for it.

‘Sunny Afternoon’ is LOVEtheatre’s ‘Musical of the Month’ and they have an exclusive offer of £34.50 for top price tickets, valid any day of the week.  Cheaper seats can be bought from £10.

Details are here.  You will also earn 3 Avios per £1 when you book this or any other show via LOVEtheatre.

British Airways changes cancellation fees (in your favour)

As part of the move to its new check-in system, British Airways announced a change in cancellation fees on semi-flexible tickets last month.  It moved from being a charge per ticket to a charge per segment.

This led to some ludicrous situations where expensive semi-flexible tickets were effectively non-refundable because of the fee.  A semi-flexible ticket from Dusseldorf to New York became €300 per segment, so the cancellation fee was €1,200.

Effective immediately, all published cancellation fees have been halved for semi-flexible tickets.  This means that, in the example above, cancellation would now only be €600.  For a standard return flight of two segments, the fee is now reduced to the original level before the changes took place.

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How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (June 2023)

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.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 13th June, the sign-up bonus on The Platinum Card is doubled to 60,000 Membership Rewards points – and you get £200 to spend at Amex Travel too! Apply here.

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.

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.

EDIT: Applications for this card are temporarily suspended due to IT issues with the British Airways On Business SME loyalty scheme.

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.