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Bits: Virgin Atlantic economy flight sale, get 30 Avios per £1 spent on flowers

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News in brief:

Virgin Atlantic launches an economy sale

Virgin Atlantic has launched an economy seat sale running until 21st September.  Headline prices to the US start at £398, presumably aimed to match the current Aer Lingus ex-UK sale.

Hong Kong at £449 looked one of the better non-US deals.  You need to travel between Christmas and March for the US deals, dates vary elsewhere.

Full details can be found here.

If you live in the regions and want to visit the US, look at the Aer Lingus deals here which include the connecting flight to Dublin.

Earn 30 Avios per £1 on flower deliveries

Finally, I wanted to mention that you can currently earn 30 Avios for every £1 you spend on flowers from Appleyard.

You need to order via the Appleyard page of the Gate 365 shopping portal here.  There are even some discount codes, valid until 21st August, on that page which can be combined with the deal. 

The offer runs until 30th September at which point it will return to the usual 7 Avios per £1.

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How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (July 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 Card

30,000 Avios and the famous annual Companion Voucher voucher Read our full review

British Airways American Express Credit Card

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.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold Credit Card

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

50,000 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 points worth 0.8 Avios per £1 on the FREE standard card and 1 Avios per £1 on the Pro card. Capital on Tap cards also have no FX fees.

Capital on Tap Visa

NO annual fee, NO FX fees and points worth 0.8 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 Card

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.

The American Express Business Platinum Card

50,000 points when you sign-up and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

The American Express Business Gold Card

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, Virgin Atlantic and Flying Club

Comments (80)

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

  • Matt says:
    17 Aug17 August 15:28

    Cost is £0 for 11 months, they don’t charge the fee until you hit year 2 😉

    • James67 says:
      17 Aug17 August 15:57

      Might not be true anymore, the £450 annual fee was applied to my amex plat on second statement after upgrading my PRG. However, I discussed this with Rob and we believe it may be because the anniversary of my PRG arrived as opposed to a change of policy by amex. If this was indeed the case Tom should be fine for about a year. If not, he can just cancel for a pro rata refund as soon as he has hit the £1000 upgrade spend target and banked and transfered the 21000+ MR points.

  • Daniel says:
    17 Aug17 August 16:01

    PLEASE look at trustpilot before thinking of using Happyrooms

  • Gavin says:
    17 Aug17 August 16:31

    Ref payasyougym – that’sa good find. I’ve just signed up for another year through Gymflex though so no good for me. Also my current gym is perfect for my needs and not available through that site anyway.

    • Joe says:
      17 Aug17 August 22:12

      You can use CC vouchers for Paug, at 3x value so arguably better than avios conversions

  • Scallder says:
    17 Aug17 August 17:37

    OT but BA cabin crew have backed industrial action short of striking 9 to 1 over new performance measurement. Anyone have a clue if that’s actually impact anything, or chances of it moving up to strike action?

  • roer says:
    17 Aug17 August 17:42

    OT

    Rob do you know any BA Amex or BAPP sign-up bonus returning this year, same as this time last year?

    cheers
    Roger

    • Rob says:
      17 Aug17 August 19:01

      No. However, something is up overnight tonight on the BA cards. Don’t know what but there will be a change tomorrow. Could be good or bad!

      • Genghis says:
        17 Aug17 August 19:26

        How do you know something is up?

        • Rob says:
          17 Aug17 August 19:30

          They told me 🙂

          Perhaps the Premium card is officially coming back for new applicants? It may also be something small like another interest rate change. I genuinely have no idea.

          • roger says:
            18 Aug18 August 07:55

            you may be right Rob.
            Just checked Amex website and for referral from my free BA Amex to someone else is 4000 Avios for myself and referred person gets 10000 Avios points.

            Bring on better sign up bonus BA!

          • Genghis says:
            18 Aug18 August 08:00

            That’s decent for the free card isn’t it? Hasn’t it been only 3k?

          • roger says:
            18 Aug18 August 08:06

            yes its only ever been 3000 for fresh or 4000 for referral until last night.

          • RTS says:
            18 Aug18 August 16:46

            Son of…. B…

            I signed up for the BAPP last week ¬_¬

          • Rob says:
            18 Aug18 August 16:55

            Ring. Some people in the past have managed to get an extra bonus when this happens.

  • Simon Schus says:
    17 Aug17 August 21:49

    Hi all 🙂
    Any idea if there is a Virgin reward sale coming up soon? Last time, I feel like the reward sale tends to come out half-way through the Virgin standard fare sale. I’ve got my eye on a one-way flight which I can’t book right now due to needing confirmation on other aspects of the trip, so I’m just musing about the reward flights while I’m waiting.
    Simon

  • Alan says:
    19 Aug19 August 20:20

    Mine is on hold too. First one (March stay) paid out and was uplifted to the increased rate, but others all just sitting at pending at the lower rates just now.

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

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