Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Register now – TRIPLE AVIOS on all British Airways flights, all classes, is back

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So, how bad are British Airways forward bookings at the moment?  I was surprised that the current British Airways sale (covered here) was so underwhelming.  I couldn’t even bring myself to write a full article on it.

However, now we have a very serious statement of intent – BA has brought back its offer of triple base Avios on all British Airways flights, irrespective of ticket class or price.

If you are travelling to North America from Europe, flights on Finnair, Iberia and American Airlines are also included if you credit them to your British Airways account.

British Airways BA A350 in flight

You MUST register in advance by clicking here.

It is not yet clear if members of the On Business small business scheme will also receive triple OB points – they did when this offer ran last Autumn.

Let’s look at an example of how good this could be.

Berlin to Hong Kong on British Airways, Club World

Avios earned as a Blue member (a status member would get more):

Calculated at this web page as (869 + 8969 + 8969 + 869) + a bonus of (579 + 5979 + 5979 + 579) + (579 + 5979 + 5979 + 579) = 45,908

That is a VERY generous incentive and, if you manage to pick up a cheap business class deal, a substantial rebate on the cost of the flight itself.

I expected this promotion to come with a catch (ie excluding non-refundable fares) but there isn’t one.  The only rule is that your flight must be BOOKED and flown between the start date – which is not named in the rules – and 31st March 2017.

There is some risk here if you are looking to book a BA flight today.  Who knows what the official start date of this promotion is?  Whilst the website is live, BA has not yet emailed anyone about the offer.

The registration page is also buggy at present.  This is what I got:

Thank you, you are now registered for this offer.

Your registration has been unsuccessful, unfortunately you are not eligible for this offer.

For clarity, EVERYONE can register for this offer, irrespective of what country their BAEC account is in.

Here are the other rules:

You get the bonus on up to EIGHT segments (ie four return flights or eight one-way flights) – this means, weirdly, that you may want to keep your BAEC number out of some short haul bookings so you can get triple Avios on later long haul flights

You MUST register via this page of ba.com

All cabins and all ticket types are included

Only base Avios are tripled, not any cabin or status bonus

American, Iberia and Finnair flights will count if they are for travel between the EU, Norway, Switzerland and North America, Mexico and Puerto Rico or an OpenSkies service from Paris Orly to Newark or New York JFK

Unlike the September version of this offer, Comair flights in South Africa ARE included this time

SUN-AIR franchise flights are excluded as are BA numbered codeshare flights on other airlines

I strongly recommend that you register now by clicking here.  You will also find full details on this page.  You could easily forget if you end up not having any qualifying flights until nearer the end of the offer in March.


How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

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:

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

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

25,000 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.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

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

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a 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, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios.

Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa

Huge 30,000 points bonus until 12th May 2024 Read our full review

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.

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

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

40,000 points sign-up bonus 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.

Comments (140)

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

  • Ross says:

    just tried registering. got confusing message

    “Thank you, Mr Ross Brown, you are now registered for this offer.

    Your registration has been unsuccessful, unfortunately you are not eligible for this offer.”

    • Mike says:

      Ye me too got the same message….. Will have to wait to BAEC call centre opens!!
      Got a few long haul coming up….. Let’s hope it’s open to all!!!

    • Andy E says:

      I had the same message. Wondered if it was because I was accessing via an Australian website or even that I have a Household account. From above, seems more likely just a glitch.

    • Jack Knight says:

      +1 same contradictory message

  • Cynical says:

    And upcoming news for April: huge Avios devaluation by 66%…

  • aliks says:

    Interesting, but crunching a few numbers on a long weekend to Marrakech in February:

    Ryanair quoting £103 for round trip.
    BA quoting £224 for a basic (ie HBO) round trip – in class O
    BA flight earns 712 Avios base plus 2136 bonus points (plus whatever status bonus applies ie 3000 for Gold status members)

    This looks like an expensive way to buy 6000 Avios.

    If there is a sweet spot it must be on long haul.

    • Rob says:

      Unless that is from Gatwick or Heathrow you are not strictly comparing like for like though. Given I live 30 mins from Heathrow (in 6am traffic) and have lounge access, allocated seating, fast track etc and my wife would probably check in a case, I would still use Heathrow if faced with such a decision. You may not.

  • Alex W says:

    This is a great promo, but annoying it finishes 31 march as I was not planning any revenue flights until my new tier point collection year starts on 9 April. If I take a flight near the end of March, will BA let me credit the flight in my next tier point year?

  • AB says:

    Same story here:
    “Your registration has been unsuccessful, unfortunately you are not eligible for this offer.”

    BA is slowly becoming a no go for flights … it’s hard to believe that once they were one of my favourite operators

    • Ro says:

      Hard to believe it was anybody’s favourite operator except due to a sense of jingoism

  • TCP says:

    Glad it’s not just me getting this error: “Your registration has been unsuccessful, unfortunately you are not eligible for this offer.”

    Any suggestions on what to do?

    Thanks

  • Ian says:

    Tried BA triple points offer but my wife and I had the message not eligible
    On our 1st to A Africa

  • Will says:

    Hi Rob,
    The wife is on my case to book Comaie flights with Avios. Tbf, the reward flight saver acts like a euro traveller fare Avios fare in Europe as far as I can see so c. £28 pp seemed reasonable. I take it is a no brainer to take the triple points bonus instead though?
    Will

    • David says:

      Last triple points didn’t apply to franchises – and I know that in practice it definitely did not work for Comair fligths.

      • David says:

        Although they are specifically included this time it seems:
        “(iv) all domestic and regional BA (operated by Comair) flights within South Africa.”

        However I’m not sure what a non-domestic regional flight would be if it also has to be “within South Africa”.

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

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