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Bits: Virgin Flying Club / Kaligo offer, Atlantis The Palm Dubai Avios offer

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News in brief:

Get 50% bonus Virgin Atlantic miles with Kaligo.com

Hotel booking site Kaligo.com is offering 50% bonus Virgin Flying Club miles on bookings between now and 31st March.

Both new and existing Kaligo.com customers can take part.  The only condition is that bookings are made via this special page and that you stay before the year-end.

Remember that bookings via Kaligo.com – and its competitors PointsHound, Rocketmiles and Agoda PointsMAX – do not earn points or status benefits in hotel loyalty programmes so they are often best used for stays at non-chain properties.

You can also earn Avios via Kaligo.com – here is their BA home page.

Atlantis Dubai

Up to 25% off and quadruple Avios at Atlantis The Palm Dubai

British Airways has launched another Avios promotion in association with Atlantis The Palm resort in Dubai.

Atlantis The Palm is one of the major resorts in Dubai with a huge range of facilities including its own water park.  It is now running a special Avios deal for British Airways Executive Club members:

  • 20% off the Best Available Rate on Deluxe Rooms and Imperial Club rooms plus earn triple Avios (6 Avios) for every $1 spent on your accommodation
  • 25% off the Best Available Rate on Suites rooms plus earn quadruple Avios (8 Avios) for every $1 spent on your accommodation
  • Unlimited access to The Lost Chambers Aquarium and Aquaventure Waterpark during your stay

Booking Dates:  before 31 March 2017
Staying Dates:  before 23 December 2017
Blackout Dates: 8 – 22 April 2017, 27 May – 3 June 2017 and 26 – 30 September 2017

The package is only available if booked via this special BAEC page on the Atlantis site.

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How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (April 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

30,000 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.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on the ‘free for a year’ American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card is increased from 20,000 Membership Rewards points to 30,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (30,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on American Express Platinum is increased from 50,000 Membership Rewards points to a huge 80,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (80,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 30,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

80,000 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 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, and the standard card is FREE. Capital on Tap cards also have no FX fees.

Capital on Tap Visa

NO annual fee, NO FX fees and points worth 1 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

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

50,000 points when you sign-up 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.

Category

British Airways and Avios, Virgin Atlantic and Flying Club

Comments (20)

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

  • Anon says:
    17 Feb17 February 07:25

    Weird, do Kaligo have no associated hotels at the home of Golf?

    St Andrews shows a multitude of responses, none of them relating to a wee coastal Scottish University town

    Anyone got recommendations for St Andrews hotels, considering the Fairmont.

    • Mike says:
      17 Feb17 February 08:37

      Fairmont is a lovely hotel with stunning views (when it’s sunny lol) located a couple of miles outside the main town, it’s not easy to walk back and forth unless you do a coastal walk. Highly recommended tho.

    • James67 says:
      17 Feb17 February 12:42

      Check out itison to see if they have anything on offer at the Old Course Hotel. If you are going by car (recommended otherwise you will need train plus bus) you might want to consider points earning or spending at DT Dundee or Hampgon which is supposed to be opening soon. I recommend a drive to Anstruther for fish and chips or a dinner at one of the harbour restsurants.

      • Alan says:
        18 Feb18 February 18:29

        Agreed – Balgove Larder just as you arrive at St Andrews from Dundee is also recommended for lunch or tea/coffee! – word clearly getting out about it though as it was a big queue when I was there last time and they’re apparently planning on expanding.

  • Matthew says:
    17 Feb17 February 07:40

    Only slightly OT and I think it’s been mentioned before…but do hotels recognise status/issue points for stays booked via Amex travel?

  • Brian says:
    17 Feb17 February 09:10

    OT – Rob, I’ve just noticed the list of Avios Day-To-Day Earning Partners on the right – you’ve got Charles Tyrwhitt as offering 8 points per £1, but their website says it’s only 4…

  • ankomonkey says:
    17 Feb17 February 10:13

    Norwegian have the same 50% bonus with Kaligo as Virgin. Presumably BA will follow if Norwegian are doing it…

  • h1tvd says:
    17 Feb17 February 12:48

    O/T Trying to book a Hilton stay on points, website is not listing any points reward nights just paid for nights, could they be updating their systems for the new “perks” already?

    • N says:
      17 Feb17 February 13:06

      Make sure the Honors Points box is ticked!

      Simple but important…!

      Upgrade to new system is due end of Feb, so that is about now….

      • Tracy says:
        17 Feb17 February 14:54

        Box was ticked, it just didn’t show any points details just cash rates…. if they are changing the system now I hope my points rate doesn’t go up, thought I had until nearer end of Feb to book at current rates 🙁

  • Roger says:
    17 Feb17 February 20:14

    OT Amex Offers

    Any ideas on how can I get offers such as Amex HolidayEatras on my Amex issued Amex card.
    In this case the card is only 2 weeks old but since the offers is going for sometime this is not available on my new card yet. Although other cards such as MBNA cards can be used via Amex Connect but there is no way to get this offer on Amex card directly.

    • the real harry1 says:
      17 Feb17 February 20:20

      people ring up Amex & ask

      • Roger says:
        18 Feb18 February 09:59

        Tried that already but Amex CS replied that they cannot apply offers manually.

        Might just wait and see if they do some monthly run and start offering old offers to new customers at the end of the month.

        Also tried the MSE + HE trick, I get the MSE discount but leaving the basket unpaid for an hour or two does not power the price as you hinted. Am I missing something?

        • the real harry1 says:
          18 Feb18 February 19:15

          I’ve done the hang basket bit a couple of times with DriveFly @ LHR on HE – yes, if offered a paltry 15% I let it hang, wait an hour or so then click back & try again, hey presto 30% discount

          I was also just messing around with a dummy parking booking at Gatwick a few days ago, did the hang basket thing and a couple of the parking cos offered a higher discount when you come back later

          I need to book a couple more @ LHR now my wife has sorted out her hols so will let you know if I still see it next week

  • sarah says:
    20 Feb20 February 15:05

    does the avios/20% offer allow you to modify or cancel atlantis booking and get full refund? This would be for 14-20/12/17.

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

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