Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

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

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News in brief:

50% bonus Virgin 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.


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 (20)

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

  • Anon says:

    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:

      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:

      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:

        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:

    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:

    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:

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

  • h1tvd says:

    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:

      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:

        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:

    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:

      people ring up Amex & ask

      • Roger says:

        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:

          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:

    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.

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