Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Look where I’m going today ….

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It isn’t often that we get invited to anything by British Airways.  We didn’t even get invited to the launch event for the BA i360 observation tower in Brighton last year.

However, things are looking up:

rsz_bainvesting4u_invite-page-001

Yes, today I get to:

see the new Business and First Class lounges at Gatwick (a bit late!,  Rob already reviewed them here, and our video is here)

fly from Gatwick to Heathrow (which is one way of beating the M25 traffic jams) to try the new Club World bedding and food service which is rolling out later this year

attend the official opening of the First Wing in Terminal 5

I might even get to meet Alex Cruz.

Whilst BA has not told us this, Rob has heard that they are using a new Boeing 787 to fly us between the two airports – I will let you know whether this is true on our Instagram feed where I will also post anything interesting.

I will also be covering the trip on Head for Points later this week.


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 (103)

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

  • Mark says:

    Typical. Have a First on Sunday but it’s from T3!

  • TripRep says:

    Hope Anika gets a good view of Lewis and Skye

  • jamie says:

    triprep, is that you Anon?

    • Anon says:

      Thanks for your concern/curiosity/support, I’ve been undergoing Gravatar reassignment surgery in preparation for Rob’s exclusive later this week… 😀

  • Clarence says:

    What does the new wing do for those of us that arrive from the regions. Do we still just come from flight connections past the shops and up the escalator to the lounges ?. Don’t really mind as we have already done security at BHD. Only takes about 2 minutes in the fast track lane.

    • Leo says:

      Well it’s not really meant for anyone other than those joining First services is it (I know about Emeralds but I doubt it’s done for their benefit)? So the regions don’t come into it. Sorry.

      • Leo says:

        I meant physically checking in for First – obviously you can be joining a First service from elsewhere – I wasn’t concentrating.

    • TripRep says:

      If its an early morning F flight you could always land @ LHR the night before, but it sounds like the new F Wing (and CCR) aren’t that life enhancing anyway.

    • Alan says:

      Yes, no difference when connecting in domestically – however for flying back (where you have to go through immigration then security) you’re probably quicker going out through ePassport gates, then back upstairs and coming in through the new Wing.

      • Stu N says:

        Will use First Wing in the summer as have an overnighter before morning departure to SEA.

        On return does exiting and re-clearing security that screw up your checked bags or anything? Worst thing about T5-T5 connections when arriving from outside the UK is the lack of segregation between EU and non-EU arrivals. If that’s avoidable I’d be happy.

        • Alan says:

          Nope it makes no difference at all to your bags. The only issue is conformance – if you’re tight for time then as soon as BA staff scan your BP you’ve met conformance. It certainly used to work that you’d have BA scan, then UK Border, then BA/G4S for photo ID to confirm you’re a domestic passenger. Assuming nothing has changed in that regard (I’ve used ePassport gates recently) then you clear conformance quicker than going the other route. If not too pushed for time then generally I find ePassport gates + out and back around to be quicker as the fast track security queue at the top of the escalator on T5 connections is almost always rammed. This new entrance should be quicker still. Of course if oodles of time then better to go landside anyway so you can go to the nicer Arrivals Lounge showers (than the fairly rubbish Galleries South ones)

          • Stu_N says:

            Thanks, will bear in mind and that’s a good point re arrivals lounge vs Galleries showers.

  • Graham Walsh says:

    Over on Twitter now https://twitter.com/british_airways/status/849656006720319488

    Lots of questions. Just search for #FlyBa

  • Paul says:

    I used to enjoy this site. Over the last couple of years it has started to become a bit pointless in every sense of the word. Not sure what it is now. I’ve no objection to you flying around the world in comfy seats but perhaps you could try and remember how it all got started and concentrate a little more on the original theme? Just a thought.

    • the real harry1 says:

      what would you like changed/ reinstated?

    • FlyingInComfySeatOnly says:

      Not sure what you are moaning at. What else matters than my derrière in F seat?

      • Paul says:

        Im moaning about the fact that reading some of the articles on here this year is less interesting than looking at other people’s holiday photos.

        • FlyingInComfySeatOnly says:

          What an interesting perception here we have, reading HPF in over the year, I’ve developed a great taste of flying on holidays as you have mentioned in comfy seats, went from BA blue straight to Gold and stay in suits only without breaking a bank and muiltiplied my points on multiple fronts that’s what the main objective of the HPF.

          As per Harry’s message above would you have any constructive suggestions that could be used/discussed to meet your expectations?

        • TripRep says:

          Ermm, got a feeling you’d better skip my upcoming guest article, there’s tons of “holiday snaps”.. 🙂

          Although to be fair, it is a trip report that was made possible using;

          A BAPP Amex Companion voucher in Club World (ok, not desired result but I tried)
          Avios from promos on this site
          Avios Hilton Platinum Visa Free night Certs
          Stack of Honors points acquired from promos also advertised on this site

          • the real harry1 says:

            Articles published association with….

            shurely shome mishtake

            must be the first draft 🙂

            trebles all round!

          • TripRep says:

            Thank you Mish MorneyPenny. 😀

        • Rob says:

          This is just a function of your own increased knowledge though which means you find some stuff less relevant now.

          If you scroll down the sidebar on desktop you’ll find you can jump back to April 16 / 15 / 14 / 2013 in one click and see nothing has changed – except for fewer credit card offers (not my fault!) and fewer Tesco deals (ditto).

          • Mark says:

            You are probably right, and I’m sure itr is not easy to create genuinely new material every day. But please, Rob, don’t let this site end up as “Head for Lounges” or “Head for Thisorthat Hotel”.
            The maximum relevance and benefit for all your readers is key – isn’t it? I.e: we all collect Avios, but few of us will ever go near the First Class lounge in Honolulu, or stay at the IC in Lima….

          • Rob says:

            None of which we cover …..!

            You underestimate how tightly we edit. I write about, probably, 1 in 3 of my personal hotel stays and I almost never do overseas lounges unless they are dedicated BA ones or hubs.

            There is a big slug of Middle East stuff coming up but that is different as people like to see what is happening at the top end.

            Anika’s Tokyo trip on ANA this weekend is a little non core but it is an airline that isn’t well known here and we all might learn something, including myself!

    • Sam says:

      Well all the info has already been written about and if there are no new offers then you already know it all so what else do you want to see on this site?

  • JamesR says:

    When are we gonna see some teasers of the new club seat?

    When I come to think of it, How much better will they make it? I mean, if they really go for it, thats gonna bring it up to near F standards of hard product wouldn’t it?

    • Flyerstarter says:

      From what Alex said today they are still a long way off releasing anything on the new seat, only thing guaranteed so far is direct aisle access.

      • Sam says:

        I thought they were achieving this by making the aisle seats smaller rather than an actual “enhancement”. I mean it’s still going to be 2-4-2 so can’t be a huge improvement.

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

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