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Bits: cheap one-way Avis car rentals, more British Airways strikes announced

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News in brief:

Save up to £69 with Avis one-way rentals

Avis is currently running a ‘no one-way rental fee’ promotion.  This could come in handy if you want a cheap trip back home from Heathrow.

If you’re driving north from London’s airports this summer, you can save up to £69 which is the maximum standard one-way surcharge.

Your car needs to be picked up from Avis at Gatwick Airport, Heathrow Airport, Luton Airport or Stansted Airport and be dropped off at one of the following locations:

Airports: Edinburgh, Glasgow, Inverness, Manchester and Prestwick;

Downtown: Edinburgh, Glasgow, Glasgow Queen Street Train Station, Inverness and Manchester

This offer expires on 12th August and can be booked here.

BA potential mixed fleet strike announced

British Airways Mixed Fleet cabin crew have announced another two week strike, starting on 2nd August.

If the strike goes ahead, it will be the 11th strike since 2016.

Flights from Gatwick, Stansted and London City are not impacted, and the number of Heathrow cancellations during the current action appears to be modest.

During the previous strikes BA has been cancelling flights to Doha, moving passengers to Qatar Airways and freeing up cabin crew, as well as leasing nine fully crewed aircraft from Qatar Airways.  This means that more of us will be getting the chance to fly on a Qatar Airways short haul plane this summer.

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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

Avis and Avis Preferred, British Airways and Avios

Comments (84)

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

  • Lumma says:
    22 Jul22 July 09:00

    OT but BA related. BA flights to and from Amman are on an A321 according to their website. Is this guaranteed to be on of them with the real business class seats or could it be changed to a short haul version? As economy is classed as world traveller, does that include free food and drinks? Is Royal Jordanian a better option? Despite being higher in taxes and more miles off peak

    • Nick says:
      22 Jul22 July 10:50

      It’s supposed to be the mid-haul variant and AFAIK it always is. The only exception would be if one broke and they had to sub last-minute, but even then they have a slight surplus of these so I suspect they’d just move one from a Europe/domestic rotation.
      Either way, whatever turns up, the catering is the same, and yes this means free food and drinks for the whole aircraft.

    • Clive says:
      22 Jul22 July 11:00

      Nevertheless had a short haul on that route

  • Peter Taysum says:
    22 Jul22 July 09:29

    I found the BA one mild amusing, and was bored by one watch. Every time I fly BA; especially twice in a day (NCL) as a first world problem that’s pretty annoying. All blacks excellent, and love the Virgin one.

  • Concerto says:
    22 Jul22 July 09:48

    Yes the Virgin America safety demo is quite well done if a bit long and I quite like the TAP Portugal one with wooden marionettes. But am I the only one that finds all these stupid gimmicks represent a sad comment on our smartphone smombie generation with a 3-second attention span? What’s wrong with a traditional, and shorter, safety demo and paying attention for 3 minutes? I do it and I’m on planes all the time, often the same aircraft. Usual thing, check the exits, how to open them, check the life vest is where it should be. Is it so much to ask for or expect?

  • Concerto says:
    22 Jul22 July 09:57

    Actually, I rather like the Qatar one. It somehow stays true to being a safety video and is a bit more focused (and shorter, obviously). I’m just not sure if the last image, showing the life jacket being inflated once again (was that necessary?) might encourage people to prematurely inflate their vests.

  • Genghis says:
    22 Jul22 July 10:47

    OT If one cancels an IHG reward night booking, does the night go back into the reward inventory?

    To explain, I have an IHG reward night booked and currently for that date it shows no availability but would like to use my IHG Creation reward night instead. I.e. If I cancel will I be able to rebook?

    • Rob says:
      22 Jul22 July 10:50

      Never, ever seen this discussed. Wonder if the call centre could just switch it?

    • Mr Dee says:
      22 Jul22 July 20:04

      Yes did this the other week when I needed to change to 3 nights instead of 2, pretty much straight away in my case.

  • Genghis says:
    22 Jul22 July 11:24

    OT. Just called MBNA to cancel my Virgin Black and my wife’s Virgin White. I was offered 5k bonus miles for spending £1k in 90 days but declined as it would mean another £140 in fees. Wife also offered this so we duly accepted. Might be worth calling up today if you were thinking of cancelling anyway…

    • Roger says:
      22 Jul22 July 19:05

      Followed you there Genghis.
      Same offer, apparently will receive a letter confirming the same.

      • Genghis says:
        22 Jul22 July 19:07

        Nice one! No brainer in my opinion. 5.5% return on £1k and we’ll then call up to cancel…

    • Mr Dee says:
      22 Jul22 July 20:05

      Tried this and got offered nothing 🙁

    • The Original Nick. says:
      23 Jul23 July 06:56

      Genghis, make sure you get those 5000 VS miles. I was promised the same but never got the miles so I had to call and get them credited.

      • Genghis says:
        23 Jul23 July 08:21

        I’ve had problems getting VS miles from MBNA before but it seems the whiff of a formal complaint gets them posted pretty sharpish.

  • boss1 says:
    22 Jul22 July 11:40

    OT. I have just enrolled for Gold SPG status through Amex Platinum, does anyone know how long this takes to reflect on my SPG account?

  • Andrew says:
    22 Jul22 July 11:45

    The current BA safety video seems to have lasted forever, indeed, often on domestic flights the media is so heavily degraded that they do full manual version instead. It’s almost as if it’s played back from an analogue VCR.

    I will forever ponder if the woman in the vid is supposed to be Tracey Emin.

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

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