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GOOD DEAL: Get 18,000 Avios for £146 with minimal effort

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I’ve written before about the generous deal between AerClub, the new Aer Lingus Avios-based frequent flyer scheme, and Ireland’s Irish Independent / Sunday Independent newspapers.

The deal has now got even better and you do not need to live in Ireland to take part.

You don’t even need to have an AerClub account.  The Avios can be dropped into a British Airways or avios.com account instead.

Sunday Independent

What is the deal?

You will earn 18,000 Avios points when you take out a DIGITAL subscription to the Irish Independent or Sunday Independent newspapers for €160 (£146).

This works out at 0.81p per Avios if you use a credit card with 0% FX fees.  If you use a card with a 3% FX fee the cost rises to 0.83p per Avios.

You can sign up via this website here.  At no point during the sign-up process are you asked for your home address, so you don’t need to be concerned about living outside Ireland.

This is a new deal.  You could previously only subscribe for home delivery.

If you live in Ireland, you may find the physical bundles to be more valuable.  These allow you to order a physical home-delivered copy of the Irish Independent and Sunday Independent every day for six months for €349 and earn 30,000 Avios on top.  If you don’t live in Ireland, or don’t have a relative who wants some free newspapers, the new digital offer is more suitable.

Note that you will need to cancel your subscription before it expires otherwise it will roll over.

Irish Independent digital offer

Is 0.81p per Avios a good deal?

Yes.  It is difficult to lose money redeeming Avios for flights on this basis.

This is my general ‘what is an Avios point worth?’ article.  You’ll see that you should be getting well over 1p per point in most redemption scenarios.

Of course, if you are would actually read the digital newspapers then it is a very good deal indeed.

How do you get your Avios?

The process is explained on this page of avios.com, which has not yet been updated to reflect the new digital package.

You will be sent a voucher code by email – a reader in the comments section was told it would arrive within 21 days.  You head to the Avios voucher redemption website, select which programme you want to drop the Avios into and then input your code.  Easy!

The offer runs until 30th November.  The sign-up page is here.

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (September 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.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 26th September 2024, sign up for FREE Barclaycard Avios Mastercard and you will receive a sign-up bonus of 10,000 Avios. This is double the usual bonus! You only need to spend £1,000 within 90 days. Our full review is here. Click here to apply.

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

10,000 Avios (to 26th September) 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.

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 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, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios.

Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa

10,000 points bonus – plus an extra 500 points for our readers 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.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 22nd October 2024, the bonus on American Express Business Platinum is increased to up to 80,000 Membership Rewards points, worth 80,000 Avios. You will receive 8 points per £1 spent for the first three months, on up to £10,000 of spending. Click here to read our full card review. Click here to apply.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 22nd October 2024, the bonus on American Express Business Gold is increased to up to 40,000 Membership Rewards points, worth 40,000 Avios. You will receive 4 points per £1 spent for the first three months, on up to £10,000 of spending. The card is FREE for your first year. Click here to read our full card review. Click here to apply.

American Express Business Platinum

Up to 80,000 points when you sign-up and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

Get up to 40,000 points as a sign-up offer 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

Aer Lingus and AerClub, British Airways and Avios

Comments (164)

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

  • Erik says:
    21 Aug21 August 11:32

    Did anyone receive the email with the voucher to redeem the Avios? If so, how long did it take?

  • Andrew says:
    21 Aug21 August 11:45

    Received the two emails regarding the purchase, but no voucher yet!

  • Darren says:
    21 Aug21 August 11:58

    OT but topical, for me anyway.

    I have x3 BA 2-4-1’s coming up in the next 4 months and with the recent noise on FT about proactive downgrading I’m getting a little nervous.

    So lets say I rock up and get hit with bad news, what is the protocol to get the best out of a bad situation. Or a link to somewhere where this is covered, a lot of the threads are muddied by pro and con comments whether BA’s actions are proactive.

    First – Is it worth arguing (discussing the reasons for my demotion) and asking for proof that there are x number of golds ahead of me or whatever they come up with.

    Second – I would try everything to avoid the downgrade, therefore my preference would be to reroute on the same day (or following), in the same class, on the same or another carrier. Are they obliged to do this?

    I know this is unlikely but I’d rather be ahead of the game. BTW I have had a few 241’s over the years without issue and I know its unlikely.

    Thanks

    • Nick says:
      21 Aug21 August 18:12

      The agents you speak to won’t be party to the factors that go into making this decision, or have any say in it, so you can bang on at them all you want but won’t get anywhere with that. And under data protection laws they would be sacked (and BA fined) if they did show you profiles of other passengers anyway.

      Chances are it won’t happen. This is not a policy, just an unfortunate few incidents that have been handled badly and widely reported and discussed. If it does happen you can ask to be rerouted the same or adjacent day (only BA or joint business, not other unrelated airlines) – obviously it will help if you already have a suitable routing (with sale availability) as they might not have much time to search but they’ll be willing to try what you ask. Or you can take the WTP seat they’ll offer and use the compensation to go somewhere else.

      But honestly, ‘mountain’ and ‘molehill’ spring to mind.

      • TripRep says:
        21 Aug21 August 19:59

        “Or you can take the WTP seat they’ll offer and use the compensation to go somewhere else.”

        £200 default “compensation” isn’t going to get you very far in business class.

        Be prepared for a long wait, and disheartening experience with customer services to obtain full compensation that you are legally entitled to under EU261/2004.

    • the real harry1 says:
      21 Aug21 August 18:16

      it ain’t going to happen and there is no noise on FT, just a couple of very isolated examples

      if it happens, don’t argue obnoxiously – you’ll get slung off the flight

      you can certainly try to get them to re-route you in your correct class on a later flight, they should be helpful

      I don’t think you can be re-routed on another carrier as your flight won’t be cancelled, just downgraded

  • John says:
    21 Aug21 August 12:07

    O/T
    I expect this one is for Genghis (or similar Amex churn specialists!)

    How long does the referral bonus take to arrive?

    As an Amex Plat holder myself, I referred a friend for the same Amex Plat card, who then subsequently applied using the referral link last Monday lunchtime – and received an immediate successful application decision online. I thought the 18K MR referrer bonus arrived in about 3-4 days?

    • Genghis says:
      21 Aug21 August 12:29

      For me, the referral points have always arrived the day before / same day that the referee’s card arrived. I’d wait a few more days and then look at following that one up.

      • John says:
        21 Aug21 August 18:43

        Thanks Genghis! Do they only post overnight….or just as and when during the day?

        • Genghis says:
          21 Aug21 August 19:46

          I’ve never understood when Amex update. There seems to be an overnight run and a late afternoon run (where transactions, points and bonus / referral points post) but if someone has more detail than me, please post.

          • John says:
            22 Aug22 August 22:14

            Not exactly scientific – but oddly they arrived literally minutes after the card arrived through the letterbox – about 1pm. They weren’t there at noon.

    • Drav says:
      22 Aug22 August 08:38

      longest I waited was 8 days after the person i referred was accepted

  • RKP says:
    21 Aug21 August 12:33

    This ones a better deal that Groupon/Iberia. I bought 8K avios groupon deal for €99 (gbp 94). Should have waited for this one.

  • Ian says:
    21 Aug21 August 13:09

    I signed up, got confirmation but not the voucher to claim the Avios

    • Smart says:
      22 Aug22 August 09:22

      I signed up, paid, got confirmation but not the voucher to claim the Avios

      • Rainer says:
        23 Aug23 August 14:11

        Yes, that’s how it is SUPPOSED to be. Read the T&C before signing up – you can cancel for free during the first 14 day and will get a refund, so the voucher will only be send AFTER you did NOT CANCEL for TWO WEEKS.

        The only Thing that scares me a Llttle is that the T&C say the avios voucher has to be redeemed by the end of June 2017… Obviously a mistake because they still have the offer only, so I took the chance.

    • John Hassett says:
      22 Aug22 August 13:31

      I am able to access the digital edition for free and do so most days. So whats the big deal here?

  • Ammar says:
    21 Aug21 August 14:19

    Ot- got afternoon tea booked at the landmark hotel, London and wondering if joining their loyalty programme worth it as it states 10% off for dining?

  • Isochronous says:
    21 Aug21 August 15:54

    Just signed up for this. How long for the Avios voucher to arrive in the email?

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

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