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Bits: new Heathrow Rewards offer, new BA Amex spend bonus, 6000 Avios with Tesco insurance

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News in brief:

Heathrow Rewards launches new Virgin Flying Club offer

Heathrow Rewards is launching a promotion for Virgin Flying Club members today – but it isn’t bonus miles.

Anyone who transfers their Heathrow Rewards points to Virgin  Atlantic – at the standard 1:1 rate, in chunks of 250 – will be entered into a competition.

The prizes are:

First prize – 20,000 Virgin Flying Club miles

Second prize – 10,000 Virgin Flying Club miles

Third prize – 5 people will win 5,000 Virgin Flying Club miles

Anyone who makes a transfer to Virgin during September will be entered.  You will only be entered once, irrespective of the number or size of transfers you make.

If Virgin Flying Club miles don’t appeal, remember that the 50% conversion bonus on Heathrow Rewards transfers to Avios is still running until 30th September.

Heathrow Rewards

New BA Amex spend bonus

Some British Airways American Express cardholders will be contacted today about a new spending promotion.

Eligible British Airways American Express cardholders will be offered 2,500 bonus Avios for spending £5,000 between 1st September and 30th November

Eligible British Airways American Express Premium Plus cardholders will be offered 5,000 bonus Avios for spending £10,000 between 1st September and 30th November

Whilst these offers are worth having if you are targetted, you should think carefully before pursuing them.

If you have already hit your spending target for the year to trigger your 2-4-1 voucher, it might be better to get a new card and hit a new spend target:

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold charge card (£2,000 spend required to trigger 20,000 bonus Amex points, worth 20,000 Avios) or

Starwood Preferred Guest American Express credit card (£1,000 spend required to trigger 10,000 bonus SPG points, worth 10,000 Avios) Representative APR 36.2% variable including £75 fee based on a notional £1200 credit limit or

Lloyds Avios Rewards credit card (you receive a BA Avios upgrade voucher for spending £7,000) Representative APR 23.7% variable including £24 fee based on a notional £1200 credit limit or

IHG Rewards Club Premium MasterCard (20,000 IHG points for signing up and a free night voucher – potentially worth £250 at a top hotel – for spending £10,000)  Representative APR 41.5% variable including £99 fee based on a notional £1200 credit limit

Any of these would be more valuable than putting an extra £5,000 – £10,000 through your BA Amex.

6,000 Avios or 6,250 Virgin miles with Building & Contents Insurance

Tesco Bank is currently offering 2,500 bonus Clubcard points (converts into 6,000 Avios or 6,250 Virgin Flying Club miles) when you take out its Building & Contents Insurance for the first time.

You should compare the Tesco price with the current Alan Boswell Group insurance deal.  Boswell is an Avios partner and they are giving out 5,000 – 10,000 Avios with policies taken out this month.  Details are here.

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.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 12th May 2024, the Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa card is offering a bonus of 30,000 points, convertible into 30,000 Avios. You must have a Limited Company to apply. Click here to learn more and click here to apply.

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.

Category

British Airways American Express, Heathrow Rewards, Tesco Clubcard, Virgin Atlantic and Flying Club

Comments (87)

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

  • CDB says:
    1 Sep1 September 12:44

    OT: Deliveroo 500 avios came through today, nice surprise as completely forgot….

    • New Card says:
      1 Sep1 September 14:50

      Me too although the voucher code was missing in the email, so I couldn’t claim – has anyone else had this?

  • Andrew_A says:
    1 Sep1 September 13:02

    OT – Once i have the Lloyds Avios voucher how do I use this with a BA 2 for 1 to allow three of us to travel? I assume the LLoyds voucher would need to be on a separate booking but both the voucher and the 2 for 1 would be in my name. I usually travel with my wife on the 2 for 1 and we have a Household account.
    Thanks in advance

    • Peter K says:
      1 Sep1 September 13:52

      You’ve got a problem there as the BA 241 is to be used on BA.com and the Upgrade voucher on Avios.com!

      The holder of the 241 voucher has to be one of the people booked using it.

      Think the person on upgrade voucher has to be named on the plane ticket as well.

      • Andrew_A says:
        1 Sep1 September 14:54

        Thanks.
        I wasn’t sure if that was the case. I thought I had read on here that someone had used a Lloyds upgrade voucher for a relative and not themselves.
        My other option is to get my wife to put enough spend through her BA card to get another 2 for 1 but she would need to upgrade it as its a free blue one.

        • pauldb says:
          1 Sep1 September 15:18

          I’ve just tried a dummy booking and it asks for the passenger name and runs on through to the final payment page – so despite the rules I doubt you’ll have a problem making the booking for your wife … unless you have to do it offline (e.g. open-jaw) where it might get picked up.

  • Anna says:
    1 Sep1 September 14:03

    OT – when using the Lloyds upgrade voucher, does the flight have to start in the UK? I can’t see it in T & Cs but may have missed it!

  • MattyS says:
    1 Sep1 September 14:15

    O/T is there a limit to the number of additional (paying) guests that can get into a lounge on a Priority Pass (subject to how busy lounge already is, mood of person on desk etc.). Hoping to get 11 of us into MCO on two cards !! Many thanks in advance.

    • Polly says:
      1 Sep1 September 14:29

      Some of the lounges are cutting down on groups….fearful of hens and stags…you will be lucky if you succeed!

      • MattyS says:
        1 Sep1 September 14:35

        Thanks Polly, though the group includes two pensioners and five between 6 and 16 – would be arguably the worst stag night ever ! Will give it a go anyway. Was just wondering if I had missed something in the T & C’s about any blanket restriction on numbers.

        • Polly says:
          2 Sep2 September 15:24

          Very funny Matt, gave me a Giggle…its just they keep putting signs outside now saying, at full capacity. But still let paying guests in! I think you can take as many paying guests in as you like. Have not seen a limit mentioned anywhere…

  • Graham Walsh says:
    1 Sep1 September 16:21

    Not sure if I’ve seen this mentioned before, just trying to send a message to Amex via my account and it says this “Email servicing is no longer available. You can still access your email inbox and sent messages here”.

    So much easier sometimes. Chat is offline too, what’s the point in having it!!!

    • Rob says:
      1 Sep1 September 16:42

      And chat is not getting good feedback …..

    • John says:
      1 Sep1 September 16:49

      Its called cost-cutting. Lots of staff have been ‘let go’ from Brighton. The chat staff are located in India but utilise westernised ‘names’ so as to give the impression they’re Brighton based.

    • Alan says:
      1 Sep1 September 21:29

      LOL there’s been lots of chat on it in the comments on here – generally a major downgrade but Amex have dismissed any formal complaints about it (I think quite a few of us logged complaints)

      • the real harry1 says:
        1 Sep1 September 21:40

        won’t be many Mumbai agents answering the phone: ‘I’m free!’ 🙂

      • Peter K says:
        1 Sep1 September 22:41

        I’ve just filled in an online pop-up survey on amex website and asked for emails to be brought back instead of chat. I’m sure I’m not the only one.

  • RAY_E says:
    1 Sep1 September 16:31

    Hi,
    Slightly off topic here.
    I have the BA Amex Premium Plus card, and have recently redeemed the companion voucher for travel next year. Question is would it be possible to now cancel the card? Would this invalidate the voucher if it has been redeemed?

    My partner also have the same card, and have hit the target and been given the companion voucher, but have not redeemed. In this circumstance, does it mean only the only option is to downgrade to the free card? Would this then change the validity of the vouchers to only 12 months rather than 24 months?

    Thank you!

    • Optimus Prime says:
      1 Sep1 September 16:33

      You can cancel the card even before redeeming the voucher.

      The only requirement is to use any Amex to pay the taxes when using the voucher.

  • JamesB says:
    1 Sep1 September 18:42

    OT: Have any of our Edinburgh readers found someplace to do the amazon paypoint topup? The
    co-op shops on both Shandwick Place and Frederick Street refused to scan the bar code on either phone or paper today.

  • New Card says:
    1 Sep1 September 19:21

    OT – Just tried to buy £150 John Lewis GC at WHS T5 and cashier was clearly alarmed. She Telephoned someone and was told max top up was £50. Very strange.

    • the real harry1 says:
      1 Sep1 September 19:36

      you get these morons in life – nothing you can do about it

      I don’t blame the till girl; I do blame the supervisor

      had all sorts of nutso responses on the 3Vs as well, most were OK but a few wanted to see theft where there was no theft

      • New Card says:
        1 Sep1 September 20:04

        All v strange and very over the top!

        Anyway, am on first class redemption and about to take off. Thanks to Rob and commenters – wouldn’t have been possible without this site!

      • shd says:
        2 Sep2 September 08:05

        I was once told by a Tesco cashier (plus supervisor who was called over) that 3V gift cards could only be bought for cash, “due to fraud”…

        Mind you, this was in Manchester 🙂

    • John says:
      1 Sep1 September 23:08

      I did precisely the same in T3. There was no issue whatsoever.

      Put it down to incompetence (of their staff, not you!)

      Hope you’re currently enjoying BA F

    • TGLoyalty says:
      2 Sep2 September 07:56

      Yep it’s a stupid rule but it’s just £50 per card. I just ended up doing £50 of JL and £50 of M&S. Then a bit of duty free I was going to do anyway.

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