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Bits: BA launching Seychelles flights today?, new Avios in-store shopping partners

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News in brief:

British Airways (re)launching the Seychelles today?

According to the rumour mill, which includes tweets from BA pilots, a new route is being announced today.  There is a good chance that it will be the return of the Seychelles to the British Airways network.

If you have some Avios and potentially a British Airways American Express 241 to spend, get thinking.

As soon as the announcement is made, two Club World seats for Avios will be released for every flight.  No restrictions.  It obviously depends when the route is due to start of course – if it is launching in March then only March 2018 to early September 2018 will be available, which is not peak season.

It might not Seychelles of course.  I’ll let you know tomorrow.  We do know, for certain, that it will be a Boeing 787 route.

New Avios eStore and Virgin Shops Away in-store partners

Avios and Virgin Shops Away have added eight new in-store partners to their respective eStores.

If you haven’t linked a payment card to your eStore account yet and you like eating at places like Byron, Prezzo and Flaming Grill, you should do so before your next meal.  Do NOT link the same card to both stores as you won’t be able to control which site receives the miles.

The new places and earning rates are:

Byron 5 Avios/£1 or 4 Virgin Flying Club miles/£1

Chef & Brewer 5 Avios/£1 or 4 Virgin Flying Club miles/£1

Old English Inns 5 Avios/£1 or 4 Virgin Flying Club miles/£1

Hungry Horse 5 Avios/£1 or 4 Virgin Flying Club miles/£1

Flaming Grill 5 Avios/£1 or 4 Virgin Flying Club miles/£1

Fayre & Square 5 Avios/£1 or 4 Virgin Flying Club miles/£1

Eating Inn 5 Avios/£1 or 8 Virgin Flying Club miles/£1 (not a typo)

Prezzo 3 Avios/£1 or 2 Virgin Flying Club miles/£1

Virgin also has a long-established deal with Jamie’s Italian at 2 miles per £1.


How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (December 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

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.

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

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

Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa

10,500 points (=10,500 Avios) and NO FX fees 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.

Comments (60)

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

  • Zoggle says:

    Booked for a week in August 2 club seats each way. We flew on the 787 to KL last October lovely flight and cabin on the 787. The plane was only 6 months old. Thanks Rob !!

  • Gavin says:

    Thanks for the heads up – managed to snap up a pair of CW seats for a week in April. Glad I had a pile of Avios and a 241 sitting around! Seems like a reasonable use of it although the charges still come to £583.27 per person, which seems quite a lot. It only displays correctly when you go through to the final page before payment.

    • Zoggle says:

      Yes, I noticed that… one moment it was £950 ish in taxes, next screen it was £1228. I used the 2 4 1 and 165k avios for my wife and baby daughter. Still a hell of a deal though. I just wish BA would go back to decent champers in club though… 1st world problems hey !
      6pm departure, so I can get to T5 dump the bags, have a couple of hours in the Qatar lounge for some lovely F&B and then make my way back to T5 for the flight. lovely.

      • Genghis says:

        I find the Castelnau Rose significantly more drinkable than the normal Castelnau

      • Rhys says:

        Is it easy to check into T5 and then head over to T4 and back to T5 for departure?

        • the real harry1 says:

          no – opposite ends of the airport, well nearly

          easy as in perfectly possible, I guess – with easy transport links

        • Gavin says:

          Impossible without a boarding pass for a T4 flight I would say

  • pauldb says:

    Yes both (in 2012). The Northolme is solid but nothing particularly special. The Labriz we loved and got a gold upgrade to an enormous beachfront pool villa, so that would be my choice, though it was more casual and Northolme had better food (generally we found staffing better on the larger islands.) Labriz had only just joined Hilton back then. But as I said upthread overall I would plan to stay elsewhere on Praslin / La Digue if you can.

  • Anna says:

    OT – I made my first billhop payment for £5 yesterday and have been asked to email passport or similar proof of ID – I though this was just for transactions over £250?

    • Rob says:

      If they cannot verify your identity electronically I think they need something, and for everyone over £250.

      • Anna says:

        I’ve just spoken to them – they need proof of ID for your first Amex transaction only, worth being aware of if you don’t want a delay in a payment going through.

  • babygwc says:

    Additional seats seem keep being added. EG they werent there yesterday or earlier today.. looked again tonight and snagged 2 first class (2 4 1), wanted to try first class, seems a great deal when offpeak too..

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

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