Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Get 1,000 Avios with a new British Airways wine deal from Laithwaites

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Wine retailer Laithwaites, the UK’s largest mail-order wine retailer (it runs The Sunday Times Wine Club as well as pretty much every other branded mail-order operation), has been a BAEC partner for many years via The British Airways Wine Club and now Wine Explorer. It has also offered deals to avios.com members since the Air Miles relaunch in 2011.

A new British Airways Executive Club / Wine Explorer deal for Spring, with a generous first order bonus, has just been launched.

They are now offering this new deal (click for details):

A 12-bottle case for £54.99 – choose from whites, reds or a mixed case

FREE delivery

1,000 Avios (250 Avios for existing customers)

2 free bottles of Rioja and a pair of Dartington Crystal glasses

BE AWARE – you are getting tied into something. Every 8 or 12 weeks and for Christmas, Laithwaites will contact you with details of a new case. If you do not specifically say that you do not want to receive it, either online or by phone, it will be sent to you and charged to the credit card you used for your initial order. The small print can be found here.

So, in return for the cash saving on your first case, you are going to have to deal with some admin from Laithwaites going forward.  Once you have got your 1,000 Avios banked you can quit the Wine Plan but this may take a month or so.

Whether you want to go for this depends on how well organised you are. Overall, to be honest, it is a pretty good deal – 12 bottles of wine (+2 free bottles) at a bargain price, 1000 Avios and two wine glasses thrown in.  I doubt the wine will be too bad, given that they want to encourage you to buy more.

Full details of the offer can be found here.


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

20,000 points (ONLY TO 9TH DECEMBER) Read our full review

Capital on Tap Pro Visa

30,000 points (TO 9TH DECEMBER) 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 (10)

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

  • Talay says:

    Do people find the pond water offered by these “12 bottles for £99” or so actually drinkable ?

    I was once a member of The Sunday Times Wine Club but way back then all I knew was red or white.

    A few recent attempts to illicit value from such clubs has only met with rubbish cheap wine sold cheaply.

    • Genghis says:

      I was very impressed with their enprimeur service last year (but yes, no points of course). Bought some unfashionable cote de rhone for a very reasonable price. Should be ready in another 8 years for my 40th!

  • Simon says:

    I did this last time. Wine was decidedly “meh”. Also never got the points, must chase that one.

  • Liz says:

    Has anyone else noticed that the Real Harry has been missing for a while in the comments – especially the wine and groupon articles. Hope you are ok Harry.

    • Worzel says:

      I’m sure Squills is fine, and sense there’s a name change afoot! 🙂 .

  • Flowerdew Bob says:

    Is this open to those people who were previously members?

  • Scottydoggiom says:

    How easy is it to cancel is the question . I like the sound of the deal but dont want to sign up to getting wines sent to the house all the time . Trying to limit my drinking ! 🙂

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

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