Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Surf Air adds flights to Sion in Switzerland

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Surf Air, the membership based private jet company which recently moved to London City Airport, has launched flights to Sion in Switzerland over the ski season.’

Surf Air to Syon

This adds a further route to their daily service from London to Zurich.  Sion may be a more useful route than Zurich, since commercial flights to the airport are few and far between.

My review of Surf Air’s service to Zurich is here.


best credit card to use when buying flights

How to maximise your miles when paying for flights (April 2025)

Some UK credit cards offer special bonuses when used for buying flights. If you spend a lot on airline tickets, using one of these cards could sharply increase the credit card points you earn.

Booking flights on any airline?

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold earns double points (2 Membership Rewards points per £1) when used to buy flights directly from an airline website.

The card comes with a sign-up bonus of 20,000 Membership Rewards points. These would convert to 20,000 Avios or various other airline or hotel programmes. The standard earning rate is 1 point per £1.

You can apply here.

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

Buying flights on British Airways?

The British Airways Premium Plus American Express card earns double Avios (3 Avios per £1) when used at ba.com.

The card comes with a sign-up bonus of 30,000 Avios. The standard earning rate is 1.5 Avios per £1.

You do not earn bonus Avios if you pay for BA flights on the free British Airways American Express card or either of the Barclaycard Avios Mastercards.

You can apply here.

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

30,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

Buying flights on Virgin Atlantic?

Both the free Virgin Atlantic Reward Mastercard and the annual fee Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard earn double Virgin Points when used at fly.virgin.com.

This means 1.5 Virgin Points per £1 on the free card and 3 Virgin Points per £1 on the paid card.

There is a sign-up bonus of 3,000 Virgin Points on the free card and 18,000 Virgin Points on the paid card.

You can apply for either of the cards here.

Virgin Atlantic Reward Mastercard

3,000 bonus points, no fee and 1 point for every £1 you spend Read our full review

Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard

18,000 bonus points and 1.5 points for every £1 you spend Read our full review

Comments (58)

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

  • callum says:

    You can also take the bus – probably even worse than 6 train changes though!

    • John says:

      It will cost more than £1.50 unless you board the final bus less than 70 minutes after boarding the initial bus.

      • Rod says:

        Plus the hopper fare in London is limited to the initial journey plus one more journey on another bus, i.e. You can’t use multiple buses >2 during the time period

    • Lady London says:

      Doesn’t anyone just take the Piccadilly Line to Heathrow anymore?

      And don’t forget the unpublicised line that goes from Ealing Broadway to Heathrow… much much cheaper than the Heathrow Express. But it uses the exact same rails and about three per hour.

  • SydneySwan says:

    Sydney Airport to Sydney City or vv is possible for $A2.57, even cheaper for concession card holders, pensioners.

  • Concerto says:

    And from Sion SIR you can just walk downtown to the rail station in 15-20 minutes. The old centre is 5-10 minutes beyond that.

  • Stuart Smith says:

    The guy that created that £1.50 across London video, Geoff Marshall, has a great channel on all things Tube / train and slightly geeky (not just train spotting… Take a look at “why all tube stations have 15 floors”)… Recommend anyone with even a slight bit of tube interest to give it a go…

    • signol says:

      He’s the guy that did All The Stations last year. Including Teeside Airport with its one train per week…

  • Dan says:

    Just don’t hope to take your own skis on Surfair – virtually no chance they’ll fit on a Citation 550!

  • Alex W says:

    OT. After nearly a year, Avios finally posted from Lloyds credit card this morning. Totally out of the blue, so I’ll be retrospectively asking for compo. No voucher yet either (fine by me as I can’t use it yet).

    • Anna says:

      Me too. Only the outstanding points though, no extra avios or voucher sadly.

      • Alex W says:

        Yesterday not 1 but 2 upgrade vouchers posted. One with 1 year validity and the other expires in November. Plus I got another £50 compo for the extra delay over and above the 6 months they told me.

        Added to the £200 compo and 5000 odd Avios from the original complaint, not a bad result I think overall.

  • The Original Nick says:

    O:T, I can’t seem to find the “miles more friends” (refer a friend) link on my VS account anymore. Has anyone found or used it recently? It was working last September.

    • Rob says:

      Gone.

    • Fenny says:

      Finding anything on the VS site is almost impossible now. I can’t see more than the last 10 flying club transactions (custom date search doesn’t work) and have no idea when my PE upgrade vouchers are due to expire, cos I can’t see them.

      • Charlie says:

        New website is rubbish! But the Custom date search works fine for me, showing last 2 years of activity. You need to call up for all matters to do with the PE upgrades.

  • Kathy says:

    Wow, it’s bad enough taking 2 and a bit hours to get to Heathrow from Essex, can’t imagine adding another hour and five Train changes to that!

    • Tilly says:

      I know! Takes us 2 hours from end of central line to LHR if everything runs like clockwork, including our 5 mins walk to the station. It’s painful. Driving and parking (despite being 10 times more expensive) is our preferred option now.

      • Kathy says:

        I’ve been known to cough up for the Heathrow Express just to save myself an extra 30 minutes on the tube, after an overnight in economy. Taking a taxi all the way would be lovely but alas that is out of my budget.

        • Tilly says:

          Which is why we drive. Half the cost of a taxi and far quicker and less grief than the tube with luggage…………. unless there’s gridlock on the M25.

          • Rob says:

            Now kids are free the HEx is less bad for families (although kids are free on the tube as well of course).

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