Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

A new ‘buy Avios’ points bonus launches today – with changes to the rules

Links on Head for Points may support the site by paying a commission.  See here for all partner links.

If all goes to plan – and we are writing this in advance – British Airways will today launch its latest ‘buy Avios’ bonus promotion.

Until 23rd February you can get up to 35% bonus Avios when you buy points.

You will get:

10% bonus when you buy 1,000 – 15,000 Avios

20% bonus when you buy 20,000 – 35,000 Avios

30% bonus when you buy 40,000 – 80,000 Avios

35% bonus when you buy 90,000+ Avios

Avios wing 11

You need to visit ba.com via this page in order to buy.

Note that Executive Club members in the USA and Canada are not allowed to take part.

What’s new?

Avios is trialling a couple of new ideas with this promotion.

First, British Airways has increased the number of Avios you can buy under this deal – the cap is now 200,000 points per year.

I don’t know why they have done this, as the best value is generally obtained by buying a small number of points to top off your account.  If you saw Rob on BBC1’s Rip Off Britain recently (you can watch the segment here, it is only 3 minutes long) you will know that one of the members of the public he tried to help had bought 100,000 Avios for £1600 without fully understand the restrictions behind them.

Secondly, what’s important to mention is that they have changed how you can buy Avios.

In the past you were able to purchase any multiple of 1,000.  Now there are defined bands as you can see below.  This can only be a negative as it might force you to buy more than you need if you are simply topping up.

You need to buy before midnight on Friday 23rd February to get the bonus.

The link to buy is here – if it isn’t live when you click through, try again later today.


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.

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.

Comments (40)

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

  • James says:

    So if you need 100,001 you would have to buy nearly 25k more than you needed.
    Poor show BA 🙁

    And only 35% sucks, but is better than nothing.

    • S says:

      Never bought Avios from BA, but is there anything stopping you from buying 100k and then 1k?

    • Crafty says:

      Don’t you buy 100,000 and then buy 1,000 in separate transactions?

  • Steve says:

    Disappointing news, think I’d allowed myself to be convinced that 50% ‘bonus’ would become a regular event. I wonder if this means that will be discontinued?

    I couldn’t always justify the cost of the 50% bonus but bit a couple of times for something specific, almost impossible to justify 35% but as some others have posited, better than nothing.

  • JohnT says:

    For small volumes (eg under 10k) – remember may be better to buy via MR points and Amex Gold – as they don’t charge a processing fee!

  • Mikeact says:

    Avios.com seem to be doing the same deal now.

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

The UK's biggest frequent flyer website uses cookies, which you can block via your browser settings. Continuing implies your consent to this policy. Our privacy policy is here.