Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

This weekend: BA Holidays Club Europe flash sale, £15 off Lufthansa, Cathay Pacific flash sale

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News in brief:

New BA Holidays Club Europe flash sale launched

BA Holidays is running another of its ‘luxury flash sale’ events this weekend.  Accommodation is either in 4* or 5* hotels and flights are in Club Europe.  You have until Monday 19th February to book.

Here are the headline deals they are using to promote the event. The price is per person based on two sharing:

  • London to Rome – Flights + 3 nights luxury hotel from £298 in Spring
  • London to Nice – Flights + 3 nights in a luxury hotel from £446 in Spring
  • London to Barcelona – Flights + 3 nights luxury hotel from £366 in Spring and £345 in Autumn
  • London to Majorca – Flights + 3 nights luxury hotel from £475 in Spring and £478 in Autumn
  • London to Amsterdam – Flights + 3 nights luxury hotel from £295 in Spring
  • London to Iceland – Flights +3 nights luxury hotel from £482 in Spring and £459 in Autumn

You don’t need to pay now. You can just pay a deposit of as little as £150 per booking. The balance is not due until five weeks before departure.

For clarity, flights booked via BA Holidays earn full Avios and tier points. The only thing you cannot earn are British Airways On Business points.

To maximise your miles when paying, your best bet is the British Airways American Express Premium Plus card which earns double Avios (3 per £1) when you book at ba.com or via BA Holidays.  You do not get double Avios if you book with the free British Airways American Express card.  Another option is American Express Preferred Rewards Gold which offers double points – 2 per £1 – when you book flight tickets directly with an airline.

Full details are on this special Club Europe page of the BA Holidays website.

Get £15 off any Lufthansa flight

Lufthansa has launched a new £15 off promo code.

The code is valid on any round-trip starting in the UK including all taxes, fees and carrier charges.

You must book by 18th February 2018 for travel before 31st May 2018.

The catchy promo code you need to enter on the payment page when booking is Z3RHNQQLE60U

Full T&Cs are on this page.

Cathay Pacific Chinese New Year flash sale

Also ending on Sunday is a Cathay Pacific flash sale.

There are some decent fares available from London Heathrow, Gatwick and Manchester.  Deals include:

Hong Kong in Premium Economy from £849

Australia in Business from £2869

China in Business from £1969

The travel dates in Economy and Premium Economy are 10th April 2018 – 19th June 2018, 21st August 2018 – 30th September 2018 and 1st November 2018 – 6th Decmber 2018.

In Business Class you must travel between 1st June 2018 and 31st December 2018.

Your best option to maximise your miles when paying is American Express Preferred Rewards Gold.  This offers double points – 2 per £1 – when you when you book flight tickets directly with an airline.  Our review of Amex Gold is here.

The Cathay Pacific website is 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.

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 (23)

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

  • Luke says:

    I was stuggling to use AMEX travel offer, but I found excellent way to use this offer, enjoy lie flat business seats and catch 120 TP needed for my BA silver…much better value than BA luxury sale. I booked LHR-MAD-PMI in business under 180£ using Amex 50£ off. LHR – MAD on BA B777 lie flat, MAD-LHR on IB A340 lie flat. Availability on AMEX travel was good over next couple weeks (this was also working for Malaga, Alicante for a few pounds more). Not much excited about Mallorka in February, but nice chill out tier points run. THis routing did work for flights and flights+car, but not for flight+hotel bundle.

    • Nick says:

      Similarly most airports in Andalusia are available for a bit of winter sunshine, currently working out about £210-250 pre-discount, with excellent connections in Madrid from/to the widebodies. I didn’t know PMI was an option, maybe I’ll try to fit one of them in too!

  • Steve says:

    Is there a map function on or off the BA site to work out the location of the hotels in the BA Europe holiday sale – i.e. displaying them all on a map for any particular selected city?

  • SUE says:

    Sorry probably a silly question but booking flights directly with cathay pacific – can I still get BA avios by entering the BA exec account number on the booking form? Or does it have to be an asia miles account to get any points / miles? Thank you!

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

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