Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Sign up for the British Airways ‘16,000 Avios for four short-haul return flights’ promo

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As of now (2nd March), you can register for the British Airways potentially very lucrative new bonus Avios promotion.

Until 30th June you can earn up to 16,000 bonus Avios on certain short-haul routes to and from the UK.

In short the offer is:

  • Earn 4,000 bonus Avios if you fly four to seven single flights
  • Earn 16,000 bonus Avios if you fly eight or more single flights

British Airways A320

There is no restriction on booking classes.  You can even book the cheapest hand baggage only economy fares.

If you manage four return flights over the next four months, you are getting 2,000 bonus Avios per flight (4,000 per return flight).  With hand baggage only fares as low as £28 one way to Bordeaux, this offer represents an excellent return.

Remember that you can use the BA Low Fare Finder tool here to quickly see the routes with the cheapest fares.  The full list of countries which are included in this offer is below.

How does it work?

In order to earn bonus Avios you must register here prior to booking your flight and include your Executive Club number when booking.

Flights must be booked and completed between 2nd March and 30th June 2018.  Existing bookings do not count.

One way and return flights are both eligible.  One way flights count as one sector and return flights as two.

For clarity – existing bookings made before Friday 2nd March do NOT count.  You should register here to ensure that you do not miss out.

Remember that, if you made a booking yesterday, you can cancel it within 24 hours for a full refund – with no cancellation fees – under BA’s cancellation policy.  Make sure the price has not gone up before you do this ….

Which routes are included?

Flights from and to London (Heathrow, Gatwick, City), Stansted, Bristol, Birmingham, Manchester and Edinburgh to the following destinations are included in this promotion:

Albania, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and Ukraine

UK domestic flights do not count.

How do you earn the bonus Avios?

You will only earn bonus Avios when flying on a British Airways flight and not on Iberia, Finnair or American Airlines.  Flights with BA franchises such as SUN-AIR, codeshare partners or oneworld alliance members are also excluded.  Avios redemptions do not count although cash bookings part-paid with Avios should be OK.

The promotion cannot be used with any other offer or discount.  Bonus Avios will be awarded by 15th July in a separate transaction at the end of the promotional period.

The website to register for this offer is here.  Remember that you MUST register before making your bookings and that you need to fly before 30th June.


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 (62)

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

  • Kev says:

    I just booked a flight to Munich for tomorrow this morning, but only registered for this offer now. Do you think I will get the points – or should I call, cancel and rebook it now that I have registered?

  • Cassidy Amey says:

    Im a little confused. So if i book the flight for my wife instead of myself. Do i still get the points?

    • Barry cutters says:

      Each account holder should register . And I’m assuming it’s flights not bookings that count

  • Ant says:

    Rob do you know if this works on flights BA are using leased aircraft for? Titan etc?

    • Rob says:

      Risky. They SHOULD work, and if you appeal to BAEC I think they will include them, but the booking system appears to see them as codeshare flights. There are problems, for example, doing ‘double Avios’ Gold card redemptions on these flights because the system doesn’t treat them as BA.

      • Ant says:

        Stupid question but would I know ahead of time if they are real BA metal or not? Ive seen a few flights say titan on them but ive also heard they are swapping more flights over to leased planes? Is there an easy way to spot them etc?

        • Rob says:

          If you look in ba.com it will show you if you look up your flight in the booking system. The problem is that they are being swapped at relatively short notice – I would be wary of anything booked from May onwards.

        • Ant says:

          Is it safer if i pick LHR flights rather than LGW?

  • Darren S says:

    The registering page is confusing. The box at the top says

    Flights required to qualify Bonus Avios
    2 or more one-way flights 4,000
    4 or more one-way flights 16,000

    So x2 one way flights gets me 4000 avios. The t&cs suggest otherwise

    • Rob says:

      It is 2 x returns and 4 x returns. No idea why they wrote that.

  • Aaron says:

    Would this work with Vueling flights booked on BA site?

  • Lee says:

    Do domestic sectors count towards the four flights if booked as a connection eg MAN-LHR-XXX-LHR-MAN? Would this trigger the 4K bonus?

    • david says:

      UK domestic flights do not count. From my understand you would have to go MAN-Europe.

  • david says:

    Can I book a BA return with my BA # my wife with hers and my son with his. Then combine with household. Would we then get 4k each?

    • Rob says:

      No, this is per Executive Club account.

      • david says:

        Sorry Rob I wasn’t clear. Me, my wife and my son all have separate Exec Club accounts. Is that still not count? Thanks.

        • Rob says:

          You were clear! You need four cash flights going through the same BAEC account (ie flown by the same person) to get the full bonus.

  • Bezimo says:

    When you open BA website the offer stands at 2x single flights for 4000. avios and 4x single flights for 16000 avios,

    • Rob says:

      Yes, they’ve messed that up and I’ve no idea why it has not been changed yet.

      • Bezimo says:

        Rob. That’s strange because when you open up terms and conditions page and read the small print, to get 16000 avios credited to your executive account you indeed need to take 7 or more qualifying single flights. I guess BA messed up their promotion, adversting an offer that differs from their terms and condition. Its probably better to give them a ring before signing up for this offer.

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

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