Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Will there be an Avios platform announcement this week?

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We may get an announcement this week about the long-delayed restructuring of the avios.com platform.

There are a lot of moving parts, but what is rumoured is that avios.com will close as a standalone platform.  You will no longer have an avios.com account – you will only be able to have accounts with one of the airline partners.

You may have noticed that the avios.com website has been looking a little abandoned recently:

Avios wing 12

  • the Laithwaite’s wine deal closed 10 days ago but is still being promoted even though the landing page is dead
  • the opposite has happened with the new Economist offer of 13,200 Avios – the Avios landing page only shows 4,400 until you click through.
  • the Lloyds Avios credit cards are still being promoted although they are no longer available online

avios.com will not be going away, however.  Instead, the website may (or may not) become – like milesandmore.com – the place where you go to check your balance and redeem your points, with redemption stripped from the airline sites.  Aer Lingus and Vueling already operate like this, so it is ‘only’ a question of changing British Airways, Iberia, Meridiana, kulula.com and LEVEL.  I’m not sure how Flybe would be treated.

This is still very much speculation, however.  For clarity, this is not a devaluation and no-one will lose out, although there may be an impact on avios.com partners who are exclusive to that platform.

HFP-Barclaycard-Avios-Card

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (September 2023)

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 £12,000 Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points.

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

30,000 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

Get a 10,000 points bonus plus an extra 500 points for our readers 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.

EDIT: Applications for this card are temporarily suspended due to IT issues with the British Airways On Business SME loyalty scheme.

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 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.

Category

British Airways and Avios

Comments (141)

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

  • Andrew says:
    9 Apr9 April 13:55

    OT – £50 back on £250 spend with Apple currently saved on my BAPP. If you have it, save it fast as only open to 3,500 registrations.

  • Ben E says:
    9 Apr9 April 13:56

    OT: there was an article a while back about being able to get into lounges (around the world?) in Brazil with your gold or platinum amex. Seems to not be working any more… only domestic cards allow for access, as I just found 🙁

    • Rob says:
      9 Apr9 April 14:01

      That’s odd, the whole point of Amex is that it is a global product. Thanks for the update.

  • sunguy says:
    9 Apr9 April 15:19

    OT:

    SHOCK/HORROR……

    Outsource your ATC service to the Duty Free shop and have to close because of lack of staff!

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-43698803

    • mark2 says:
      9 Apr9 April 16:31

      I give up. What is the connection to the duty free shop?

      • mark2 says:
        9 Apr9 April 19:15

        There is a very big difference between the duty free shop owner and the duty free shop.

    • Anna says:
      9 Apr9 April 20:08

      Perhaps having an ATC will become a paid extra like checked luggage and seat selection?

  • JamesB says:
    9 Apr9 April 20:30

    Way OT bit: Rob, whilst you are in the process of updating the look dtc of HFP can you please add a toggle enabling us to switch between ‘earliest/latest first’ views of the comment if the software used will allow this? It might be useful in articles with huge amounts of comments. Thanks.

  • Tilly says:
    9 Apr9 April 20:35

    O/T – after a bit of advice please from seasoned travellers. Found a trip I’d like to book but the travel agency accept debit or credit card payment for the deposit but then all other balance payments is by cheque or bank transfer only. The trip is over £7k so won’t be paying the full amount in one go. But uneasy about bank transfer of such large sums for a holiday. They seat to be atol protected but still ………… any advice? My sister and brother in law booked their honeymoon through them (exact same package we are looking to book).

    Alternative is a similar package through another agent who is very reputable, we used them for our honeymoon and incidentally have a £100 off £1000 spend on my amex plat card at the moment for them (Trailfinders). Only thing is their package is a little more expensive but that can be tweaked.

    • Tilly says:
      9 Apr9 April 20:36

      *They appear to be atol protected*

    • JamesB says:
      9 Apr9 April 21:00

      At the price I guess you must have a lot of premium hotel rooms so why not give Bon Vivant a chance to see if they can do something for you?

      • Tilly says:
        9 Apr9 April 21:32

        It’s a tour package so includes guides, transfers, excursions and 4* accommodation with a few meals. BA WTP flights. For 2 people.

    • Anna says:
      9 Apr9 April 21:16

      I’m sure it’s possible to check if they are really an ATOL member, however I would be wanting to put that kind of spend on a points/voucher earning card so would find a travel agent which did accept credit cards for that as well as protection from fraud/going bust/etc. I imagine travel agents have to compete quite hard for business these days with so many people organising their own trips and there will be one which at least accepts Visa or Mastercard if not Amex.

      • Tilly says:
        9 Apr9 April 21:37

        It’s like you read my mind Anna. Was wanting to check though that I wasn’t being over cautious for the protection side of things and also wanting to use my amex or HH visa card for the points is a big factor.

        My sister and BIL used them and highly recommend them but it’s the payment arrangements I’m uncomfortable about.

    • Jonathan says:
      9 Apr9 April 21:37

      As long as the overall transaction is over £100, which your trip sounds like it is. Then you should have section 75 protection from the credit card company assuming you pay the deposit on CC and not a debit card.

  • Roger says:
    9 Apr9 April 21:50

    With loyalty programs taking a beating today, check out OMAAT.
    Possible culling of SPG to Airline transfer on 16th April?

    It may just be a rumor or not?

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

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