Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Will there be an Avios platform announcement this week?

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

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.


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 (141)

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

  • Sergio says:

    Rob will we loose the ability to transfer points between BAEC to Iberia Plus?

    • Lady London says:

      This is one of my worries.
      British Airways can’t be pleased if we can repeatedly transfer our avios earned on British Airways flights, to use them on the better cheaper offering on Iberia.

      Remember folks this is about reducing our choice and reducing the costs to British Airways not increasing it. How many vendors does Avios have you can earn and spend with right now, that will conflict with the choices made by British Airways? I still haven’t forgiven IAG for dropping Hertz when I far prefer them to Avis. Star Alliance airlines are now getting my car hire business when Hertz and usually Star alliance gets the associated flights now too.

      My only interest now is in watching how they try to spin this lack of choice as a good thing…

      • Rob says:

        Combine My Avios will continue, and of course is necessary for Flybe members, assuming they don’t want more Flybe flights!

        • Cate ⛱️ says:

          Rob, is there a possibility that Iberia are thinking of leaving?

          I’m asking this because over the last 5-6 months there’s a definite coldness coming from Iberia’s staff – verging on rudeness from Madrid’s gate dragons. Our flight alert updates now only come in Spanish, they have offers only available to Spanish residents i.e. Fathers day reductions if your Spanish, reduced number of avios on certain flights if your Spanish etc. This weekend they moved us to middle seats when we already had confirmed window seats (paid cash biz). No one sat in those seats for the flight so there was no reason to move us.

      • JamesB says:

        I’m missing the point here, it is all avios, it is all IAG, if it is a single platform then thete is no need to transfer, there will be no Iberia or BA etc. All this should surprise nobody, it has been expected for two years at least. What I am hoping for is that it brings with it more comprehensive loading of rewards seats not only for IAG but across One World partners too, and is supported by powerful search functionality for multiple partner flights, open jaw, multi city, vouchers etc. Wishful thinking perhaps but let’s see. I’m not to worried about impacts on earning and non airline buring as most earning come from credit cards, tesco and flying anyway, and burning in most cases is best done on flights.

        • Rob says:

          It is a single platform but, from what I am reading, individual accounts will remain. This MAY also mean different partners for each scheme, unless all the airlines want to do a LOT of renegotiating. At some point it will end up like Miles & More where everyone has access to an identical platform but I doubt that will happen here on Day 1.

        • JamesB says:

          Scrap all that, just read the link abd I get the point 🙂

        • JamesB says:

          Sounds to me like they are going to change a dog’s breakfast into a dog’s dinner, typical BA. Hopefully you are right and we still end up wi th a single plaftform sonewheredown the line.

  • Anna says:

    The CSR said it will all be transferred across – however I am going to take screenshots as I am not convinced!

    • Cate ⛱️ says:

      Useful tip Anna. Doesn’t hurt to have something to back up a claim should the occasion arise. Thank you.

  • Alex says:

    From reading the FAQ, you can spend on Flybe but not earn through BAEC unless it’s a BA codeshare which for domestic non-connecting flights are rarely codeshares. Does leave open the possibility of a another new programme from Flybe or will earnings on Flybe eventually be scrapped?

  • Anna says:

    Totally OT but as bits – HH Gold – apparently I can get extra points or free breakfast in some hotels. How do you tell them which one you want? Just thinking if you check in online and use the digital key you may never speak to the reception staff.

    • Peter K says:

      I imagine if you don’t ask they’ll give you the points as it’s cheaper for them. I find it’s worth asking for the free drink etc as quite often they’ll give you the points as well.

    • paulm says:

      In the app so you can set your preferences for each hotel brand. Called my way benefits

    • Lyn says:

      You can also set your preferences / my way benefits by logging in to your Hilton account on their web-site if you don’t have the app.
      I don’t know know if this works for existing bookings or only those booked after you have updated your preferences though.

  • Lady London says:

    Will this result in better availability on the BA site?
    Haha.

  • r* says:

    How will the avios closure affect redeeming for aer lingus lower taxes flight? The avios site seems to be only pointing to moving points to BAEC so will points sitting there still be usable via BAEC call center for AL flights?

  • Alex says:

    Also wondering this. Have Hilton stays booked through avios.com up to December 2018, the last of which probably won’t post until Q1 19.

  • Rob says:

    It remains standalone, yes.

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.