Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

LATAM launches a £973 business class flight deal to Rio for August travel

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

LATAM has launched a very attractive business class fare to Rio, from just £973 in Business Class.

In theory this fare can be booked out of Madrid, Barcelona, Frankfurt and Rome.  By late last night, the two Spanish starting points were virtually out of availability.

Rome and Frankfurt were still available. 

LATAM business class to rio

Similar fares were also still showing from Frankfurt.  The issue is that Rome and Frankfurt use older aircraft without the newest seat.  Anika did a review of LATAM / LAN business class here, albeit on the short-hop from Madrid to Frankfurt, but that was on a Boeing 787 (the A350 is similar) and not the older Boeing 767 or 777 you are likely to find here.

Note that the 1 hour connecting flight from Sao Paulo to Rio is in Economy.

As LATAM is a member of oneworld, alongside British Airways, you will earn BA tier points (140 points each way for the long-haul segment) and Avios on the ticket.

You need to book by 17th July.  More importantly, all travel must be completed by 31st August.

You can book on the LATAM / LAN site here.

If you don’t have a credit card with 0% foreign exchange fees, your best option for paying is American Express Preferred Rewards Gold which offers triple points – 3 per £1 – when you book flight tickets in a foreign currency.  This is because the transaction triggers the ‘double points for airline spend’ and the ‘double points for foreign spend’ bonuses.  Our review of Amex Gold 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 (81)

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

  • lev441 says:

    It works if you are wanting to upgrade the gold charge card which is no longer available. My personal experience is that the card fee was never applied whilst in the first year of card membership of the gold..

  • gill says:

    OT – checking my options on transferring avios.

    I’m short of 8k avios to make a booking on a 241. I don’t have enough in my avios / iberia to make it up. My son has 26k MR rewards but no BA or avios account. Am i right in thinking that he should setup executive club, shift MR to avios to cover the shortfall and then we’d create a household account to combine?

    There’s plenty of points across avois / ba in my partners account but I haven’t found a free transfer option.

    thanks

    • Peter K says:

      Why not add your partner to a household account then the Avios are removed pro-rata from your accounts. It will work with your idea for your son as well. I think you can only make one change to a household account every 6 months. Rob has an article on this.

  • lev441 says:

    O/T – anyone know how many guests (if any) I can take into the eurostar lounge using my platinum amex

    • KevMc says:

      Off the top of my head, I don’t think you’re allowed to guest anyone in. When me and my wife went, we both had to show our platinum cards to gain access.

      • Rob says:

        Correct, no guests. You’d need to issue a supp Platinum card to your partner (first one is free, rest are £170).

  • pauldb says:

    OT – if you didn’t read, the Amex Platinum Vista email is offering free hospitality at Brighton Premier League games. Seems like you call them up and request, then within seven days they’ll make a selection and let the lucky ones know. Chance of success must be pretty good.

  • gill says:

    Thanks – I was avoiding as my partner needs to move some avios around to do a Lloyds but I think that will be the quickest solution. Get the points he needs from his ba to avois.com then setup the household one.
    I had through the MR to BA was instant but it looks like that would take a day or two.

  • Andy says:

    Hi Rob.
    Interesting read and oddly enough I was at a football event at the Habtoor Grand last night (less said about that the better).
    The grounds and interior for what little I saw last night look very impressive, its a little bit of a pain to get from Black Tap / Rixos perhaps but I will book a stay there next time Im back (it was 44 degrees at 0130 last night) so wont be for a few weeks yet and give you a bit more feedback.
    Glad to see your event went well, I will get to one someday…
    Cheers

  • Canuck says:

    O/T: Looking for some advice on aircraft changes;

    Booked on YYC>LHR on a BA 787 in Sept. Today it was changed to a 789. All our seats have been shuffled from 21HJK to 30F / 33JK. We did originally have bassinet seats for infant, but not anymore.

    Is this a case of tough luck? or any advice on what to say to the agent? Sounds privileged but I chose BA for the bassinet seats for our infant.

    • the real harry1 says:

      Can’t you choose bassinet seats for free if you are travelling with infant? Have they been grabbed by somebody else?

      Or try booking them yourself if you have an infant included, on the Royal Jordanian MMB site.

      • Canuck says:

        BA show no bassinet seats at all on a 789. I tried Jordianian – picked new seats but get;

        ERROR(S)
        Please provide us with a birthdate. (1429)

        • Crafty says:

          Call them. Depending on age of child I would be kicking up a real fuss about flying without access to one where that access had been expected.

  • the real harry1 says:

    Finnair?

    • the real harry1 says:

      Otherwise ring up, sounds like the seats you want are available, I used 0191 4907901 the other day

      • Canuck says:

        Thank you. Finnair deep linked to BA MMB. I called BA and there are no bassinet seats. Agent moved us to sit together (no charge) but other than that we have to just suck it up.

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.