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A new ‘buy Avios’ promotion launches today

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British Airways Executive Club is launching a new ‘buy Avios’ promotion today.  It will also apply if you gift Avios to someone else.

BA has lifted the annual purchase limit to 200,000 Avios as part of this offer.  Here are the bonus tiers:

  • Buy or gift 1,000 to 15,000 Avios and receive 20% bonus Avios
  • Buy or gift 20,000 to 35,000 Avios and receive 30% bonus Avios
  • Buy or gift 40,000 to 90,000 Avios and receive 35% bonus Avios
  • Buy or gift 100,000 to 200,000 Avios and receive 45% bonus Avios

AerClub members in Ireland will have a similar deal.  The offer runs until 6th August.

At the top end, you are paying a whopping £3,215 for 290,000 Avios.  That is 1.11p per point.  This is not necessarily a great idea as the best value is generally obtained by buying a small number of Avios to top off your account. 

If you saw me on BBC1’s Rip Off Britain recently (you can watch the segment here, it is only 3 minutes long) you will know that one of the members of the public I tried to help had bought 100,000 Avios for £1600 without fully understand the restrictions behind them.

I am not a buyer at 1.1p.  However, as my core article on ‘What is an Avios worth?’ shows, it is easy to get a lot more than 1.1p when redeeming.  My valuation is low because I do a lot of Gold Priority Rewards (using double Avios to force open a seat) and don’t always have a BA Amex 2-4-1 voucher to use.  If you are strategic you should do better than me.

The BA ‘buy Avios’ page is here.  If the offer doesn’t show, check back later in the day.

However ….

Before you buy, you should know that Groupon has launched another cheap Avios promotion in Spain, with Iberia Plus.  Click here for details.

Here are the prices:

  • 4,000 Iberia Plus Avios for €54 (1.2p)
  • 8,000 Iberia Plus Avios for €99 (1.1p)
  • 15,000 Iberia Plus Avios for €189 (1.1p)
  • 20,000 Iberia Plus Avios for €249 (1.1p)
  • 35,000 Iberia Plus Avios for €439 (1.1p)

You might find this a cheaper option for smaller quantities.

These Spanish Groupon offers – unlike the recent Irish offer – can get messy.  All of the information is in Spanish (Chrome can translate) and if you have problems you are dealing with the Iberia and Spanish Groupon contact centres.

You can buy a LOT of points though.  The limit is 5 coupons per Iberia account for the 4,000, 20,000 and 35,000 Avios packages and 10 per account for the 8,000 and 15,000 Avios packages.  These Avios can be transferred across to British Airways via ‘Combine My Avios’ without any problems.  Buyer beware though.

The Groupon Spain page you need is here.

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How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (April 2025)

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

Get 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

30,000 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.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on the ‘free for a year’ American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card is increased from 20,000 Membership Rewards points to 30,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (30,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on American Express Platinum is increased from 50,000 Membership Rewards points to a huge 80,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (80,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 30,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

80,000 bonus points and great travel benefits – for a large 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, and the standard card is FREE. Capital on Tap cards also have no FX fees.

Capital on Tap Visa

NO annual fee, NO FX fees and points worth 1 Avios per £1 Read our full review

Capital on Tap Pro Visa

10,500 points (=10,500 Avios) plus good benefits Read our full review

There is also a British Airways American Express card for small businesses:

British Airways American Express Accelerating Business

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

50,000 points when you sign-up 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, Iberia and Club Iberia Plus

Comments (138)

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

  • Chris Palmer says:
    23 Jul23 July 17:47

    OT: will there be an article about a no-deal Brexit and the planes no longer flying to the USA and Europe. I would have thought this would be quite important to readers?

    • Rob says:
      23 Jul23 July 17:52

      I don’t think the world needs even more Brexit speculation!

    • Lev441 says:
      23 Jul23 July 19:40

      I highly doubt planes will stop flying!!

      • Bagoly says:
        24 Jul24 July 18:04

        Next time you see a row of Easyjet ‘planes, look at the registration numbers.
        They have already (re?) registered quite a few in Austria (OE-) , as well as the Swiss ones (HB-).
        That will deal with their intra-EU operations.

        Flights between UK and EU will surely be subject to some of agreement, however last minute.

        BA (and Iberia) falling out of the US-EU deal would be much more of a risk, were it not for the AA-Iberia-BA-Finnair JV across the Atlantic.
        I regard that deal as generally bad for the consumer, but in the case of NoDeal meets Trump, it could be a major lifesaver.

        Is Virgin now in the AF/KL/DL deal?

  • rams1981 says:
    23 Jul23 July 18:18

    OT would people churn SPG Amex or is there a chance it’s withdrawn in next 6 months?

    • BJ says:
      23 Jul23 July 19:06

      Cancelled mine in March with intention of reapplying again late September.

  • PM says:
    23 Jul23 July 20:12

    OT what happens to my SPG points on the 1st August? Do they transfer to my linked Marriott account as Marriott points? Will my continued SPG Amex spend appear as Marriott points going forward?

    • Rob says:
      23 Jul23 July 22:01

      Nothing happens on 1st August. Mid month the new scheme launches and your accounts are pooled.

    • Rob says:
      24 Jul24 July 09:11

      In theory it is an entirely new rewards currency and both Marriott and SPG points will be turned into it.

  • Graham Walsh says:
    23 Jul23 July 21:52

    OT So I booked my ticket to Cairo the other week, when I looked at WT, it was about £1200, WT+ was £1450 and Club world was £850. You can guess which one I picked 🙂

    I went to look online today as I reached Bronze on Friday and it said I could select a seat. It had me in 1E – first class on the 787. There was nothing to confirm/change on MMB. Come to check in time, I am back in CW, guessing someone paid to upgrade so bumped me back down?

    • AndyR says:
      23 Jul23 July 22:24

      I didn’t think they had First to Cairo? 1E on the 787-8 is a Club World seat so maybe you were in that?

      • Graham Walsh says:
        24 Jul24 July 07:21

        I didn’t think so either unless Seat guru was incorrect or I had the wrong plane loaded.

      • Graham Walsh says:
        24 Jul24 July 16:47

        Sitting on the plane now and can confirm it has a first class section.

        • Nick says:
          24 Jul24 July 22:19

          CAI is scheduled for a 788, which has no F so F is not sold on the route. However it is occasionally substituted for a 789, where the F cabin will be closed unless the loads dictate that it has to be used, at which point Golds are moved forwards followed by anyone else they fancy. This is why you’re getting confused.

          Incidentally, don’t be so surprised that SeatGuru is wrong. It’s a crap tool and has no official link to BA so no one keeps it up to date anyway.

  • Jeff says:
    24 Jul24 July 00:02

    Solo?

    • Cat says:
      24 Jul24 July 11:29

      Yup, I’m a teacher, but my OH isn’t, and has a lot less holiday time than I do. I’ve been travelling solo since I was 19, so a < 10km hike and an evening by the pool on my own with a book isn't too much of a hardship. The OH might join me for the second night.

  • nick says:
    31 Jul31 July 11:12

    So, i’m thinking about buying the 200,000 points as I don’t travel with work as much as I used too. Is it good value if I use them on long haul 1st / club redemption using the 2-4-1 on the BA premium card?

    Need a bit of guidance as looking for a tokyo trip next year…

    Thanks for any help

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

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