Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

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.

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.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 12th May 2024, the Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa card is offering a bonus of 30,000 points, convertible into 30,000 Avios. You must have a Limited Company to apply. Click here to learn more and click here to apply.

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.

Category

British Airways and Avios, Iberia and Iberia Plus

Comments (147)

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

  • Crafty says:
    23 Jul23 July 08:55

    Anyone know of a list/directory somewhere of all the airports that offer a “non lounge” alternative with PP?

    • Peter K says:
      23 Jul23 July 11:28

      I’ve not looked myself but maybe the Priority Pass website? Don’t rely on the printed booklet they send you as even though I received it about a month ago it is out of date compared to the online list.

  • totaltool says:
    23 Jul23 July 09:10

    O/T Question about using Curve in New Zealand and Australia. All hotels etc seem to charge 2% for credit card use. I use a Santander Zero card abroad with no fees but obviously no points! Thinking of using Curve with its 1% fees but would thus avoid the 2% additional charge. Not sure how direct debit cards… and I would get points as an unplanned bonus. Anyone have any experience of using Curve in these countries?

    • totaltool says:
      23 Jul23 July 09:11

      how direct debit cards are treated

      • JPa says:
        23 Jul23 July 09:59

        I assume this is an extra charge added to the bill. Therefore you would still be paying the 2% with the bill plus an additional 1% with curve. As you can’t earn more than about 0.5 to 0.8% with a visa/mastercard it if probably not worth doing. Unless you have an IHG black or new virgin card and are trying to get to the free night or 2 for 1 vouchers for £10K spend.

        • David says:
          23 Jul23 July 11:08

          Except Curve isn’t a credit card…..

        • Mark says:
          23 Jul23 July 13:57

          I guess the hotels would need to advise how they treat debit cards. If they add the 2% anyway then you may be better off using the Santander Zero (or cash if that works out better). If not, then the Curve card is likely to be the better option.
          I don’t recall it being an issue when we visited NZ and Australia in 2011, but if things have changed since it may of course vary between hotels. If you have all bases covered you can respond accordingly.

    • Lumma says:
      23 Jul23 July 11:20

      One other thing to be careful of in Australia is that they seem to like automatically adding the dynamic currency conversion without asking.

      As it will often ask for a signature rather than PIN, the amount will then end up as pending for a couple of days even if you then refuse to sign for it.

    • John says:
      23 Jul23 July 13:27

      Before I got a bank account in Australia I just withdrew cash to pay.

      The fee is not added on for prepaid rates (most of the time)

    • the_real_a says:
      23 Jul23 July 13:58

      Dont they charge 2% on ANY card transaction?

      • Andrew S says:
        23 Jul23 July 14:59

        I expect unless you use an Australian or New Zealand bank account linked EFTPOS card, then you will be charged the 2% fee because mastercard and visa debit cards are basically a prepaid credit card in New Zealand and Australia. The fee is because the Australian banks own the EFTPOS payment network where as visa and mastercard own their respective debit and credit card payment networks.

  • Dannyrado says:
    23 Jul23 July 09:43

    OT:
    I have a friend transiting DOH for 7hours (QR economy). Any tricks to get him access to a lounge or any suggestions on how to make things a little more comfortable?

    • Rob says:
      23 Jul23 July 10:53

      Not really – the Priority Pass lounge which presumably also takes cash is awful.

      Best to pay for the transit hotel although that isn’t cheap.

    • Bsuije says:
      24 Jul24 July 10:23

      Check Flyertalk to see if there is a DOH lounge meet up thread? There is definitely a lounge that OW Emeralds can access even on a Y ticket which is very decent, though I’m not sure if guests are allowed. There is also one for OW Sapphires, I think. Check the OW lounges website for more details.

  • AndyR says:
    23 Jul23 July 09:46

    The Priority Pass website doesn’t list the Alaska lounge or the House Spirits Distillery in PHX, only The Club. Is there anywhere with a complete a list?

  • Claire says:
    23 Jul23 July 10:02

    O/T: The expiry date on the new style IC Ambassador weekend cert is just month/year. Mine says 01/2019. I’d think that means trips can be taken until the end of Jan, but just wondered if anyone can confirm as I don’t want them telling me it has expired at the beginning of Jan!
    I don’t suppose there’s any way of transferring these now they have the name and number on them?

  • Calvin says:
    23 Jul23 July 10:37

    No sign of the Clubcard to Avios transfer bonus email. Where can I find this promotion? Not too keen on transferring before any black and white confirmation is available.

    • Brian says:
      23 Jul23 July 12:26

      There is no bonus – unless you count the competition as a bonus!

  • Rash says:
    23 Jul23 July 11:02

    OT: Heading to Lyon this weekend (family of 4) a bit last minute and I haven’t booked a hotel. What would people recommend as a genuine last minute hotel booking site for the best prices? I’ve gone through the usual suspects (booking.com, lastminute, hotels.com etc.) there may be on I have missed…

    • Rob says:
      23 Jul23 July 11:59

      Weekend in Summer in a major tourist city? Not sure I would hold out much hope for a bargain, I’d be more worried about not much being left.

    • Graham Walsh says:
      23 Jul23 July 12:18

      Laterooms, hoteltonight?

    • Brian says:
      23 Jul23 July 12:27

      Airbnb.

    • Lady London says:
      23 Jul23 July 13:07

      Accor can sometimes be vaguely reasonable at the very last minute in France and Lyon is not a particularly popular tourist destination as compared so, say, the Cote d’Azur, at this time of year.

    • RussellH says:
      23 Jul23 July 14:35

      I use HRS

      http://www.hrs.com/?client=en__blue&customerId=416873103 ios my personal link – they do sometimes, if they remember and have not ‘lost’ the data, pay me a very small commission.

      As a German firm, though, it is best for Germany, but does cover the rest of the world. Has in the past found me some excellent prices, though obviously not always!

    • pauldb says:
      23 Jul23 July 16:01

      Trivago and then Hotwire if you’re happy to spend a few minutes figuring out the “secret hotel”

  • BJ says:
    23 Jul23 July 11:20

    OT: More cutbacks at BA, ground services and possibly IFE

    https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/6840156/british-airways-manager-suspended-after-he-was-accused-of-selling-sex/

    • Lady London says:
      23 Jul23 July 13:09

      “To Fly, to Serve”

      I could ask why is this more interesting given that it’s a bloke doing it.
      Sorry, I’m having a most unlady-like Lady London moment over this 🙂

      • BJ says:
        23 Jul23 July 14:58

        I’m guessing this is gearing up for a demanding week at the office for many of the male FA.

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

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