Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

There is no British Airways Fast Track security at Nice Airport

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

Reader Justin sent me a photo of the Fast Track lane at Nice Terminal 1 which is a relatively new development over the last year or so.

As you can see, despite the heavy Club Europe loads on flights to Nice, the signs imply that British Airways has chosen not to pay the airport to let BA passengers use Fast Track.

A quick dig around online confirmed that this was the case.

Over the last year British Airways has been signing a few lounge access deals in airports where there was a lounge but they had previously refused to pay for it.

It would be good if this could be extended to Fast Track security access too.


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.

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.

Comments (115)

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

  • J says:

    OT. Very low cost Virgin flights from Gatwick to Orlando. Just booked economy light return in January for £251. Classic would have been £311.

    • Rob says:

      You should book Delight if the maths works as you get a massive miles bonus which basically offsets the price difference much of the time.

      • J says:

        Think it was £431 for delight, with an extra 8k miles. Maybe worth it if travelling alone or as a couple, but I don’t value my kids’ miles as high as my own – they can’t top up with credit card bonuses, so any payoff is probably too far in the future to consider investing in now.

  • Ant says:

    OT: apologies as I know it has been posted many times but does anyone have the link for the upgrade from Gold charge card to Platinum?

    Thanks.

  • Nick says:

    OT – Any further rumours on the Marriott Travel Package conundrum at all please? My scenario is have a Cat 1-5 Certificate but realistically the places we’d be most likely to use it are Cat 7 old / Cat 6 new +, which is making me think I should continue the gamble and upgrade the certificate before 18th. Thanks

    • Rob says:

      Not a sausage.

    • Nick M says:

      I have a Category 6 certificate and the most likely hotel to use it at the moment would be a new Category 5 (more points from 18/08)… however we’ve lots of job/house changes going through so don’t want to commit to dates/extra expense until we feel a bit more settled… taking the gamble, but hoping we don’t end up regretting it!

      • Alan says:

        Ditto, have a cat 6 (old) hoping to use on cat 5 (new) – although if decent points offer instead then happy with that too! Will see how things are treated, but fingers-crossed. Been about a week and no miles yet shown up, not sure how long they’ll take.

        • Nick says:

          Alan – anecdote but the Virgin Atlantic miles I purchased posted within 2 days of purchase on 2 Aug. Virgin always seems quick in these things though (e.g. Clubcard processing times, e-rewards etc). Avios and others seems to take longer.

  • Jason K says:

    OT – Is it possible to self refer from Amex Plat to BAPP and net the signup bonus as well as 18k referral bonus?
    I have the Plat and wife has BAPP, so trying to figure out the best plan for referral.

    • joe says:

      +1
      and also if there are any known risks that have happen because of it?

    • TGLoyalty says:

      It has been but you never know when AMEX will change their mind/change the IT.

      Referral from your wife is a guaranteed 9k avios where the 18k may or may not post. I’d probably take the risk but that’s me.

  • Nick says:

    It’s an interesting dilemma for BA and I kinda feel a bit sorry for them… an airport sees a way to earn more cash from airlines and builds a fast track lane, saying ‘if you want to use it, pay us €€’. Passengers naturally expect airlines to jump at it, but the airlines weren’t expecting it, have never needed it before, and haven’t budgeted for it. The approvals process for spend in big companies is long and complex, and there’s no data (yet) on how bad the regular queues will become with the split, so they don’t even know if it’ll be needed. I expect BA will probably apply it in NCE at least at the start of next year. Smaller stations such as Valencia probably never.

    • TGLoyalty says:

      Does frequency of eligible customer really matter? surely it’s all about cost per customer?

      Would a club europe customer choose another airline to fly to London if they were now offered fast track? I know I personally would.

      Also Rob seems it remembers your details but not the tick in the box so the next reply doesn’t remember.

  • Matthew says:

    OT – Irish Independent AVIOS

    For those people who took out an annual subscription just under a year ago for the amazing AVIOS deal.

    I have contacted Reach Home Delivery to cancel the subscription to try to ensure there is no automatic charge for renewal. They have now responded saying they are unable to cancel my subscription and that I need to contact them closer to end of the subscription. Since my subscription started on 31 August 2017, I think their response is ridiculous and indicative of an auto-renewal scam. Be careful!

    • Nick M says:

      Can you speak to your bank/credit card and ask them to stop it?

      • Matthew says:

        I’ve done so, but surely it shouldn’t have been necessary

    • KevMc says:

      Did you contact them via email, or did you speak to someone in a call centre?

    • guesswho2000 says:

      I contacted them last year, and they confirmed that they’d stop the auto renewal back then. Needless to say I’ve kept the email, just in case.

  • Nick 2018 says:

    O/T Is there still a bonus for adding a supplementary card holder on an Amex Gold Charge Card received before the change to Credit Version?

  • Disparu says:

    Totally OT, but has anyone else noticed anything odd with Curve linked to the Lloyds Mastercard?

    My transactions have gone through with the merchant, show on Curve, show as pending on my Lloyds CC AC, and then disappear!

    Oldest one is from 26 July. Six transactions have disappeared and the amounts that were pending have been released back to available credit.

    • Lister says:

      Yes. I have £500 worth of transcactions which have dropped (reversed) off Mastercard (not Lloyds) but still showing on Curve App. Looking at their twitter feed has happened to a few others too. Going to messaged them today as one was my council tax payment and don’t want the hassle of been chased for that.

    • KevMc says:

      I have had the same issue using IHG via Curve – I have about £2000 of transactions currently ‘pending’ going back as far as 30th July. I will contact them and let you know what the result is.

    • Lynx says:

      I have my IHG card linked with Curve, and one transaction has disappeared from that, although a subsequent transaction has appeared. Whilst it would be nice if it is “lost” permanently I’m expecting it to appear again at some point. I just hope they don’t try to reclaim the payment from the recipient, as that would just mean extra hassle.
      I will try to use my LBG Avios MC through Curve this week and will report if there are any anomalies.

    • Mark2 says:

      I have recently used my (debit) Curve card for a number of transactions through IHG, Lloyds and Virgin and they have all posted to the card accounts as per normal.

      • Brighton Belle says:

        Different issue. My Curve was cloned at the weekend. It is still in my wallet. I wonder how they do it. It was a Curve transaction notification that flagged it up.

        • Rob says:

          Mine was cloned in Germany recently. I get a feeling that, as it was sitting around our hotel room much of the time, a member of staff may have done it. The only other two places it was used – apart from ticket machines and ATMs – was in two cafes but they were in different albeit nearby towns.

          We’re not talking criminal mastermind here. The person did four Dominos home delivery orders and downloaded 6 Xbox items.

    • Liz says:

      We have 3 transactions from my hubby’s Curve card linked to our IHG card where transactions show on his app and we got email notifications but they have never appeared on IHG transactions list – going back to 26/7. All the ones done on my Curve card and linked to the same IHG card have appeared ok.

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.