Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Get 12 copies of The Economist for £29 – and earn 1,200 Avios

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We have seen a lot of promotions for The Economist magazine over the last couple of years.  These generally involve buying a one-year subscription with up to 13,200 Avios points thrown in as a bonus.

British Airways has now launched a smaller scale offer.

It isn’t a great deal if you only want the Avios, but it is a decent deal if you want 3-months of reading material as well.

Economist Avios special offer

Here’s what you do

The home page for the offer is here.

You can choose from digital only or print and digital.  The Economist no longer offers ‘print only’ subscriptions.

The deals are:

  • 12 weeks of ‘digital only’ for £25 with 900 Avios
  • 12 weeks of ‘print and digital’ for £29 with 1,200 Avios

You can pay by direct debit, credit or debit card.  I recommend using direct debit because it is a lot easier to cancel via online banking.

If you don’t cancel your subscription in time, it will renew at £55 or £65 per quarter depending on your package.

You must be a new subscriber to receive the Avios.

The offer closes on 14th March.


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 (12)

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

  • Dan says:

    Sigh…I was waiting for an Economist to come along as mine had expired in Jan, so a bit disappointed by the Avios available here!

  • Mark says:

    Can you cancel your DD straight after the payment has been taken? Always easier to do it while fresh in my mind instead of waiting 12 weeks and forgetting!

  • L Allen says:

    What was really disappointing about the Economist was, when I cancelled the subscription, the twice a week calls to ‘encourage’ me to resubscribe. Even when I told them the subscription had been bought for someone who has since died (a lie) they asked ‘but don’t you want to keep it going for yourself?’. I guess that aspect is farmed out and is nothing to do with the magazine directly but it’s put me off entirely. In the end I had to be quite forceful to make them stop calling me.

    • J says:

      Yep, I had the same. Calls every day for months. Put me off taking up any more of the promotions.

    • Andrew says:

      Next time, before you cancel your subscription, just go in and amend your contact details.

      Last time I cancelled my motor breakdown policy, I simply logged into my account and changed my address and phone details to an address in Basingstoke. 😉

    • RussellH says:

      That appears to me to be contrary to the GDPR.
      I would think that both the following scenarios would apply:-
      From the ICO website…
      “When can I ask for my data to be deleted?
      The right only applies in the following circumstances:”

      1. The organisation no longer needs your data for the original reason they collected or used it for.
      eg. After you have cancelled your gym membership, the gym no longer needs to keep details of your name, address, age and health conditions.

      This seems directly comparable to your situation. If you have cancelled your magazine sub, they should delete all your data.

      2. You initially consented to the organisation using your data, but have now withdrawn your consent.
      Again, by cancelling, the implication would be that you do not want them to use your data.
      https://ico.org.uk/your-data-matters/your-right-to-get-your-data-deleted/

      So, phone up to cancel, explicitly stating that you expect them to follow GDPR and delete all your data once you have finished the trial sub.
      If you get one follow-up call, remind them of GDPR. If you get a second, report to the ICO. ICO helpline 0303 123 1113.

    • kitten says:

      I never gave The Economist a phone number to avoid this risk.

      Over 2 years after the last subscription ended they were still sending me post. They received at least 2 calls from me telling them I had made sure to tell them previously no marketing. Each time they stopped… then started again.

      I think the Reader’s Digest team (who used to be famous for over-mailing and never giving up) has moved to The Economist.

      Get the Wall Street Journal instead.

    • J says:

      I use a pay as you go phone the burner type that some members of our community use for trading in certain goods. Therefore the company has their contact number they need and I have a phone that doesnt ring when called.

  • John says:

    Does it have to be a new account? Or is it all right as long as you didn’t have a subscription for 12 months (or 24 months)?

    • Genghis says:

      No defined fallow period. Back in the day I used to do almost back to back 12 for £1

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

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