Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Good 2019 business class flight deals to the US – from £1,300 – with BA, Virgin and Star Alliance

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A bunch of good Business Class fares to the US has been launched by British Airways, Virgin Atlantic and Star Alliance.

These fares are all from the UK so you don’t need to position yourself in Europe to take advantage.

British Airways to the West Coast

BA is offering Club World fares from around £1500 return to the West Coast.

In theory you need to travel between:

28th October – 11th December

24th December – 31st December

1st January – 29th March

…. although, in reality, there isn’t much available before 2019.  Feel free to check but don’t waste too much time trying to find anything with a 2018 departure.  A Saturday night stay is required.

Destinations available for Spring 2019 include:

San Francisco (around £1500)

Los Angeles (pricier, around £1700)

Las Vegas (around £1600)

Seattle (around £1500)

Vancouver (around £1500) etc

As always with BA, I strongly recommend checking the Club World section of BA Holidays before you book – click here.  Pop in your dates, add a car or the cheapest hotel they have, and you may make a decent extra saving, paying less for the package than you would otherwise just pay for the flight!

You also get extra Avios when booking with BA Holidays, and you can just pay a deposit now (varies depending on booking size) with the balance only due five weeks before you fly.

Virgin Atlantic to the West Coast

Virgin Atlantic has matched the British Airways pricing and dates so you should also take a look at what they can offer.

I found San Francisco for £1,454 in March for example.

You can learn more about Virgin’s Upper Class product here.  We also have a new review of the amazing Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse at Heathrow Terminal 3 next week, as Anika was recently there for the first time.

You can book on the Virgin Atlantic website here.

Star Alliance business class deals for 2019 to the US – from £1,300

If you are looking elsewhere in the US, Star Alliance has some deals for you.

You could find yourself on Air Canada, United, Lufthansa, SWISS etc.  The good news is that these deals also work for Lufthansa or SWISS-served regional airports if they can be routed via Germany or Switzerland.

Destinations available are:

  • Atlanta
  • Detroit
  • Portland
  • Minneapolis
  • Salt Lake City

You will pay around £1300 return.

You must book by tomorrow (29th) night.  You must travel from 22nd February 2019.  In theory you are meant to return by the end of March but in reality you can book the full 11 months in advance, so well into next Summer.

Because of the mix of airlines involved, you are best booking via Expedia, Opodo or similar.  If you have a ‘£100 off a £1000 Trailfinders’ booking offer on one of your American Express cards, you could try that.

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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, Lufthansa and Miles & More, United Airlines and MileagePlus, Virgin Atlantic and Flying Club

Comments (20)

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

  • Michael says:
    28 Aug28 August 07:11

    Do we know if the Trailfindes deal could be used with the LH/LX Companion ticket offer or does it have to be booked direct via the website?

    • Andrew says:
      28 Aug28 August 07:31

      And will the Trailfinders deal work with flight only? Has it in the past?

  • abong says:
    28 Aug28 August 09:26

    think these prices aren’t bad, but for those of us who don’t mind a little detour, these are higher than historic, but more than reasonable given the weak pound.

  • wmdore says:
    28 Aug28 August 10:14

    Around 6 weeks ago I booked GLA – SJC return in Club World for April 2019, £1,500. I thought that was decent, considering it didn’t involve DUB or INV.

    • Stu N says:
      28 Aug28 August 13:21

      We are doing EDI-BOS for about £1350 each (x2) in May, booked as a holiday by adding on a car for an extra £20. That’s more than offset by holiday Avios and not having to pay until next Spring.

      Managed to UuA to First both ways, plenty of availability when we booked. Arguably excessive on way back but miniCCR at Boston and use of CCR and Cabana for a shower during our connection just about makes it worthwhile.

      • LondonFoodie says:
        28 Aug28 August 18:25

        Any idea if having booked the package makes it cancellable, and only losing the deposit?

        • Stu N says:
          28 Aug28 August 19:01

          Yes you can cancel holiday and forfeit deposit only. It’s still a few hundred so I’d personally want to be pretty sure I was going but it’s a lot better than booking flight only.

  • Phil says:
    28 Aug28 August 12:11

    OT – does anyone know where I can find out the category of Marriot hotel I’m staying in? Already booked with cash but can’t find earnings rate.

    • Alex W says:
      28 Aug28 August 14:00

      “You’ll earn 10 points per US$1 [excluding tax] spent on eligible hotel charges, except at Element®, Residence Inn® and TownePlace Suites® hotels, where you’ll earn five points per eligible US$1.”

      Plus tier bonus (silver 10%, gold 25% etc)

    • ankomonkey says:
      28 Aug28 August 15:59

      @Genghis, since the conversation is on Marriott. Checked out of JW Marriott Phu Quoc after 7 night Travel Package stay – I know you considered this but I think you opted for Domes of Elounda in the end. We loved the place and were treated really well. They staff were amazing, the place wasn’t too crowded, the breakfast was the best I’ve experienced in a hotel. The beach is a few minutes’ walk from most rooms and they offer paddleboards and kayaks free of charge. Can’t recommend the place enough. Just trying to work out how my 2 unassigned former Cat1-5 certs can get me back there.

      • Genghis says:
        28 Aug28 August 16:06

        Good to hear. I’ll bear it in mind for future trips. Was there much around the hotel in terms of other restaurants? When we were there we had 5 nights in the north of the island in a really remote place (and so only ate at the resort) and 2 nights on the strip south of Duong Dong, which we liked as there were loads of eateries around. The island is surprisingly big and taxis pricy for the long trips.
        We used our TP for JWM at Hong Kong. Going in Oct for a week of eating combined with time in South Korea … 🙂

      • Jason says:
        28 Aug28 August 20:16

        Just back from a week in domes it runs at 98% occupancy. Lucky enough to get an upgrade to one of their 2 bedroom luxury villas on top of the hill over looking spinalonga. Had an indoor pool as well as an outdoor pool. Superb accommodation, I would recommend eating out the evening meal was the low light of a very enjoyable stay

      • ankomonkey says:
        29 Aug29 August 12:35

        Not much in the way of other eateries nearby unless you went into Duong Dong. We did this one night and ate at the night market, which was perfectly fine. We would probably have ventured out near the hotel if we were without the kids, but didn’t want to risk them getting food poisoning. Each time we passed through the ‘town’ at the entrance to the JWM there didn’t look like much.

        I was also told that the group that own the JW Marriott have bought many of the tiny islands to the south of Phu Quoc with plans to develop them. Sounds like 10 years from now the whole area will be very different. Glad we got to visit now!

  • Londonbus says:
    28 Aug28 August 14:01

    Just be aware that BA fares in I bucket from the UK are no changes and no refunds…

    • Stu N says:
      28 Aug28 August 15:58

      Yes, the fare rules are very restrictive. Booking as a holiday also helps here, you get the option to cancel up to 5 weeks before your trip and forfeit deposit only which is approx 10%.

  • rob says:
    28 Aug28 August 14:25

    OT

    Does anybody know where we are with transferring between SPG/Marriot accounts now? Seems really annoying that we now have to pay to transafer between accounts without status, not to mention not being unable to do this online anymore.

    Has anybody tried it yet?

    Thanks

    • Mark2 says:
      28 Aug28 August 14:41

      I have made a number of transfer between Marriott accounts. Just ring 020 7012 7312 and a helpful person in Cork will do it for you.
      Yes, a slight downgrade as you can only receive 100,000 per year whereas previously there was no limit within household. But, if you have a booking you can transfer enough points to make up the required total without limit.

  • Hannah says:
    28 Aug28 August 14:40

    OT: Will Qatar have a sale this summer anyone know please?

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