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Good Oman Air deals from Paris – well worth the diversion

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Oman Air is running a sale this week.  There are Business and Economy deals out of Heathrow – see their website.

Bigger bargains, however, are from Paris Charles du Gaulle.  These prices are return, Business Class:

  • Abu Dhabi / Bahrain / Doha €1399
  • Bengaluru €1449

  • Bangkok €1299
  • Guangzhou €1599
  • Chennai / Delhi / Mumbai €1349
  • Dubai €1099
  • Hyderabad / Jaipur €1699
  • Kuala Lumpur €1599
  • Male €1449
  • Manilla €1599
  • Zanzibar €1599

Clearly not everyone wants to fly UK – Paris – Muscat – Maldives, even if it is €1449 (£1310) in Business Class plus the cost of getting to Paris.  The saving does mean it is worth a look though.

Whilst Oman Air is not in any major airline alliance, you can credit flights to Etihad Guest.  The earning chart is here.  You can top them up with American Express Membership Rewards points for an Etihad redemption or redeem them for cash via PointsPay.

There is a virtual tour of their Business Class product on their website here.

These prices are valid until 16th September.  Annoying the airline website does not list valid travel dates anywhere. If you don’t have a credit card with 0% foreign exchange fees, your best option for paying is American Express Preferred Rewards Gold which offers triple points – 3 per £1 – when you book flight tickets in a foreign currency.  This is because the transaction triggers the ‘double points for airline spend’ and the ‘double points for foreign spend’ bonuses.

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best credit card to use when buying flights

How to maximise your miles when paying for flights (April 2025)

Some UK credit cards offer special bonuses when used for buying flights. If you spend a lot on airline tickets, using one of these cards could sharply increase the credit card points you earn.

Booking flights on any airline?

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold earns double points (2 Membership Rewards points per £1) when used to buy flights directly from an airline website.

The card comes with a sign-up bonus of 20,000 Membership Rewards points. These would convert to 20,000 Avios or various other airline or hotel programmes. The standard earning rate is 1 point per £1.

You can apply here.

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.

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

Buying flights on British Airways?

The British Airways Premium Plus American Express card earns double Avios (3 Avios per £1) when used at ba.com.

The card comes with a sign-up bonus of 30,000 Avios. The standard earning rate is 1.5 Avios per £1.

You do not earn bonus Avios if you pay for BA flights on the free British Airways American Express card or either of the Barclaycard Avios Mastercards.

You can apply here.

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

30,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

Buying flights on Virgin Atlantic?

Both the free Virgin Atlantic Reward Mastercard and the annual fee Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard earn double Virgin Points when used at fly.virgin.com.

This means 1.5 Virgin Points per £1 on the free card and 3 Virgin Points per £1 on the paid card.

There is a sign-up bonus of 3,000 Virgin Points on the free card and 18,000 Virgin Points on the paid card.

You can apply for either of the cards here.

Virgin Atlantic Reward Mastercard

3,000 bonus points, no fee and 1 point for every £1 you spend Read our full review

Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard

18,000 bonus points and 1.5 points for every £1 you spend Read our full review

Category

General

Comments (40)

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

  • Gavin says:
    5 Sep5 September 04:56

    For CDG to BKK these are on the oman website terms
    Maximum Stay:1 Month
    Sale Validity :From 03Sep18 to 16Sep18
    Travel Validity :From 03Sep18 to 31May19
    Refund:Refundable with charges
    Blackout Date:NO

  • rams1981 says:
    5 Sep5 September 05:49

    God Oman deals – truly blessed

  • Cat says:
    5 Sep5 September 06:42

    Hi, I just booked the return leg of my summer holiday next year and wanted to share, for those of you that like holidays of the more active / barking mad variety…

    The current plan is to head to Chamonix at the start of the school holidays to hike the Tour de Mont Blanc (circular hike around the base of the mountain, taking about a week and a half and gaining about 10km in altitude in the process – but staying in refugios serving 3 courses of French, Italian and Swiss food included in the price) and visit a friend who lives there, then slowly make my way to Zurich (via a couple of spas, because I suspect I’ll need it – Pre Saint Didier and Villa Honegg and quite possibly the mad furnicular railway nearby). There I will be using up my stash of M&M miles flying in First via Frankfurt (thus making use of the Swiss First facilities in Zurich, as well as the First class terminal in Frankfurt) to Mexico City. I’m not 100% sure whether I want to head to Baja California for a multi-day kayaking trip, or the Yucatan for Tulum and the cenotes, we’ll see. After a week or so, I plan to head to Costa Rica, for a couple of weeks of wildlife photography in a couple of National Parks (any recommendations gratefully received…), before flying home in Business with my Iberia miles from the mad promotion earlier this year.

    That’s after 2 weeks in the Philippines at Easter flying in Cathay Pacific First (well, to and from Hong Kong at least, business after that), and a week in Mallorca during May half term, to get the Iberia miles!

    Huge thanks to Rob and Anika for making all of this possible (and also for the brilliant advice from the many people who comment here), there’s no way I’d be able to make such good use of my teacher holidays on a teacher salary without them!

  • C says:
    5 Sep5 September 06:44

    Good Typo!

  • Shoestring says:
    5 Sep5 September 07:29

    £100 statement credit on £400 – Microsoft

    • Roger says:
      5 Sep5 September 07:46

      also £200 off £600 spend on Amex Travel offer available on Platinum as of this morning.
      Wasn’t available last night!

      • Roger says:
        5 Sep5 September 07:47

        Could you somehow use this Amex Travel and BA 241 Voucher i.e. may be update ticket to F or something like that?

      • Richard says:
        5 Sep5 September 08:40

        Has anyone had experience of being able to split an Amex travel transaction over multiple cards?

      • S**mo says:
        5 Sep5 September 11:42

        Where do we need to book?

  • Craig says:
    5 Sep5 September 07:42

    Amex Travel has appeared again for me, £200 back on £600 spend. Hire car and hotel needed for South Africa next year, am I right in thinking that hotels count as long as they are not part of the fine hotels and resorts collection?

    • Shoestring says:
      5 Sep5 September 07:47

      There’s also £50 credit on £200 (Amex Travel)

    • Rob says:
      5 Sep5 September 09:31

      Anything that is pre-paid counts. FHR is only excluded because it is not pre-paid.

    • Ian says:
      5 Sep5 September 09:40

      Does anyone have experience of Amex Travel offers working as a cumulative £600 spend across several bookings?

    • GRIMZ says:
      5 Sep5 September 09:47

      How can you get this offer on sup cards?

    • Andrew S says:
      5 Sep5 September 10:10

      Appeared on my platinum companion credit card, not the charge card strangely. On my supplementary card of a gold charge card in the £200 get £50 back form too.

      • Kinkell says:
        5 Sep5 September 10:51

        I have such rubbish offers on all my and hubby’s cards. In fact I have only one offer on my SPG card and it’s for flowers……not that he’s going to buy me any as we are heading off in F to Denver on a 241 at the weekend. I could do with a Trailfinders and Amex Travel offer and less of the sunglasses, shirts, golf, cafe Nero and a whole lot that are totally unusable .

  • Walty says:
    5 Sep5 September 08:08

    Domino’s Spend £20 get £5 back…..on BAPP

    • Shoestring says:
      5 Sep5 September 11:38

      Could work out well as there are always loads of BOGOF deals etc, the Amex £5 would stack with any other deal you use.

  • GRIMZ says:
    5 Sep5 September 08:35

    Does the upgrade from Gold credit card to Platinum still work for the 20k bonus points on a £1k spend?

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