Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

REGISTER NOW: British Airways launches a new ‘double Avios’ points promotion for the autumn

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

British Airways has launched a new ‘double Avios’ offer for the Autumn.

This could prove lucrative but, as often with these offers, has the potential to backfire due to intriguing small print.

The sign up page for the offer is here.   If you had trouble earlier, it is now working.

British Airways BA 777X 777 9X

The offer is simple on the face of it:

You earn double base Avios (excluding cabin and status bonuses) on your next 10 BA flights

The offer runs until the end of 2018

It only applies to new bookings made after you register

Looking at the small print, the offer is also valid on American Airlines, Iberia and Finnair flights when travelling between Europe and North America on a BA flight number.  Don’t be fooled by the comment at the top of the landing page that AA, Iberia and Finnair flights to North Ameria count – the terms and conditions say they do not, unless there is a BA flight number on your boarding pass.

The offer is also valid on Comair-operated BA services in Southern Africa.

However, apart from the exceptions above, no other BA codeshare or franchise flight will count.  You won’t get double Avios on, for example, a Bangkok Airways, Qatar Airways, Vueling or Flybe flight with a BA flight number.

Here’s the snag though ….

You only get double Avios on your first 10 segments. 

If you have a number of long-haul flights coming up before the end of the year, you don’t want to use up your 10 flight allowance too quickly.  This means, bizarrely, you may want to consider moving some short-haul flights away from British Airways.  This will preserve your 10 flight ‘double Avios’ allowance for long-haul flights which will be far more lucrative.

You can register for double Avios here.


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 (82)

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

  • marcw says:

    I’m confused… the small print says “qualifying flight: A Qualifying flight is either a one-way (single sector) or a return flight (two sectors) between the point of departure and final destination with no scheduled change of aircraft that must be booked after the Member has registered.” Does that mean if I book EDI-LHR-JFK rtrn it’s not a qualifying flight, because it has 4 sectors?

  • Pascal says:

    Booked NYC Returns 3 days too early 🙁

  • js54156 says:

    OT — anyone knows what FX rate Curve uses? Looks like the rate between GBP and USD remains 1.317 unchanged these days, which is apparently different from the interbank rate found online. Could anyone test it? Thanks!

    • Rob says:

      CEO told me it was the interbank rate, same as Revolut. Whether that it real-time interbank at the time of purchase or time of clearing I don’t know.

      • js54156 says:

        Thanks Rob! I did a few trials yesterday as well as today, all with the same rate. When they just launched this 0% fx feature it was the real-time rate at the time of purchase.

      • Genghis says:

        It can’t be clearing as they lock in an exchange rate once you make the purchase.

        • js54156 says:

          That’s correct. I guess I’m having a slightly higher rate probably because I’ve used up the £500 monthly limit for the free card. The strange thing is that it’s supposed to be 1% fee then, but I was charged roughly 0.5%.

  • Russ says:

    The irony. Just booked BA flights paid for by BA. They really do care.

  • Alan says:

    Another really annoying BA offer where its only valid post-registration. Especially annoying that I made booking on the 25th so too late to cancel and rebook 😉

  • GabeS says:

    Would the registration apply to all your household account members?

  • Neil Mac says:

    Wow, I have exactly 10 flights booked with BA between now and the end of the year, all booked within the last couple of weeks, so I assume precisely none of those will qualify for this offer. That’s very disappointing.

    • Shoestring says:

      But you lot are asking the impossible/ unlikely/ illogical. You need to register to use the promotion. Flights booked before the promotion launched? You didn’t register, you won’t get the extra points.

      The idea is to incentivise new bookings, not reward existing bookings with a bit extra.

  • The Original Nick says:

    Booked flights last night to Madrid so quite annoyed

    • Chris L says:

      You can cancel bookings made within 24h

      • Jeremy says:

        We would all be incentivised to keep using BA if they rewarded our ongoing loyalty in booking flights with them even when there isn’t a promotion if they gave us a nice few bonus Avios for existing flights. Instead, we just feel punished for our loyalty.

        • Shoestring says:

          Then you don’t understand marketing – as The Economist says: marketing = a smart word for selling

        • Marcw says:

          The don’t need to incentivise you as you re already loyal 🙂
          Who knows whether you will be in the future…

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.