Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Air China bringing back its amazing business class Oceania deals for Black Friday

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Air China is bringing back, for Cyber Week, the exceptionally strong deals it ran over Singles Day weekend in early November.  If you are happy to start your trip in Germany there are deals to be had.

Take a look here and see.  We’re talking, departing Frankfurt, Munich or Dusseldorf in Business Class:

  • Tokyo – €1,184 (£1,053)
  • Seoul – €1,186 (£1,055)
  • Singapore – €1,194 (£1,062)

Air China business class

  • Hong Kong – €1,133 (£1,007)
  • Sydney – €1,506 (£1,340)
  • Melbourne – €1,506 (£1,340)
  • Auckland – €1,506 (£1,340)

You must book from TOMORROW (22nd) and before 27th November (Tuesday).  You cannot book today.

Travel dates for the Business Class sale are:

  • 11 December 2018 – 3 January 2019
  • 29 January – 8 February 2019
  • 2 April – 21 April, 2019
  • 28 May – 24 June,2019
  • 28 June – 23 August 2019

Air China A350 business class

Air China is part of Star Alliance so you could (depending on which booking class the ticket books into) earn miles and status credit with Lufthansa Miles & More or one of the other Star programmes.  Use wheretocredit.com to find the most generous programme – you are looking for ‘R’ class earning which is typically 125% of miles flown.  

I know very little about Air China, so do some research on what planes are flying which route and what kind of seating it will offer.  A typical Air China business class is pictured above.

Some flights use brand new A350-900 aircraft with the impressive 1-2-1 layout above.

Earlier this year reader Joel reviewed the Air China Boeing 777 business class service from Heathrow to Beijing for us – see here.

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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 (159)

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

  • BJ says:
    21 Nov21 November 15:52

    These fares are not special, routinely available on AY throughout the year and can be beaten.

  • Shoestring says:
    21 Nov21 November 16:25

    Got a couple of Avios reward flights coming up in CE! That’ll be a first. T3 so lounge hopping will be must.

    Anyway, how soon can you check in before flight? – no status for us Blueys.

    • Anna says:
      21 Nov21 November 17:08

      24 hours for on line check in. I find that a lot of people pre-book the seats in CE (whether with cash or via status, who knows), so you may end up with what’s left, but apart from the very front row all the seats are much of a muchness. The free middle seat is very handy for stashing books/magazines/ipads etc while you’re eating as otherwise there’s not a huge amount of room to spread out.

      • Shoestring says:
        21 Nov21 November 17:39

        Oh, I thought I’d maybe get a week. Yep I’ve recently flown CE, my wife got upgraded from HBO must have been Easter (only realised at check in at T-24, the other 4 of us took the 4 ET Avios seats on the same flight) and as she likes talking to the kids I thought I’d let her have my seat so I slummed it up front.

        Perfectly fair as I’d otherwise have taken her rubbish HBO designated seat 🙂

        And of course I often get poor man’s CE when I fly with Avios in ET, anyway, as they seem to like blocking my middle.

  • William Squires says:
    21 Nov21 November 17:04

    Tesco are moving Premium Card customers to a £36 annual fee, 2500 point bonus on £2500 Tesco annual spend. Travel insurance ends on anniversary date.

    Sorry if it’s been mentioned elsewhere.

    It’s a much better deal for me personally, £2500 Tesco spend is easy, £5000 is going to be a push. 2500 points (£75 Hotels.com) for £36 essentially.

    • Rob says:
      21 Nov21 November 17:28

      Not bad. Shame the card is no longer available (unless they are relaunching it?).

      • William Squires says:
        21 Nov21 November 18:22

        Yeah not sure – seems quite a specific package if it’s not getting a relaunch.

        If this was the product originally launched I’d have taken it in a heartbeat. All the useless weight they added to it put me off until they eventually did a sign up bonus that made it worth it.

    • TM says:
      21 Nov21 November 20:18

      I will keep this card if the earning rate stays the same. Where did you get this information?

      I believe it is the best earning non amex card after the HSBC Premier products…someone correct me if I am mistaken.

  • Walty says:
    21 Nov21 November 17:08

    Anyone any idea how to find out the expiry of Marriott / SPG status?
    Thanks

  • Shoestring says:
    21 Nov21 November 18:48

    [This weekend, Rocketmiles is giving you the opportunity to earn 5,000 bonus [Virgin] Flying Club miles on every eligible reservation you make at hotels around the world.]

    Great if somebody else is paying lol

    • Alex W says:
      22 Nov22 November 06:56

      Unless the bill states “rocket miles” which surely will arouse suspicion in your travel department…

      • Rob says:
        22 Nov22 November 09:10

        Rocketmiles do not give VAT receipts so actually it is a bad thing to do for company travel.

  • Lev441 says:
    21 Nov21 November 18:49

    O/T have a friend who has received notification of a schedule change on Norwegian from JFK- LGW. It was a 2230 Departure from JFK which moved to 1940 which doesn’t work with her schedule. Is she entitled to a refund or date change if the new timings don’t work? Online travel agent not offering anything.

    • Shoestring says:
      21 Nov21 November 19:09

      Should have added that rules vary according to airline. There’s no legislation (EU) in place for minor schedule changes so you need to see what an airline’s policy is.

      • Lev441 says:
        21 Nov21 November 23:15

        Thanks. Do you know if this applies to a flight that was booked via online travel agent? The agent involved was flysharp. Apparently not being very helpful at all!

      • Lev441 says:
        21 Nov21 November 23:19

        Having looked into screenshots, it looks as if the original 2230 flight 7016 has been cancelled and she’s been moved on to 1940 flight 7018…

      • Shoestring says:
        22 Nov22 November 07:47

        I think a helpful agent would get you the same rights as a passenger booking direct with Norwegian.

    • ScienceTeacher says:
      21 Nov21 November 21:49

      It depends when the flight is scheduled to depart. Is it within the next 24 hours, 7 days, or 14 days?

      • Lev441 says:
        21 Nov21 November 23:13

        It’s in the next 7 days – 28th nov

        • Shoestring says:
          22 Nov22 November 08:02

          Here’s the compo rule for LH flights which have been cancelled and re-ticketed (EU airline JFK- LGW would fall in this category):

          Seven to 14 days’ notice
          If you received seven to 14 days’ notice of the cancellation, you can claim compensation based on the timings of the alternative flight:
          If your new flight arrives more than four hours after your original flight, you can claim €600 – no matter what time it departs.
          If your new flight departs more than two hours before your original flight, and arrives less than four hours after it, you can claim €300.

        • Lev441 says:
          22 Nov22 November 17:45

          Thanks Harry. Appreciated, will get on the case.

  • The Original Nick says:
    21 Nov21 November 20:43

    O/T, Does anyone know how long Melia Rewards points take to hit account from check out?

  • Cuchlainn says:
    21 Nov21 November 21:49

    Flybe related :
    Cannot book Flybe flights on Safari on iPad as no “booking engine” criteria showing !! Have even tried Chrome – same, missing booking details / engine. Have cleared cookies, rebooted iPad and still no “booking engine” on front page.

    Help please.

    • Peter K says:
      21 Nov21 November 21:56

      Not the most useful comment perhaps but have you tried a laptop? Maybe download Firefox? Opera?

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