Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Black Friday extra: Air France, Air New Zealand, Blacklane, Cathay Pacific, Conde Nast Traveller

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These deals only arrived at HfP on Friday morning, so I’m doing this article as an extra round-up.  If you are reading this via the emails on Saturday, the deals – except for Sixt – will still be live.

Congratulations to Rhys, our intern, who managed to get one of the 100 x £175 Air New Zealand economy flights to Los Angeles that they were selling at 10am!  Another reader posted in the comments that they got a pair too.

Air France KLM

This one looks genuinely good in Business Class.  Book by Monday.  Deals include Amman at £979, Tokyo £1589, Shanghai £1669, Dubai £1349 etc.  Details are here.  Economy and Premium Economy deals also available.

Air New Zealand

ANZ has now confirmed its Heathrow to Los Angeles pricing – Economy £299, Premium Economy £699, Business Premier £2099.  A reader emailed to say that code LA30 takes an additional £30 off, meaning that you can fly Air New Zealand to LA in Economy for just £269 return.  Book by Monday, travel dates vary by class.  Full details are on their site here.

Blacklane – save 20%

Chauffeur / executive cars group Blacklane is offering 20% off all rides booked this weekend (you can book for a future date) using code BLACKFRIDAY18.

We have started to use Blacklane at non-UK airports, especially when we are with the kids and I would prefer to have a driver at the gate waiting for me.  You can also earn airline miles on Blacklane bookings, although not with BA or Virgin.  You can sign up for a Blacklane account here.

Cathay Pacific

Various deals available in all classes to Asia, Australia and New Zealand – worth a look but they are not the most aggressive offers I have ever seen.  Book by 30th November.  Details are here.

Conde Nast Traveller – £19 for a year

Until midnight Friday (EDIT: extended over the weekend!) you can buy a 1-year subscription for £19.  The same deal applies to GQ, Vanity Fair, Tatler, Vogue, Wired etc.  The link is here.

Etihad

Various deals in Economy and Business, typically £2000-ish to Abu Dhabi, Singapore etc.  Book by 26th November 2018 for travel between 15th January and 15th June 2019.  Full details are here.

Lufthansa – save £25

Lufthansa is offering £25 off any flight booked before Monday night.  There is NO minimum spend, although the discount only applies to the base fare and not taxes.  You need to use this page of the Lufthansa website – the code is shown at the top.

Sixt – save 25%

25% discount globally on car rentals.  This is a FRIDAY ONLY deal.  You can find out more here.

Vueling – from €22.99

One-way sale fares from the UK from €22.99 (not bad given that APD is £13!).  Book by Sunday night.  Details are here.


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 (28)

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

  • Nate1309 says:

    What is Conde Nast like compared to Sunday Times Travel?

    • Rob says:

      Looks the same, a bit more upmarket.

      • Anna says:

        It does look a bit glossier but the articles are very similar.

        • Lady London says:

          pretty much the same, but I had the impression it was more stuffed with more upmarket ads (a bit like Vogue, compared to, say, Tatler)

      • Jon Arnold says:

        CNT is much more upmarket than STT, concentrating on 5 star lux travel. Both are good magazines but aimed at rather different clientele. I prefer STT but then I’m biased since we provide them alot of their images 😉

  • Colin MacKinnon says:

    American Airlines sent me this:

    (If I want to buy, it is per calendar year for their purchase limits?)

    Black Friday starts now. For a limited time, we are giving you 20% more bonus miles on top of our existing offer when you buy or gift 10,000 or more American Airlines AAdvantage® miles.

    This offer ends November 26 — don’t miss out on one of our best deals of the year.
    Miles Purchased/Gifted Bonus Miles + 20% for Black Friday
    10,000–24,000 2,500 now 3,000
    25,000–49,000 7,500 now 9,000
    50,000–74,000 22,500 now 27,000
    75,000–99,000 40,000 now 48,000
    100,000–149,000 60,000 now 72,000
    150,000 100,000 now 120,000

  • Russ says:

    Thanks for this Rob. Any chance someone at HFP Towers would like to set pen to paper and write an article on chauffeured transport sometime in the future? Something that covers value as well as price i.e. hotel manager and driver picking you up, checking you in, arranging meals etc etc versus the DIY approach?

  • Speedbird676 says:

    “ANZ has now confirmed its Heathrow to Los Angeles pricing”

    Having lived in Australia, I was wondering why a bank had pricing between LHR and LAX.

  • alan young says:

    Does anyone know the approx. price for two pax to upgrade to have a skycouch one way?

  • Anna says:

    You’re letting Rhys fly in economy?!!

    • Rob says:

      He’s finished with us by February – this is a holiday! Obviously I wouldn’t if it was a work trip.

  • Anna says:

    Thanks – I’ve treated myself to a subscription to Vanity Fair, though I got a message on the final screen saying the checkout process was not successful. It seems to have gone through on Paypal and the linked Amex though so we’ll see!

  • Tony says:

    Must say, kudos to Lufthansa. So many non-offers out there that I think their transparency is to be applauded.

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

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