Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Black Friday 1: £100 off Virgin Flight+Hotel, Gatwick Parking, Opodo, 20% off Hotels.com

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We wrote this article before the deals were live and have relied on the companies involved not to change their promo codes or links – apologies if anything changed at the last minute.

If you’re shopping on Amazon ….

Before we get into the travel deals, a quick reminder that – if you’re buying anything on Amazon today – we earn a small commission if you start your purchase by clicking here.  It helps keep us ticking over and, as we’ll be paying 40% tax on the money, it puts more back into system than if you don’t use our link!

Virgin Atlantic ‘flight and hotel’ Black Friday deals

We have looked at Virgin Atlantic‘s ‘flight only’ deals in a separate article today.

However, if you’re booking a ‘flight and hotel’ package, there are extra savings to be made.  This offer also works on US breaks, whilst the ‘flight only’ sale is only for non-US routes.

The deal:  £100 off a ‘flight and hotel’ package in Economy, £150 off a ‘flight and hotel’ package in Premium or Upper Class

Rules:  Total booking must be £1200, book by Monday 26th November, travel by 31st March 2019

Code required:  BF2018 which must be used on the Virgin Atlantic ‘flight and hotel’ site here 

Virgin Holidays is also offering the same Black Friday savings (£100 with Economy flights, £150 otherwise) on packages booked by Monday for travel by 31st October 2019.  Minimum spend is £2000 per booking.  The code here is 2018BF and you need to book on the Virgin Holidays site here.

Virgin Holidays Black Friday deal

Official Gatwick Parking – save 20%

If you are travelling through Gatwick soon, you can save:

The deal:  20% off your booking

Rules:  Park by 22nd December, book by 26th November

Code required:  No code but you MUST use this special link – click here – and the discount will automatically show

Opodo ‘flight and hotel’ £70 Black Friday deal

Opodo is offering a discount on ‘flight and hotel’ packages.

The deal:  £70 off a ‘flight and hotel’ package

Rules:  Total booking must be £900, book by Monday 26th November

Code required:  BLACKFLYDAY which must be used on the Opodo ‘flight and hotel’ site here 

Opodo Black Friday

Hotels.com 20% Mastercard saving

Hotels.com is running a strong offer for Mastercard holders, but be wary of the small print.

You will save 20% on hotel bookings you make TODAY ONLY when you pay with a Mastercard (11% for other cards).  Code BLACKFRIDAY20ES is required.  You must stay by 31st March.

However:

virtually all chain hotels are excluded

you do NOT earn hotels.com Rewards credit 

We rate Hotels.com Rewards highly as this article explains.  It doesn’t pay out until you’ve stayed 10 nights, however, so if you never normally use hotels.com then you might be happy with the 20% saving anyway.

Full details of the deal, and booking, are on this page of Hotels.com.

Up to 40% off Priority Pass

A reminder of the Priority Pass lounge access card deal we mentioned earlier in the week.

As you can see here, there are some sharp discounts:

40% off Standard membership (reduced to £41 from £69) – no free visits, you and your guests pay £20 each time

25% off Standard Plus membership (reduced to £141 from £189) – 10 free visits then £20 for every additional visit or for every guest visit

25% off Prestige membership (reduced to £254 from £339) – all your visits are free, your guests pay £20 each time

The best deal, to my mind, is Standard Plus.  You are paying £14.10 per lounge visit which is pretty decent.  You can find out more, and purchase, on this special page of the Priority Pass website.  The offer runs to 25th November.

and more …..

Here are some other Black Friday deals we couldn’t cover in full due to space:

Europcar – up to 35% off (and earn Nectar points), book by 26th November, pick up by 31st March – click here

Norwegian –  up to 30% off net fares, excluding taxes and charges, on all routes from Dublin and Shannon, book by 26th November, travel between 3rd December 2018 and 31st March 2019 (excluding 17th December 2018 to 6th January 2019).

Singapore Airlines –  Economy and Premium Economy deals from London and Manchester to Asia and Houston (from Manchester), travel between 16th January – 11th July (SE Asia/Aus), 16th January – 10th April & 22nd April to 11th July (NZ), 28th November 2018 – 30th June 2019 (USA) – click here

Accor Hotels (Ibis, Novotel, Mercure etc)up to 40% off your stay, book by 26th November, stay between 1st January and 24th February


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 (76)

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

  • Adam says:

    20% of Hotels.com is worse than the 50% off I have been offered 5 times in last two months (Including a few hours ago) I guess this must be a members only promotion?

  • Andrew says:

    Little Bits

    My employer’s staff reward site has a fair few additional Black Friday Offers:-

    20% in points on Hilton Hotels (Fully stackable with Visa & Amex offers)
    10% in points on Expedia Hotels
    10% in points on Hotels.com
    12% in points on Virgin Atlantic
    15% in points on Marriott
    20% in points on “Corporate Pricing” (HRG negotiated rates).

    As always, check your staff benefits site to see if you have similar.

  • FlyUpTop says:

    OT:
    Looks like the recent Marriott daily quiz has started to credit points but only on a day by day basis.

  • Walty says:

    OT – Lloyds Avios Upgrade voucher. Previously when using this with a connection, I managed to bag the connecting flight in business but when trying today the CSR was adamant it can only be used on either one not both. Anyone any experience of this?

    • Fivebobbill says:

      I just used one for me and the missus 2 weeks ago, 2 one-ways Belfast – LHR – Rome.
      All legs in Biz

      • Walty says:

        Thanks fivebobbill. Did you get charged for economy avios on BHD-LHR or CE avios?

        • Fivebobbill says:

          Sorry for the delay Walty, still travelling.
          Just checked the confirmation and i paid 10,500 avios + £50pp, so a total of 21,000 avios + £100… however that works out…

          It does say 41,000 avios at top of confirmation, but then reduced and charged at 21,000 due to voucher.

          Remember, this is just one-way

          I might also add, we’re flying home from Abu Dhabi, so Abu Dhabi – LHR – Belfast, and once again in business right through using a second upgrade voucher.
          The total costs for this one are 52,000 avios (reduced from 100,000), plus £446.40.
          So 26,000 + £223.20pp.

          Living in Northern Ireland I have to connect via LHR all the time, and have used the Lloyds vouchers on at least 8 occasions. If someone at avios CS is telling you you can’t use a voucher to get business all the way through, just hang up and call back for someone new.

    • Rich says:

      CS were similarly adamant that the same applied to my NCL-LHR-GVA. Upgrade international legs only. I wouldn’t have minded that so much, but they were also adamant that the higher baggage allowance wouldn’t apply to the domestic legs.

      • Walty says:

        So did you get CE or Economy? Did you get the bag issue resolved?

        I’ve got the baggage allowance as Lounge as I am connecting to a same day CE flight but it would be nice to have CE on the domestic connection.

        • Rich says:

          I didn’t book it in the end, as I needed certainty that we would get two bags each on all flights.

        • Fivebobbill says:

          For clarity, we have 2 x bags pp allowance all the way, plus access to lounges in all airports.

    • Anna says:

      Their CS agents seem to have gone completely off the rails recently! It’s always been the case that you travel in CE on your connecting flight if you’re in CW in the long haul, ever since BA started doing CE on domestic flights.

      • Walty says:

        That could be because the domestic connection is FOC when travelling on a connecting CW flight. My query is domestic connection on a CE flight where you still pay the avios & RFS fee (ahhh bring back the gold old days)

        • Anna says:

          That’s what I meant. I’ve used 4 Lloyds vouchers to upgrade from PE to CW, and each time my connecting flights have been in CE and not required any avios.

          Sadly, connecting flights are not free any more, you can add around £150 onto the price of a long-haul flight from London when you connect from MAN in my recent experience.

        • Anna says:

          Sorry, ignore the last, I’ve just what you mean now! I haven’t used a Lloyds voucher for an CE upgrade, however, when using a 2 4 1, the companion seat in avios-free all the way through, even though you have to pay 2 lots of avios and fees for the main traveller.

          • Alan says:

            Agree, sorry thought this was a CW connecting flight. There’s no free connecting flight for RFS anymore so I can see how the voucher wouldn’t apply.

    • the_real_a says:

      It should book into Domestic (business) and you will pay the Tax/fees (£50 is) but the avios is “free”. It seems like they are trying to book it as a separate flight under a single PNR, rather than a free connection onto a CW flight.

    • Alan says:

      Domestic connecting flights should definitely book into CE when using one of these vouchers.

      • Liz says:

        Our upcoming trip to Tallin and Helsinki was booked with 2 Lloyd’s vouchers – only the LHR – Tallinn and HEL – LHR is in CE – Avios refused to book us in to CE for the domestic legs from EDI. I argued at the time of booking that it should be CE but she wouldn’t budge.

        • Liz says:

          Although I noticed today when checking MMB that the out leg is going to earn Avios and tier points even though it is a reward flight – return is showing as zero! Every little helps!

          • Alan says:

            Sadly MMB isn’t always correct. Recent 241 flight to US was showing as lots of TP and Avios, but in the end zero posted…

        • Lady London says:

          pretty sure domestic leg only ever free now if you’re coming/going on a long haul to connect with?

  • Louise Allen says:

    Disapppointed with the Accor offer – in typical fashion, it’s not available where I’m going! I’m off to Oz next year and they’re not discounting any hotels there. So much for the Sofitel when I’m in Melbourne, I think I’ll go to the Sheraton for half the price.

    • Rob says:

      A Sheffield room I need is £40 cheaper (x 2 rooms) than when I priced it last week so I’m happy with this one for once.

      • Cat says:

        Carcassonne is apparently included in the offer, yet somehow the hotels look more expensive than when I looked for the same dates last week…

  • Rob says:

    Since when did Amazon sell reward points?!

    Melia, historically, has been known to block external transfers of promo points so don’t buy these thinking you can move them to Avios. Might work but …

    • Rich says:

      Haha. I just did a quick bit of googling and found an old H4P article suggesting that 10,000 = 3,000 Avios.

      I was literally about to post here on that basis, that worst case scenario you could convert 55k into 16.5k Avios, effectively buying at 0.9p.

      Is there a reward chart online?

      • Rob says:

        The worse case scenario is that Melia blocks Avios conversions. They did this once before when there was a massively generous hotel-based promotion which everyone mattress-ran.

    • marcw says:

      Since last year!!! Its way better to use for nights… INNSIDE NYC for 17k points… is a bargain.

  • Matt says:

    OT – Virgin upgrade vouchers having 2 Virgin Atlantic cards
    Hi Rob, any update/news on whether you are able to get 2 different upgrade vouchers when you have the 2 Virgin Atlantic cards simultaneously?

    The call centre told me you could only get one voucher a year, even if you hold both cards? It has stopped me buying the Premium card…

    Thanks Matt

    • Rob says:

      Don’t know. Virgin is currently without a credit card head as the old person didn’t want to leave Crawley to transition to VGLC in Central London so there is no obvious person to speak with.

      • Andrew (@andrewseftel) says:

        Is that an open role? Know someone who might fancy that.

        • Rob says:

          Not seen it advertised, but I’m sure any CVs sent to Andrew Swaffield at Virgin Group Loyalty Company, 66 Porchester Road, W2 6ET will be looked at if there is still a gap. He is hiring another 15 people by year end, he told me last week.

  • Tony says:

    OT: MR / Hilton transfer bonus offer: transferred 1k points day before yesterday, points hit account today, with no bonus. I guess the offer is indeed targetted then!

    • Liz says:

      It is targeted – confirmed by their marketing dept yesterday. Bonus points might not post for up to 8 wks though.

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