Get 250 bonus Heathrow Rewards points (=250 miles) with every Heathrow Express purchase
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Heathrow Rewards and Heathrow Express have teamed up to offer a generous bonus promotion.
Heathrow Rewards gives you 1 point for every £1 spent in Heathrow (1 per £10 on foreign exchange) or on Heathrow Express tickets (online bookings only). Once you’ve earned 250 points you can exchange them for miles or shopping vouchers.
Between 1st December and 31st December, you will receive 250 bonus Heathrow Rewards points with EVERY Heathrow Express purchase you make.
This is on top of the standard – and pretty feeble – earning rate of 1 Heathrow Rewards point per £1.
You need to book your tickets on the Heathrow Express website here.
The offer does not show on the Heathrow Express website but is explained clearly on the Heathrow Rewards site when you log in.
Are there any conditions?
It seems not, except that it cannot be combined with the employee discount scheme. You can earn the bonus as many times as you wish during the promotional period.
Since you get 250 bonus points PER TRANSACTION, it makes sense to break down your purchase into multiple transactions. If both you and your partner are travelling, buy your tickets in separate transactions.
However, since return tickets do not cost much more than single tickets, it is NOT worth buying two single tickets instead of a return.
You should also check that the Duo Saver (two standard class returns for £55.50) and Group Saver (33% off when 3+ adults travel) ticket offers are not better value than multiple single purchases.
What are the cheapest Heathrow Express tickets?
You can now get significant discounts if you book 30 / 60 / 90 days in advance, especially as weekends.
The cheapest ticket is a £5.50 single ticket, booked 90 days in advance for weekend or Bank Holiday travel. Getting 250 Heathrow Rewards points on top of this is a good deal.
Remember that children now travel free on Heathrow Express.
What are Heathrow Rewards points worth?
Heathrow Rewards points transfer at 1:1 into airline miles in the following programmes, in chunks of 250:
British Airways Executive Club / Aer Lingus AerClub
Asia Miles
Emirates Skywards
Virgin Flying Club
Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer
Aegean Miles&Bonus
Royal Brunei Royal Skies
Lufthansa Miles & More
Alternatively, you can convert them into Heathrow shopping vouchers at the rate of £5 per 500 points.
Occasional transfer bonuses see your points being worth 50% – 100% more. For the last two years, there has been an annual 100% bonus on transfers to Heathrow shopping vouchers, so you got a £5 voucher for just 250 points.
There is currently a Virgin Atlantic transfer bonus running, which we will cover tomorrow, worth 50% for standard Heathrow Rewards members and 100% for Premium members who have spent over £750 in a year.
Is this a better deal than earning Avios from Heathrow Express?
Good question. There is a long-running Avios deal with Heathrow Express, which few people know about because you need to visit heathrowexpress.com/avios to qualify.
This is very generous – you earn 10 Avios per £1 spent. It is more generous, for flexible return tickets, than the Heathrow Express offer.
The snag is that the Avios offer does not apply to advance tickets. The only tickets you can buy via heathrowexpress.com/avios are flexible ones. You won’t find the £5.50 advance tickets here. The only tickets covered by the Avios offer are:
- Express single: £22
- Express return: £37
- Business First single: £32
- Business First return: £55
If you want to earn Avios, as opposed to Virgin / Emirates / Lufthansa / Aegean / Singapore / Cathay / Royal Brunei miles, the bottom three deals above are more generous that taking 250 bonus Heathrow Rewards points. On the other hand, a 50% transfer bonus into Avios at some point next year would wipe out the benefit except for the £55 ticket above.
To summarise ….
In virtually all cases, the new ‘250 bonus Heathrow Rewards points with any purchase’ option is better than the Avios-earning option.
Even when the difference is marginal, remember that transferable / flexible points (and Heathrow Rewards points are very flexible due to the number of redemption options) are more valuable than fixed points such as Avios.
You should value 250 Heathrow Rewards points higher than 250 Avios, for example, because the former can become the latter (1:1 conversion rate) but can also become lots of other things.
Because of this, I would take the Heathrow Rewards points rather than Avios (via heathrowrewards.com/avios) if you can.
Remember that bookings must be made by 31st December to qualify for the 250 bonus Heathrow Rewards points. The small print says that bonus points may take up to 30 days to arrive.
How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (November 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 Mastercard
Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review
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.
SPECIAL OFFER: Until 14th January 2025, the sign-up bonus on ‘free for a year’ American Express Preferred Rewards Gold is increased to 30,000 Membership Rewards points. This converts into 30,000 Avios. Click here to apply.
SPECIAL OFFER: Until 14th January 2025, the sign-up bonus on The Platinum Card from American Express is increased to 80,000 Membership Rewards points. This converts into 80,000 Avios! The spend requirement is changed to £10,000 in six months for this offer. 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
The Platinum Card from American Express
Huge 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, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios.
SPECIAL OFFER: Until 9th December 2024, there are EXCLUSIVE sign-up offers for our readers on the two Capital on Tap small business Visa cards. You can earn 20,000 points on the Business Rewards card and 30,000 points on the new Pro card. Click here to apply.
Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa
20,000 points (ONLY TO 9TH DECEMBER) 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.
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