Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

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.

Heathrow Express Heathrow Rewards offer

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.

Heathrow Express Heathrow Rewards offer

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

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.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 12th May 2024, the Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa card is offering a bonus of 30,000 points, convertible into 30,000 Avios. You must have a Limited Company to apply. Click here to learn more and click here to apply.

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.

Category

British Airways and Avios, Emirates and Emirates Skywards, Heathrow Rewards, Lufthansa and Miles & More, Virgin Atlantic and Flying Club

Comments (69)

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

  • Alan says:
    2 Dec2 December 09:59

    Damn, booked just last week using my £10 off Amex offer, could have combined it with this!

  • Alex W says:
    2 Dec2 December 10:04

    You could of course just take the tube which as way cheaper than HEX.

  • Kevin says:
    2 Dec2 December 10:05

    OT – I’m going to Tokyo for a week at the end of January. I’ve already booked a redemention 5 nights at the ritz. For the other two nights I only have IHG points, what is better the ANA intercontinental or the Tokyo Bay Intercontinental? Thanks for your advice!

    • Adam says:
      2 Dec2 December 10:12

      Ana is more convenient in terms of location and is a good property. Bay is further away but is immaculate in terms of staff, cleanliness, and soundproofing. I was really amazed to get a bay view high floor corner room upgrade while I was only gold and stayed on points. I was expecting the worst room allocation.

      • Alan says:
        2 Dec2 December 10:26

        IC The Strings also looks good, would be interested in any thoughts re area for it. Redeeming IHG points looks like a good plan – 50-55k/night vs £350 (The Bay) £450 (The Strings) or £550 IC Tokyo for my days!

        • meta says:
          2 Dec2 December 10:33

          It’s very convenient for airports and getting around as it is attached to Shinagawa station.

          • Alan says:
            2 Dec2 December 10:35

            Yes, am flying into and out of Haneda (ANA F redemption on VS miles for 120k + £400 :D) so it looks extremely convenient for that!

        • CV3V says:
          2 Dec2 December 14:48

          IC The Strings is excellent, stayed last year on points but as Spire Ambassador, great service and room was very high quality. There are a shops and cafes in all directions in the area. Shinagawa station is adjacent, and the spectacle of the morning rush hour(s) as the masses come out of the station is an incredible sight.

          Against it, although connected to station it is a little far away from main tourist destinations and there is a lot of time spent on trains getting to places, but could say the same about London. Then again trains to/from both airports pass through.

        • Alex W says:
          2 Dec2 December 22:00

          I agree with CV3V 100%. Did 2 award nights at the strings recently, it was an excellent hotel, good service and room very nice. But due to the distance from the main tourist attractions I wouldn’t stay there again.

          The Tokyo metro was a right faff. The different lines have different tickets so you have to buy a new ticket when you change trains. Furthermore the ticket machines don’t take western credit cards. Had to get cash out, neither curve nor debit cards accepted! Add a buggy into the mix and it was pretty stressful. Apparently you can get some universal Oyster card type thing which works on all lines. I forget the name of it and no one told us about it beforehand.

    • meta says:
      2 Dec2 December 10:31

      I actually prefer The Strings.

  • Save East Coast Rewards says:
    2 Dec2 December 10:26

    Remember you can get railcard discounts on HEX too. If you have a Network Railcard or Gold Card (annual travelcard) up to 4 can get 33% off and you CAN split those ones into separate transactions as long as the railcard holder travels with the 4.

    If you have a two together railcard you can’t split the booking as the two people need to book in the same transaction.

    • Jonathan says:
      2 Dec2 December 10:34

      Yes, a network railcard is well worth buying for anyone making more than 2 HEX returns a year. Just make sure you buy tickets on app/website as the ticket machines/onboard won’t allow you to get railcard discount

      • Save East Coast Rewards says:
        2 Dec2 December 12:06

        Still no railcard discounts on the HEX ticket machines? Now the HEX ticket offices are gone I would have thought they’d have to. Always a good idea to buy your railcard discounts online/app anyway so you can get your Heathrow Rewards (Avios doesn’t work for discounted fares).

        If you do need to buy your ticket at the station, the National Rail machines at Paddington will offer you the railcard discount. I think there’s also National Rail machines at the Heathrow end too but I’ve only used them to collect tickets.

  • JonC says:
    2 Dec2 December 11:07

    O/T Was looking to churn on BAPP, and realised I had my wife’s BA (Blue) supplementary card still on my online Amex account. Is the 6 month window based on when you were the main cardholder (I cancelled my BAPP end of June 2018) or when you cancelled the last “BA card” on your account regardless if it was a supplementary card? I assumed it would be the former but the guy on Amex customer service call centre implied it was the latter.

  • Graeme says:
    2 Dec2 December 11:56

    O/T again and one that’s been done to death but unable to find in old comments.

    NYC – I have a free night IHG Creation voucher to use next year and IHG points to burn. Where do you recommend to stay for 3-4 nights? Points range from around 34k to 70k. Happy to consider range of these for value. What are your preferences please?

    • Lumma says:
      2 Dec2 December 13:53

      Anywhere specific in the world?

      • Genghis says:
        2 Dec2 December 14:08

        NYC?

        • Graeme says:
          2 Dec2 December 18:23

          Yes, NYC. Thanks.

        • Shoestring says:
          2 Dec2 December 18:38

          New York City

        • Graeme says:
          2 Dec2 December 19:00

          Sorry, yes New York City, Manhattan.

          Thanks Harry

        • Shoestring says:
          2 Dec2 December 22:17

          That’s very unfair you guys. Why should getting an airport code right even matter? It wasn’t even meant to be an airport. I hate this 3 letter code stupidity/ not in the club snobbishness

          • Alan says:
            2 Dec2 December 22:20

            Ermm this thread seems to be getting all a bit confusing! I think Genghis was just replying to Lumma pointing out that NYC had already been specified by the OP as where they were looking at using the voucher…

        • Genghis says:
          3 Dec3 December 03:28

          @Alan correct. NYC is the IATA for New York City as well as being the generally accepted accronym.

        • Genghis says:
          3 Dec3 December 03:30

          And to add a bit of value, IC Boston was excellent (though not New York of course; I’d heard they’re bed factories).

    • Alex W says:
      2 Dec2 December 22:05

      @graeme we stayed at IC Times Square which I was pretty happy with. No other experience though. Try to get max value out of the creation voucher though, 35k per night would seem a bit of a waste! Ambassador could work out good value even for 1 weekend only.

    • Memesweeper says:
      2 Dec2 December 22:23

      Can’t recommend based on personal experience, but i’ve just used my free night & points on the Kimpton Eventi… close call with the Indigo LES and IC Barclay.

  • Sam says:
    2 Dec2 December 11:59

    OT: I went on a BA Holiday (flight + hotel) in Oct and haven’t received the bonus Avios. It’s been 6 weeks. The flight Avios came within 2 days of the flights. Anyone else have them not appear?

    • Stu N says:
      2 Dec2 December 12:36

      In my experience they either post within a week or so, or never. It’s a manual process apparently. You will need to phone BA holidays to chase up but they have been super-helpful in the past.

  • Anna says:
    2 Dec2 December 12:45

    OH Hilton gold status. If my gold status (via Amex Platinum) expires, but I’ve spent the required amount on the HH visa, do you just carry on automatically as gold or do you have to re-apply for the status (I had to nudge them a bit to make me silver when I first got the HH visa)?

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