How do I earn Avios points at Bicester Village?

How can you earn Avios points at Bicester Village?

Bicester Village is a popular designer outlet centre on the outskirts of Oxford, and the parent company owns similar locations abroad. In this article we’ll look at whether you can earn Avios on your shopping.

The good news is that Bicester Village partners with a variety of airline frequent flyer programs, including Avios based ones (British Airways, Iberia, Vueling, Aer Lingus).

In fact, the rate of earning Avios is slightly more generous at 5 Avios for every £4/€4 spent than its partnership with Virgin Atlantic Flying Club.  With Virgin you only earn 1 point per £1.

The full list of Bicester Village airline partners is here.  As well as Avios and Virgin Atlantic, you can also credit to Turkish Miles & Smiles, Asia Miles, ANA, Emirates Skywards, Etihad Guest, Malaysia Airlines Enrich, Flying Blue, Korean Air, Singapore Airlines Krisflyer, Lufthansa Miles & More, Saudia Al Fursan, Royal Air Maroc and Qatar Airways Privilege Club.

Hotel partners include Preferred Hotels iPrefer, Accor Live Limitless, MeliaRewards, Radisson Rewards, Rocco Forte Hotels, GHA DISCOVERY, Wyndham Rewards and H Rewards.

How to earn Avios

The earning rate is 5 Avios for every £4 you spend, up to a limit of £30,000 per year. Beyond £30,000 it drops to 5 Avios per £20 spent, although I doubt that will bother many of us ….

You now need to register your credit card in advance to earn Avios.

You can see full details on the Avios shopping site here.

The idea is that you register your credit card with the Avios shopping portal before you visit. Purchases at Bicester Village will be automatically picked up by Avios (you need to give them permission to access your credit or debit card transaction data) and points awarded.

You can only register credit cards issued in the UK, USA and Ireland. It isn’t clear what you are meant to do otherwise, and this restriction seems likely to impact tourists.

Certain merchants are also unavailable:

For American Express cardholders, you can’t earn directly at:

• Vero Latte, The Mayfair Chippy, Pandora, Vilebrequin, Swarovski, Veuve Cliquot, Grind Coffee, Self Portrait, Ganni, Ralph Lauren Classic, Ferragamo, Charlotte Tilbury, Pangaia, Tommy Hilfiger Woman & Kids, Astrid & Miyu, Ami Paris, Neom, Palm Angels, Marc Jacobs, La Tua, Lindt, Beaute Prestige, Christian Louboutin, Under Armour. 

For Visa cardholders, you can’t earn directly at:

• Vero Latte, The Mayfair Chippy, Pandora, Vilebrequin, Swarovski, Veuve Cliquot, Grind Coffee, Self Portrait, Ganni, Ralph Lauren Classic, Ferragamo, Charlotte Tilbury, Pangaia, Tommy Hilfiger Woman & Kids, Astrid & Miyu, Jo Malone, Stone Island, Marc Jacobs.

For Mastercard cardholders, you can’t earn directly at:

• Vero Latte, The Mayfair Chippy, Pandora, Vilebrequin, Swarovski, Veuve Cliquot, Grind Coffee, Self Portrait, Ganni, Ralph Lauren Classic, Ferragamo, Charlotte Tilbury, Pangaia, Tommy Hilfiger Woman & Kids, Astrid & Miyu, Jo Malone, Marc Jacobs, La Tua.

In these cases, you need to make your claim manually – either in person or by email.

Obviously you can still use Amex, Visa and Mastercard products in these stores, but no Avios will automatically appear.

How to earn other airline miles or hotel points

To earn other airline miles or hotel points on your spend you must email your receipts to Bicester Village after your visit or take them to the Welcome Centre (next to the railway station) before you leave.

If you are travelling in Europe, it is worth remembering that you can also earn Avios at other outlets sites owned by the same company.  This includes shopping villages located near Dublin, Barcelona, Madrid, Paris, Munich, Frankfurt and Brussels.

(This article is part of our ‘BA Q&A’ series which explains how British Airways Executive Club works.  You can see all of our ‘BA Q&A’ articles here. )

(Head for Points is the UK’s biggest frequent flyer website with 2.5 million monthly page views.  Want to learn more about earning and spending Avios?  Click here to read our latest news stories and click here to join the mailing list for our weekly or daily email newsletters.)

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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:

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

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.

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.

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.

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.

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.