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Malaysia Airlines launches a special promotion for Visa cardholders

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Malaysia Airlines is running a special promotion with Visa this weekend.

You can save an additional 5% on all tickets in both Economy and Business as long as you travel by 6th May.  You can ONLY get the discount if you book via this page of the Malaysia Airlines website.

The offer will be running every weekend until the end of March, but this weekend it coincides with – and doubles up with – the January sale savings.  As well as Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Airlines has good connections to Australia and elsewhere in Asia.

Remember that you earn Avios and British Airways tier points when you fly with Malaysia Airlines as both are members of the oneworld alliance.

Malaysia Airlines has recently taken delivery of new A350-900 aircraft and is now operating them on the Heathrow to Kuala Lumpur route.  There are two daily departures from Terminal 4 at 10.25 and 21.25.

Full details of the new planes are on their website here.  The Business Class layout looks pretty good.  It is a staggered 1-2-1 or 1-2-2 layout, similar to Aer Lingus.  It even has two Aer Lingus-style ‘throne’ seats on the right-hand side.

On the left, one row has ‘table / seat’, the one behind ‘seat / table’ and so on, so that your feet slot under the table area of the seat in front.  The Qatar Qsuite works in a similar way.

Your best option to maximise your miles when paying is American Express Preferred Rewards Gold.  This offers double points – 2 per £1 – when you when you book flight tickets directly with an airline.  Our review of Amex Gold is here.

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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.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on the ‘free for a year’ American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card is increased from 20,000 Membership Rewards points to 30,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (30,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on American Express Platinum is increased from 50,000 Membership Rewards points to a huge 80,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (80,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. 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

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.

Category

oneworld alliance partners

Comments (84)

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

  • Doug M says:
    19 Jan19 January 10:50

    OT: The Saga Platinum card which had fee free FX is closing. The closing date is 28th March, and the card was issued by AIB. Perhaps just too much bother to prepare for the different Brexit scenarios so they just closed it? Or just a coincidence. The card didn’t offer any benefits, but was my pre-Curve fallback for foreign spend, after the Lloyds Avios Amex.

  • Yuff says:
    19 Jan19 January 11:08

    OT: combine my avios does not seem to be working to Iberia from my household account. Have tried via viewing but not getting anywhere are there any other routes
    I could book the flight via BA but it isn’t giving me the option to book the flight online as it’s a tight connection in Madrid, Iberia dies do it online, and I want it on the same ticket in case I am delayed.

  • Mark says:
    19 Jan19 January 11:27

    Really frustrated with Hilton. It’s been over two weeks it’s being waiting to tell me my new status. I know I will have lost my diamond, however in the last 3 days I have stayed in 3 seperate Hilton’s in 3 cities. If they had just updated my status much quicker I’d already be 75% to a diamond status match by now.

  • Roger says:
    19 Jan19 January 12:25

    OT_ Any Delta / SKYTEAM expert here?

    on my next flight I shall earn 19K MQM and 5K EQD.
    I will just be shy of 6K MQM before I will Delta Silver.
    Any ideas on intra-europe AF/KLM mileage run?

    Of course I can get more MQM, if I somhow manage to get a StatusMatch but currently do not have any status with any airline. Only possibility is the SQ status via Shnagri-la via Amex Platinum.

    Any thoughts folks?

  • FlyingC says:
    19 Jan19 January 12:29

    O/T: Amex Platinum Car Hire Insurance. This is probably a stupid question – but presumably it isn’t relevant/wouldn’t apply (i.e. to cover a damage excess) for a hire car booking paid for by work on a corporate account, with the cardholder/employee as the named driver on the booking?

    • Bonglim says:
      19 Jan19 January 14:53

      I think You must pay with the platinum card

      • Genghis says:
        19 Jan19 January 15:02

        Payment method irrelevant

        • FlyingC says:
          19 Jan19 January 15:21

          But presumably I’m assuming the payment needs to be the name of the card holder (as opposed to the employers corporate account with the cardholders name on the booking)?

        • Genghis says:
          19 Jan19 January 17:13

          Payment method irrelevant. Have a look in the terms.

        • Genghis says:
          19 Jan19 January 17:15

          Using the car for work business and relying on personal plat insurance is the key here, not payment method. Read the terms.

        • Genghis says:
          19 Jan19 January 17:35

          Term 1.9.6 provides for exclusion of “Work-related accidents”. Not sure exactly what this means re car hire. I’d call Amex.

  • Si says:
    19 Jan19 January 12:34

    O/T Lloyds Amex.

    Have just started new spend year, say beginning 1st Jan.

    However I have just been refunded a large transaction which was originally made in the previous spend year (months ago) – how will this refund affect my current year’s £7000 spend target?

    • BJ says:
      19 Jan19 January 14:39

      Called them about this earlier today. As I expected the avios goes negative by the amount refunded so you have to spend that amount again to get back where you started. Not certain on spend to get voucher though, my guess is that it will still be triggered by spending £7k but your avios earning on that £7k will not ‘effevtively’ begin until you recover the negative effects of refund.

  • Roger says:
    19 Jan19 January 12:54

    OT- How do you get Avis Preferred Plus with Priority Pass code for an existing account?
    There does not seem to be any option to add the code for an existing account

    • lgflyer says:
      19 Jan19 January 13:07

      If you contact Avis Preferred they will upgrade your account. At least it worked for me.

  • Jonny says:
    19 Jan19 January 13:24

    Fly CW LAX-LHR in feb courtesy of a 241 and some churns. As a blue who can’t select seats early, what should I am for given I’m travelling with my partner?

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

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