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Have you been given 2019 free Avios from British Airways?

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It looks like British Airways has kicked off its 100th birthday celebrations, although it has been kept very much wraps.

At noon yesterday BA launched its special ‘£200 return’ flights to selected destinations in Economy / World Traveller.  This deal will run until Thursday, with two new destinations launched each day at noon.

More interesting, however, is the 2019 Avios which are mysteriously appearing in British Airways Executive Club accounts.

Some people – and my wife and I are NOT among them – received 2,018 Avios from British Airways on their birthday last year.  It isn’t clear what you had to do to receive these (my wife and I are both BA Gold) but we clearly didn’t do it!

If you received 2,018 birthday Avios from BA last year on your birthday, it seems that you should have received 2,019 Avios from British Airways yesterday to celebrate BA’s 100th birthday.

Why? Who knows?

It is a generous gesture, although now you’ve read about this – and realised that you haven’t got them – the net balance of ‘people who now feel happier towards BA’ versus ‘people who now feel grumpier towards BA’ may not be positive ….

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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

British Airways and Avios

Comments (118)

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

  • BSI1978 says:
    22 Jan22 January 07:36

    OT in the absence of Bits – does anyone have any views or experience of the Oryx hotel @ Hamad International airport? Trying to work out whether it is a better option than the somewhat more reasonably priced hotels that are not on-site. Is it worth the extra to avoid going landside?

    Think even I am going to struggle with keeping myself interested in the lounge for c.16 hours….

    • Ben says:
      22 Jan22 January 08:09

      I tried this a couple of months ago with a 9 hour layover. It’s not cheap, but the room I got was spacious, the bed was very comfortable, and of course very convenient for getting back to the connecting flight. For me, I didn’t really have the time or inclination to go landside for somewhere else and couldn’t face trying to sleep in the lounge. The additional sleep gained in a proper bed was worth the extra money to me – with 16 hours to kill your cost / benefit ratio may be different. I can’t comment on any of the hotel’s other facilities because I didn’t have time to use them.

    • Rob says:
      22 Jan22 January 08:46

      I have stayed in the transit hotel and its fine. However for 16 hours I would go the Crowne Plaza nearby or even into Doha.

    • BSI1978 says:
      22 Jan22 January 13:03

      Appreciate the comments both – it now looks like I might be able to avail myself of a special offer that they are running at present which enables travellers with 12+ stopovers getting a free ‘night’ in selected hotels. The Hilton Doha is coming up as an option and so think this will make it a no-brainer!

    • Matt says:
      22 Jan22 January 13:06

      We had an ~8 hour stay there overnight a couple of years back and it was expensive but worked well – roll out of bed straight to the gate. With a much longer stopover I’d echo Rob and strongly suggest leaving the airport – it’s very straightforward to get a taxi into town

  • Timothy Firmager says:
    22 Jan22 January 07:37

    Received mine yesterday (and the 2018 ones last year). As you say, no idea why me, but better than nothing.

  • Ken Middleton says:
    22 Jan22 January 07:40

    I too am a lowly Blue member with zero Tier point at present and I also got 2019. My quibble is that the points arrived in my Executive Club account with no indication where they came from. I spent quite a while, on a very busy day, trying in vain to find out how I had acquired 2019 Avios.

    I don’t know how many other readers are in the same boat as me as regards getting status with BA. I don’t live anywhere near London, so I tend to only book long-haul business class seats on BA with Avios. If I want to actually pay for a seat, especially to Europe, I tend to fly KLM, Lufthansa or similar and fly from Manchester or another airport in the “north”. I can actually earn more Avios by wombling at Tesco (my grand-daughter loves to do this) than from BA.

  • Bonglim says:
    22 Jan22 January 08:02

    I got both, lucky me.
    Took 2 return reward trips last year.
    Last time i did a cash BA flight was over 2 years ago, so I am on blue only.

  • Kevin C says:
    22 Jan22 January 08:03

    Typo watch: Missing word – should be ‘under wraps’. No birthday miles here 😟

  • Pid says:
    22 Jan22 January 08:05

    No bonus points across three family accounts 🙁

  • ankomonkey says:
    22 Jan22 January 08:10

    Nothing for any of the 4 BAEC members in this household. We won’t be sending BA a birthday card…

  • Alex Sm says:
    22 Jan22 January 08:11

    Nothing for me, obvs
    After a big spat with them last summer over a missed flight from LIS I wouldn’t expect anything from them tbh

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