Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

A quirk when you earn Avios flying with SriLankan Airlines

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As a member of the oneworld alliance, you can earn Avios and British Airways Executive Club tier points when you fly with SriLankan Airlines.  You can also redeem Avios for their flights.

A reader pointed out a quirk which is worth knowing if you have any SriLankan flights booked.  Iberia Plus is often more generous than British Airways Executive Club for some flights on SriLankan.

This is how it breaks down by sub-booking class:

Economy Class (based on % of miles flown)

N – 25% on BA, 25% on Iberia

O – 25% on BA, 25% on Iberia

Q – 25% on BA, 25% on Iberia

R – 25% on BA, 50% on Iberia

S – 25% on BA, 50% on Iberia

L – 50% on BA, 50% on Iberia

V – 50% on BA, 50% on Iberia

W – 50% on BA, 70% on Iberia

M – 50% on BA, 70% on Iberia

E – 50% on BA, 70% on Iberia

K – 100% on BA, 70% on Iberia

Y – 100% on BA, 80% on Iberia

B – 100% on BA, 80% on Iberia

P – 100% on BA, 80% on Iberia

H – 100% on BA, 80% on Iberia

Business Class

I – 100% on BA, 100% on Iberia

C – 125% on BA, 125% on Iberia

D – 125% on BA, 125% on Iberia

J – 125% on BA, 150% on Iberia

As you can see, some booking classes are the same in both schemes, some are better in Iberia Plus and some are better in BAEC.  If Iberia is better, and you don’t care about losing the British Airways tier points, you should credit your flights to an Iberia Plus account instead of a British Airways one.

You can move the Avios across to British Airways afterwards using ‘Combine My Avios’ so they won’t be orphaned in Iberia Plus.

You can learn more about BA’s earning rates on partner airlines on ba.com here.  The Iberia Plus page showing the earning rates on SriLankan is here.


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.

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.

Comments (63)

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

  • Charlieface says:

    Note if you decide to credit flights on the same booking to different programs, the best idea is not to enter your number, then retro-claim after the flight

  • Waddle says:

    Sunday OT: Amex online accounts
    I received my Platinum yesterday and tried to activate it and add it to my Amex app. The app (and online) tells me I cannot add this card to my existing account which has my BAPP. I phoned up Brighton and the rep told me I had to wait for the first statement before I’m able to add it to an existing members account. Is this correct? Am I missing something? Do I have to make a separate account for each card or ‘family’ of cards?

    • Craig says:

      I’ve had his problem a few times. I have a temp account that I use until I can add it to the main account which is usually possible after a few days.

    • Tracy says:

      I have found I can’t add new cards on weekends but works ok Monday to Friday….

      • BJ says:

        +1, always suspect this was a weekend think. Anybody getting s card on weekend should wait until Monday to add to existing account.

  • Concerto says:

    The Ozone is expensive. You can’t get up there without prepayment of a sizeable sum of money (a few hundred HKD) to cover a couple of drinks at the bar

    • Concerto says:

      Was responding to a post at the beginning asking about Hong Kong sky bars

  • Alex Sm says:

    Quite handy for reconciling negative Avios balance on Iberia

  • Craig says:

    OT: How long does it normally take for points from Virgin Wines to appear.

    • Shoestring says:

      Unfortunately can be quite a long time, I’d say anything from a few weeks to a couple of months.

      Doesn’t hurt to stick in a claim.

  • Polly says:

    Rob,
    Nice mention in The Sunday Times Travel today.. gave all our secrets away…cannot believe the journalist let 57k avios expire. He needs to read hfp….

  • Bs says:

    Ba sale worked well for me. Booked a flight to Belfast in J for £170, when I would have paid about £150 in Y.

    Perhaps heretical to many on here I also used 10,000 Avios for £70 off. With the poorer availability and high charges on redemptions, and cheaper J cash tickets, I’ve stopped valuing Avios at more than 0.7 each now.

    • Shoestring says:

      It’s not too heretical! Plenty of people get their Avios for free (so to speak) – therefore enjoying a nice discount is perfectly justifiable. And you’ll earn back some points/ TPs on the flight because you bought a cash ticket, which is more than can be said for Avios + Money (=nul points).

  • Tom says:

    Couple of questions from me today – help would be greatly appreciated.

    1. How do amex refund your card fee if you cancel?
    2. Got the offer to upgrade to plat from gold and spend 1k in 3 months to get 20k Membership rewards. I’m into my second year of gold (i’ve kept it around due to 3x points with spend on amex travel) will my annual fee i’ve paid for gold be rolled into plat and i’ll only be charged the difference?
    3. Will i get a bonus for adding a supplementary card holder when i do upgrade to Plat? (I’ve currently got one for my gold card).

    I’m planning to get the 20k and then cancel.

    • Nick M says:

      1) Refund will show as statement credit, so ideally leave a balance there (or have another card to shift it to)
      2) Gold fee will be refunded pro-rata and then Platinum fee should* be charged
      3) Maybe – but you need to cancel the existing supp, and then re-add later… if the system pulls the supp through then you’ll automatically receive the extra card (and will be charged for any additional ones you request)

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

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