Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Get a 25% bonus when you convert TopCashback money to Avios points

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Cashback shopping site TopCashback is offering a 25% bonus this month if you convert your earnings to Avios.

Until 30th April, you will receive 1.25 Avios for every 1p of cashback you convert.

Be clear about the maths before you do this.  You are basically buying Avios at 0.8p each compared to taking the cash.

This IS a decent deal, and it would be hard to lose money on this basis given that HFP readers should be getting well over 1p per Avios when they redeem, but think it through.  Cash is flexible and not prone to sudden devaluation, Avios are not.


How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (October 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

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.

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 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, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios.

Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa

10,000 points bonus – plus an extra 500 points for our readers 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

Up to 80,000 points when you sign-up and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

Get up to 40,000 points as a sign-up offer 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 (105)

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

  • Phil says:

    The really surprising thing is that Hyatt has award inventory even during times of very high demand. Last year I got an excellent rate using cash+points at the lovely Hyatt Centric in Ginza at the height of cherry blossom season. (I did book earlyish though and award availability disappeared closer to the time.)

    For this June I have been able to book 4 nights in a SLH property on Naxos using Hyatt points. Again a considerable saving at a time when rates are high.

    • Rob says:

      Hyatt makes reward nights available as long as standard rooms are available for cash. It is a key benefit of World of Hyatt.

      You only get issues if hotels start gaming what a ‘standard’ room is and making it a small category.

      • Mr Entitled says:

        Is this unique to Hyatt? I thought Hilton do the same, and then if no standard room is available, offer a higher category for an inflated point total. Perhaps others do too?

        • Rob says:

          No, Hilton has capacity controls. ‘Premium rooms’ are just Hilton buying your room for you at full price, giving you 0.25p or so per point.

        • Kai says:

          Marriott has the same policy. Hilton doesn’t, but I have only see very few occasions where standard rooms available for cash cannot be redeemed for points.

    • Scallder says:

      I loved Naxos when there for a few nights as part of a sailing trip a few years back. Apologies if you’ve been before, but in case not, make sure to check out Yasouvlaki! on the harbour front – great gyros, so can get a very good dinner for £3!

      Would also recommend popping into Eggares Olive Oil Museum if you’re passing by, interesting to see the older methods of producing olive oil plus you can buy some of their produce – it’s incredible and rarely makes it off the island as the locals usually keep it to themselves, it’s that good.

      Also check out Naxos Castle – during the summer they have music on in the evenings in the courtyard which is a lovely experience, especially as the castle overlooks the bay

  • Matt says:

    Hi Lee I thought that too but I’m so glad I percevered last week. 2 outbound F seats were available for Feb 2020 so I nabbed them using 2-4-1 last month before they went. I then waited 2 weeks till D-355, and although I had to call up at midnight on 3 consecutive I locked in the J inbound seats on the third attempt!

    Certainly a ball ache but I feel it was worth it for sure.

    • Mr Entitled says:

      On the first two attempts when you called had someone beaten you to it or were the seats not made available?

  • Matt says:

    Alex W i just booked F out, J back recently, and taxes were around £805 mark.

  • LewisB says:

    OT – Flybe to close it’s entire base at Doncaster, Cardiff and Exeter. Devastating for Exeter Airport, I would question if it’ll survive. Ryanair to make an announcement for Cardiff later on today, I’m assuming they’ll savage the best performing Flybe routes.

    • LewisB says:

      At least 24 Flybe cancellations across the UK today also due to crew shortages, seem to be leaving in packs…

    • Shoestring says:

      Goodbye Exeter = bad news for people in the South West, was at least an option on some routes.

    • BJ says:

      When is this happening? We were planning to fly from Edinburgh to Exeter this summer and pick up a hire car to explore south west. Looks like we will now need to drive or use Bristol or perhaps Ryanair fly to Bournemouth.

      • LewisB says:

        After summer 2019. Staff were emailed last night. I’d expect a news story to come out shortly.

        • BJ says:

          So, safe for us probably but a great pity for the region. I’m abigfan pfsmaller localairpirrs if they can get routes to work.

      • Shoestring says:

        Edinburgh/ Glasgow to Newquay? Direct, if it still continues…

        • BJ says:

          Thanks, didn’t know about that one, will look into it. Exeter would have been better as we were going to use the Hampton as a cheap base using points or cash.

    • Marcw says:

      Flybe is about to close……

      • Rob says:

        Flybe is perfectly fine. I know some of the senior people there and they are all happy. People who were looking for other jobs have now decided to stay.

        • Michael says:

          So what’s the score now then – are they being folded into Virgin or are they remaining as flybe?

          • Rob says:

            Remains as is. It has to, because Virgin does NOT own Flybe, it only owns 40% of it. Even when the name on the plane changes, they will remain separate legally.

        • marcw says:

          It is not perfectly fine… otherwise they wouldn’t cancel many flights for no reason with less than 24 h notice. Furthermore, no airline says we are gonna collapse in the next 2 weeks.

          • Rob says:

            Buying insolvent businesses can work and it can fail (eg BHS). The key is how quickly you can jettison the loss making bits and how that impacts the remainder. Let’s see what the Winter timetable looks like.

        • Alan says:

          Shame about Exeter as I know they have invested a lot there. Presumably they are just slashing routes to concentrate on being a feeder.
          Probably also makes sense to have their head offices/maintenence departments at the same place as Virgin (even if they are seperate it would still make sense financially)

      • Travel Strong says:

        They have already closed to me. Dead to me. Never to be flown again. Had enough of the delays and cancellations to last a lifetime.

      • Brian W says:

        Marcw, a lot of your posts are comical and based on nothing but a finger in the wind gamble. You often make me chuckle, especially when your responses to common sense replies to your original offering are again based on nothing but hearsay.

    • Lloyd says:

      Don’t think this is correct. As I understand it Exeter will remain a base for Q400 operations only. Only the Jet operations are to close at Exeter.

      • LewisB says:

        Correct, the original source I viewed has now updated the story. Cardiff and Doncaster to lose their base, Exeter to lose jets and Q400 to remain.

  • Shoestring says:

    My calculation of what you’re paying goes as follows:

    1. Premium members get an extra 5% top-up vs Classic members.
    2. Alternative to cash payout is choosing virtual prepaid Mastercard, which comes with a 6.5% bonus.
    3. So my starting point (as a Premium member) would be (under normal circs) that 1 Avios = 0.95p
    4. But there’s a 25% Avios bonus, so 1.25 Avios = 0.95p.
    5. = 1 Avios = 0.76p
    6. But I can get a 6.5% bonus if I prefer Mastercard payout, so under normal circs 1 Avios = (0.95 x 1.065) = 1.012p
    7. But there’s a 25% Avios bonus, so 1.25 Avios = 1.012p
    8. = 1 Avios = 8.1p (for Premium members)
    9. For non Premium members, normally 1 Avios = 1p.
    10. Non Premium members could prefer Mastercard payout (with 6.5% bonus), so 1 Avios = 1.065p.
    11. With the 25% Avios bonus, 1.25 Avios = 1.065p
    12. = 1 Avios = 0.852p (for non Premium members)

    A bit more than the article says, because of the prepaid Mastercard payout option. You can spend this on anything, I’ve been using mine to pay BT & Sky as you can immediately use up the M/C balance in total & won’t forget about it.

  • Barry says:

    O/T Amex supplementary cards
    I already have the free first one on my Platinum but if I pay £170 to add a second:
    1) Will I get any bonus points?
    2) Will the 2nd supp get all the Platinum benefits including Priority Pass?
    3) Is the fee refunded pro rata if I cancel it a few months later?
    Thanks!

    • TGLoyalty says:

      1) If you got the bonus points for your first no
      2) Yes
      3) Yes

    • Kai says:

      I know someone who added five and got bonus for each, but YMMV…

  • TGLoyalty says:

    Lee in this case I would have withdrawn the cash and bought a cash ticket.

    • Alex W says:

      Exactly. Or withdraw as a virtual MasterCard with a 6.5% bonus. He’s nearly half way to a cash ticket in QR J which is as good or better than BA F

  • Shoestring says:

    nice work – cheap life insurance policies currently the easiest/ cheapest way to earn a few Avios on that site, we’ve got 6 (2 each) in the works so £630 due in a few months (6 month minimum term, about £2-£2.50/ month per policy)

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

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