Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Earn up to 8 Avios per £1 with a special Hotels.com promotion

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Hotels.com and British Airways Executive Club now have a direct earning relationship, allowing you to earn Avios with every hotel booking.

This deal allows you to earn Avios on virtually every hotel you book – Hotels.com covers several hundreds of thousands of properties globally, more than 5x the combined total of the top five chains – irrespective of whether they are part of a major brand or not.

In order to earn Avios, you need to book via this special link – hotels.com/britishairways.  You will ONLY see the box to add your British Airways Executive Club number if you book via this link.

There are two earning options.

Option 1 – earn 8 Avios per £1 if you book without earning Hotels.com Rewards credit

Until 7th June, you will earn 8 Avios for every £1 spent at Hotels.com as long as you choose not to collect Hotels.com Rewards credits.

The standard rate, from 8th June, is 6 Avios per £1.

The only way to do this is is complete your booking as a ‘guest’ on the Hotels.com site.  Do NOT log in to your existing account or create a new account.

Option 2 – earn 4 Avios per £1 PLUS earn Hotels.com Rewards credit

Until 7th June, you earn a lower rate of 4 Avios for every £1 spent at Hotels.com if you book whilst logged in, or if you create an account during the booking process.

The standard rate, from 8th June, is 3 Avios per £1.

However, you will earn Hotels.com Rewards credit as well.

Which option should I choose?

Before I answer that, let’s look at how Hotels.com Rewards works.

Hotels.com Rewards (the rewards page on their site is here) is an idiot-proof loyalty scheme:

You earn 1 credit for every night you stay, whatever the chain

When you have got 10 credits, you get a free night

The value of the free night is the average price you paid for those 10 nights

Your credits don’t expire as long as you collect or redeem at least one night every 12 months

There aren’t any catches when you redeem. There are no blackout dates and you can pick any property on Hotels.com that takes part in Hotels.com Rewards (ie most of them). You can pay the difference if you want to book a hotel which is more expensive than the value of your free night voucher. You do have to pay taxes and fees.

There is a lot of upside here:

ALL of your stays (assuming the hotels or vacation rentals you book are in Hotels.com Rewards and most are) will count towards free nights. No more ‘wasted’ stays.

Your free night can be used to book any room on Hotels.com. Most reward schemes restrict the ability to book club rooms, suites, family room etc. That is not a problem with Hotels.com Rewards.

When travelling, you are free to stay at the hotel which is most convenient for where you need to be – no need to mess around with badly reviewed properties or out of the way hotels purely to find one in your favourite chain.

If you book multiple rooms, you get credit for all of them. Most hotel loyalty schemes restrict you to earning points on one (IHG), two (Hilton) or at most three (Marriott) rooms per night.

So …..

Because I am a fan of Hotels.com Rewards, I would personally book via Option 2.  I would prefer to earn 4 Avios per £1 plus get 10% of my stay value back as Hotels.com Rewards credit.   This is better – for me – than earning 8 Avios per £1 but giving up my Hotels.com Rewards credit.  I find that I can generate one free night per year this way, mainly from family holiday bookings at unbranded properties.

However, if you are only likely to make occasional bookings via Hotels.com, you may prefer Option 1 and the higher upfront reward of 8 Avios per £1.   After all, your Hotels.com Rewards credit have no value at all until you manage to book 10 nights.

One other thing to remember

Hotels.com bookings do not count for points or stay credit in the loyalty scheme of the chain where you are staying. You may get your status benefits but it is down to the goodwill of the hotel.

If you are booking independent hotels, or hotels chains where you do not collect their points, Hotels.com clearly makes sense.  If you are giving up hotel loyalty points or status benefits, you need to do the maths to see which option works best for you.

Conclusion

Whilst this is a long-term partnership between Hotels.com and Avios, the special rate of 8 Avios per £1 (for non-Hotels.com Rewards bookings) is only valid for bookings until 7th June.

You can find more information on the British Airways / Hotels.com partnership on this special page of ba.com although it does not mention the current special offer.

You need to book via this special Avios page of the Hotels.com website.

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.

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.

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.

Category

British Airways and Avios

Comments (101)

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

  • BJ says:
    20 May20 May 06:20

    I wonder how long before somebody starts commenting on the elephant in the room!

    • Shoestring says:
      20 May20 May 06:23

      2 mins

      • Shoestring says:
        20 May20 May 06:30

        yep, 10% cold hard cash available elsewhere, which is better than 6 or 8 Avios/ £1

        • Cat says:
          20 May20 May 09:50

          But that’s without earning hotels.com rewards, isn’t it?

          • Alex W says:
            20 May20 May 17:32

            I can see 2% with, 8% without and 10% for “all new customer bookings”…

          • Shoestring says:
            20 May20 May 17:50

            That’s the one – if you want it in Avios you can switch it over to the other site with their guarantee, they top it up

            but if you use Reward Wallet you get more – they beat/ top up the guarantee by 0.5% then you can get 6.5% extra with RW

            not quite as good as it sounds, you don’t get 17%! you get 10% + (10%x0.5%) + (10%x6.5%)

            so about 10.7% in prepaid Mastercard credit, as good as cash

  • Shoestring says:
    20 May20 May 06:22

    Option 2 is a no brainer if you can get to 10 nights in due course. The most you can ever get back on hotels.com is about 13% and this meets that hurdle.

    There are other better options (not mentioned here) than going for option 1.

    • BJ says:
      20 May20 May 06:46

      And on top of all that there is the room rate too but I would like to believe that all HFP readers at least will do some comparisons on those before selecting a booking option.

  • Jimmy says:
    20 May20 May 06:29

    Hey rob. Any chance of doing an article for those poor souls like me who have to book through a corporate travel agent? Are there any ways to collect points/miles/status this way?

    For example I’m free to boom anywhere but have to go through the agency. Sometimes my status is recognised. Sometimes not. Any advice would be great.

    • John says:
      20 May20 May 06:58

      You might need to check with your travel agent as to whether they have corporate rates which earn points. If these are more expensive than the corporate rates which don’t, your employer may not be too happy.

      • Rob says:
        20 May20 May 08:28

        In my experience, when this happens the CTA is ripping you off. They buy your room off a bedbank for peanuts then mark it up to RRP. You never notice until the points don’t post. If you cancel, they swallow the cost and pretend it was refundable.

        If CTA rates did not earn points or status all of these schemes aimed at business travellers would not exist.

        • reddot says:
          20 May20 May 08:41

          +1. My CTA is Egencia, sister company of Expedia. Phone bookings are the worst, eg when you cannot amend the booking online and need them to amend the hotel booking. I was sneakily rebooked onto a non-points-earning rate the most recent time, and the last time, rebooked into a similar-sounding hotel, but completely different place on London.

          • Rob says:
            20 May20 May 08:48

            Egencia operates differently, they take their room stock off Expedia so no points and no status benefits, but of course you are paying the same. Total rip off.

          • Fc99 says:
            20 May20 May 11:41

            Egencia are rubbish when it comes to flight options too

    • Fc99 says:
      20 May20 May 08:17

      I’ve been able to get Marriott points by selecting “pay at hotel” as the payment option (on the website my employer uses, this seems to be the cheapest option) and then sending them a copy of the payment receipt from the hotel to claim missing points.

      I discovered this by accident as I just booked the cheapest room option available and wasn’t aware at the time that only direct bookings received Marriott points.

  • david says:
    20 May20 May 06:46

    O/T: As someone who is just started to crawl in the Avios airline game. I have no idea how to maximise my hotel side?? I have travelled on a budget extensively but via booking dot com and Airbnb mostly, which gain no miles/points. Any ideas, please bear in mind I usually work with a £30-40 per night limit worldwide?

    • BJ says:
      20 May20 May 07:02

      At that price within the UK, Premier Inn and Travelodge are your friend. However, you can syltill do a lot of damage with IHG and Hilton membershaip at those rates. Sign up for both sxhemes, and then try to make the most of IHG accelerate and Hilton promotions. There are rooms in many places that dip to around £40/night. The key is to maintain your behaviour and control your loyalty, not to let it control you and start making you book higher rates than you would otherwise do. You might be surprised how quick you can build an IHG and Hilton balance even from cheap stays. You can then use points for IHG pointbreaks or cheap Hilton redemptions. If you have a MasterCard search HFP for the IHG MasterCard rate, it is often great value. If not consider applying for the IHG card mastercard and get a 10k points head start on your scheme. Search for any sign up bonus points for Hilton or IHG at before joining. Good luck.

      • Lyn says:
        20 May20 May 10:08

        I’d agree with BJ’s suggestions, and add that the free IHG card would give you Gold status with IHG. With Gold you would earn a few more points on IHG stays and perhaps be given a drink voucher, and on some of those worldwide (non-UK, non-US) stays you might also get an upgrade as well because there simply isn’t as much competition from other credit card / status holders. Sometimes the Accelerate targets include bonus points for applying for the card, or for using it to pay for a stay.

        As BJ suggested, the 30% off Mastercard weekend rate can be really useful. For instance I have used it to book the Holiday Inn Ariel Heathrow in the past for well within your budget range.

    • Jim Thompson says:
      20 May20 May 07:14

      Where do you stay in London for £30-40 per night?

      • Shoestring says:
        20 May20 May 07:19

        Travelodge currently has some Heathrow Friday nights at £20-30!

        Hard to find – but there *is* still the great Travelodge sale going on, no special link – plenty of rooms over the next 6 months @ £30+

      • Rob says:
        20 May20 May 08:25

        My mattress run nights at Moxy Excel last year were £48 per night, to be fair. And that is a really nice place.

        • Graham Walsh says:
          20 May20 May 10:02

          Stated at the Excel one last week. Great hotel. Bit more at £160 a night but was far cheaper than the Doubletree

        • RussellH says:
          20 May20 May 11:13

          Booked the LHR Moxy for last April for just £40 too. And there is abus stop outside the front door for buses straight to LHR Central

    • Lumma says:
      20 May20 May 09:42

      I’m in a similar situation to you and I feel that hotel schemes do really work for me (I took out the free IHG card and used the points for a free night at the Holiday Inn Express AMS airport but I’ve never found anything competitive since despite travelling to a wide range of destinations). I do sometimes book accor hotels direct as they’re usually slightly cheaper that hotels.com and I pick up a handful of avios.

  • John says:
    20 May20 May 06:56

    lol, so Rob says “You do have to pay taxes and fees” in this article when most hotels (at least in Europe) don’t charge any fees, only taxes!

    Then the BA article calls it “no taxes” when it’s actually “no fees”, as you don’t pay any taxes on RFS because they are paid by BA who in turn charges you the RFS fee!

  • Anna says:
    20 May20 May 07:31

    OT but hotel-related. If a Hilton sale price specifies “No breakfast”, does this apply to gold members or would I still get breakfast as my preferred benefit?

    • Peter K says:
      20 May20 May 07:44

      You’d still get breakfast. The room rate description is irrelevant if you have chosen breakfast as your myway benefit.

      • Anna says:
        20 May20 May 07:55

        Thanks Peter. £67 for a family room at the Leicester Hilton during October half term to visit the Dive Show and National Space Centre is a no brainer in that case!

  • James says:
    20 May20 May 07:35

    Absolutely the most dogsh*t customer service in the world.
    I stayed in Mojave, CA and had a full-on police drug bust outside my room. They didn’t see this as “unreasonable behaviour or activity” and offered me a £15 voucher(!)
    They also refused to publish my review because it had a “negative opinion of the services we provide”.

    • krys_k says:
      20 May20 May 07:41

      I’ve found them to be very reasonable in their approach to customers. This may or may not be due to being at gold level. Called up regarding difference in price paid and others available on the day and was given difference immediately. Also pointed out that I had spent 10 minutes on phone at £1 per minute as was abroad and was given £50 voucher.

    • Spurs Debs says:
      20 May20 May 07:44

      Years ago I booked hotel in Ibiza got there and it was closed! Phoned hotels.com up well they were as much use as a chocolate teapot. Never booked with them since and never will again. I had to sort it out myself they left me on hold for 30 mins then hung up!

  • Robert Wavell says:
    20 May20 May 07:48

    Why do you have to be a guest to earn full points? I never saw that in the T&C?

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