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Get your child a personalised British Airways and My 1st Years backpack

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As part of #BA100, British Airways will be giving away 5,000 My 1st Years mini backpacks to children passing through Gatwick and Heathrow on selected days during August.

They are quite sweet as you can see below.

My 1st years British Airways backpack

My 1st Years is also selling them directly to the public.  You get FREE personalisation, up to nine characters, which is a nice touch.  The ones given out in the airports have ‘Mini Adventurer’ on the back (which I know is more than nine characters!).

You can order one for a child in your life via this page of the My 1st Years site.

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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 (66)

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

  • A270 says:
    4 Aug4 August 11:52

    OT: Flying for the first time by First Class with my child (13 years) in January. The aircraft type is shown as 777. I can see online that sometimes it’s a Boeing 787-9 and other times Boeing 787-9. Not sure if there is much of a difference in First Class seating. Anyway, what seating would you recommend for us two as I don’t want her to be far from me? Apart from 1A and 1K, all seats are available for Row 1-4. Thanks.

    • Genghis says:
      4 Aug4 August 12:06

      If a 777, ie 4 rows, I’d prob do 2A and 3A (you seated in 3A) so you can peep out. If 789 (sounds like you’re not Gold), so 2A and 2E

      • A270 says:
        4 Aug4 August 13:16

        Thanks. I guess I won’t know which one it will be as I checked flight history and they are using different ones.

  • DaveWinch says:
    4 Aug4 August 12:06

    If they’ve got any sense the selected days for giving away 100 anniversary freebies like backpacks will be tomorrow and Tuesday.

    • The Original David says:
      4 Aug4 August 13:13

      “I’m very sorry you have to queue for 3 hours for security, but here’s a free backpack for your troubles. Which incidentally we won’t let you take on board the aircraft, so you’ll have to go and check it in. And then we’ll probably put it on the wrong flight, it will end up in Peru, and then we’ll lose it. Do you want a BA 100 lapel badge too? It has a nice sharp point on it that will flag you for secondary security screening, and delay you another hour. Thanks for flying British Airways!”

      Not sure about your idea tbh…

    • Lady London says:
      4 Aug4 August 20:01

      Why canton kids over 21 Yeats old get one ?

  • Rui N. says:
    4 Aug4 August 12:44

    OT: some advice needed about using Tesco vouchers for hotels.com.
    Following the Tesco mobile promotion I now have £40 in Tesco vouchers. I’m booking a trip and was trying to use them on hotels.com. I found one place at £60 before taxes. I went to Tesco to exchange £20 of vouchers for £60 in hotels.com credit, but when I received the email they’ve sent me 2 hotels.com codes, one for £45 and one for £15. Since hotels.com only accepts one code per booking, I now have a useless £15 coupon. Is this normal on the part of Tesco? The language on the Tesco’s website warn for a lot of stuff (voucher can only be used in certain hotels, they only cover base price, etc) but I didn’t see anything warning about the possibility of receiving 2 vouchers. TIA.

    • Lady London says:
      4 Aug4 August 12:54

      Call Tesco clubcard, if there’s been a mistake made they will dix and reissue there and then. Be very sûre you’re only converting enough for base price (pre-VAt)/though.

    • Peter K says:
      4 Aug4 August 13:55

      I got one voucher for £540 last June with no trouble.

      • Rui N. says:
        4 Aug4 August 16:26

        Thank you both. I’ll follow up with tesco then. £15 is not a lot, but it’s them that messed up.

  • Nick says:
    4 Aug4 August 13:39

    For a single traveller, club world better on a A321 or 789?

    • Qrfan says:
      4 Aug4 August 13:58

      The ba a321 mid haul seats are really not ideal for a single traveler unless you get both seats to yourself. I’d say worse than a 787. Great for a couple though!

    • lev441 says:
      4 Aug4 August 16:30

      The A321 has throne seats so ideal for a single traveller!

      • Qrfan says:
        4 Aug4 August 18:50

        If you can get the throne seat, yes. The others are a pain though…

  • Nika says:
    4 Aug4 August 13:55

    If you want to change the date on an avios RFS booking, do you lose the fee (ie £17.50 per person) and then pay another 17.50 per person when you book the new dates?)

    • Lady London says:
      4 Aug4 August 19:57

      If you do the move to new date in 1 hit it’s the £17.50. If moving or forced move for strike etc, then usually free.

  • Brian says:
    4 Aug4 August 14:53

    It’s a ‘backback’ in the heading! 🙂

  • Chris says:
    4 Aug4 August 14:56

    Discount code EVERYTHING20 will take 5 quid off the backpack

  • Roger says:
    4 Aug4 August 19:29

    Another OT – Iberia damaged bag

    Iberia seems to offer two choices for damaged bag.
    1. Replace bag
    2. Amazon voucher in lieu

    Any idea what should I select?

    • Shoestring says:
      4 Aug4 August 19:31

      When BA replace damaged bag you get a nice Samsonite

      ask IB what they’re proposing

      • Alex M says:
        4 Aug4 August 21:41

        was not samsonite in my case couple years ago – the replacement suitcase was called K9 or smth like that. was not a bad quality though.

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