Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Avios seats now bookable on additional British Airways St Lucia flights next Summer

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Extra Avios seats are now bookable on St Lucia flights for next Summer.

Virgin Atlantic recently announced that it was pulling out of its St Lucia route from next June.

British Airways is picking up the slack.  It is adding two additional weekly flights to St Lucia in Summer 2020.  Extra flights are scheduled between 4th July and 29th August 2020 from London Gatwick to St Lucia.

Avios points to St Lucia

Since these flights have recently been added to the schedule there is still excellent Avios reward availability.  Remember that British Airways guarantees two Club World and four World Traveller seats available for Avios bookings on every flight it operates.

The easiest way to see reward availability is by using Reward Flight Finder. It is currently showing very good availability for flights in July and early August, which is as far out as you can currently book.

BA is cancelling one weekly Orlando service and one weekly Las Vegas service during this period to free up an aircraft.

To maximise your miles when paying the taxes, your best bet is the British Airways American Express Premium Plus card which earns double Avios (3 per £1) when you book at ba.com.  You do not get double Avios if you book with the free British Airways American Express card.  Another option is American Express Preferred Rewards Gold which offers double points – 2 per £1 – when you book flight tickets directly with an airline.


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 (148)

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

  • Shoestring says:

    Great. You discuss at great boring length with your OH what’s the latest she must leave home to get to LHR, knowing how crap she is in these matters, she agrees everything, she leaves what seems to be 2 hrs later than agreed and is now stuck in traffic, 2+ hrs behind agreed schedule. It’s not looking good.

    • Optimus Prime says:

      Will you claim EU261 compo if she’s 3 hours late? 😛

    • BJ says:

      Chill Harry, no point getting worked up over things you now cannot change, let the kids pig out on junk food and the games arcade, and you go get a new Lee Child book or try Karin Slaughter like some of us recently suggested.

      • Shoestring says:

        I was up at 7 bloody am re-writing press releases for her so that she could put work away and get away on time.

    • Mikeact says:

      My wife is always right, even when she’s wrong……Golden next year..hopefully !

      • Shoestring says:

        same here, though only 20 yrs next year

        looks like they’ll squeak onto the flight

        • Chrisasaurus says:

          Problem now (assuming they made it?) Is that it proves her right- she left at just then right time after all, got more work done and still arrived in time.. Good luck next tine!

    • Anna says:

      My husband’s aunt has the same problem. Over the years she has learned to tell her husband that their plane/ferry/cruise ship leaves 3 hours before it is actually scheduled to depart to stand any chance of getting to their destination on time.

      • Lady London says:

        I have to do that to myself to have any chance of leaving on time too…

  • S says:

    OT: how soon are purchased avios credited? I’m 20k short for a redemption, but I don’t want to buy them yet just in case the seats I’m looking for become unavailable while my MR points are transferring.

  • Mikeact says:

    And another OT. Did anybody notice that Qantas are going to run some ‘proving flights’ in the next few weeks…..non stop from Sydney to London, refuelling and on to NewYork ? Selected flight crew and cabin staff as well as doctors, and other selected personnel.
    With code share with BA , this could be exciting times.

    • Nick_C says:

      My understanding is that they want to run non stop from Sydney (and Melbourne) to London, also non stop from Sydney etc to NY. If they are flying Lon to NYC then they will just be repositioning for another test flight.

      The test flights will vary about 40 passengers and probably three sets of crew.

      Qantas have put pressure on Airbus and Boeing to come up with a suitable plane that can operate Lon Syd with a full payload.

      • Lady London says:

        I’d fly it. Even though my worst yet was 16hrs from BKK to CDG and that was on a 380 with a flat bed. How Economy passengers survived that flight I will never know.

  • BJ says:

    O/T: For anybody who missed the Hilton 7,500 bonus points offer for two stays – registration is again open to all (HT to LoyaltyLobby)

  • Ron says:

    Worth mentioning on the 1£ redemptions: if you go for the 30£ option to avoid the terrible exchange rate on your avios you are actually booking a cash+avios flight. Which does NOT have the same flexibility as a standard redemption when it come to changes.

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

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