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Win 1,000,000 Avios with Head for Points and Monese

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Monese, the online bank, is giving away 1 million Avios to SIX people.

We GUARANTEE that one of them will be a Head for Points reader.

Since February Monese, the online banking app, has been able to link with your British Airways Executive Club account and display your Avios balance.  It looks like this and is quite cool (click to enlarge):

Monese Avios

It was the beginning of an interesting new partnership between Monese and Avios, which has invested in a shareholding in the fintech company.

To celebrate this partnership, Monese is giving away 1 million Avios to six lucky winners.  One is guaranteed to be a Head for Points reader – and it could be you.  This is one of the most valuable competitions we have ever run.

If you are reading Head for Points we probably don’t need to tell you the value of 1 million Avios.  If you want to go somewhere, and a oneworld airline flies there, you will be able to go, and go in style – and you can take quite a few friends with you.  (Taxes and charges are almost certain to apply although there may be some obscure oneworld route somewhere that doesn’t add them.)

Couple your 1 million Avios with a British Airways American Express 2 for 1 voucher and you would really be laughing – earn a 2-4-1 voucher each year and your 1 million Avios would get you and your partner a decent annual holiday in Club World for the next 5-10 years.

What is Monese?

Monese, founded in 2013, aims to simplify the process of getting a bank account in Europe.  It’s a ‘mobile app only’ bank that gives users a £ and a € account allowing them to bank like a local across the UK and Europe.

Accounts can be opened within two minutes with a photo ID and a video selfie.  (This does work, I set up an account for myself in record time without leaving my desk.)  You can read a full analysis of Monese on our recent article about the banking service here.

How can I win 1 million Avios?

The good news is that this competition is open to new AND existing Monese customers based in the UK, excluding NI. 

No purchase is required.

If you’re a new Monese customer:

If you are new to Monese, you must download the app and register for an account with the invite code ‘H4PTAMIL’ before Friday 30th September.  You can download the Monese app here or visit your local friendly app store.  You need to add the code during the sign-up process when prompted.

Monese offers three different account tiers. All are equally eligible for the competition – so it is OK to sign up for the free tier.

If you’re an existing Monese customer:

All you have to do is add the promotional code ‘H4PTAMIL’ in the ‘Promotions’ tab of the Monese app, which you will find by clicking the ‘head’ icon.

Finalising your entry

To finalise your entry into the competition you must add some money to your Monese account via a debit card.  £10 is fine.  You can withdraw this back to your existing bank account at any point or withdraw it via an ATM.

If you are an EXISTING Monese account, you need to add some new money to your account or have some other activity on your account, such as making an ATM withdrawal or making a purchase with your Monese debit card.

Once you’ve done this, you need to link your British Airways Executive Club account number to Monese.  This can be done inside the app by logging into your British Airways account – go to ‘Add Account’ via the ‘head’ icon in the top left corner.  You can now use the Monese app to keep an eye on your Avios balance and your recent transactions.

So, a reminder, this is what you need to do:

download the Monese app …. then

add the invite code H4PTAMIL during the registration process …. then

add a nominal sum to your account which you can easily withdraw again later …. then

link your Monese account to your Avios account

The last day to download the Monese app and complete the entry criteria is 30th September.   One winner will be chosen from all entrants who use the Head for Points code of H4PTAMIL.  The winner will be notified on 15th October.

The full terms and conditions of the competition are here.  Note that entry is restricted to residents of the UK excluding Northern Ireland.  Don’t blame Monese for this – Northern Ireland has its own competition laws.  You must be over 18 and you are limited to one entry per person.

Good luck.  One lucky Head for Points reader is going to have a pretty cool autumn I think.

PS. If you are not a regular Head for Points visitor, why not sign up for our FREE weekly or daily newsletters? They are full of the latest Avios, airline, hotel and credit card points news and will help you travel better. To join our 65,000 free subscribers, click the button below or visit this page of the site to find out more. Thank you.

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 (152)

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

  • Rhys says:
    29 Aug29 August 09:37

    Not always possible. And doesn’t necessarily mean they will continue to work – see Hilton’s recent promotion!

  • Freddy says:
    29 Aug29 August 09:39

    Are people really opening a new financial product for an entry into a competition, really!

    • Jon says:
      29 Aug29 August 09:55

      Maybe they were planning to anyway and this is the nudge they needed to get on with it? Speaking for myself 😉

    • S says:
      29 Aug29 August 10:00

      This is nothing, we apply for credit for 10k Avios!

    • Alex says:
      29 Aug29 August 12:36

      No Credit check and you never have to use it again, for a chance at 1 million Avios i think it’s a no brainier…

  • RussellH says:
    29 Aug29 August 10:01

    Is there any way of entering this comp for those who have neither an android nor an iOS device?

    • Rhys says:
      29 Aug29 August 10:08

      Since it requires the Monese app, unlikely. You could always try downloading an Android or iOS emulator on your computer and doing it that way…

      • RussellH says:
        29 Aug29 August 10:58

        I know a Senior Research Associate in the University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory who specialises in hardware and platform security:
        He tells me that these emulators will not work in any situation requiring properly designed security. He has also said that these emulators can be dangerous. The only time I tried to download one I could only have done it while turning off all my security software…

        • The Original David says:
          29 Aug29 August 15:07

          How does one get through modern life without either an Android or iOS device…?

          • Lady London says:
            29 Aug29 August 18:17

            Well i have a card that I’ve just found out is forcing customers to either carry a code generating bit of hardware to use their card, or customers have to take and use only the app not the website. This is their chosen way of implementing the new 2nd level security stuff.

            Core longstanding functionality is being removed from the website to force this in less than two weeks.

            This is how this card is treating its legacy base without notice. I’ve told them after 12 happy years with them they can st*ff what they’re making off me. Pretty sure I could go to the ombudsman for lack of reasonable notice specifically of their removal of core longstanding functions on the website. Newsflash! Not everyone can guarantee having a smartphone with them when they need to do things. Not everyone wants to use an app either.

            When I mentioned it was a shame to be forced to cancel the card after 12 happy years the manager’s words were “loyalty doesn’t pay”.

          • Rooster says:
            29 Aug29 August 19:43

            @Lady of London

            “Loyalty doesn’t pay” checking banking guy, you should goto Metro Bank

          • RussellH says:
            29 Aug29 August 20:45

            Never have any trouble, apart from having to avoid the app-only banks.

            Travel tickets and reservations? Paper is easier to deal with, IMHO.
            ‘Social’ media? Why??
            I do not want to carry a photo-album around with me.

            The only useful thing I see them being used for is for logging in to the secure network at the charity where I volunteer one day a week. For the likes of myself they also have a hardware token to generate the codes.

            But for me, the big drawback is that they do not have a physical keypad. Touchscreens drive me mad – they either totally fail to respond to me, or they just jump to some other random screen and I cannot get back to where I want to be.

            And I assume you are always having to think about ensuring the battery is properly charged. If I had a bording card on a phone, I would certainly be panicikng in case the battery died while waiting in the queue

          • Lyn says:
            29 Aug29 August 20:59

            Quite easily.

          • The Original David says:
            30 Aug30 August 00:22

            @RussellH – buy a BlackBerry Key2. Your worries about physical keyboards and battery life will be solved, yet you will also be able to download your boarding pass in the lift up to T5 departures, so you can finalise your seat selection without breaking stride on the way to security.

          • RussellH says:
            30 Aug30 August 10:45

            On 30 August 2019 at 00:22 The Original David said:

            > @RussellH – buy a BlackBerry Key2

            I honestly thought that Blackberry had completely died some years ago.
            I also thought that I actually still had a dead low-end Blackberry[1] in the drawer, but I must have sent it in for recycling. Very poorly made (battery contacts sprung out) and the battery not only failed, but corroded significantly within a very few years.
            It was also far bulkier than any other phone I have had and unpleasant to use.

            [1] It was a ‘free upgrade’ from the days when I had a contract phone. It had seemed like a good idea – they were all the rage at the time – but the Orange shop failed to mention that if wanted to be able to use e-mail on it, I needed to pay an extra monthly fee.

          • Lady London says:
            1 Sep1 September 19:20

            I am with Metro.

  • Grace says:
    29 Aug29 August 10:07

    Entered 🙂

    Fingers crossed

  • Gary says:
    29 Aug29 August 10:25

    This article references entering the ‘Entry Code’ and ‘Promo Code’, and on the actual Monese signup page it asks for an ‘Invite Code’.

    So which is it? Is an Entry Code or Promo Code equivelent to an Invite Code?

    • Rob says:
      29 Aug29 August 11:06

      Yes

    • Macca says:
      29 Aug29 August 11:09

      I came here wanting to find an answer to this question also. I added the “Promo” code in the “Invite” code field. It did not complain and I did not see anywhere else during registration to add a Promo code.

      • Gary says:
        29 Aug29 August 11:13

        That code is accepted as an Invite code, but you also need to enter it in the Add Promo code field within the app! Otherwise I do not think you have a valid entry.

        Do this exactly:

        1. Click the ‘face’ logo in the top left in the app.
        2. Select ‘Promotions’
        3. Select ‘Add code’
        4. Type in code.

        If successful, it should then display at the top “Avios Millionaire” Redeemed on 29 Aug 2019 (or whatever todays date is).

        • Rhys says:
          29 Aug29 August 11:18

          If you’ve used it as an invite code that should be a valid entry. As long as you use the code for either the invite code or in the promotional tab (for existing users), that should work.

          • Macca says:
            29 Aug29 August 11:36

            Didn’t hurt to do both, and now I have “Avios Millionaire” showing in my Promo section where I didn’t before.

            Thanks Gary!

        • @mkcol says:
          29 Aug29 August 11:54

          Exactly this – if you don’t add it into the promotions field then you don’t see you’re part of the Avios Millionaire promo.

        • angryminion says:
          31 Aug31 August 19:43

          +1 this.

          • Rob says:
            31 Aug31 August 21:47

            That’s not how it works, but I accept that – if you want 100% certainty – it does no harm to add in both places.

  • John says:
    29 Aug29 August 10:49

    They probably don’t know that some ranges are blocked. I have a SIM which several financial companies just can’t send texts to, it’s a perfectly ordinary UK number 07413 but it uses something like VOIP over data and you have to use a special app for calls and texts. This needs specialised telecoms knowledge which I doubt anyone working for a fintech has, unless they were recruited because of it.

  • B. Clear says:
    29 Aug29 August 10:53

    Is Monese a “preloaded” mastercard that you top up WITHOUT CHARGE from your nominated bank account?
    Does it then deduct Fx transactions in local currency converted into £UK at Monese rate or Mastercard rate?
    On the free version, are there any transaction charges below £2k usage per month? eg topping up

  • Billy says:
    29 Aug29 August 11:05

    is there a credit check performed when you apply?

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