Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Earn double Avios points at Bicester Village this week

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Bicester Village, the discount luxury shopping outlet in Oxfordshire, is running a special sale until 3rd November.

As part of this promotion, Bicester Village is also offering double Avios.  The standard Avios rate is 5 Avios per £4 spent.  During this sale period, you will receive 10 Avios per £4 spent.  This includes food and drink spend on site.

You do not claim your Avios in each individual store.  You need to take your receipts to the Visitor Centre who will process them in one transaction.

Bicester Village Avios

Amusingly, Bicester Village imposes a £30,000 per calendar year cap on your Avios earning at the base rate.  If you spend more than £30,000 in a calendar year (!) you will only earn 5 Avios per £20 spent above the cap.

You can find out more on this special BA page of the Bicester Village website.

Note that Bicester Village works with MANY other airline partners so if Avios is not your core focus you should still find a partner to suit you.

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 (69)

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

  • Genghis says:
    22 Oct22 October 10:44

    Most I’ve heard of is 45 at Jasmine News near Smithfield.

  • StevieM says:
    22 Oct22 October 12:45

    “The Retro Winter Tour which includes a one night stay at the Holiday Inn Wembley. The high bid is currently 6,000 points!”
    That’s because it’s the Holiday Inn Wembley!
    Possibly one of the worst Holiday Inns EVER!

    • Rob says:
      22 Oct22 October 12:59

      When did you last go? It had a huge refurb about 5 years ago and has a pool. When it was 10,000 points per night a friend of mine lived there for a while in between flats!

  • Harry T says:
    22 Oct22 October 15:56

    OT:
    Can anyone with Amex Gold and Platinum cards tell me whether the Platinum gets more useful/higher value c@shb@ck offers than the Gold? I’m weighing up the merit of keeping Platinum long term vs spending on a Gold card and better cash back offers could sway it.

    I’ve noticed my Platinum does get more offers than my BAPP (already got Companion voucher this year so looking elsewhere for another amex).

    • Rob says:
      22 Oct22 October 16:38

      No difference as far as I can tell.

      • TGLoyalty says:
        22 Oct22 October 16:42

        that’s not quite true Platinum does have better offers in general.

        i.e. amex travel offer is £200 off £600 on plat when it comes up rather than £50 off £200 on gold. I have noticed better offers on my Plat for higher % off Waitrose etc

    • iamfugly says:
      22 Oct22 October 18:19

      Personally, I have found my platinum card tends to have all the offers available, whilst my other cards; BA Amex Premium and MR card is more targeted and has less on offer.

      • jamie says:
        22 Oct22 October 19:07

        Personally I have found the opposite – some plat offers are worse….eg latest BP fuel gives me £10 back on all cards except Plat with is £5 off £30.
        I queried with customer services…canned reply

      • Harry T says:
        22 Oct22 October 20:48

        Sometimes my BAPP gets better offers than my platinum (the same offer with more money back). It’s odd.

        • TGLoyalty says:
          22 Oct22 October 23:25

          I notice this when I’ve previously used that merchants offer before.

          I.e. 10% of Morrison’s but when I’ve used it on the card the next time it’s returned it’s only been 5%

          • Harry T says:
            22 Oct22 October 23:59

            Yes, I had the exact same thing with the Morrison’s offer on my Platinum – 10% the last time, 5% this time. BAPP wasn’t used for Morrison’s before and therefore got the 10% offer.

  • Shoestring says:
    22 Oct22 October 16:21

    ‘Walsh’s patience appears to be wearing thin with Alex Cruz, the BA chief. Earlier this month Walsh repeatedly sidestepped questions as to whether Cruz had his full support. There had been “failings” on both sides, the IAG chief said and expressed “sympathy” for the pilots’ demands.’

  • Harry T says:
    22 Oct22 October 17:42

    Another OT, apologies.

    Looking to book Lufthansa flights from Newcastle to Munich with miles. Can this be done with Singapore Airlines Krisflyer miles? SQ website won’t let me put in Newcastle as a place to depart from. Can reward flights on Lufthansa only be booked with Miles and More miles?

    • Rob says:
      22 Oct22 October 18:44

      You can do it but will need to call SQ. Unlikely to be a bargain because of the way their chart works – potentially same mileage cost as Newcastle to Athens ….

  • LewisB says:
    22 Oct22 October 17:50

    OT: Just phoned BA to book the return for my open jaw booking using my companion voucher. Returning from GIG to LHR. Expecting £47 worth of taxes (as you get for making a one way booking from Rio) but was informed as I was using the companion voucher it adds an extra £393.80 in taxes and surcharges. Is this correct?

    • Rob says:
      22 Oct22 October 18:43

      Yes. You are booking a return flight, ticketed in the UK, so you pay full taxes.

      If you’d booked a one-way home, it would be ticketed locally and so the local law banning surcharges would kick in. But you’re not, so it doesn’t.

      • BJ says:
        22 Oct22 October 18:58

        Ah but presumably LewisB already paid APD when he booked the outwards journey so why so much extra to zdd the return?

        • LewisB says:
          22 Oct22 October 19:16

          Yes. I already had the outbound paid for from Gatwick to Lima. The agent explained I could book as two singles to save on surcharges. I purposely planned this trip to end in Rio for the savings but you can’t have it all!

        • Rob says:
          22 Oct22 October 21:59

          It’s not APD, it’s BA’s “surcharge” which it can’t legally add on tickets issued in certain countries.

          • Louie says:
            23 Oct23 October 00:03

            If Lewis hasn’t actually booked the return yet (or maybe even if it hasn’t been ticketed and/or is within 24 hours of the change) and assuming he has sufficient Avios, couldn’t he just book the return online and then call to get the 2-4-1 applied and half the Avios returned but with no change to the charges? Same as those people booking at midnight at T-330 who don’t want to ring to add the return. Or is this different as it’s an open jaw? Or because it’s not T-330?

          • LewisB says:
            23 Oct23 October 07:28

            @Louise I had sufficient avios to make the booking for two seats (150k) but I phoned to do it since I had to phone anyway. I see what you mean though, would they had asked for additional taxes when asking for the refund of the 75,000 avios?

          • Louie says:
            23 Oct23 October 13:09

            Normally (i.e. when people book online at midnight to avoid ringing up) they don’t recalculate the charges I believe. I don’t know if your situation would be different – does anyone else?

          • Rob says:
            23 Oct23 October 14:22

            Yes they do (bar a few untrained agents).

            For the US you NEED recalculation otherwise you overpay by £400 each.

          • Louie says:
            24 Oct24 October 00:11

            @Rob – not according to the Flyertalk thread https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/british-airways-executive-club/1837890-ba-american-express-2-4-1-voucher-discussion.html Wiki which says “Note: you are strongly advised not to use this new method of booking two separate one ways if going to the US/Canada. When booking as two separate bookings and having the 2-4-1 applied across both is that taxes/charges/fees are not recalculated when the voucher is applied across to the second booking. Sometimes this will work out well for you (bookings exHKG for example), but for exUS or exCA bookings it is not recommended at all since exUS/CA taxes/fees/charges are very high”.

          • Rob says:
            24 Oct24 October 08:19

            I spoke to Avios about this. They told me that there is no new policy and that agents who are doing this are operating under their own initiative …

  • Secret Squirrel says:
    22 Oct22 October 18:02

    OT:
    Can anyone advise me the Marriott Bonvoy UK customer service number please?
    I have called 0207 012 7316 as on their site but when called states invalid number?

  • marcw says:
    22 Oct22 October 18:55

    Oh no! Bad news for consumers. Air New Zealand saying good bye to Europe, and in particular, to LHR-LAX.

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