Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

BA news: Cruise118 Avios winner, half-term British Airways family treats

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News in brief:

We have a winner of our Cruise118 competition

Thank you to everyone who entered our recent Cruise118 competition.

Congratulations to Ruth H, who was the lucky winner of 100,000 Avios.

If you or a family member are thinking about a cruise, remember that you can earn 3 Avios for every £1 spent with Cruise118.

There are some great February offers available at the moment when you book with Cruise118 including:

  • Up to $700 onboard spending included with Celebrity Cruises (that’s a hell of a lot of cocktails ….)
  • Kids sail from just £99pp with Royal Caribbean
  • Save 10% with Silversea
  • All-inclusive drinks with MSC Cruises

Cruise118 also has a price-match promise – if you find a cheaper price elsewhere, they’ll match it, which means you can always maximise your Avios earning potential when booking a cruise. Use this link to the Cruise118 website to see how many Avios you’ll earn with any itinerary.

Ruth has been contacted so if there are any other Ruth H’s out there reading, I’m afraid it wasn’t you this time. 

Thanks again for taking part and make sure you check out our new Qatar Airways competition to win two Business Class flights.

Earn Avios with Cruise118

British Airways running a new family promotion for half term

If you travelling through Heathrow (from 14th to 17th February) or Gatwick (from 14th to 21st February) with children, you may be able to take part in a new ‘I love to travel’ feature.

The check-in desks will be handing out blank cards headlined ‘I love to travel because …..’.  Your children will be encouraged to fill them in and hand them to the cabin crew upon boarding.

Assuming that flight conditions allow, the Captain or First Officer will read out as many of the cards as possible over the PA system during the flight.  Children who have their cards read out will, if possible, be invited to the flight deck on landing for a photo opportunity with the pilots.

Here’s one which I saw on Twitter yesterday although I have some doubts about its authenticity:

British Airways launches a great deal to …. Shanghai

Who wouldn’t want to travel to Shanghai at the moment?

British Airways is keen to send you, albeit it doesn’t actually have any flights operating.  Don’t let that put you off though.

You can currently book British Airways flights from Madrid or Barcelona to Shanghai for just £1,100.  This is a great deal, especially as you will pick up (amongst other things you might pick up) 360 Executive Club tier points for the trip.

This fare is available virtually every day from 1st April which is when flights are due to resume.

You can book on ba.com here.

PS.  If you missed it, take a look at our recent article on the top 10 reasons to apply for the FREE British Airways American Express credit card.

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 (181)

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

  • Janie says:
    12 Feb12 February 08:45

    I’d book a trip to Shanghai if it was covered under travel insurance, but they won’t pay out when there is an FCO travel advice advising not to travel if not necessary.

  • Charlieface says:
    12 Feb12 February 09:09

    OT: got a good result recently. Made an Amex transfer to Hilton of 10k on evening of 31 Oct. It tracked as 1 Nov and didn’t get the 50% bonus. After 4 calls to Amex and escalation to management they finally credited me 5000 Amex points. Which I promptly transferred to BA, not Hilton.

  • Anthony says:
    12 Feb12 February 09:11

    OT But useful for those who might have upgraded or considering upgrading from the gold charge to the platinum charge. Last year I managed to hit the £15k spend for the bonus 10k MR pretty soon into my card year but upgraded to platinum half way through the year. Checked my Amex account and it turns out I got the 10k bonus MR points anyway.

  • John says:
    12 Feb12 February 09:23

    Doubt this was targeted, and given the email was sent at 19.11 on 10 February, many will have missed the potentially somewhat useful fact that from “Monday 10 February to Sunday 1 March, every time you scan your Clubcard app in-store, you’ll earn double the Clubcard points. It’s a great chance to collect extra points on your usual shop, so get scanning!”

    This isn’t the Tesco Pay+ app with a linked payment card, just the bog standard digital version of the plastic card/key fob.

    Given lack of Avios conversion bonus or even competition with uninspiring prize, this might be Tesco’s big Avios collecting moment for 2020.

    The Man From Boots was probably always unlikely to bring back the old (ie 3 or 4 years ago) style promotions, admittedly.

    • Lumma says:
      12 Feb12 February 10:03

      I got that too. Chances of the barcode on the app actually scanning are slim in my experience. The nectar app is the same

      *I have a good phone with large bright screen so it’s not that

      • Anna says:
        12 Feb12 February 10:32

        I’ve found with the PayPlus app you have to lie it down flat to get it to successfully scan the linked credit card. The ladies in the petrol station worked this out!

      • jc says:
        12 Feb12 February 11:02

        Tesco scanners consistently perfect in my experience, as long as you point the phone at the back (vertical) wall, not downward towards the surface

      • Ming the Merciless says:
        12 Feb12 February 14:11

        Is your phone screen Lumma-nus…!

        • ali says:
          12 Feb12 February 19:07

          If using self checkout and the key fob or phone barcode doesn’t scan, you can choose enter barcode and type the clubcard number manually. A bit of a pain but you’ll soon hear “all of your Tesco points add up”

    • Rob says:
      12 Feb12 February 12:03

      Thanks. It wasn’t on the website last night which is why we didn’t run it. Will do something tomorrow, although the VS announcement makes tomorrow messy.

  • Craig says:
    12 Feb12 February 09:39

    For some reason Shanghai was very quiet just over two weeks ago when we transited. Loved Vietnam and it was such a shame to have to extend the stay at the IC DaNang by two days so as to have 14 days clear coming to Singapore. I always try to avoid same day changes, seven hours is enough time to lounge hop. Qantas first because Qatar wasn’t open, that will be next.

  • Relaxo says:
    12 Feb12 February 09:43

    BA amex offer. What are the chances of 3K bonus avios being clawed back if I need to cancel flex ticket?

    • BJ says:
      12 Feb12 February 09:48

      100% unless you cancel the amex card before you cancel the flight.

    • Anna says:
      12 Feb12 February 09:48

      I’d say very likely. I got an £88 refund for a cancelled BA flight several months after the event and 3 x avios were deducted at the same time!

    • Relaxo says:
      12 Feb12 February 10:23

      Thanks both. Will try book some firmer travel in that case.

  • Craig says:
    12 Feb12 February 09:50

    OT: Does anyone have any recent experience of the red channel at LHR customs? Electronics at Singapore we’re very good value, we are under £630 each so would only be 2.5% if we got pinged.

    • ken says:
      12 Feb12 February 11:57

      what about the 20% VAT ? Is that not payable too ?

      Chances are, now you have it in your mind, that you will be sweating like Prince Andrew at an 18th birthday party and will get
      pulled.

      Pay your taxes.

      • Lady London says:
        12 Feb12 February 12:08

        Occasionally if youve just gone through the red channel and declared they will not actually charge you. Honesty is the best policy. You will get charged both duty (if it applies to your team type) and VAT if you do get charged though.

        • Lady London says:
          12 Feb12 February 12:21

          team type –> item type

          • Lady London says:
            12 Feb12 February 12:27

            Before @ken questions me (as he did about Ryanair overbooking when I’ve had their gate agents at STN tell me they’ve had to deal with families with crying kiddies who were offloaded due to overbooking on Bank Holiday weekends), taking the red channel and declaring purchased items honestly that I am importing and yet having charges waived, his has happened to me 3 times across LHR and LGW.

          • J says:
            12 Feb12 February 13:34

            Ryanair don’t overbook (like any airline the flight might be full and they need to deny boarding because operational needs, e.g. Transporting crew). And they even fly to dozens of big cities (and main airports!) that BA do not fly to.

          • Lady London says:
            12 Feb12 February 14:06

            Sorry @J. Did the passenger that booked a ticket, that turned up to the gate on time get on the plane?

            If not then it doesn’t matter what it’s called or why, Ryanair o v e r b o o k e d by any common understanding of the term.

            Gate agents also said “oh yes Ryanair does overbook and we have to deal with it” each time when I had opened with “At least Ryanair doesn’t overbook”.

            Think it may be something that only happens at peak periods though.

        • Craig says:
          12 Feb12 February 12:47

          Thanks LL.

      • Craig says:
        12 Feb12 February 12:39

        VAT and other duties are only payable above £630, below that it’s a flat 2.5%. At least that’s what I think it is?

    • Dr Doo says:
      12 Feb12 February 13:02

      For £600 thats like £20 in charges lol

    • Anna says:
      12 Feb12 February 13:07

      We have it pretty easy here – my OH has family in Bermuda and you can be taxed there on pretty much anything you take in if you can’t prove it’s within strict limits and for personal use. Residents have to get receipts for valuable items like cameras before they leave the island, otherwise the authorities assume they have been purchased abroad and will impose import duty. Some years ago we took a bottle of duty free whisky for OH’s uncle, under strict instruction to say it was for us to drink there and not a gift for anyone!

  • RTS says:
    12 Feb12 February 09:51

    Does anyone know the MCC for HL.co.uk?

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