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.

  • DorsetFlyer says:
    12 Feb12 February 09:56

    OT: BA to launch flight from LHR to Newquay for Summer 2020. 5 times weekly.
    Presumably avios seats are now available

    • BJ says:
      12 Feb12 February 10:38

      Ohhh Harry, what have you done!? … and what are you going to do now?

      • Lady London says:
        12 Feb12 February 12:32

        personally I can’t wait to hear what Harry will do now 🙂

        • Anna says:
          12 Feb12 February 13:08

          Where is he anyway?

          • Lady London says:
            12 Feb12 February 13:57

            probably he fainted with the excitement and is still ‘out cold’ somewhere.

          • Shoestring says:
            12 Feb12 February 15:16

            fairly tempting as regards timing & price (£58) – would give me a couple of hrs to get from T5 to T3

            8000 Avios though!

            shame I couldn’t see it earlier and get both flights on 1 PNR, which would probs be the main drawback as we book flights T-355-ish

          • Anna says:
            12 Feb12 February 15:54

            Where are you getting your prices? I’m getting over £100 one way in August and nearly £400 one way in CE! I just get a blank screen if I search other dates.

          • Shoestring says:
            12 Feb12 February 16:16

            my son & I are heading out to the sun pretty early this year, 11th July, so that would be non-peak I guess or just £58 because nobody else bought a ticket yet

  • Mike says:
    12 Feb12 February 10:43

    My experience is that Cruise 118 is not particularly competitive for cruises.

    Recently I asked them to quote for an upmarket cruise.
    They gave me 2 options
    1. Generous Avios but very uncompetitive pricing
    2. No Avios but maximum of 10% off the basic price of the cruise less port taxes.

    Two other Cruise agents offered me nearly 12% of the basic price of the cruise less port taxes which I
    Cruise 118 declined to match. I followed through with one of these agents and now have a form deal
    at a price much lower than Cruise 118 were prepared to offer.

    • Dawn says:
      13 Feb13 February 20:59

      I’ve had a similar experience. They refused to price match a cruise on Vacations to Go saying they’d lose money on it. They gave me a better price on the cruise that they were advertising but said I couldn’t have the Avios due to the discount. And if I took the 0% interest payment option I couldn’t get any Avios. They were very chatty and helpful so I will look at them again in the future but it’s not quite a straightforward as ‘price match’ and ‘Avios’ on every booking.

  • yogi says:
    12 Feb12 February 10:54

    Congrats to Ruth H. Come tell us what you’re using them for

  • lebron 23 says:
    12 Feb12 February 10:59

    data point – amex self referrals are still working

    • Lady London says:
      12 Feb12 February 12:11

      Yes but unless you’re in so deep the only thing to do is ‘keep making out like a bandit’ until they stop you, wouldn’t you rather stop now in the hope you might preserve a relationship with Amex in the future?

      • Polly says:
        12 Feb12 February 15:39

        Agree, am not risking it.. prefer to wait til oh has a BAPP then do a referral back to me…long relationship with Amex, can’t risk jeopardising that…

    • GRIMZ says:
      12 Feb12 February 14:44

      Dangerous game!

  • Zara says:
    12 Feb12 February 11:24

    OT: has anyone managed to successfully avail the IBIS business card in the last week or so? I can’t seem to get beyond the first page and technical support are very slow at replying. I have no status with Accor but have a week long stay at a Pullman soon so I thoight the auto upgrade to Gold would help even if it’s just a room
    Upgrade.
    Many thanks

    • Lady London says:
      12 Feb12 February 12:13

      Call Accor UK Customer Services 01224 398802.

    • Lady London says:
      12 Feb12 February 12:35

      As a fallback an Accor hotel manager told me an Accor hotel manager can sell it to you. Btw: pricing on this one used to vary according to geography I think Asia Pacific was best

      • Zara says:
        12 Feb12 February 13:15

        Thank you Lady London. I have called the customer services line and they are referring it to the tech team but taking ages about it. They also did mention it can be sold by the hotel manager but I would ideally like to have the gold membership before I arrive so that the probability of the perks are more likely instead of delayed after membership!

        • Lady London says:
          12 Feb12 February 13:55

          You could phone the hotel and ask to buy it over the phone. Good chance you end up speaking to the hotel manager to get it done. And of course you’ll be mentioning your upcoming reservation number won’t you :-).

          Hanging around for Accor Customer Services to fix anything is not a good strategy. They keep their outsourced provider at Customer Services Level 101. Rule of thumb : if it’s not fixed on the phone at the time you call them it won’t be.

  • Boi says:
    12 Feb12 February 11:41

    OT: referred hubby for green card…after his 1st spend he got 2K MR as referral bonus. What’s that about?
    He has already upgraded it to platinum prior to any spend and the £4K spend progress is showing….

  • AJA says:
    12 Feb12 February 12:02

    O/T do you need a visa to travel to Israel if you have a UK passport? I have a 2-4-1 Avios redemption in First to Tel Aviv for July 2020.

    • Yaron says:
      12 Feb12 February 12:18

      No visa requirement with a UK passport

      https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/israel/entry-requirements

      • AJA says:
        12 Feb12 February 12:43

        Thanks Yaron! I didn’t think you needed one but the reason I asked is that there is a link to visa requirements in MMB and it takes you to an IATA website where you fill in your information and it came back with a result saying a visa was required with a push button to purchase a visa, rather sneaky. Looking forward to my first visit to Israel and my first experience of First even though it’s not the longest flight time.

    • AJA says:
      12 Feb12 February 14:03

      Thanks for the snarky reply I did do a google search to start with :-). But also did you see my reply to Yaron? IATA begs to differ. The Internet is not always right. YMMV

      • The Internet says:
        12 Feb12 February 16:22

        Absolutely, which is why I’m intrigued when someone’s pecking order for reliable information is a third party organisation (IATA) and then strangers on a travel blog, before the official government site that comes top of Google 🙂

      • The Internet says:
        12 Feb12 February 16:30

        But I think the same about a lot of questions on here that could be answered by a quick Google, or asking an airline/other company for an authoritative answer. Maybe I am the odd one out!

    • Charlieface says:
      12 Feb12 February 14:15

      Straightforward 3-month tourist visa is given out at Tel Aviv on a UK passport

    • Gringo says:
      12 Feb12 February 15:15

      You need >3 months on your passport

  • WillPS says:
    12 Feb12 February 12:12

    O/T does anybody find their Hilton Gold status seems to hang around despite doing nowhere near enough to maintain it?

    I got it in 2016 in the days of the free Platinum bump ups from Gold (RIP). Since then I have done 3 stays and every time I look my Gold membership is set to run out the following January. But every February, I find I still have it…

    I’m not complaining, just wondering if this is a mistake or not.

    • Guesswho2000 says:
      12 Feb12 February 12:17

      My OH has maybe three or four lifetime stays on her HH account, and she’s been Gold for years, it just keeps renewing!

    • Anna says:
      12 Feb12 February 12:55

      Have you got the HH visa? This keeps me at Gold even though I don’t stay nearly enough nights!

    • Rui N. says:
      12 Feb12 February 12:57

      Hilton’s year actually runs until March, so if you are to be downgraded it will only happen in April.
      But I’ve had the same experience as yourself: I’ve had Gold via multiple credits cards in the US and in the UK, and have never been downgraded, even when I spent some years without any credit cards (right now I’m supposed to be Gold until 2021 as I had the Amex Platinum last year).

    • BJ says:
      12 Feb12 February 13:00

      I know why this happens. Hilton probably does too but it seems they have never done anything about it. Not saying in the event they don’t and somebody sees this. I just suggest readers fully engage with the hobby and follow the main recommendations on HFP and there is a good chance it’ll happen. Obviously the less that people highlight it here the better.

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

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