Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Save 5,000 Avios on a hotel booking – however cheap

Links on Head for Points may support the site by paying a commission.  See here for all partner links.

British Airways Executive Club is currently running a low key offer on discounted hotel rooms, if you pay with Avios.

In general, we don’t recommend this because you get a poor return. Last time we looked at how to book hotels with Avios, it worked out at around 0.5p per point. This isn’t great since I believe you should be able to get over 1p on flight redemptions.

Avios wing 12

This new offer changes the game a bit because the discount is fixed. Here are the rules:

On an expensive or long stay, saving 5,000 Avios won’t move the needle. On a cheap two-night stay it makes a BIG difference.

Here is potentially an extreme example. The easyHotel in Sheffield, pictured below, for a two night stay from 18th to 20th December, will cost just 1,825 Avios per night:

easyhotel sheffield pricing

If you look at the easyHotel website for the same nights, the cash rate is £22.50. This works out at 1.2p per Avios, which is very good.

At a midrange hotel, such as the Crowne Plaza Sheffield, it doesn’t make much difference. The nightly rate for those dates drops from 10,975 Avios to 8,475 Avios which doesn’t change the ‘pence per point’ ratio much.

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 (55)

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

  • Hugh says:
    9 Nov9 November 12:08

    Easy Hotel, Sheffield, suited me for a conference last year. I have points with Hilton/IHG, but a careful check of the Sheffield options suggested I could redeem better elsewhere, probably abroad. So what’s the downside, at £22? No parking. No breakfast. No windows. Well, I’m out like a light anyway. A cute little frieze of the Sheffield skyline more than made up for lack of a view. Friendly reception. Room new and clean. Yards from my venue. I followed my personal hunch, and did not regret it.

    • jonty says:
      9 Nov9 November 14:56

      Sheffield has some interesting hotels. The Crowne Plaza is a station hotel with no station, the Hampton is an old police station with some very odd shaped rooms, and the Best Western has the most helpful night reception/manager person.

    • Aston100 says:
      9 Nov9 November 16:40

      I thought there was a legal requirement for windows in rooms that are designated as sleeping places?

      • Rob says:
        9 Nov9 November 16:48

        No. Yotel and indeed easyHotel have done windowless rooms for years.

      • Chrisasaurus says:
        9 Nov9 November 17:43

        What would be the thinking if there was?

        Was mentioned in a review the other day the lack of ventilation in most modern hotels – hermetically sealed and no chance at all of opening them for any reason. And about the 5th floor frankly not a lot of point as a means of escape anyway…

  • Clive says:
    9 Nov9 November 13:52

    Qatar introduces restricted Business with no seat selection and NO LOUNGE

    • ChrisC says:
      9 Nov9 November 15:24

      Been on the cards for ages that they would un bundle fares like this. Read about this around a year ago.

    • AJA says:
      9 Nov9 November 16:12

      That’s interesting, what happens if you have OW Sapphire or Emerald status and buy one of these tickets? Can you still choose a seat and access the lounges? I could see being denied lounge access in DOH but elsewhere just wave the card (or app).

    • TGLoyalty says:
      9 Nov9 November 19:08

      I bet the reduction in fare won’t be worth losing those things.

  • Nathan says:
    9 Nov9 November 23:27

    SHEFFIELD!! Whoop! Comes second on my list, after Blackpool.

    • the_real_a says:
      10 Nov10 November 19:38

      Oh come on. No-one can fail to enjoy a couple of days at Blackpool 🙂 Even if its just childhood nostalgia!

  • Rob says:
    11 Nov11 November 17:36

    What was the 11:30 news in the end? Was it the Qatar Business Class thing?

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

New to Head for Points?

Welcome!  We’re the UK’s most-read source of business travel, Avios, frequent flyer and hotel loyalty news. Let us improve how you travel. Got any questions? Ask them in our forums.

Latest Forum Posts

Get 40,000 bonus points (worth 40,000 Avios) and £300 dining credit with The Platinum Card

Check reward flight availability instantly for free!

See a whole year of reward seat availability on one page at SeatSpy.com

Get £10 when you spend £150 on your free Currensea card

Booking a luxury hotel?

Our luxury hotel booking service offers you GUARANTEED extra benefits over booking direct. Works with Four Seasons, Mandarin Oriental, The Ritz Carlton, St Regis and more. We've booked £1.7 million of rooms to date. Click for details.

SME? SPECIAL OFFER TO 12TH MAY EARN POINTS WORTH 30,000 AVIOS WITH CAPITAL ON TAP

Get 20,000 bonus points, four airport lounge passes and your first year free with American Express Gold

The UK's biggest frequent flyer website uses cookies, which you can block via your browser settings. Continuing implies your consent to this policy. Our privacy policy is here.

Got it!