EXTENDED: Get 18,000 cheap Avios with The Economist – and get £45 Amex cashback

British Airways and The Economist have brought back their special offer for taking out a subscription. This is the first offer we’ve seen for some time.

As you can see at this link, you can earn up to 18,000 Avios with a new one-year subscription.

What is special this time is that you can tie this in with the current £45 American Express cashback deal for an Economist subscription. The cashback deal was meant to end on 10th March but has now been extended to 1st April, although the 18,000 Avios offer ends earlier on 21st March.

Ignoring the Amex cashback for a moment, here are the two subscription options on offer if you are a UK resident:

• Digital only:  £179 with 15,000 Avios (1.19p per Avios)

• Print and digital:  £215 with 18,000 Avios (1.19p per Avios)

‘Print only’ subscriptions are no longer available.

Subscribing to The Economist could make sense just for the Avios bonus even if you have little intention of reading it in detail, although there are occasional opportunities to buy Avios points for nearer 1p each.

Don’t forget your £45 cashback with American Express

You should also check your American Express cards for an Economist offer:

This offer has now been extended to 1st April so ignore the 10th March date in the image above.

You’ll get £45 cashback when you spend £179 or more, which is conveniently the same price as a digital subscription. When factoring in the cashback, the value increases further:

• Digital only:  £134 with 15,000 Avios (0.89p per Avios)

• Print and digital:  £170 with 18,000 Avios (0.94p per Avios)

0.89p per Avios is very attractive in its own right. Getting a full year of The Economist on top is an added bonus.

Looked at another way, on the ‘Digital only’ offer, you could convert the 15,000 Avios into £120 of Nectar points, so your net cost for The Economist would be only £14 for the year!

As always, if you are self-employed you may be happy writing off the subscription cost as a business expense.  This would sharply reduce your price per Avios even further.

The 18,000 Avios offer runs until 21st March so you’ll need to apply by then, even though the Amex offer now runs until 1st April. You can subscribe here.

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How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (August 2022)

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:

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points.

EDIT: Until 25th October 2022, there is an exceptionally generous sign-up bonus on The Platinum Card. You will receive 60,000 Membership Rewards points – double the usual amount – and £200 to spend at Amex Travel. You need to spend £6,000 within six months to earn the bonus.

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 10,000 Avios.

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.

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.

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.