Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

An update on the huge Barclays and Barclaycard ‘100,000 Avios’ offer

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

UPDATE – APRIL 2025:  This article is now out of date, but don’t worry.  We produce a monthly directory of the top UK travel credit card offers – please click HERE or use the ‘Credit Cards’ menu above.  Thank you.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on the ‘free for a year’ American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card is increased from 20,000 Membership Rewards points to 30,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (30,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on American Express Platinum is increased from 50,000 Membership Rewards points to a huge 80,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (80,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

Keep up to date with the latest UK credit card bonuses by signing up for our free daily or weekly newsletters.

We ran four (!) articles yesterday to explain the astonishing new 100,000 Avios bonus offer just launched by Barclays and Barclaycard.

If you missed it, start reading here.

Readers had a lot of questions about eligibility in various niche scenarios. We have forwarded these to Barclays and will do a further article when we get feedback. The most common question was whether people who join Premier Banking by paying £20 per month – which is allowed, if you don’t earn £75,000 – are eligible for the 100,000 Avios bonus.

There is one update we need to tell you about.

During Monday and early Tuesday, the application website for those new to Barclays had a typo which confused many people.

Question 3 was meant to say (and now does say) that you should tick one of:

  • Do you have a gross annual income of at least £75,000?
  • Do you have at least £100,000 in savings and/or investments?
  • None of the above

It originally said ‘Do you have a gross annual income of at least £75,000 paid into a Barclays current account?‘ and ‘Do you have at least £100,000 in savings and/or investments with Barclays?’. Obviously anyone new to Barclays would have ticked ‘None of the above’, at which point you were kicked out of the application process!

If this happened to you on Monday or early Tuesday, you can try again via the Barclays website here.

To find out more about the benefits you’ll get with the Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard credit card, read this article.

PS. If you are not a regular Head for Points visitor, why not sign up for our FREE weekly or daily newsletters? They are full of the latest Avios, airline, hotel and credit card points news and will help you travel better. To join our 65,000 free subscribers, click the button below or visit this page of the site to find out more. Thank you.

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (April 2025)

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

Get 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

30,000 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.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on the ‘free for a year’ American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card is increased from 20,000 Membership Rewards points to 30,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (30,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on American Express Platinum is increased from 50,000 Membership Rewards points to a huge 80,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (80,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 30,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

80,000 bonus points and great travel benefits – for a large 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, and the standard card is FREE. Capital on Tap cards also have no FX fees.

Capital on Tap Visa

NO annual fee, NO FX fees and points worth 1 Avios per £1 Read our full review

Capital on Tap Pro Visa

10,500 points (=10,500 Avios) plus good benefits Read our full review

There is also a British Airways American Express card for small businesses:

British Airways American Express Accelerating Business

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

50,000 points when you sign-up 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

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard, Barclays Premier, British Airways and Avios

Comments (126)

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

  • Harry T says:
    5 Oct5 October 07:25

    We need a brave soul to test if this works for a cabin civilised people want to travel in 😂

    • Harry T says:
      5 Oct5 October 07:31

      It also specifies that the flights must be long haul, without defining this at all. This makes me think that perhaps the strict terms won’t be enforced after all, as it would be easy for anyone to argue about what is medium vs long haul. And only permitting flights from LHR/LGW to qualify sounds a bit weird, considering it excludes any person booking from the regions in the UK with BA!

      • Techonista says:
        5 Oct5 October 09:59

        @Harry T: Long haul will be World Traveller, short haul will be Euro Traveller, it’s a clear distinction IMHO.

        Also BA (and other airlines) send Amex your flight details which you can see on your statement so there is no chance this will work for a Club World booking class!

    • aseftel says:
      5 Oct5 October 08:19

      I like that the terms state that Premium Economy is non-premium! I’m expect several readers would agree.

    • meta says:
      5 Oct5 October 08:49

      Buy PE with cash upgrade with Avios.

      • Nick says:
        5 Oct5 October 09:08

        I know that Amex have agreed to be strict on T&C for this offer. Longhaul is defined as any flight sold with WT/CW (as opposed to ET/CE), and cabins/routes are obvious in the data they receive. Medium haul disappeared with the demise of the ex-bmi A321s. There’s only one term they won’t actually be able to enforce, and if they break their own T&C they’ll have a big bill to pay so I imagine they won’t…

        • lumma says:
          5 Oct5 October 11:05

          I’ve flown to Tallinn on BA and my boarding pass said World Traveller, not Euro

  • Steve says:
    5 Oct5 October 07:33

    What if someone earns more than £75k but is not interested in having his salary paid into the Barclays account? By paying £20 per month will he be eligible for 100k bonus?

    • Erico1875 says:
      5 Oct5 October 07:39

      How does that benefit Barclays?

      • Erico1875 says:
        5 Oct5 October 07:40

        Why would they give you 100k Avios for £20 per month?

      • Rob says:
        5 Oct5 October 07:42

        Indeed 🙂 I mean, they are offering you over £1,000 to do it.

        • Steve says:
          5 Oct5 October 09:54

          Does it say somewhere in the terms that salary has to go into the account to qualify for 100k?

    • RTS says:
      5 Oct5 October 07:42

      Just bank transfer 4k into your account every month.

      • LittleNick says:
        5 Oct5 October 09:13

        Doubt that would work, they can tell the name of the account you’re transferring from, highly doubt they’d fall for that trick

        • RTS says:
          5 Oct5 October 12:29

          Zero problems for me and HSBC Prem. 3 years and counting. P2 has had a barclays prem account for 6 years with no activity but 30p in the account and it is still live. So i can tell you, it works. 😛

      • meta says:
        5 Oct5 October 09:20

        Open a dummy account with another bank. Switch with that, transfer 4k in every month from another account then transfer out of Barclays. After you’ve bagged the Avios , probably longer than four months close everything down. It’s not much effort apart from few clicks every month.

        • Andrew. says:
          5 Oct5 October 09:56

          Be mindful that there is a lot of background work enhancing the metadata that’s transferred between banks nowadays.

          That’s why I get a messages on my BoS App.

          “Happy Payday! You’ve received a payment of £****.** into your account ending ****. It looks like it is £***.** higher than usual.”

          “As NHS Staff did you know you have access to our priority telephone banking service? Call…”

          Not every bank has fully embraced the data, but it’s there if they want to use it. (I’ve never had this level of engagement from my First Direct or Barclays Apps.)

          • lumma says:
            5 Oct5 October 11:08

            I’ve had “looks like your payment to Octopus Energy is higher than usual” from the Halifax app.

            Like, yeah I already know.

          • John says:
            5 Oct5 October 11:12

            Why are you paying Octopus Energy from Halifax? Set your DD to £2 and use a worthwhile card

          • Rhys says:
            5 Oct5 October 12:18

            Sounds like we need to re-run our article!

          • RTS says:
            5 Oct5 October 12:38

            John, you smart b*stard! i must do this for Shell Energy too!

          • PJJ says:
            5 Oct5 October 14:48

            @RTS You might find Shell Energy minimum direct debit is £22.00, that’s what they told me and I’m paying that

          • RTS says:
            5 Oct5 October 14:54

            @PJJ Ah i have to ring up to reduce it. When i try to change it online, it is saying i need to up it and won’t let me amend it downwards, grrrr

  • Thywillbedone says:
    5 Oct5 October 07:38

    Lots of hotel promos around at the moment but hotel prices on the whole still very high …go figure!!

    • Colin MacKinnon says:
      5 Oct5 October 08:33

      If a room “cost” is £50, and you used to sell for £100, you make more profit selling one room at £200 than you used to selling three at £100.

      And you don’t need to wash so many sheets and towels!

      With the end of Covid, it seemed to be easy to get that £200. But has that party come to an end? Me, I think so.

      The BBC series about the Northen Ireland hotel chain was interesting. Went from 95% foreign (ie US) tourists to 95% staycations. Quite a switch!

      If the Americans still aren’t coming back, and the staycation crowd are now abroad – I am in Greece and about to go to Albania- then where do the customers come from?

      • RussellH says:
        5 Oct5 October 09:39

        I think almost any reader of this site would find that BBC2 series about Hastings Hotels fascinating – particularly the earlier ones where they had spent 1000s getting reading for a couple of special events, only to have last minute cancellations, in one case by the NI government, the other by the organiser.

        And the real problems they are having finding staff was very revealing too.

        • Mike Hunt says:
          5 Oct5 October 10:50

          Loving the series The Hotel People and it has certainly piqued my interest in staying in Hastings hotels as well

      • KevinS says:
        5 Oct5 October 10:03

        The Americans might start coming back because the dollar is now much stronger versus the pound than previously.

        • Rhys says:
          5 Oct5 October 10:06

          Aren’t the Americans all back already?

          • lumma says:
            5 Oct5 October 11:10

            Went to Dublin last week and it was full of Americans

          • Colin MacKinnon says:
            5 Oct5 October 11:18

            Well, as the Scottish Commissioner for the Clan MacKinnon Society, I can tell you that their annual gathering for next year in Edinburgh (due to have been this year but postponed because of Covid) was cancelled in June because the hotel wanted a 75% non-refundable deposit for June 2023.

            With the US still having Covid travel restrictions, no-one would commit such large sums.

            So post-pandemic effects will last a while yet.

          • Rhys says:
            5 Oct5 October 12:17

            The US barely has covid travel restrictions, let’s be honest 🙂

          • KevinS says:
            5 Oct5 October 12:18

            No idea

    • Alan says:
      6 Oct6 October 08:20

      I’m just back from the USA and was very glad of IHG points! Amazing value cf cash (or points with Hilton) and proper free breakkie with IHG Diamond unlike suboptimal credit with Hilton!

  • RTS says:
    5 Oct5 October 07:41

    Oddly, I never seem to get Marriott offers on my Marriott card…

  • Stephan says:
    5 Oct5 October 07:58

    On the marriot card, I have the ba amex and one of the cash back cards, I assume I’m not eligible for the bonus, but would this interefere with my 24 month cooling off period for the amex membership card? Thanks

  • BajanNation says:
    5 Oct5 October 08:01

    How do you get the 15 Avios per£1 for subscriptions on the wine? I’ve signed up to the email but no sign of 15 Aios, just 10.

    • Rhys says:
      5 Oct5 October 08:09

      15 Avios per £1 is for subscriptions, which I’m not sure have launched yet…

  • Dominic Barrington says:
    5 Oct5 October 08:41

    A quick glance at the Wine Flyer makes me raise my eyebrows at what feels an expensive way to purchase Avios. Compared to the major high street players or the Wine Society, this feels a small and over-priced selection of wines, and the Avios rewards don’t remotely feel worth it to me.

  • Clive says:
    5 Oct5 October 09:00

    I have just seen a spend 500 get 50 back with BA on my Bonvoy Card

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.

Get 25,000 Avios with the Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

GET A SIGN-UP BONUS OF 18,000 VIRGIN POINTS!

Latest Forum Posts

Get 80,000 bonus points (worth 80,000 Avios) and £400 of dining credit with The Platinum Card (Offer ends 27th May)

Check reward flight availability instantly for free!

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

Get up to 10,000 bonus Hilton Honors points

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? GET THE ONLY FREE SMALL BUSINESS CREDIT CARD WHICH CAN EARN AVIOS

Get points worth 30,000 Avios with 'first year free' American Express Gold (ends 27th May)

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!