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NEW: Earn 5 Avios per £1 you spend at Pret A Manger

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Here’s a new Avios offer that I think all HfP readers can get their teeth into!

For a two month trial period, until 22nd December, you will earn 5 Avios per £1 spent in Pret A Manger stores.

This is a card linked offer. It means that you need to visit this page of ba.com and register one or more payment cards, if you have not previously done so.

Going forward, you need to use one of your registered payment cards each time you shop in a Pret store.

BA claims that your Avios will arrive within 10 days, which sounds aggressive, but they usually get there in the end.

There is no mention of any exclusions for franchised Pret stores, such as (I imagine) those in Heathrow and in many towns outside London. As it isn’t easy to know when you are in a franchised Pret – the one opposite Cambridge railway station had banned Amex cards when I was there recently, which is a sign of a franchised outlet – I would imagine they count.

Don’t expect anything for purchases in Pret stores outside the UK.

It is worth noting that you can buy gift cards in any Pret store, up to a total value of £150. When you get close to 22nd December, you may want to buy yourself one or more £150 gift cards to lock in 750 Avios each and allow you to effectively keep earning beyond the closing date.

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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

British Airways and Avios

Comments (87)

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

  • lumma says:
    27 Oct27 October 17:11

    I remember a few years back when I worked at Byron Hamburgers, they were doing 10 avios per £1 spent in store. Let just say not many cash payments were made when I was working….

    • Bagoly says:
      27 Oct27 October 18:08

      Cheeky.
      I can understand that the restaurant would not notice.
      But did your card issuer not question how many charges you were settling at the same restaurant? Maybe they did:
      “We’ve blocked your card because we think someone is abusing it at Byron Hamburgers.”
      “No, it’s OK, I just go there a lot with large groups of friends.”

      • Lumma says:
        27 Oct27 October 19:23

        Haha, if they queried it, I would obviously stopped. It would actually be a lot easier to do it discreetly now, with £100 contactless limit and no limit for phone payments. Back then it was £30 max or risk having to explain why you’re sticking your card in the machine!

    • Lady London says:
      27 Oct27 October 18:40

      That’s what I like to see. Dedication in your work.
      ^^^^

    • TGLoyalty says:
      27 Oct27 October 23:55

      Lovely

  • ChasP says:
    27 Oct27 October 17:44

    Surprised no-one has complained about another London biased thread 🙂 312 out of 420 UK shops are in London
    There isnt a Pret within 20 miles of me and only 3 within 30 miles – long way for a cup of coffee

    • Rob H not Rob says:
      27 Oct27 October 18:12

      Hardly HfP fault is it . . .

    • Jill Kinkell says:
      27 Oct27 October 18:33

      Well, I could beat that easily.! Highlands of Scotland……probably Edinburgh or Glasgow. might be nearest. Not taking a 3 + hour car trip !,

      • jj says:
        27 Oct27 October 18:55

        We have just two Pret stores in all Wales, so this hardly features on my radar. I figure we Welsh prefer local excellence to chain store mediocrity.

    • G says:
      27 Oct27 October 19:55

      British Airways are fairly London biased as well, gonna whinge about that too?

    • Richie says:
      28 Oct28 October 08:17

      Virgin points can be redeemed for Greggs. That’s a national opportunity.

  • Lady London says:
    27 Oct27 October 18:34

    Could be worse. Could be Starbucks.

    • Jill Kinkell says:
      27 Oct27 October 18:38

      True!

    • Yuff says:
      28 Oct28 October 06:33

      Could not believe my luck yesterday when the Emirates lounge at Dubai had a Costa ☕️

      • TGLoyalty says:
        28 Oct28 October 09:31

        “Lucky” customers

      • davefl says:
        28 Oct28 October 10:42

        I walked into a mall in Xian, China to find that the Costa there brewed one of the best flat whites I’d tasted. Certainly better than any I’d had in a UK Costa,

        • ChrisA says:
          28 Oct28 October 11:30

          How funny – I also have a memory of a great coffee at a mall there – maybe it was the same one!

  • John says:
    28 Oct28 October 06:29

    Does anyone know if they issue a physical gift card in the stores?

  • L Allen says:
    28 Oct28 October 09:10

    Thanks for reminding me of this feature, I’ve just checked and updated all my registered cards. I’m having afternoon tea at the Milestone Hotel tomorrow (5 Avios per £1) so the timing of this article was perfect. Last time I checked the in-store earnings list there was hardly anything worth bothering with. Now there’s a wider range of participating venues and greater potential for some passive points earning.

  • rob keane says:
    28 Oct28 October 09:33

    “pinned” lol quite the top of the fold news story 🙂

    • Rhys says:
      28 Oct28 October 09:36

      That’s because we published it yesterday but we want it to be our top story today (you’ll see it went out in emails today).

      • Rob says:
        28 Oct28 October 09:44

        Biggest story yesterday in terms of views by a margin of 3:1 over the 2nd most read story, despite only going up at midday. We know what we’re doing 🙂

        • Navara says:
          28 Oct28 October 10:54

          I’m guessing being non car owners the BP 250 Avios per £1 offer is of no interest that’s been around for a month or so.New one for halloween is 300 BPme points for £1 spend

          • Rob says:
            28 Oct28 October 10:56

            These tend to be targetted, that’s the issue.

          • Londonsteve says:
            28 Oct28 October 11:24

            If you’re a non car owner, or generally don’t buy fuel or in-store purchases at BP, you’re more likely to be targeted by the algos, so it’s actually relevant for all.

          • Navara says:
            28 Oct28 October 12:54

            Worth checking your apps. I assume all your household members have a card

        • rob keane says:
          28 Oct28 October 13:02

          if you put a very scantily clad woman in an article, I bet that would be the biggest viewed one, so views alone are not indicative of much. Maybe all you other stories weren’t up to much !

          • John G says:
            28 Oct28 October 13:39

            Way to undermine your own point. High views don’t mean decent content then you immediately imply other articles getting less views means they weren’t up to much. At least try and be consistent when you’re trolling.

          • Rob says:
            28 Oct28 October 15:23

            Clearly, in terms of relevance to our readers, they weren’t – but the Pret story was.

            Not sure your 1980s ‘stick a scantily clad woman in it’ approach is actually acceptable this century though. As part of the redesign two years ago we removed all pictures of female cabin crew (and indeed male cabin crew) from the site that we felt were in any way sexualised – as some of the stock photographs provided to us over the years by airlines were.

          • TurnLeft says:
            29 Oct29 October 07:34

            Rob, are you still living in the 1980s?

          • Rob says:
            29 Oct29 October 09:22

            Only in my musical tastes.

          • Bagoly says:
            29 Oct29 October 13:05

            Rob, re UK 1980s approach.
            It’s still going in 2020s Poland.
            Try typing this into Google Search Images (translation is advert tape): mediaexpert reklam taśma

  • RussellH says:
    28 Oct28 October 09:55

    Tried to register some cards for this offer yesterday. I found I had two long since cancelled Amex cards listed – so I deleted those.
    Site confirms that I have no registered cards at all.
    Then tried to register new ones, only to get an error message “This card is already registered”.
    Some cards registered with Nectar Connect, and with the Virgin shopping thingy, probably Aer Lingus as well – would it be referring to those?
    Presumably this means that I cannot actually get this offer?

    • kitten says:
      28 Oct28 October 13:20

      worth logging out and leaving it for a day or two or weekend for cleanup jobs to run possibly. Or, test if another acct might solve it after that, might not but worth a try

  • The real Swiss Tony says:
    28 Oct28 October 10:20

    Interestingly the Avios app now has a leading banner about “collect Avios in store”. The list is very long and even includes a couple of Syrian restaurants which are paying out at 20 Avios per £.

    Cue a bunch of office Christmas parties suddenly turning up 🤣

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

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