Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

If you are thinking of booking JetBlue flights to the US on Avios, here’s a way of saving

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Yesterday we explained how you can now redeem Avios on JetBlue, both for transatlantic flights from the UK and Europe to New York and Boston, and for US domestic flights.

At present there are no surcharges on JetBlue transatlantic redemptions, meaning that the taxes and charges element is low.

As was flagged in the comments, the optimum Business Class solution if you don’t have a BA American Express 2-4-1 companion voucher or a Barclaycard upgrade voucher is to mix and match British Airways and JetBlue.

Redeem Avios on JetBlue

This has the added advantage of getting you lounge access in London on the outbound leg on British Airways, since JetBlue doesn’t offer lounge access.

This is what it costs (off-peak pricing used for BA, taking the ‘most Avios, least cash’ option) to use Avios to fly one-way from London to New York in Business Class:

  • BA: 80,000 Avios + £175 one-way in Business Class between London Heathrow and New York JFK
  • JetBlue: 78,000 Avios + £254 one-way in Business Class between London Heathrow and New York JFK

and coming home:

  • BA: 80,000 Avios + £175 one-way in Business Class between New York JFK and London Heathrow
  • JetBlue: 78,000 Avios + $10 one-way in Business Class between New York JFK and London Heathrow

The JetBlue numbers are very similar if you swap Heathrow for Gatwick and/or New York for Boston.

The cheapest overall option is therefore to fly British Airways outbound and JetBlue inbound.

The total cost is (80,000 Avios BA out + 78,000 Avios JetBlue in) 158,000 Avios plus (£175 BA out plus $10 JetBlue in) £183 in taxes and charges.

This is cheaper than doing BA both ways (160,000 Avios off-peak + £350) or JetBlue both ways (156,000 Avios + £268). Strange but true.

If you really want to save money ….

Even cheaper, of course, is doing the whole thing on JetBlue and flying from Dublin, Amsterdam or Paris. This means you avoid long haul business class UK Air Passenger Duty and the high London airport charges.

From Dublin, a one way to New York JFK in Business Class has charges of just €38.

But what’s JetBlue like in its premium Mint and Mint Suite seats? You can read our review of JetBlue’s Mint Suite here. Our review of the front-row Mint Studio is here.


How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (February 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.

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

50,000 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.

Comments (20)

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

  • DaveP says:

    I collect Nectar points from my petrol purchases and auto-convert to Avios. Whilst a useful extra collection method, I don’t see them as an important means of gaining Avios. Nectar still seems a poor cousin in terms of image in my view.

  • BJ says:

    The BA/JetBlue combination is only optimal if one is prepared to give up their UK/EC261 ‘protection’ on the USA-UK/Europe direction.

    • Stu_N says:

      I wouldn’t value lounge access and UK261 for JetBlue at anything close to £170.

      • AJA says:

        Lounge access is definitely not worth £170 but UK/EC261 rights definitely are worth that. A cancellation or a delay not due to extraordinary circumstances would pay out £520 in compensation. Plus how many flights a day does JetBlue operate to London? You’ve got a much greater chance of being rerouted home the same day via BA or AA..

        • Zootle says:

          So £170 for thr chance of £520 if you are delayed?

          1 in 3 flights isn’t delayed by that much

          • BJ says:

            It is not only delays, it is also cancellations, downgrades and bumps. Don’t forget also you get wide body aircraft on BA and if downgraded on BA a chance of WTP but I’m not sure JetBlue has PY. All things considered, I’d pay the extra for BA.

    • Nick says:

      Surely the risk of it happening matters too? I haven’t heard complaints of JetBlue, certainly not to the same level as BA/AA/VS/UA. Part of it is their fleet being so new it breaks less (and they mostly have a dedicated LR subfleet), and they’re known for not overbooking so downgrades are less of a problem. They’ve had a tiny number of transatlantic cancellations and have always managed to rebook people sensibly so far (usually in the correct cabin too). Might change as they grow, particularly if they do it too quickly.

      Maybe it’s just that they’re still too young to have built a bad reputation, but I wouldn’t necessarily say £175 is worth it for compensation guarantees, though I can see why it would be for BA/VS vs AA/UA.

      • Stu_N says:

        If you value lounge at £25, you’re valuing the EC261 at £150.

        Anyone who would pay £150 for that on a one way flight with a reputable airline, can you ask Rob for my email? I’ve got an excellent deal on some Magic Beans you would definitely be wanting in on.

        • BJ says:

          It’s not just that though. I prefer large aircraft and I would pay £150 more to spend 7h in one versus an A321. £20ish per hour for that and the protection certainly works for me. I just took a comparable hit a few weeks ago swapping a revenue RJ fligvt from ARN-AMM-BKK with an AY avios seat becausw first RJ sector was on a 2-class A320 . HdP over the past year is testimony to how many people are happy they had EC261 … and those who didn’t but wish the did.

  • Super Secret Stuff says:

    None of my nectar connect transactions have actually tracked, so that might be part of the low uptake

  • AJA says:

    I think the Nectar shopping portal’s biggest problem is the fact that many of the partners are the same as you see on the other portals. So people diversify, they collect Nectar Points on shopping in Sainsbury’s and on petrol and the use other portals where you can collect other (and more) reward points. Indeed if you do your shopping online with Sainsbury’s you can double dip by clicking through from BA’s portal earning both Avios and NP. Or go via the schemes that give you cash rather than points. If Nectar’s portal wants to attract people it has to be generous with the points you can earn. The weak earning rates are a big turn off. And it needs a much wider choice of retailers.

  • Tracey says:

    Lack of security means I’m reluctant to make a big effort to collect.
    Having recently had my points stolen and nectar having technical problems with my new card, (when I login it reverts to my old stopped stolen card) they now tell me to start again with a different email and a new card from a store, to avoid any connection to my account as they can’t solve the issues! This on card they have sent me, from an account that they have noted has been compromised and they acknowledge they can’t solve the issues.

  • Peter K says:

    As above, the poor earning rate is the big issue here. If you are the sort of person who is going to go online shopping through an intermediary site to gain extra, you’re likely to look to find the one with the highest rates….and nectar isn’t that!

    • Rob says:

      Nectar seems to want to make money DIRECTLY from its portal, ie they get £2 in commission on a sale, they pocket £1 as profit and use the remaining £1 to give you 200 points (on which they make a further small margin).

      BA / Virgin don’t do this. They seem to use 100% of the commission to ‘buy’ Avios for you, and are happy with the usual profit margin on that.

      Nectar doesn’t have a lot of choice, of course, because they don’t have the margin that Avios does. That’s the problem with giving a fixed value currency away.

  • RobH not Rob says:

    I had a couple of good hits out of Nectar Connect, 20 x Nectar Points for an IHG delivered 6k nectar points, and the odd 50 or 30 x Nectar for eBay, but apart from the Esso deals it seems pretty thin at the moment.

  • ADS says:

    “given the millions of members that Nectar has and the prominence that the portal has in the app and on the Nectar website”

    I use both the Nectar app and website regularly … and haven’t really noticed the shopping portal … not that I’m really interested in it anyway!

    • Rob says:

      You don’t get the regular emails listing all of the current deals?

      • RussellH says:

        I do not get them, nor the equivalent from countless other sites.
        This by choice – I cannot think of anything worse than connecting to e-mail in the morning and being swamped by vast quantities of marketing rubbish.
        If I want some information, I shall go and look for it at the original source, thank you.

      • ADS says:

        no, i don’t get the marketing emails – I reckon I go in often often to spot anything good … and you guys will probably highlight anything that I miss!

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