Get £20 of Uber credit when you book a flight via the app

This may be targetted – the T&C say that it is for ‘select users’ – but I have an offer in my Uber app offering me £20 per passenger of Uber credit if I book a flight.

Importantly, there is no minimum spend. I appear to have triggered it with a £51 one-way easyJet booking.

Here are the key terms and conditions:

• you need to book your flight by 28th November

• there are no restrictions on when you fly

• you receive £20 per passenger of Uber credit as a bonus

• you can only earn the bonus once

• the credit is received within 10 days of completing the first leg of your flight

• the credit will expire within 180 days if not used

• Uber credit issued in £ can, as with all Uber credit and gift cards, only be used within the UK

• you will earn the same miles and status points from the airline as you would as if you had booked direct – unlike hotels, airlines do not punish you for booking via third parties

It isn’t £20 of entirely free credit. The easyJet flight I booked cost £51 vs £49 on easyJet.com. However, I’m £18 up on the deal.

Let’s be clear though. In general, we don’t recommend booking flights via online travel agents. The pandemic reminded everyone that, if you don’t book directly with an airline, it is virtually impossible to deal with them if there are issues with your trip. Your contract is with the company that books your ticket, not the airline.

However, when I get a net £18 back on a £51 purchase, I’ll take it.

If you are spending a substantial sum on a flight ticket, I’d think twice before giving up the flexibililty of a direct booking in return for a £20 incentive.

An extra benefit – buy ‘no fault’ cancellation insurance

During the booking process, Uber let me buy ‘no fault’ cancellation insurance.

This is nothing to do with the airline. Uber and/or an insurance company funds this, and gambles on charging enough to make a profit overall.

It’s not clear if they offer this to everyone or if there is some algorithm behind it, based on only targeting people who are less likely to cancel based on travel date / destination etc.

On my £51 easyJet ticket, the options were:

• pay £11 for a 100% refund in airline credit or cash if I cancel up to 72 hours before departure

• pay £9 for a 100% refund in airline credit or an 80% refund in cash if I cancel up to 72 hours before departure

This is interesting. Lastminute.com offered something similar pre-covid – I’m not sure if they still do – and clearly there is an extra profit here for Uber IF they price it right. The risk for Uber, of course, is that only people who feel that they will cancel will buy it.

There is definitely an arbitrage here for events such as major football finals. Buy a cheap ticket a year in advance, pay a small amount for Uber’s insurance and then cancel if your team doesn’t make it.

PS. Uber is continuing to offer 10% back in Uber credit when you book a train ticket via the app. I booked a £370 Eurostar trip via Uber this week and it was totally painless, and the same price as the Eurostar website.

Here’s a tip. Whilst booking, Uber has a box for ‘Discount Code’. You put your Club Eurostar number in this box, which is clearly not very intuative. You will immediately be able to access your booking in the Eurostar website and select seats, which the Uber app doesn’t allow. (EDIT: a comment below suggests that I could be wrong and that Eurostar matched it up via my email address instead.)

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How to maximise your miles when paying for flights (August 2025)

Some UK credit cards offer special bonuses when used for buying flights. If you spend a lot on airline tickets, using one of these cards could sharply increase the credit card points you earn.

Booking flights on any airline?

The American Express Preferred Rewards Gold Credit Card earns double points (2 Membership Rewards points per £1) when used to buy flights directly from an airline website.

The card comes with a sign-up bonus of 20,000 Membership Rewards points. These would convert to 20,000 Avios or various other airline or hotel programmes. The standard earning rate is 1 point per £1.

You can apply here.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 14th October 2025, the sign-up bonus on the American Express Preferred Rewards Gold Credit Card is doubled to 40,000 Membership Rewards points. This would convert to 40,000 Avios! The spend target is changed to £5,000 within SIX months of approval. T&C apply. Click here to apply.

Buying flights on British Airways?

The British Airways American Express Premium Plus Card earns double Avios (3 Avios per £1) when used at ba.com.

The card comes with a sign-up bonus of 30,000 Avios. The standard earning rate is 1.5 Avios per £1.

You do not earn bonus Avios if you pay for BA flights on the free British Airways American Express Credit Card or either of the Barclaycard Avios Mastercards.

You can apply here.

Buying flights on Virgin Atlantic?

Both the free Virgin Atlantic Reward Mastercard and the annual fee Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard earn double Virgin Points when used at fly.virgin.com.

This means 1.5 Virgin Points per £1 on the free card and 3 Virgin Points per £1 on the paid card.

There is a sign-up bonus of 3,000 Virgin Points on the free card and 18,000 Virgin Points on the paid card.

You can apply for either of the cards here.