Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Hear Head for Points on Radio 4’s ‘You and Yours’ today, hopefully ….

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I am in Stockholm all day today, visiting SAS.  This may have saved me from making a major embarrassment of myself live on national radio.

In theory – although these things are always subject to change – BBC Radio 4’s ‘You and Yours’ programme (12.15) will be covering the Avios changes today.

The reason I know this is that I am appearing on the programme.

The BBC wanted me to appear live but, because of my Stockholm trip, I was able to pre-record a contribution on Friday.  This means that a) I can’t embarrass myself on live radio by making a mistake or using naughty words and b) my contribution can be edited so that it sounds sensible.

As I don’t know which parts of the discussion they will use, it is difficult to preview it.  With only a few minutes to talk, I was forced to simplify what is a very complex set of changes.

Avios Group chose not to appear on the programme although they were due to submit a statement.  In the interests of balance, I tried to explain why I think they did what they did – although, again, this may not make the final cut.

Please give me a pass for any errors in what I said!  I wasn’t given the questions in advance so I was trying to think on the spot as well as worry about how to present the answers in a way that a mass audience could understand.

If someone could post a link to the online version in the afternoon I’d be grateful.  Although, as I said earlier, the story (or just my bit!) may get cut or pushed back – although the published running order does say that it will be on.


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.

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.

Comments (66)

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

  • Kevin H says:

    One point which BA has done its best to hide (and didn’t get covered in the interview) is the massive increase in Avios required for an upgrade booking e.g. a zone 7 one-way from PE to Club in off-peak has increased from 15,000 to 36,000 Avios (+140%) – although, oddly, only 30,000 Avios (+100%) required for an upgrade in the new peak periods!
    As a Gold-for-life member, I wrote to them (twice!) on this – and they ignored the question both times.
    As for these changes being based on customer feedback – utter nonsense.

    • CV3V says:

      I think they customer feedback they refer to goes along the lines of ‘there is never any avios reward seats available’, BA then resolves this by making it much harder to earn enough points to spend on a redemption seat.

      Apparently there are changes coming to Cathay Pacific who may start to limit reward seat availability for oneworld members, with preference to their own scheme. Malaysian already do this, with really good availability for Enrich members. Perhaps BA should do likewise.

    • Rob says:

      We talked about this in the initial chat but I didn’t mention it in the final interview. Ironic that the Scottish guy said that he was now using his points for this instead.

      • Kevin H says:

        Yes, it was a bit odd given the massive increases now required.
        It would be nice to think that BA might realise it’s alienated its frequent fliers with this devaluation and reverse some of the changes – but I won’t hold my breath!

  • Jon says:

    I’m afraid I’ve given up with avios.

    Earning is reduced significantly for me as I mostly fly Y paid. Other sources of avios (amex MR, tesco) are more profitably spent on something else.
    Spending has now got more expensive, and has progressively over the years been eroded by the ever increasing YQ.
    Upgrading using avios is most of the the time not worth it as WTP fares are equal to business fares on competitor airlines on the routes I fly.

    My solution (which is currently working for me, but admittedly poor £/point): transfer to avios.com and spend it on wine and whisky!

  • Rob says:

    Yes, realised that! It didn’t turn out too badly, I thought.

    • Simon says:

      Agreed, you came across well and gave easy to follow balanced views. Hopefully a few more people will visit the site after hearing the piece.

  • Andy says:

    Excellent interview rob.

  • Claire says:

    I thought this was a really good interview. I am in a bit of fog about Avios and airmiles since the devaluation. We fly from Manchester so cash in our BAPP 2-4-1s going via MAN-LHR whether it be long haul in F or Europe in CE but I don’t think the latter will be remotely worth it anymore. So I may have to go away and do some homework on it which is a shame as I enjoy flying with BA. I don’t know if any of you other regional based flyers are in the same quandry or if it’s me being a bit meh.

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

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