Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Bits: Avios / Boswell insurance deal extended, TLS, double Avios with Heathrow Express

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Three new Avios deals in brief:

Alan Boswell insurance deal extended

Insurance broker Alan Boswell Group has extended their ‘new partner’ offer with Avios for another month until 30th September.

Until then, you will earn:

  • Up to 10,000 Avios when you purchase a household, landlord or business insurance policy
    • 5,000 Avios per policy priced below £500
    • 10,000 Avios per policy priced above £500

You can find out more about the deal in this HFP article.  If your insurance is due this month, you should take a look – all of the contact details are here.

Avios wing 11

Earn Avios with half-price Times Literary Supplement subscription

If you don’t get email marketing newsletters from avios.com, you will have missed out on a couple of deals yesterday.

One of the odder Avios partnerships is the tie-in with the Times Literary Supplement.  You earn 4,500 Avios with a £120 full year subscription to TLS.  However, until 31st October you can subscribe for half-price – just £60 – and still receive the points.

Heathrow Express

Earn double Avios with Heathrow Express

The other interesting new deal is with Heathrow Express.

Last weekend I wrote a big article on how to save money on Heathrow Express tickets – you’ll find it here.

This included lesser-known discounts such as 12% off for MasterCard holders and free First Class upgrades for Star Alliance Gold and British Airways Gold Guest List cardholders.

Another way of getting a return on your spending is by earning Avios on Heathrow Express tickets.

The standard earning rate is 10 Avios per £1 which meant, if you were spending your own money, it was a better deal to take the 12% MasterCard discount.

Until 24th October, the earning rate is doubled.  You receive 20 Avios per £1 when you book via heathrowexpress.com/avios.

This is a better deal than taking the MasterCard discount, assuming you value an Avios at more than 0.6p.

The Heathrow Express website does not yet show the special promotion but it is showing on avios.com here.  For safety, credit your purchase to avios.com and NOT ba.com or iberia.com.  We don’t yet know if BA and Iberia are matching this offer.

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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 (101)

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

  • jamie says:
    25 Aug25 August 11:46

    O/T I have the amex plat and will be travelling to Melbourne, Houston and Miami in the next few weeks. I have my Priority Pass to get into the lounge but in America am I correct that there are some lounges which you can enter by just using your amex platinium card?

    • mark2 says:
      25 Aug25 August 12:09

      You can get into American Express Centurion Lounges which are rare.
      The one in Seattle is the best lounge I have ever been in (except no hot food).

      • jamie says:
        25 Aug25 August 13:02

        ok thanks Mark.

        • Stu N says:
          25 Aug25 August 15:15

          If you’re flying Delta you also get lounge access by showing the Platinum card.

          We found the SEA Amex to be extremely crowded a few weeks ago when we were there, but maybe we were unlucky.

  • Kathy says:
    25 Aug25 August 11:52

    OT: IHG black credit card – the second tranche of 20k points for signing up hasn’t posted although I’ve had my second statement after hitting spend target. I am sure I was targeted for the offer originally although I didn’t keep the email. How do I go about chasing the points – IHG or Creation?

    • Genghis says:
      25 Aug25 August 12:21

      Wasn’t it wait 3 months? If you’ve done that I’d chase with Creation, but don’t expect much assistance…

    • Rob says:
      25 Aug25 August 12:51

      Creation

    • thehornets says:
      25 Aug25 August 13:42

      Kathy – which IHG offer was this please? Is it generally available?

      I am just deliberating between the two IHG cards as a stop gap between Gold Amex’s and to meet an ‘Accelerate’ offer…

      Thanks!

  • pointsarb says:
    25 Aug25 August 12:27

    O/T Does anyone know if the BA website is the only website to check for availability for an intra asia flight on Cathay Pacific? Trying to get 4 return seats from HKG to HKT over Xmas and no luck for weeks so just wondered if availability can be sourced from anywhere other than BA’s website?

    Tried the low cost carriers too and they want circa £1000 total for these 4 seats so before I shell that out wanted to try and use avios!

    Thanks!

    • Darren says:
      25 Aug25 August 13:31

      +1 I’d be interested in any replies for an upcoming trip.

      • meta says:
        25 Aug25 August 14:58

        I did this route in March. There was availability with Cathay Pacific/Dragonair (about 5 months in advance), but the timings didn’t work, so went with Thai Airways for about £250 per person return. I think £1k for 4 people is about right. I’m not sure if you have any miles in other programmes, but have you tried with AA for Cathay or Miles&More for Thai? Perhaps Iberia too with Avios?

        • pointsarb says:
          25 Aug25 August 17:17

          Thanks Meta! Yes I saw availability on CX about 3-4 months ago (not on my dates) but they dried up quickly. Looks I’ll have to take that £1k paid option.

    • JamesB says:
      25 Aug25 August 18:16

      If you have the avios and time you might want to consider MAS via KUL. At one point they had an a380 on one of their HKG rotations but I’ve no idea if this is still the case. You could fly HKG-BKK with Cathay or Sri Lankan and then use LCC down to HKT. If you have time the bus from Bangkok to Phuket is fun and scenic in the latter stages, VIP buses in Thailand are very luxurious. Check out flight options from Hong Kong to Krabi as it’s not that far away.

      • Callum says:
        25 Aug25 August 19:56

        If you’re not going to fly I’d definitely say take the train over the bus. Granted you have to change to a bus for the last 4 hours, but at least on the overnight portion you’ll have a proper flat bed.

        Far better than 12+ hours in a reclining seats to me, no matter how comfortable it may be!

        • JamesB says:
          25 Aug25 August 20:29

          I agree train works if you want to sleep, and you still get the more scenic bus ride across from Surat Thani into Phuket. Train station is also easier to get to from the airports than the southern bus terminal and avoids need for very early morning bus depature. However the bus wins if you want ro see the country as it is a 10-11 hour daylight ride. If you want a car in Phuket you could always pick it up at BKK and drive yourself, highways are excellent south to Hua Hin and thereafter are mostly dual carriageways further south.

  • Artem says:
    25 Aug25 August 12:45

    O/T what is the breakfast like in Aspire Heathrow T5? I mean outside the Premium menu.

  • the real harry1 says:
    25 Aug25 August 12:59

    O/T so my wife is out to the place in the sun again tonight – she’s been working in London so can get away early for her flight

    HBO fare, stuck in/ checked into 20C (aisle) right now & no way will I suggest she pays £11 to change seats – she has been told how to change seats for free @ airport with self check-in machines, yes she would like to move up-plane as she can be out & away in 5 mins, hmm let’s see

    she has also been given strict instructions to use her Lounge Pass before I expire it – she’s one of those people who don’t want to know about cards & passes – I waved free wi-fi etc & work in front of her as she doesn’t seem to care about F&B – let’s see how the woman does 🙂

    • the real harry1 says:
      25 Aug25 August 13:37

      she did actually pleasantly surprise me in the old days, going back a few years – despite initial hostility @ me ‘wasting everybody’s time’, once she got it that Tesco was effectively paying us to take away the John Frieda Collection (luxurious volume/ thickening mousse/ conditioner etc plus loads of other stuff such as wine, hic!), she did quite a few Tesco forays of her own & filled the cupboards 🙂

      • Genghis says:
        25 Aug25 August 13:54

        Mrs G still complains about all the Mr Muscles under our kitchen sink…

        • the real harry1 says:
          25 Aug25 August 16:53

          actually, Raffles was around but we mustn’t mention that to his wife 🙂

        • the real harry1 says:
          25 Aug25 August 16:55

          he should have been spending his time more fruitfully devising an indispensable points blog 🙂

        • the real harry1 says:
          25 Aug25 August 17:32

          not sure what she’s playing at – still in 20C, should be at the airport by now & there are all 12 exit seats available ???

        • the real harry1 says:
          26 Aug26 August 01:39

          anyway, she couldn’t find the self check in machines, I shall show her a sample 10 of them next time we fly together

          she did hit Aspire lounge though so gets a B- overall

  • Optimus Prime says:
    25 Aug25 August 13:01

    OT: BA404 from LHR to BRU at 7:40pm in CE. Any dinner at all being just a 45-min flight?

  • the real harry1 says:
    25 Aug25 August 17:05

    Collect 2,500 Tesco Clubcard points.
    If you’re a new customer with a Tesco Clubcard you’ll collect 2,500 points when you buy a combined buildings and contents policy direct from us by 28 January 2018 and quote SEP7P and your Clubcard number. This offer is not available if you get a quote or purchase from any price comparison websites

    • the real harry1 says:
      25 Aug25 August 17:06

      2500 points = 6000 Avios = c.£60

      could be worth it if the quote is competitive

      • the real harry1 says:
        25 Aug25 August 17:09

        Additional terms and conditions for 2,500 Clubcard points offer: Clubcard number must be provided during quote. One offer per customer. Not to be used in conjunction with any other offer. If you cancel your policy within the first 14 days you will not collect the Clubcard points. The Clubcard must be in your name and the points will be added to a future Clubcard statement.

        well, I wouldn’t cancel in the first 14 days, then

        in the UK, insurance policies – cancelled – must be refunded pro rata, less any administration fees…

  • n says:
    25 Aug25 August 17:17

    Any quick way to get 2k Marriott? I’m on 268k, need 270k for a package!

    (I did the social media 1k already)

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

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