Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Surf Air adds flights to Sion in Switzerland

Links on Head for Points may support the site by paying a commission.  See here for all partner links.

Surf Air, the membership based private jet company which recently moved to London City Airport, has launched flights to Sion in Switzerland over the ski season.’

Surf Air to Syon

This adds a further route to their daily service from London to Zurich.  Sion may be a more useful route than Zurich, since commercial flights to the airport are few and far between.

My review of Surf Air’s service to Zurich is here.

PS. If you are not a regular Head for Points visitor, why not sign up for our FREE weekly or daily newsletters? They are full of the latest Avios, airline, hotel and credit card points news and will help you travel better. To join our 65,000 free subscribers, click the button below or visit this page of the site to find out more. Thank you.

best credit card to use when buying flights

How to maximise your miles when paying for flights (April 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?

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold 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 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.

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

Buying flights on British Airways?

The British Airways Premium Plus American Express 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 card or either of the Barclaycard Avios Mastercards.

You can apply here.

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

30,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

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.

Virgin Atlantic Reward Mastercard

3,000 bonus points, no fee and 1 point for every £1 you spend Read our full review

Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard

18,000 bonus points and 1.5 points for every £1 you spend Read our full review

Category

General

Comments (58)

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

  • Tilly says:
    28 Jan28 January 10:32

    “take the Overground to Stratford and touch the pink reader again, then get on the District Line again and go up to Upminster” …… I go through Stratford station 5-6 days a week and I’m pretty certain there is no district line. To pick up the district from Stratford you have to either take the central line 1 stop to Mile End or the Jubilee line or DLR to West Ham and change.

    • RussellH says:
      28 Jan28 January 11:40

      Correct! I am annoyed with myself for not picking that up immediately.

      I have done Gunnerbury – Stratford – Prince Regent for Excel (WTM) a few times; not much slower than via Westminster and Canning Town changes, and, as others have mentioned, vastly more interesting.

  • Adam says:
    28 Jan28 January 10:53

    OT thinking of downgrading from BAPP to the fee free BA Amex as I have triggered the 2-4-1 voucher. I have cleared the balance down to zero but avios do not transfer until 14th February. Do I need wait for the avios to transfer before I downgrade or will I lose them? Hoping to get a couple of months fee rebate by doing it before January month end. Thanks for any guidance.

  • EBungle says:
    28 Jan28 January 11:09

    This reminds me of when I was a kid and lived near Harrow but met a girl near Sutton. Took me hours to work out how to get there with my Zones 4,5 and 6 travel card. Although that was mostly busses.

    • Fenny says:
      28 Jan28 January 12:13

      When I was a kid, I could go anywhere on South Yorkshire Transport buses for 2p. It eventually went up to 5p, but I had a bus pass to get to college by then and used that on weekdays.

  • Trystan says:
    28 Jan28 January 12:50

    Can’t believe I can get from Cardiff direct to Heathrow now for £1 on National Express if booking in advance! And it only takes 3hours!!

  • AndyR says:
    28 Jan28 January 12:51

    OT Does Amex give bonus points for adding supplementary cardholders on the SPG card? Thanks.

  • Ia says:
    28 Jan28 January 16:23

    I’ve been using the X-26 from West London for a long time. About 45 minutes to get to LHR.

    • Intentionally Blank says:
      28 Jan28 January 22:32

      Came here to say this. £1.50 from Croydon via kingston and the recent x26 I was on had usb sockets!

  • Kilburnflyer says:
    28 Jan28 January 23:57

    We tend to do the Uber =} Acton Town for circa £9 from NW London, then jump on Piccadilly line to T5 from there, 26mins & costs £1.50pp off peak. Much less hassle than going all the way into central London and back out again but miles cheaper than a cab all the way

  • Tim M says:
    29 Jan29 January 08:19

    Mornington Crescent!

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

New to Head for Points?

Welcome!  We’re the UK’s most-read source of business travel, Avios, frequent flyer and hotel loyalty news. Let us improve how you travel. Got any questions? Ask them in our forums.

Get 25,000 Avios with the Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

GET A SIGN-UP BONUS OF 18,000 VIRGIN POINTS!

Latest Forum Posts

Get 80,000 bonus points (worth 80,000 Avios) and £400 of dining credit with The Platinum Card (Offer ends 27th May)

Check reward flight availability instantly for free!

See a whole year of reward seat availability on one page at SeatSpy.com

Get up to 10,000 bonus Hilton Honors points

Booking a luxury hotel?

Our luxury hotel booking service offers you GUARANTEED extra benefits over booking direct. Works with Four Seasons, Mandarin Oriental, The Ritz Carlton, St Regis and more. We've booked £1.7 million of rooms to date. Click for details.

SME? GET THE ONLY FREE SMALL BUSINESS CREDIT CARD WHICH CAN EARN AVIOS

Get points worth 30,000 Avios with 'first year free' American Express Gold (ends 27th May)

The UK's biggest frequent flyer website uses cookies, which you can block via your browser settings. Continuing implies your consent to this policy. Our privacy policy is here.

Got it!