Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

ENDS FRIDAY: Earn double Avios on British Airways flights and via BA Holidays

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Time is running out to book your flights in order to qualify for the current British Airways ‘double Avios’ offer.

This has the potential to be very lucrative if you can work it around your travel plans.

For the first time, this offer has also been extended to BA Holidays. Not only will you get double Avios on BA flights booked as part of a BA Holidays package, but the bonus Avios you earn for using BA Holidays are doubled to 2 Avios per £1.

The sign up page for the offer is here. You MUST register before making any bookings.

The last day to book is Friday 13th December but you have until 30th June to fly.

The offer is simple on the face of it:

Registration is required via this page of ba.com

The offer is open to all BAEC members globally

You earn double base Avios, excluding cabin and status bonuses, on your next 10 qualifying BA flights (a return trip = 2 flights) booked after registering

You must book your flights between 18th September and 13th December

Existing bookings prior to registration do not count

You must fly before 30th June 2020

Looking at the small print, the offer is also valid on American Airlines, Iberia and Finnair flights when travelling between Europe and North America on a BA flight number. Don’t be fooled by the statement at the top of the registration page that AA, Iberia and Finnair flights to North Ameria count – the terms and conditions say they do not, unless there is a BA flight number on your boarding pass.

British Airways flights booked as part of a BA Holidays package WILL count. You also get an extra bonus for booking via BA Holiday which I discuss later on.

The offer is also valid on Comair-operated BA services in Southern Africa.

However, apart from the exceptions above, no other BA codeshare or franchise flight will count. You won’t get double Avios on, for example, a Bangkok Airways, Vistara, Aer Lingus, Qatar Airways or Vueling flight with a BA flight number.

An extra bonus when you book with BA Holidays

Regular readers of Head for Points will know that we are big fans of booking your flights via BA Holidays if you can, adding in a hotel or car rental.

The main reason for this is that a ‘flight and hotel’ or ‘flight and car’ package is often cheaper than booking a flight on its own, especially in Club World.

There are two other good reasons to book with BA Holidays:

you only need to pay a deposit at the time of booking, with the balance only due five weeks before travel

you receive an extra bonus of 1 Avios per £1 spent, on top of the Avios you receive from your flights and from your credit card spend if you use a BA Amex

The only downside is that flights booked via BA Holidays do not qualify for On Business points in the BA small business loyalty programme.

During this promotion, you get two extra bonuses for booking via BA Holidays at ba.com or via the BA call centre:

your flights will earn double Avios, as long as they meet the definition of ‘qualifying flights’ and originate in the UK

the extra Avios you receive for booking with BA Holidays is doubled from 1 Avios per £1 to 2 Avios per £1

The same rules apply as with the main promotion – you must register before booking, you must book before this Friday 13th December and you must travel by 30th June 2020.

Don’t forget to register before you book

You can register for double Avios here.  If you have already registered, remember to make your bookings by Friday night.


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 (22)

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

  • Mr. AC says:

    Wanted to check something.

    Assuming I book a Club World return today for May.
    Any other flights I end up booking and flying with next year won’t count, correct? Just checking so I don’t end up wasting the bonus on a short-haul.

  • Stu N says:

    Managed to book 9 flights under this promo and my partner has managed to slot in 8. That includes one BA holiday. All short haul but should still be worth about 10K bonus Avios for the household account.

  • Riccatti says:

    BA IT useless, and there is literally no help can be found — if registration does not work.

    “Computer says no”.

  • Tilly says:

    If we booked a BA holiday now can we add an infant to the booking at a later date? Baby due in 10 weeks. Also, anyone got any advice travelling with an infant? What’s the youngest you’d take a baby abroad for holiday?

    • SimonW says:

      Yep. Not an issue. Call up after the birth, add to booking. (dont forget to get the bambino a passport!).
      We found travel was easier when they were really young, before they were aware and too wriggly and too big for the bassinet seat thing. 3 months to 18 months was the sweet spot really. Keep them filled with milk, and try to get them to feed/suck something on the ascent and descent to help with ears popping. Take at least 2 spare baby grows in case of accidents. Try and travel as light as possible – ideally one bag for all of you. Yoyo buggy is superb as can fold up and take on as hand baggage. If flying CW/First, with a larger buggy, just take it on to plane and stash it in the cupboard – I used the “youd do it for a guitar” argument a couple of times. Having the buggy straight off the plane on landing is a huge help. Lastly, IGNORE any dirty looks if your little one cries etc. Those people are miserable and bitter. (and thankfully quite rare).

    • ankomonkey says:

      My daughter first flew when she was 4 months old. This was after certain standard injections. The doctors said this meant the baby’s immune system would cope with the plane germs.

      • Tilly says:

        Thanks. Once we’ve got something booked and were ready to take baby somewhere I’ll have to check out jabs.

  • Cuchlainn says:

    Just double checking – I have a 2for1 BA voucher expiring in June 19 : I can only use on BA flights, not BA Holidays ? Thanks

  • James says:

    Like an idiot, i completely forgot about this and enrolled AFTER i made a booking to fly out in Jan 2020, will BA IT systems know the difference?

    • Stu N says:

      Sadly this is one thing BA’s IT is up to the job on – you’re very unlikely to get the bonus.

    • Kenny says:

      email them and they maybe able to help… I remember when this came out, people who’s just missed out can get in touch

  • eli says:

    Has anyone had experience of getting a better deal using BA Holidays for a flight beginning NOT in the UK
    also, is there ever a bargain to be had using BA Holidays for 1 person only?

    • Anna says:

      I tried a dummy booking once with a flight not starting in the UK and just got error messages, but BA’s IT can be unpredictable.

      Yes – we often book 2 of us on a 2 4 1 and the 3rd on a BA holiday (ensuring any hotel room or hire car is big enough for 3 of us plus luggage). You get the benefit of the lower price and the longer time to make full payment. My OH also got Bronze status (for 22 months) from one trip this year as we flew long haul in J with a domestic connection which netted him over 300 tier points. So well worth doing if you plan it well.

  • Alexis says:

    I’ve paid a deposit for a BA Holidays booking including BA flights to Denver for travel in April 2020, having registered for the offer.

    Will I still be eligible for double Avios on the flights having only paid the BA Holidays deposit ?

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