Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

BA doubles San Diego, wide open for Avios, & boosts Kingston, Las Vegas, Orlando, Vancouver

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British Airways has released a number of schedule improvements for the summer 2024 flying season.

The reason this is interesting is that these seats were only made available for booking in the last few hours and therefore Avios availability is wide open.

If you’d failed to get seats for peak 2024 dates, it is worth looking again.

British Airways doubles flights to San Diego

The biggest increase is to San Diego.

From 24th April 2024, British Airways is adding a second daily flight from London Heathrow. It will be operated with a Boeing 787-8 and departs around 3pm (varies by day).

Here is a SeatSpy screenshot from noon on Wednesday showing dates with 2 x Club World seats available. As you can see, from 24th April you can take your pick, and it is a good gateway into California.

The other schedule increases are less dramatic, but there will still be fresh Avios seats out there for booking:

Kingston, from Gatwick

  • Increased from three weekly flights to four weekly flights between 6th July and 31st August

Las Vegas, from Gatwick

  • Increased from three weekly flights to five weekly flights from 31st March

Orlando, from Gatwick

  • Increased from 12 weekly flights to 14 weekly flights from 31st March

Vancouver, from Gatwick

  • Flights will start three weeks earlier than planned, on 29th April, with six flights per week

You can check Avios availability over at ba.com.

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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 (69)

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

  • RH says:
    19 Sep19 September 16:25

    The app always works for me, just tried it again!

    I need to get to Brazil next month. Any ideas as apart from BA and Iberia (I don’t think I can use Iberia as I closed it when my account went -90,000 Avios a few years ago.

    I can’t see any Latham via Virgin either with Virgin points. Any help appreciated!

    • mimi says:
      20 Sep20 September 07:10

      Try Lufthansa, they are selling points through their website for 1p at the moment. Check for award availability for Swiss and Lufthansa biz on the dates you need.

    • Toby says:
      20 Sep20 September 18:06

      I book Iberia through BA easily enough. My Iberia went miles negative before I closed it too.

  • mkcol says:
    19 Sep19 September 16:43

    Quite surprised Orlando was not that frequent already.

  • Richie says:
    19 Sep19 September 17:04

    Las Vegas looks fun for Easter,

  • Smid says:
    19 Sep19 September 17:19

    Who pays avios for the likes of LAS or SAN? The taxes are so high that you can fly ex-DUB for not much more, and earn avios and TPs.

    If they reinstated First in these routes, I’d care.

    • Richie says:
      19 Sep19 September 17:24

      Avios millionaires.

    • Simey says:
      19 Sep19 September 18:39

      Not sure what you mean.. using a 2 for 1 for example it’s £900 for 2 in return on the A350 from LHR. Cash tickets are 2/3K per person..?

      • Smid says:
        19 Sep19 September 20:14

        It’s nearly £900 per person now in taxes on a two for one (I paid £1700 for two, F over back J). You can see ex-Dub ones for £1100. I think it was more for all J.

        It’s been a long time since it’s been £450 per person. It was 600 per person before the pandemic.

        • Smid says:
          19 Sep19 September 20:17

          ex-Dub all paid, earning avios and TPs in J, for £1100 to make that clear.

        • MattB says:
          19 Sep19 September 20:25

          The pricing has changed so it’s back down to £450 but avios up to 200k. So 200k plus £900 on a 241.

          • Simey says:
            19 Sep19 September 23:22

            Yeah.. those numbers are off. 180K Avios and 900 so 450 each return in cash for that redemption. I struggle to see how that isn’t good value when a fully flexible cash RT for 2 direct is 5-6k right now for those dates in Sep / Oct 2024.

          • Smid says:
            20 Sep20 September 01:22

            £1750 and 156K avios, F to Washington, J from Chicago, on May 10th this year. As far as I am aware it hasn’t changed, and it’s higher for West coast too.

            Looking at current pricing it should have been a lot 80K+85K = 165K, and 2 x 175 + 225 = £800.

            They seem to have charged me 9K less avios and £900 more taxes. Man I got screwed.

          • Mark says:
            20 Sep20 September 08:52

            Unless you fly one way in F when you get really screwed by the new pricing, but that’s not a J return. That said, I’d seriously consider a ex-DUB £1100 fare over a BA 2for1 redemption if I could get it. Looking at a random Tue-Tue in May, the cheapest I can see is £1500, one stop on the way out and with an airport change in London on the way back (handy though for short checking bags if you want to finish in London).

          • Mark says:
            20 Sep20 September 08:54

            That’s DUB-LAS return….

  • Doug says:
    19 Sep19 September 17:37

    Oh wow they might as well call themselves US Airways now

  • Dace says:
    19 Sep19 September 18:55

    Be nice to get BKK back.

  • G says:
    19 Sep19 September 18:55

    Still waiting on more services to HND, ITM, ICN, KUL, BKK…

  • ekposh says:
    19 Sep19 September 20:45

    Lack of flights to Asia is bonkers.

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

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