How can you earn free Avios points?

How can you earn Avios points for free?

It’s certainly an attractive idea – picking up free Avios which you can use for flights, hotels or car hire, or even wine!

However, don’t be fooled. Not all ways of collecting Avios are really ‘free’ as we will explain.

There are many ways of collecting Avios points. If you read Head for Points every day (or, at the very least, subscribe to our free weekly newsletter – click here to sign up), we’ll ensure that you find out about the best new offers for earning free Avios.

Here are some of the most popular ways of collecting ‘free’ Avios:

• book flights on British Airways
• book flights on any of the other airlines in the oneworld alliance, plus Aer Lingus and China Southern
• book with British Airways Holidays
• transfer Nectar points into Avios
• transfer Heathrow Rewards points to Avios
• transfer American Express Membership Rewards points to Avios
• complete surveys for market research firms eRewards and Avios for Thoughts
• buy Heathrow Express tickets
• book airport parking via ParkVia
• take a UK ride with Uber
• stay with a BA hotel partner
• buy fuel at BP and convert BPme Rewards points
• rent a car with Avis or Budget
• move your current account to Barclays Premier Banking

Credit card sign-up bonuses are a great way of earning free Avios:

• take out one of the BA American Express credit cards
• take out one of the Barclaycard Avios Mastercard credit cards
• take out the (free for a year) American Express Gold credit card
• take out The Platinum Card from American Express
• take out (for an SME) the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card
• take out (free for life, for a Limited Company) the Capital on Tap credit card

You can also buy Avios points, although this is rarely worthwhile at full price unless you are buying the last few you need for a redemption. It is a different story if a substantial bonus is offered.

How can you pick up free Avios from a credit card sign-up bonus?

The quickest way to earn a large pile of free Avios points is via credit card sign-up bonuses.

It is easy to earn 20,000 Avios or more from each card you obtain.  American Express Gold is FREE for the first year and gets you 20,000 Avios points for signing up and spending £3,000, for example:

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.

You don’t earn Avios directly from American Express Preferred Rewards Gold and The Platinum Card. Instead, you earn American Express Membership Rewards points which convert 1:1 into Avios, or indeed Virgin Flying Club and many other schemes.

Here are some other options:

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.

See our comprehensive UK rewards credit card directory for full details of the best offers, and read Head for Points each day for the latest credit card news.

Are Avios really ‘free’, however?

It’s important to remember that you are often ‘paying’ for Avios – by giving up a cash alternative – without realising it.

There are three ways of obtaining Avios which are genuinely free:

• you fly with British Airways or a partner airline

• you receive a sign-up bonus for taking out a new credit card, such as the ones I highlighted above

• you receive points from a product or service you would pay for anyway, and there is no alternative pseudo-cash reward

That’s about it. Most of the other Avios you earn which are not from flying or from credit card sign-up bonuses are, if we’re honest, not free.

After all ….

• when you earn miles and points from day-to-day credit card spending, you are turning down the chance to earn cash via a cashback credit card – we looked at the two Amex Platinum cashback cards here

• if you convert Nectar points into Avios instead of using them at Sainsburys, you are losing out on 0.8p of free shopping for every Avios you receive

• if you convert Heathrow Rewards points to Avios points, you are losing out on 1p of Heathrow shopping voucher or 2p of Heathrow parking voucher for every Avios you earn

• if you convert BPme points to Avios instead of getting a discount on your next fuel purchase, you ar losing out on 0.8p of free petrol for every Avios you receive

• if you convert Capital on Tap points from their free Visa card (Capital on Tap review here) to Avios, you are giving up the alternative of 1p cashback – albeit there would be tax issues if you took the cash as this is a small business credit card

• if you convert American Express Membership Rewards points to Avios points, you are giving up 0.45p of American Express statement credit or 0.5p of gift card redemptions per point, or points in various other airline or hotel programmes

There are other occasions where you may have to pay to take part in a deal purely to earn points. For example, Barclays Avios Rewards charges you a £12 monthly fee to receive 1,500 Avios in return – plus a British Airways upgrade voucher every 12 months.

Conclusion

There are many ways of earning free Avios points, which can help you get your next free flight more quickly.

To get serious amounts of free Avios, you will need to sign-up for credit cards which offer generous Avios sign-up bonuses, or other points which convert to Avios.

Apart from earning Avios from flights or card bonuses, however, most ways of earning Avios are not ‘free’ because you are giving up some other potential reward in return. The smart Avios collector looks at the alternatives and only takes Avios when they are certain it is the best reward going for a particular transaction.

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.

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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:

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

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.

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.

There is also a British Airways American Express card for small businesses:

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.

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.