Earning Avios faster not only gets you those 100,000 round-trip Club World seats, it also stops your earned Avios balance from expiring. Did you know that the miles in a dormant Avios account expire after 36 months?! Well you do now. The good news is all you have to do is add 1 Avios to that that balance to keep it from expiring. But, better than that, we’re going to share a few ideas on how to add way more than a solitary Avios to your pot. Allow us to show you how to truly boost your Avios earning and maximise the Avios you glean from day-to-day expenditure.
Boost your Avios by flying
It seems obvious, but flying can get you a lot of Avios points, if done right. Additionally, flying earns you tier points, so if you’re looking to gain the benefits that come with Silver or Gold status, you’ll need to find a way of earning 600 or 1500 tier points respectively and that can only be done by flying*
You can earn Avios on any Oneworld partner airlines, opening-up Avios-earning routes with the likes of Qatar Airways, Qantas, Cathay Pacific, and LATAM.
Flying in premium economy, business, and first can bag you far higher mileage accruals. Look for seat sales where the ticketing class doesn’t discount the Avios award for the flight, only the price you pay.
Be vigilant of the mileage accrual rates on the ticket you’re booking as some discounted fares can earn you Avios at a low rate of 25% miles flown, and just half the normal tier points.
*You might get a rare status match from another frequent flyer programme, but you’ll still have been flying!
Credit Cards
The British Airways American Express credit cards are the next best way to earn Avios faster. There are two BA-branded cards, one without an annual fee that has a lower welcome bonus and earning rates, and a card with £195 annual fee with much larger welcome bonus and higher earning rates.
British Airways American Express®Credit Card
- Get a 5,000 Avios bonus if you spend £1,000 on the card in the first 3 months
- Earn 1 Avios for every £1 spent
- Spend £20,000 and receive one 2-4-1 companion voucher per year
- No annual fee
British Airways American Express®Premium Plus Card
- Get a 25,000 Avios bonus if you spend £3,000 on the card in the first 3 months
- Earn 1.5 Avios for every £1 spent
- Earn 3 Avios for every £1 spent direct with BA or BA holidays
- Spend £10,000 and receive one 2-4-1 companion voucher per year
- £195 annual fee
The trick to success with these cards is to do all your normal spending on them – shopping, fuel, travel, entertainment etc… Because it’s money you’d be spending whether or not you had the card, there should be no guilt. The relatively high APR on both cards means they are not credit cards to borrow on; ensure you’re able to pay off the full amount each month.
As with all credit cards, consider your personal circumstances before applying.
Once you have the credit card, insist on using it everywhere you need to spend. If online retailers don’t appear to accept it, see if they will accept PayPal instead, registering Amex as your primary card. Remember all those subscriptions and recurring payments that usually come off a card – Netflix, Amazon Prime, Spotify, iTunes, mobile phone auto top-ups – it all adds up, so switch them to your Amex card.
Earn nearly 4 Avios per £1 shopping in Tesco
Everyone has to eat, so why not turn that essential spend into luxury flights? Tesco currently pays you 600 Avios for every £2.50 Clubcard voucher you exchange.
1 Clubcard point per £1 means a £250 spend is getting you 600 Avios, or 2.4 Avios per £1 spent in Tesco. If you use your BA Amex card on that spend too, you’re earning almost 4 Avios per £1. Every little really does help! We’ve also find the process fairly painless: Just login, select the vouchers you want to convert, enter your BA Exec Club number and you’re done. They quote 28 days before the Avios are credited, but in reality we’ve found that to be 2-3 working days.
Read more about Clubcard to Avios exchange.
Remember you also earn Clubcard points on fuel and you can pay with a BA Amex card. A £50 fill is going to earn you nearly 200 Avios. Over the course of 12 months that could really boost your Avios earning.
You can also earn a 900 Avios bonus by booking an online shop with Tesco.com through a British Airways referral link.
Utilities
Boost your Avios heating your home this winter by earning a tasty 8,000 Avios welcome bonus when you switch your electricity and gas over to British Gas. 5,000 for the same with EDF Energy. Earn 2.,500 Avios when you sign-up for BT Broadband.
Buying Gifts
Don’t know what to buy that distant relative you don’t see much of? Don’t just waste your money buying something you know they won’t like, buy them something they won’t like that earns you 15 Avios per £1 you spend at Buy A Gift using a BA referral link.
TopCashback
Topcashback.com pay you when you go through them to spend with retailers or service providers. You can find clothes retailers, insurance companies, and travel booking sites all willing to payback 10% of your spend if you come through TopCashback. You can easily earn £100+, which you can then choose a to be paid out in a variety of ways. Handily, they offer conversion to Avios (£1 = 105 Avios), and they routinely offer extra 25% bonuses to take your pay-out this way.
BA Shopping Site
Like TopCashback, BA gets paid by retailers they refer customers to. In return, BA passes on some of that reward to you. The British Airways Avios eStore is linked to your Exec Club account and covers offers with many retailers and service providers. Compare the rewards with TopCashback to ensure you’re getting the best return on your spend. Brands include Apple (3 Avios/£1) Mulberry (6), Selfridges (6), John Lewis (2), Topshop (6), ASOS (3), TK Maxx (6) and Nike (9!!)
To put it in context, if you’re thinking of buying a new Mac or iPhone, you could get 3,000 Avios thrown into the deal just by using the right link to buy it online. Think how many times you’ve recently shopped with retailers who could’ve boosted your Avios earning for free.
Rewards for Thoughts
There’s a market research company called Rewards for Thoughts that will award you Avios for completing surveys. If you don’t have much free time, this isn’t for you. If you like the idea of earning 25 Avios for completing a 10-minute survey or 50 Avios for a 15-minute one, they also offer you a 600 Avios bonus simply for signing-up and completing one survey. Even if you’re short of time, 625 Avios for 10 minutes of your time might be tempting.
Hotel booking sites
Use the British Airways Booking.com referral link to browse and book a hotel to get a whopping 6 Avios per £1. Pay on a BA Amex card and you’re getting 7.5 Avios per £1!
There’s also a Hotels.com referral link that pays 4 Avios per £1.
Airbnb
Yep, you can even earn Avios on Airbnb. If you use the British Airways Airbnb referral link to navigate to Airbnb and book a property, you’ll earn 3 Avios for every £1. This is on top of the Avios you’d earn paying for it on an Amex card. Given how good value Airbnb accommodation can be, particularly when you’re traveling as a group, a generous 3 Avios per £1 could seriously boost your Avios earning.
Book a hire car with Avis or Budget
Avis and Budget are preferred BA car hire partners and offer Avios rewards against rental spend. You’ll earn 3 Avios per £1 with Avis and 2 per £1 with Budget.
Heathrow Express
Earn 5 Avios per £1 spent on Heathrow Express travel between Terminal 5 and central London. Just book through the magic link.
Install the BA Exec Club Rewards App
Keep informed about all the current Avios earning offers with the British Airways Rewards apps for iOS and Android.
So there you have it, a non-exhaustive list of ways to boost your Avios earning, while just going about your usual spending habits. In researching this, we’ve made some changes to our own behaviours to ensure we’re receiving Avios we’d otherwise be missing out on. We’ll be sure to add other worthwhile offers when they pop-up.
