How to easily increase your Avios balance
Are you a frequent flyer, or saving up for something special? Avios are your answer, giving you huge discounts/upgrades on your flights. In this article, we’ll go through what Avios points are, and how to start earning them, quickly. Read on!
So, what are Avios points?
Avios points are a form of a loyalty currency, used by the Airline partnership called ‘OneWorld’. The list of OneWorld airlines can be found here, but it contains some of the largest airlines around, such as British Airways, Japan Airlines, American Airlines and more.
Avios have many uses. You can use Avios to completely pay for a flight (airport taxes excluded), upgrade your cabin, or part pay for a 'cash’ ticket.
Now you may be thinking, well how much is 1 Avios worth, and how do you collect them? Well there are many websites and articles out there that dig in to the age old question of how much 1 Avios is worth (tip: it’s not simple), so we won’t go into it here. What we will say, (at the time of writing) 23,500 Avios + £1, will get you a return flight from London Heathrow (LHR) to Barcelona (BCN). Pretty neat as it would only cost you £1 to get to Barcelona and back.
That’s great! How do I start earning Avios then?!
Well, you’ve come to the right place. The great thing about Avios, is if you do it right, it won’t cost you anything. Below we’ll break down the best ways to earn Avios, so you can start flying for free (nearly)!
1. Credit Cards
Ok don’t go anywhere, hear us out. Hands down the best way to earn Avios points is to get yourself a credit card that earns Avios for every £1 you spend. This is not a credit card that you want to carry a balance with, nor is it going to cost you any money. What do we mean by that? Well, the interest rates on these types of cards are steep. If you pay off the credit card before the end of the month, there will be no interest to pay, so it’s essentially free (some cards have a monthly fee but we’ll get into that).
The idea being here that you stop using Monzo, Lloyds, Santander (or whichever is your primary current account) for your day to day spending. Want a coffee? Put it on this new credit card. Shopping for groceries? Put it on this new credit card. You’re spending exactly what you would spend anyway, but now you’re earning Avios for it. You should always ensure that you have the money to pay the card off at the end of the month. As long as you’ve paid off the card in full, you’ve just earned Avios points for free. Just please, take it from us, don’t get yourself into debt on one of these cards. Now, before we get into which cards are available below, a little disclaimer. We are not a credit broker or a credit lender. We have not received any benefit for suggesting the below, although any links you follow may offer us an affiliate bonus. You should do your own research on what card works best for your circumstances.
Ok, with that out of the way, what cards are available? So two big players at the moment in this space are American Express (Amex) and Barclaycard. They both work in similar ways but with just slightly different benefits. American Express have a huge portfolio of credit cards that offer various benefits (not just Avios), such as hotel points, cashback etc. There are 5 cards in total you want to be on the lookout for. Three Amex, and two Barclaycard.
American Express Gold
This card is a great all rounder, as you earn 1 Amex point for £1 spent. Amex point?! What’s that? Well, Amex have their own points, which can convert into many things such as hotel points, but they also convert 1:1 to Avios. So, 1 Amex point is worth 1 Avios. We say it’s a great all rounder as it offers more than just Avios points, which some of the other cards only do. It’s free in the first year, but then £195/year thereafter (billed £16.25 monthly). You can cancel the card anytime.
American Express British Airways (the blue one)
This card is used solely for Avios points. It’s pretty much the same as above but it doesn’t earn Amex points, it just earns 1 Avios for every £1 spent. No yearly fee, completely free. Note: just because the card is called “British Airways”, it does not limit you to spending Avios just with British Airways. However, this card shines as it offers what is called a companion voucher. A companion voucher allows you to book one ticket with Avios points, and get the exact same for someone travelling with you completely for free! This companion voucher does need to be used with BA only. You have to spend £12,000 a year to earn the companion voucher on this card. Which brings us to the:
American Express British Airways Premium Plus (the black one)
This is the exact same as above, but noting the following differences:
1.5 Avios/£1 spent
3 Avios/£1 spent @ British Airways
Companion Voucher earned at £10,000/year spend
£250/year fee
Barclaycard Avios
The Barclaycard Avios is really similar to the Amex cards above. You get 1 Avios/£1 spent, it’s free (no annual fee) and if you spend £20,000 in a year, you’ll get the choice of a ‘Cabin Upgrade Voucher’ or 7000 bonus Avios. A cabin upgrade voucher allows you to upgrade one class from the class you’ve booked, entirely for free. This means you could book a premium economy flight, and upgrade to business class for free. The cabin upgrade voucher is technically ‘2x’ cabin upgrade vouchers - you can use them on one flight for two people or a return flight for one person. Up to you.
Barlcaycard Avios Plus
The Barclaycard Avios Plus is the same as above, with the follwoing differences:
1.5 avios/£1 spent
Upgrade voucher earned at £10,000, not £20,000
Discounted lounge access at airports
So that’s it for credit cards. Why spend on your normal current account that offers little to no advantages, when you can do it all on a credit card and get these benefits? Not to mention the credit card protection on purchases that is provided by the Consumer Credit Act 1974!
If you don’t want a credit card, what are other ways to earn Avios?
2. British Airways e-Store
The British Airways e-store is a little known gem that allows you to earn Avios just by clicking one more link before you buy something online. It really is at no cost to you and you sign in with your BA Executive account details, which you should have if you don’t already! You simply go to shopping.ba.com, or click here. Sign in, and you’ll be taken to a page looking like this. As long as you click through here before purchasing something online, they’ll credit the Avios directly into your account. Pro tip: when shopping online, use the BA e-Store in combination with a credit card listed above, and you’ll be quid—-Avios in!
3. Avios For Thoughts
Avios for thoughts is an online questionnaire website. In essence, you’re asked questions that will be used for research for companies, which will be worth a set amount of Avios per questionnaire. If going down this route, we’d recommend giving bogus information on the questionnaires - your personal data, spending habits, things you buy, where you live etc. will all be asked, which can be used to build a really good picture of who you are - be warned. Nothing wrong with giving bogus info and claiming the Avios anyway! Find it here.
4. Nectar Points
Nectar and Avios have a parternship currently, which will see 400 nectar points convert to 250 Avios. You can sign up to Nectar for free, and make sure to scan when you shop at Sainsbury’s. You’ll earn 1 nectar point for every £1 spent. You can even set up auto conversions of your Nectar to Avios, so that weekly any Nectar you have will convert and be deposited into your BA exec account. Neat!
5. Flying
This one seems a little ambigious. Flying with a OneWorld partner is actually a great way to earn Avios. These airlines reward you with points when you fly - British Airways actually have a useful little calculator that will tell you how many Avios you’ll earn per flight. For example, from the screenshot below, you can see that if you were to fly to Barcelona (BCN), from LHR, you’d earn (assuming Bronze status) 1237 Avios each way in business class. Book economy using Avios points, and upgrade with the Barclaycard Cabin Upgrade Voucher, you’ve just flown to Barcelona, in Business class, for 50p each way. Earning 1237 Avios, 2474 return. Crazy. Find the flight calculator here.
Summary
Quite nifty seeing all of the different options to earn Avios. There’s a lot to keep track of, but if you’re willing to really commit, you can earn a lot. Think about this:
You complete a weekly grocery shop at Sainsburys for your family, totalling £100. That’s 100 Nectar points. Sainsburys are offering new home delivery customers 600 Avios (80 for existing customers) through the BA e-Store. Purchase the groceries for delivery, through the e-Store, on the Amex BA Premium Plus credit card (earning 1.5 Avios/£1), and do this six weeks in a row. You’d bag 2,275 Avios points. Not bad going for just over a months worth of groceries, considering it didn’t cost you anything extra and it’s all from spending you’re doing currently. Stack this with other offers and you’ll soon be flying for much cheaper than you’d ever imagine.