Earning Avios points when booking a package holiday via avios.com

A lot of people are not aware of the excellent deals being offered by avios.com when you use them to book a package holiday.  I thought a reminder was in order.

The first thing to note is that these are avios.com promotions, so you will need an avios.com account to collect Avios points. These can be transferred to British Airways Executive Club later if necessary.

The avios.com homepage for package holiday deals is here.

The first thing to notice is that they do not just work with ‘bucket and spade’ operators. The list includes some decent names (this is just a sample of the list):

• Elegant Resorts
• First Choice
• Inghams
• ITC Classics
• Eurocamp
• Kuoni
• Mark Warner
• Neilson
• Thomas Cook
• Thomson
• Travelsphere

The recommend way to book is to search for whatever you are after directly on the website of the tour operator and then simply call Avios to make the booking.  Don’t use the expensive 0844 number on the website, use 01925 848619 instead.

Secondly, the earnings rate is excellent at up to 10 Avios points per £1 spent.

Thirdly, as I mentioned above they accept Amex and there is no surcharge for using any credit card.

Finally, the holidays team appears to have leeway to reduce prices if you can find a comparable deal – and you will still earn your Avios on the bookings

The only downside is that you don’t receive your Avios points until 28 days after your holiday, so you may be waiting a while for them. This is only a small inconvience, though, and this certainly seems to be an interesting option if you are booking package holidays.

In the past, holiday spend charged to a British Airways Premium Plus American Express card has triggered the ‘double Avios for British Airways spend’.  This no longer seems to be the case.

It is worth noting that you can also REDEEM Avios points for a discount on a package holiday.  I do not recommend this.  The discount is just 0.5p per Avios point you redeem which is poor but, to be honest, I could live with it. 

More important is the fact that you will not receive any Avios points for the portion of the booking which you pay in cash. This makes the net outcome substantially worse.

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (December 2021)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

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

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up, no annual fee and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending ….. Read our full review

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the UK’s most valuable credit card perk – the 2-4-1 companion voucher Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points, such as:

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & two airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

30,000 points and an unbeatable set of travel benefits – for a 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, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios:

Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa

The most generous Avios Visa or Mastercard for a limited company Read our full review

You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus:

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios 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.

(Want to earn more Avios?  Click here to visit our home page for our latest articles on earning and spending your Avios points and click here to see how to earn more Avios this month from offers and promotions.)