Earning Avios points with mytrainticket.co.uk

A few days ago I wrote about how to earn Avios when booking a package holiday via avios.com.

I thought I would take a look at some other avios.com partners. If you are a British Airways Executive Club member, you will need to have an avios.com account to collect from these partners, and then use ‘Combine My Avios’ to move them across.

mytrainticket.com has been an Avios partner since the scheme relaunched in November 2011. 

Basically, you earn 2 Avios points for every £1 you spend on train tickets via their site which is accessed via the Avios e-store.

(This seems to have been changed from the original 20 Avios points per £10, which offered a poorer deal as they only paid in multiples of £10.)

Now, train tickets are fundamentally commodity products, but the various booking sites have got very crafty recently when adding extra fees.

mytrainticket adds £1.70 to receive your tickets by post (free for station collection) plus a £1 booking fee and 2.9% for using a credit card.

This is in line with thetrainline.com (with a 2% credit card fee and a £1.50 booking fee, albeit no postage fee). However, newcomer redspottedhanky.com has no booking or card fees at all (and last week – although now all gone – was giving out 3 x £5 vouchers to all Clubcard holders as I wrote here).

It is also important to remember that some train companies offer exclusive discounts on their cheapest tickets for booking via their own website – East Coast, for example, deducts an extra 10% from its cheapest seats.

mytrainticket.com also offers 2% cashback if you go via Quidco instead of via the e-store. This means that you are effectively paying 1p per Avios point, which may be more or less than you value them.

Last year I wrote a two long posts how to maximise your rewards when booking train travel – see here and here. East Coast Rewards was my preferred option, with the possibility of getting up to 10p of value back per £1 spent in rewards, albeit in East Coast train tickets.

All-in-all, I do not consider the Avios / mytrainticket deal to be a great deal – although, of course, it is better than nothing.

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.)