Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Avios hotels sale now live – get 50% off on cash as well as Avios bookings!

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The Avios ‘50% off hotels’ sale is now available for booking.  However, I recommend you use this ba.com booking link as that one seems to be working properly (ie displaying all the hotels, not just a few).

What I did not expect is that the ‘pay with cash’ price has also been halved

Avios wing 11

This means two things:

You are only getting 0.57p per Avios if you choose to use your miles to pay, since they have halved both the ‘pay with Avios’ and ‘pay with cash’ prices.  I wasn’t expecting that.

With cash prices halved, there are some exceptional deals to be had.

The super-luxe Conrad Algarve, for example, is available through the peak Summer season at half-price.  Even the half-board packages are half-price!  August 3-9th, for example, is £1,290 (or of course you can use Avios) for a Deluxe Double half-board. On hilton.com, you would be paying €3,546 Euro for (advanced purchase) dinner, bed and breakfast.

In Prague, 14-16 March, the InterContinental is available for 950 Avios and £105, the total for 2 nights, WITH breakfast.  The cheapest rate at intercontinental.com is €192 WITHOUT breakfast.

In Budapest, one of the best hotels in Europe – the Four Seasons Gresham Palace – is available for Valentine’s weekend (14-16 February) for £230 + 4,400 Avios for two nights, with breakfast.  fourseasons.com wants €590 for the same thing.

You need to book by noon on Monday for travel by 30th September.

The small print says “Amendments and cancellation are permitted subject to the Avios cancellation and amendment terms where a fee as stated on avios.com will apply.”  Not sure what these are though!

The participating cities in this round are, as a reminder:

Vienna
Dubrovnik
Prague
Copenhagen
Berlin
Budapest
Istanbul
The Algarve


How to earn Avios points from UK credit cards

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 BA Amex American Express card

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 BA Premium Plus American Express Amex credit card

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:

Nectar American Express

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

American Express Platinum card Amex

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 card

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.)

Comments (116)

This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.

  • H K says:

    Anyone else getting car AND HOTEL prices through the link? Cant manage to get just hotels to show up!

    • emad says:

      Me too!! Don’t want a car?!

    • Rob says:

      Feel free not to collect the car if the price is the same.

      If the ba.com link is messing up, use avios.com but clear cookies or use a fresh browser, and go via ‘Spend Avios’ – ‘Hotels’ rather than the sale link. All properties will then appear.

  • Susan says:

    3 nts sea view Radisson Blu Dubrovnik £246 🙂

  • MIKI says:

    does cash PLUS avios bookings earn any points?

  • shd says:

    presumably stays booked through avios.com do not count as qualifying stays for hotel status purposes or for bonus offers e.g. IHG big win (?)

  • Amy says:

    I think the Conrad Algarve has just disappeared… Anyone else had the same thing happen?

    • Rob says:

      Still there via the BA link although I can’t get the dates box to show …

  • matt says:

    Possible BRG with an IHG branded hotel?

    • Rob says:

      No. BAEC and avios.com are classed as ‘membership sites’ and so you cannot claim a BRG.

      • Rich says:

        What’s BRG?

        • Rob says:

          Best Rate Guarantee – if you find a Holiday Inn, HI Express, Crowne Plaza or InterContinental on another website cheaper than the official site, the first night of your stay is free. If it is only a one night stay, your entire stay will therefore have been free.

  • squills says:

    The cash bit is a massive glitch, fill yer boots IMHO 😉

    I could be wrong of course – but I can normally sniff a glitch like this a mile off lol

  • emad says:

    “In Prague, 14-16 March, the InterContinental is available for 950 Avios and £105, the total for 2 nights, WITH breakfast. ”
    Raffles – I tried to find it at this rate but proved impossible?! 950 Avios or maybe you meant 9500?!

    • squills says:

      Of course 😉

    • Rob says:

      No, I meant 950.

      I just rechecked (3pm) via ba.com/ecoffers for those dates and it is still showing, albeit now 1,900 Avios + £100 for 2 nights.

    • Lady London says:

      I have an errand to do in Prague so I bagged Interconti Prague for a night 28th March £45 plus 1500 Avios. Could have had 2nights 28th & 29th for 900 Avios plus £90 but I wil do my errand and hit my two high spots to visit again there so I am happy.

      I did notice that the rate was much higher for the Saturday night if booked as one night only – 2 nights including Saturday were cheaper. Went through the Avios link as ba.com was not working with me. BA’s definitely not showing much about ths promotion, are they? 🙂

      Would have loved the Four Seasons Gresham in Budapest but that’s a bit of a stretch for me at the moment I’m afraid. Although I’m certain it’s worth the £179 I was seeing on many dates! Sigh….

This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.