Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

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

Links on Head for Points may pay us an affiliate commission. A list of partners is here.

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.

  • wetboy1uk says:

    Well I am not having any luck. Can only find ba deals which include car hire which I don’t want. Seems too much effort for little reward.

    • Rob says:

      Try the avios.com link. Or, indeed, over the weekend or Monday when glitches may have been fixed.

  • Scott says:

    Maybe I’m missing something, but is the 50% off cash price also on BA? I ask this because I was just looking at some hotels in Vienna. Looking through the prices, I see the two options below being the best:

    Book through Avios and get RFS flights:
    £147.50 + 15,000 Avios per person

    Book through BA Holidays (flight+hotel)
    £250.75 and no Avios per person

    Now I’m getting 0.68p for my Avios here which isn’t great. So the Avios deal seems not so good?

  • Don says:

    I don’t see how to make cash only bookings using the BA link that Raffles posted. All I see is Avios only or Avios plus cash?

    • Rob says:

      Some hotels had a bottom end option which was all cash. The others have a very modest (1,000 Avios or so) Avios requirement plus cash as their cheapest option.

  • MK says:

    When using aforementioned link, I get such a message:

    We’re sorry, but you cannot use your Avios to book hotels online at the moment.

    For more information please contact your local Executive Club service centre.

  • Geoggy says:

    I take it I am too late to the party for the Conrad Algarve deal?

    Been looking for first week in july but it isn’t coming up

  • Ben says:

    I got the following error:
    Is it because I am Blue member (but 15k+ Avios in my account)?

    You cannot book hotels using Avios
    We’re sorry, but you cannot use your Avios to book hotels online at the moment.
    For more information please contact your local Executive Club service centre.

  • Ken says:

    Could there be a promotion that is harder to book?

  • squills says:

    All still indicates there are glitch prices around and they’re still unable to get it fixed 😉

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