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.

  • Daniel says:

    Does anyone know if you cancel the booking will the avios be refunded ?

    • Rob says:

      Presume so, it seems that Avios treat it the same whether you pay cash, miles or a mix.

  • pazza2000 says:

    Had no success with BA.com whatsoever, although having some success with Avios.com! Finding good prices although not as low as has been quoted (IC Prague / 4S Buda). Perhaps if anyone finds something really ‘special’ they could share it 🙂

    Thanks

  • Matt says:

    http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Hotel_Review-g187323-d190664-Reviews-Regent_Berlin-Berlin.html

    ust booked 3 nights in July, deluxe room with breakfast for our anniversary! £244 cash only on avios.com

    Appears to be £800+ everywhere else!

    • Rob says:

      The Regent used to be the Four Seasons until Four Seasons decided they couldn’t make any money in Berlin. It is furnished to Four Seasons standards.

  • Mogensen says:

    All my ba.com hotel bookings are being cancelled anybody else experiencing this?

    • squills says:

      Would tend to indicate unacceptably low-priced glitch price(s) – did you get great/ unbelievable prices by any chance?

    • Daniel says:

      The booking I made yesterday has disappeared from my BA account – not sure what is going on yet as not had any communication from them.

      • squills says:

        Daniel what price/ deal did you achieve? I’m trying to work out if there was an obvious glitch…ie that anything unbelievable (such as some of yesterday’s deals) was indeed wrong & will no doubt get cancelled. Or possibly not if borderline.

        • Rob says:

          There was no glitch. The prices were genuinely half-price. Whether BA planned on just making the ‘book with 100% Avios’ deal half price or not is debatable. However, they are actually better off taking your cash so I doubt they’ll complain.

          • Mogensen says:

            Talked to BA this morning. Was given all kind of excuses, credit card declined, wrong availability shown etc. Now a good friend in UK has helped book via avios.com and these vouchers look much better than the confirmations ba.com sent me yesterday night. Funny enough the rates were a bit different between avios.com and ba.com

            Has anybody succeeded in having a ba.com half price hotel booking confirmed today?

          • Daniel says:

            I phoned BA to chase up the issue I had as they assured me the booking I made was there just some glitches they said in the voucher and other links not working.
            So guess if there is a problem its worth chasing things up on the phone with them!
            So it all looks good !

  • Andy says:

    IC Prague still coming out at 950 avios + £105 for 3 nights on certain dates in Feb and March. Just booked

    • Anonymous says:

      Does your hotel voucher show your address along with your name? I don’t live in UK but wanted to book this deal. So, I’ve create an Avios account using my friend’s address in London. But, if the UK address shows up in the hotel voucher, I might have a problem getting a visa. Thanks for your help.

      • Ben says:

        Looking through the docs that Avios sent me after making my booking, the only thing that has my address on is their covering letter. The actual booking confirmation does not. Just the name of the lead passenger, the details of the hotel and the check in date.

        • Anonymous says:

          Awesome! Thanks!

          • Simon says:

            Can’t get this to price out – seeing 3,200 + £165 for two nights.
            Any example dates so I can check?
            Or is there a way of dumping the car hire?

          • Ben says:

            Hi Simon,
            try booking it through Avios.com.
            Just tried March 10 to March 13, 1 person.
            Comes out at 900 Avios + £100.

      • Jary says:

        I based in Germany, the deal works using my Germany address BAEC. I booked PRG IC 2 nights in Jan. The price is 1800+115 EUR, a little different with UK based.

  • MightyTravels says:

    I can’t find anything that resembles a deal for Istanbul in November. Guess I need to wait for another sale…

  • Waribai says:

    Would IC Prague honour ambassador benefits on an avios booking? Not sure whether to take the risk!

    • e14 says:

      Unlikely, the stay won’t be a qualifying stay from a points perspective and it would be up to the hotel if they allow any benefits to apply

    • Rob says:

      No, its a third party booking.

  • Scott says:

    I booked the same Keith! Looked at the offers and thought that it was well liked on TripAdvisor too! I did mine through BA holidays though, as it worked out cheaper (including flights). I got 4 nights in March for £250 including flights, breakfast and free room upgrade! Could of got it for £150 plus 15,000 Avios, but the flight times weren’t as good, so didn’t bother and just went cash.

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