Three outstanding Avios earning airfares … all with a catch

If you chasing cheap British Airways tier points, or are simply looking for a good deal for your next holiday flight, there are three interesting deals with oneworld partner airlines which crossed my desk this week. As they are on oneworld airlines, you will earn Avios and tier points when you fly them.

That’s the good news. The bad news is that they all come with some degree of inconvenience …. but you may consider it a price worth paying.

Business class tickets to Asia for under £900

Cathay Pacific is currently running an excellent fare sale to just about anywhere in Asia.  From Moscow.

Don’t stop reading yet.  For a start, you don’t need a Russian visa if you are only transiting Moscow without passing into the country.  Do NOT book this without getting proper advice on whether you can connect OK.

Whilst you need to get to Moscow to start and end these tickets, it is a Reward Flight Saver route.  Club World (on a 747) is only 40,000 Avios + £50 return, although be careful which flight you book as there are also short-haul planes on this route. You can travel at any point from 1st April to 31st August.

As a typical fare, Moscow to Bali via Hong Kong comes up at £881 return.  That would be 560 tier points which is over 90% of a British Airways Silver card. Fares are non-refundable.  You can book via the UK Cathay Pacific site.  The flight from Moscow to Hong Kong is the old style Cathay seat (picture below) but your onward connection may be more modern.

Business class to Dubai for €895 (£660)

Finnair is currently offering this very aggressive fare from Helsinki to Dubai.  Availability is good over Easter as well. Sounds great?  Well, here are the snags:

• The route only operates 29 March – 27 April and 9 – 23 October
• It is a short-haul A320 plane.  Whilst the business class seats are big and comfy, they are a million miles from an Emirates flat bed.
• The outbound flight is 8.25am so you would need to spend a night in Helsinki
• I couldn’t price the fare from London – although it would make more sense to do an Avios redemption anyway for the connection.  Finnair also flies from Manchester to Helsinki to connect.

Business class from Colombo to Auckland for $1,300 (£845)

I won’t go into this in detail, but View from the Wing had a piece on this fare yesterday.  You would be flying on Qantas for the bulk of the trip. It would be easy to get to Colombo on a SriLankan redemption from London with Avios or via a cash or Avios ticket from The Maldives (accessible via British Airways).

This ticket seems difficult to book in practice.  However, it is worth noting that there are many, many excellent fares out of Colombo which is probably the cheapest place in the world to buy premium airline tickets.  Qatar had a £900 business class return fare to London recently, for example.

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.)