25% bonus Avios on First / Business returns to New York or Los Angeles

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British Airways has launched an interesting – and slightly risky! – promotion in association with its transatlantic partner American Airlines.

Between now and October 31st, you will receive 25% bonus Avios for any First Class or Club World / Business return flight between London and New York or Los Angeles.

Here is the catch though:

You must fly one direction on British Airways and the other direction on American Airlines.

Full details can be found here.

The offer runs until October 30th.

The reason I said that this was a ‘risky’ promotion for British Airways is that the new American Airlines business class seat is generally agreed to be substantially superior to Club World.

You can see a picture of the new AA seat above (I thought it was the 777-200 but the comments below assure me it is the 777-300 variant). I haven’t flown it myself yet but the feedback is excellent.

You receive full British Airways tier points and status bonuses whether you fly on BA or AA so mixing carriers is not an issue from that point of view.

Registration IS required via this website.

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:

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.)

Category

American Airlines and AAdvantage, British Airways and Avios

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

Sean says:

24 Jul24 July 07:32

You will be getting the new 772 layout on these flights. Subs do appear though.
- Sean says:
  
  24 Jul24 July 07:35
  
  The picture is from the 77W
  - Dave says:
    
    24 Jul24 July 07:50
    
    No, sorry. The picture is from the 772.
    
    On the 77W all seats face forward in 1-2-1, not the front/rear-facing-alternating seats on the 772 in the photo.
    - James says:
      
      24 Jul24 July 09:13
      
      The pic is definitely the refurbished 772 (known as 77D in the AA system) as the seats are forward/backward. The 77W all face forward and are roomier.
    - Sean says:
      
      24 Jul24 July 10:23
      
      Sorry. Lack of attention to detail! Yes – there will be 1 x 77W and 2 x 77D on the JFK rotations.
Jovan says:

24 Jul24 July 07:47

My understanding is that B772 that replaced B77W on thr JFK-LHR is the 77D version (no first class and new business).
Jan says:

24 Jul24 July 08:01

Great that you make some promotion for American Airlines. It’s new business class product is indeed superior to the one of British Airways (and so is its loyalty program). However, I think you have some wrong information. AA’s new business class is available on some Boeings 777-200ER and all of its Boeings 777-300ER (two slightly different versions though). And on the London-LAX and London-JFK routes, all AA flights are currently operated by the Boeing 777-300ER (which features the new business class), so there is nothing risky about it. You can read my trip report on the AA B77W on my blog: http://wp.me/p4d1XU-di2. It’s a fantastic product!
- Rob says:
  
  24 Jul24 July 08:07
  
  Thanks Jan. AA is not my strong point!
  - Jan says:
    
    24 Jul24 July 09:32
    
    You’re welcome! Be sure to fly AA soon (you will be impressed). By the way, the photo is one of the Boeing 777-200ER (all seats on the Boeing 777-300ER face forward). Kind regards
    - Rob says:
      
      24 Jul24 July 09:54
      
      Doh! I thought it was but changed the text after the comments here.
      - Sean says:
        
        24 Jul24 July 10:25
        
        Sorry for that! I didn’t look closely enough.
- SpeedbirdABZ says:
  
  24 Jul24 July 15:19
  
  I think Raffles article means it’s risky for BA since the AA product is far superior. I’m one of those who used it for the first time a few weeks ago and won’t be going back to Club World.
  Has anyone been on both the 77W and 772? My flight to JFK has just been changed and I don’t know how to choose a good seat. I’ve been on the 77W as I said and know the good seats on that one but they’ve thrown backward facing seats into the 772 now which has flummoxed me! I did like backwards on the BA 747 when I tried it.
Manu says:

24 Jul24 July 08:07

Another one I am not eligible for
Robert says:

24 Jul24 July 11:04

AA J is excellent! just wish I could use GUFs with them…
Michalis says:

24 Jul24 July 11:29

Do codeshares count? I am flying one way on a BA operated but with AA codeshare to LAX in August and return on a BA operated flight with a BA flight number.

I couldn’t see something like that excluded in the T&Cs
- haasha says:
  
  24 Jul24 July 19:51
  
  It’s not very clear but I believe codeshares are included. Your problem though might be clause #14, if you bought tickets before this week:
  
  14. Promotion cannot be used retrospectively. This promotion only applies to those who make a booking on or after 20 July 2015, for travel within the Promotional Period, and subsequently complete the outbound sector of their booking and the return sector of their booking between by 31 October 2015 inclusive.