Bits: free Heathrow Express upgrade for Star Golds, 2400 Avios with £100 Tesco Wine purchase

News in brief:

Free Heathrow Express upgrade for Star Alliance Gold members

Heathrow Express has brought back the offer it ran last year.  If you are have Star Alliance Gold status via any of the 21 Star Alliance frequent flyer schemes, you can upgrade to First Class for free on Heathrow Express.

There is a snag.  You need to have to buy a full fare Heathrow Express standard class ticket.  Cheaper Advance Tickets are excluded.  It is not clear if a full fare ticket bought via the 12% Mastercard discount would be OK.

You simply buy a standard class ticket as normal, sit in First Class and show your Star Gold card to the conductor when he passes through.  Full details can be found here.

The offer starts on Monday – so don’t try it this weekend – and runs indefinitely.

25% off Iberia flights from the UK to Spain

Iberia is running a special offer this weekend on Iberia and Iberia Regional flights from the UK to Spain.  It is a bid fiddly and less generous than it appears.

The rules are: two people must travel together, you must book a return trip, BA codeshares are excluded, you must fly back from the same city you land at and – critically – the 25% discount only applies to the base fare before taxes and charges.  This means that the real saving will be less than 25%.

The saving will show automatically on iberia. com when booking.  You must book by Sunday for travel between 5th April and 15th June, excluding the May Bank Holiday weekend.

2,400 Avios or 2,500 Virgin miles with £100 Tesco Wine purchase

Finally, Tesco Wine is running another promotion – but this is the most generous of the year so far.

If you spend £100 at Tesco Wine before Sunday evening, and use code XXPKMR at check-out, you will receive 1,000 bonus Clubcard points.

This will convert into 2,400 Avios or 2,500 Virgin Flying Club miles – potentially more if you convert during a transfer bonus.

The Wine Cellar Sale is still running as well, so you can make a saving on their clearance lines and get the miles as well.

The Tesco Wine home page is here.  The Wine Cellar deals are here.

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.)