Generous Avios deals with package holidays ending 31 December

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

Avios.com (not British Airways Executive Club) is, technically, a travel agency. You may not be aware that you can use them to book a package holiday and earn yourself bonus Avios points in the process.

Until late 2015 this was a very generous deal. You earned 10 Avios per £1 spent on your booking which, for an expensive family package holiday, often meant a lot of Avios points. About a year ago the earning rate was cut to 5 Avios points per £1 although occasional ‘double up’ offers meant it remained generous.

Avios wing 6

This is all now to end. From January 1st, it will no longer be possible to collect Avios points from package holiday bookings.

You can see the announcement on the avios.com homepage for package holiday deals here.

This means, of course, that you CAN still earn Avios on your package holiday bookings for the next six weeks. They do not just work with ‘bucket and spade’ operators. The list includes some decent names (this is just a sample of the list):

Club Med
Cox & Kings
Elegant Resorts
First Choice
Inghams
ITC Luxury Travel
Kuoni
Mark Warner
Neilson
Thomas Cook
Thomson
Travelsphere
Villas4You

The list of Avios cruise partners is here and includes:

Celebrity Cruises
Cunard
Fred Olsen
P&O
Princess
Royal Caribbean
Silversea
Viking Cruises

The recommend way to book is to search for whatever you are after directly on the website of the tour operator and then simply call Avios to make the booking. They accept Amex and there is no surcharge for using any credit card.

Historically, the holidays team appears to have leeway to reduce prices if you can find a comparable deal – and you will still earn your Avios on the bookings

It is worth noting that you can also REDEEM Avios points for a discount on a package holiday until 31st December – see here for details. I do not recommend this. The discount is just 0.5p per Avios point you redeem which is poor but, to be honest, I could just about live with it if Avios rich.

More important is that you will not receive any Avios points for the portion of the booking which you pay in cash. This makes the net outcome substantially worse.

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: