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Bits: Avios / Boswell insurance deal extended, TLS, double Avios with Heathrow Express

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Three new Avios deals in brief:

Alan Boswell insurance deal extended

Insurance broker Alan Boswell Group has extended their ‘new partner’ offer with Avios for another month until 30th September.

Until then, you will earn:

  • Up to 10,000 Avios when you purchase a household, landlord or business insurance policy
    • 5,000 Avios per policy priced below £500
    • 10,000 Avios per policy priced above £500

You can find out more about the deal in this HFP article.  If your insurance is due this month, you should take a look – all of the contact details are here.

Avios wing 11

Earn Avios with half-price Times Literary Supplement subscription

If you don’t get email marketing newsletters from avios.com, you will have missed out on a couple of deals yesterday.

One of the odder Avios partnerships is the tie-in with the Times Literary Supplement.  You earn 4,500 Avios with a £120 full year subscription to TLS.  However, until 31st October you can subscribe for half-price – just £60 – and still receive the points.

Heathrow Express

Earn double Avios with Heathrow Express

The other interesting new deal is with Heathrow Express.

Last weekend I wrote a big article on how to save money on Heathrow Express tickets – you’ll find it here.

This included lesser-known discounts such as 12% off for MasterCard holders and free First Class upgrades for Star Alliance Gold and British Airways Gold Guest List cardholders.

Another way of getting a return on your spending is by earning Avios on Heathrow Express tickets.

The standard earning rate is 10 Avios per £1 which meant, if you were spending your own money, it was a better deal to take the 12% MasterCard discount.

Until 24th October, the earning rate is doubled.  You receive 20 Avios per £1 when you book via heathrowexpress.com/avios.

This is a better deal than taking the MasterCard discount, assuming you value an Avios at more than 0.6p.

The Heathrow Express website does not yet show the special promotion but it is showing on avios.com here.  For safety, credit your purchase to avios.com and NOT ba.com or iberia.com.  We don’t yet know if BA and Iberia are matching this offer.

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.)

Category

British Airways and Avios

Comments (106)

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

  • the real harry1 says:
    25 Aug25 August 07:14

    hat-tip Canadavid (FT) – offer is back – £19.34 for 2000 = 0.97p/ point – not bad if you need a top-up – similar ie c.1p/ point in bigger quantities

    It is possible to buy Avios at a discounted price on french private sale website http://www.vente-privee.com
    ⇒ 2 000 Avios for 21€ instead of 54€
    ⇒ 4 000 Avios for 45€ instead of 91€
    ⇒ 8 000 Avios for 99€ instead of 164€
    ⇒ 12 000 Avios for 145€ instead of 238€
    ⇒ 20 000 Avios for 229€ instead of 385€
    ⇒ 35 000 Avios for 399€ instead of 665€

    • the real harry1 says:
      25 Aug25 August 07:20

      it’s maximum 100,000 per a/c pa

      the ‘2000s’ will run out quickly, judging by last time

  • Genghis says:
    25 Aug25 August 07:27

    OT just done a few Amazon Paypoint top ups at Co op using Amex for the free £5 / £20 top up. They’d never seen it before but all went through OK. Immediate confirmation emails. Thanks to MSE and TRH1 for raising it on HfP

    • mark2 says:
      25 Aug25 August 07:44

      Used the code yesterday with no problems.
      Did a dummy purchase and it was applied automatically.
      A real purchase of a toner cartridge was supplied by a third party so £5 off not available.
      These offers show how much stuff on Amazon is sold by others.

      • Rob says:
        25 Aug25 August 09:29

        Anika had substantially less success when she went down to her local Shell! Will need to find one nearer the office next week.

        • Optimus Prime says:
          25 Aug25 August 11:07

          My local Co Op hasn’t been able to scan it.

          • Genghis says:
            25 Aug25 August 12:22

            I printed out the barcode if that makes any difference? I thought it’d scan better than on a phone…

          • Optimus Prime says:
            25 Aug25 August 12:59

            @Genghis – Probably. I’ll print it out and come back next week.

          • Johnny_c-l says:
            25 Aug25 August 15:15

            Worked OK at my co-op this morning, had the screen brightness at max which sometimes helps scanning.

  • Tracy says:
    25 Aug25 August 07:43

    Alan Boswell insurance only gives you Avios on new policies, not renewals. Something that has left a bitter taste with me that each time I see this promotion I’m less likely to renew next year. (If AB is reading this please don’t post that I should get in touch because you have some leeway – I did get in touch and you didn’t feel able to offer leeway).

  • the real harry1 says:
    25 Aug25 August 08:01

    O/T I learned yesterday (I had assumed it already, thanks to the silence) – that Anon was compensated to his satisfaction for the 241 downgrade on his trip to the Maldives along with various other problems that needed addressing such as lost luggage. Anon has not broken the terms of his gagging order & I have had no contact with him.

    It does demonstrate (again) that BA can be very reluctant to agree service recovery/ compo – and that you may need to grit teeth (if you hate the hassle, though that can also be part of the fun! 🙂 ) and threaten BA with legal action. ISTR that whilst he used CEDR, he would not necessarily recommend it to others based on the inherent delays – and next time would go straight to MCOL. Or even the threat of MCOL plus asking BA to confirm you are in a deadlock situation would in many cases be enough to get BA to offer you fair compensation.

    That’s what I did (threat of MCOL) on my BOB claim & BA agreed my reasonable offer very quickly.

  • Graham Walsh says:
    25 Aug25 August 08:04

    OT Checked in last night for my BA ½ points ½ cash flight to Tel Aviv with my 2 boys all fine. Was thinking about the offer of £113 per person for an upgrade but decided against it. Went to bag drop this morning and she printed new boarding cards. All 3 of us had been bumped to WTP. Oddly the last time I went to Tel Aviv 9 years ago for work on my own, I was also bumped on the way out. WTP has improved massively in 9 years. Maybe they are trying to tempt me away from VA 🙂

  • Paul says:
    25 Aug25 August 08:16

    O/T: I’ve got a few HSBC prem points, they had an offer on last year when converting to avios, has there been one recently / do we expect another bonus soon?
    Should i play the waiting game?! 🙂

    • Polly says:
      26 Aug26 August 00:31

      I have a LOT of HSBC points so yes, holding out for a 50% bonus again this year. Here’s hoping…

    • Andrew M says:
      28 Aug28 August 00:25

      I’m holding out as well and hoping for a nice 50% bonus on transfers to Avios. The deal went live at the begining of October last year so hopefully we will get something around that time this year.

  • Bach says:
    25 Aug25 August 08:19

    OT – anyone know how much time before the train departure time can you go into the Eurostar lounge (with Amex Plat, although I assume restriction doesn’t depend on how you get in)?

    • Genghis says:
      25 Aug25 August 08:37

      I don’t think there is a restriction with the lounge per se but only upcoming trains can check in and go through security (about 90 mins before departure)

    • Rimas says:
      25 Aug25 August 09:46

      It really depends from the staff at St Pancras. I was there 3 hours before departure after a little chat, but only 1hr before departure at Brussels – different staff interpreted differently at Brussels 🙂 All happened 2 weeks ago..

    • Matt K says:
      25 Aug25 August 10:12

      The rules for Carte Blanche are:
      If you arrive a little early in London, Paris, Brussels or Ebbsfleet, head to our exclusive Business Premier lounge to enjoy complimentary wi-fi, drinks and snacks for up to 90 minutes before departure.

      I have arrived 120-90mins early before and wanted to use Amex Plat for lounge access and not been allowed to check in until 60mins before. This was at St Pancras.

  • Jay says:
    25 Aug25 August 10:08

    O/T just received email from Amex on BAPP card for 500 avios for spending £20 by 24th Sept at Ocado, Post Office, Shell or WHSmith. Doesn’t have to be all at once either.

    • Andy S says:
      25 Aug25 August 10:21

      I received that email too, but the offer is not in my list of offers so I can’t load it to my card. Swizz !!

    • Dave H says:
      25 Aug25 August 10:21

      Just got the same, however when logging into my account to save to card as instructed it does not appear in my offers.

    • Janeyferr says:
      25 Aug25 August 10:32

      Same as Andy and Dave. And an offer that would be useful for me for once.

      Chat help is busy.

    • Martin says:
      25 Aug25 August 10:47

      Just chatted with Amex. Response is to wait as email has been sent out and offer shall be available with in 24 hours online by our marketing team.

      • Dave H says:
        25 Aug25 August 10:51

        cheers for that

      • JohnNI says:
        25 Aug25 August 13:00

        I spoke to Amex and was told offer had been available for a few days and all the 20000 available save to card had been used.

        • the real harry1 says:
          25 Aug25 August 16:40

          you got a dope

          • Andy S says:
            25 Aug25 August 23:36

            So it seems. The offer has just appeared for me now!
            Shame I’ve already filled up on petrol, still I’ll probably need more by the deadline!

          • the real harry1 says:
            26 Aug26 August 00:52

            I got it on BA blue

            but they seem to have removed one of the Amazon codes that Chat added the other day

    • Pierre says:
      25 Aug25 August 11:07

      Does anyone have the offerid url for this one?

    • Andrew* says:
      25 Aug25 August 12:07

      +1 for email and not seeing offer, spoke with agent on chat who said he’d added it to my card …

      I can’t see it yet though…

    • Alan says:
      26 Aug26 August 11:08

      No email but offer for 500MR is sitting on my Plat account

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

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