Get 18,000 cheap Avios with The Economist – and stack it with £45 Amex cashback

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IMPORTANT UPDATE (10th June): Despite the Amex call centre telling some readers otherwise, Amex has confirmed to us that this offer DOES qualify for the £45 American Express cashback.

If you are running low on reading material whilst sat at home, British Airways and The Economist have brought back their special offer for taking out a subscription.

As you can see at this link, you can earn up to 18,000 Avios with a new one-year subscription.

What is special this time is that you can tie this in with the current £45 American Express cashback deal with an Economist subscription.

Ignoring the Amex cashback for a moment, here are the two subscription options on offer if you are a UK resident:

Digital only: £179 with 15,000 Avios (1.19p per Avios)

Print and digital: £215 with 18,000 Avios (1.19p per Avios)

‘Print only’ subscriptions are no longer available.

Subscribing to The Economist could make sense just for the Avios bonus even if you have little intention of reading it in detail, although there are occasional opportunities to buy Avios points for nearer 1p each.

Don’t forget your £45 cashback with American Express

As we wrote two weeks ago, you should also check your American Express cards for an Economist offer:

You’ll get £45 cashback when you spend £179 or more, which is conveniently the same price as a digital subscription. When factoring in the cashback, the value increases further:

Digital only: £134 with 15,000 Avios (0.89p per Avios)

Print and digital: £170 with 18,000 Avios (0.94p per Avios)

0.89p per Avios is very attractive in its own right. Getting a full year of The Economist on top is an added bonus.

Looked at another way, on the ‘Digital only’ offer, you could convert the 15,000 Avios into £120 of Nectar points, so your net cost for The Economist would be only £14 for the year!

As always, if you are self-employed you may be happy writing off the subscription cost as a business expense. This would sharply reduce your price per Avios even further.

This offer runs until 4th July although the American Express cashback deal ends on 30th June. You can subscribe here.

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: