Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
From investing in stocks to pizzas and property, frequent flyers are finding new ways to boost the number of Avios points they collect in the year ahead.
Avios, the loyalty currency of the British Airways Club and its partners, is most commonly earned and used when booking flights with BA and its partner airlines. Last month, BA faced criticism when it increased the cost of redeeming Avios points for reward flights, but the changes give travellers all the more reason to maximise point collection where they can — and there are an increasing number of ways to do so.
Thousands of points can be gleaned by signing up for a new credit card deal — but with sky-high rates of interest, you will need to be sure you can pay off the balance in full every month for it to be worthwhile.
Those who act fast could get 35,000 Avios if they apply for the Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard before January 15 and spend £6,000 within six months, with a further 7,000 Avios if they spend £10,000 within a year. This card has a £20 per month fee, reduced to £15 for Barclays Premier Banking customers, but it is possible to cancel once the bonus is banked.
Until January 13, the Amex Gold card (free for a year) offers a sign-on bonus worth 40,000 Avios, with Amex Platinum offering 75,000 Avios and other perks for a chunky £650 annual fee.
Rob Burgess, founder of Head for Points, a free weekly newsletter containing all the latest travel points rewards deals, has many other tips to maximise points collection.
Holders of the fee-free BA Amex card can net 9,000 Avios points by adding a free supplementary card for their partner before January 15, with no spend target.
New customers of JPMorgan Personal Investing (the new name for Nutmeg) can receive 10,000 Avios by making a £500 investment on the platform before January 30.
Avios Balance Boost is a little-known scheme where account holders can buy up to three times the Avios they earned in the past month for less than one penny per point — a much lower rate than you can find elsewhere, Burgess says.
Point collecting enthusiasts know that shopping deals only represent good value if you were going to spend money with these outlets anyway. Nevertheless, the Avios Shop rewards online spending with 300 brands from John Lewis to Harrods and Booking.com. Account holders can register their cards within the Avios app, and then earn points on spending in PizzaExpress, Paul, Grind, Comptoir Libanais, Market Halls and Bicester Village.
Users who link their Uber account to a BA Club account can earn Avios on rides, train and boat tickets. Nectar points can be collected in Sainsbury’s, Argos, and Esso petrol stations, with 400 points buying 250 Avios, which Burgess deems an “exceptionally good rate” compared with spending them in-store.
Nectar card holders can also link their account to a Marriott Bonvoy account to earn up to 1,500 bonus Nectar points on hotel stays, and can earn 1,000 points if they make a booking via Nectar Hotels by January 18.
And, in a new partnership, anyone instructing estate agents Foxtons to sell, let or manage their property can earn up to 30,000 Avios points.
Read the full article here