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Earn AVIOS points before, during and after your flight
Duh, who would have thought you could earn more AVIOS points from flying? Surely that goes without saying, but did you also know you can earn AVIOS at the airport, in the car park or on the train to the airport, in-flight and even on your car hire at your end destination? There are so many ways to earn, it is easy to forget and miss out, so this week, we provide a reminder of the various options before moving into the nitty gritty of some essential flight information next time (If you can’t wait for then, check out Jackie’s post over on the Globetrotting Teacher.
Flights
Obviously you can earn points on your flights and how many you earn depends on the airline. For some it is based on distance, whilst for other airlines it is based on spend. Unfortunately many airlines are now getting savvy and moving to the latter thus rewarding those who spend the most, whilst those opting for the cheapest fares lose out. Below you can find details of the stance adopted by some of the major airlines.
| Airline | Award Basis |
| British Airways | Distance and type of ticket |
| Delta | Ticket price |
| Emirates | Route, fare type, class and tier |
| Singapore Airlines | Distance |
| American Airlines | Distance and fare type |
| Virgin Atlantic | Distance and fare type |
You will earn additional points if you progress through the various tiers of membership of a program. For instance, British Airways entry level is Blue, but there are three other tiers (Bronze, Silver, and Gold) with Gold earning you a 100% bonus in BA miles.
Airline alliances reminder
Remember also, that you do not need to sign up to all the different frequent flyer programs to benefit from their points and can instead rely on being a member of one program within an airline alliance. For more information, you can download this free airline alliance infographic or you can check out the Avios super challenge.
In-flight
The High-Life shop onboard British Airways allows you to earn 2 AVIOS for every £1 spent. Remember to present your Executive Club card at the time of purchase.
Other ways to earn AVIOS at the airport
Heathrow Express
Book using your Heathrow Rewards card on the Heathrow Rewards site to earn 1 point per £1.
Alternatively book through the AVIOS store to earn 100 Avios per Express class single ticket, 200 Avios for Business First, and double that for return journeys.
Heathrow Rewards
Earn 1 Heathrow Reward point for every £1 spent in Heathrow airport’s terminals. You can register here to earn 100 points and if you spend £150 or more you will earn 2,500 points, or 1,000 points if you spend greater than £75 on shopping before the 31 December 2016.
250 points is euivalent to 250 miles with Lufthansa, British Airways, Virgin Atlantic, Etihad or Emirates so if you are flying through Heathrow be sure to sign up.
Car parking
If you book Park and Fly through the AVIOS store, you will earn 5 Avios for every £1 spent. Alternatively Airport Parking Reservations via TopCashback offer 20% cashback. Thus on a booking of £30, you would earn cashback of £6 which would be equivalent to 600 AVIOS. This is clearly better than the AVIOS store but remember to check both to determine which would offer the best deal.
Airport lounges
If you pre-book your airport lounge, you can save between £5 and £15 and collect 750 Avios. If you leave it until you turn up at the airport, then you can simply present your Avios card to collect 500 Avios.
Dining
Using your Heathrow Rewards card at any of the Heathrow terminals will allow you to earn 1 point per £1 of spend on food and drink.
Currency
Travelex Currency offer 1% cashback on Top Cashback whilst AVIOS offer 1 AVIOS per £1 of spend loaded onto their currency card, details of which can be found below.
Travel Insurance
Currently Top Cashback are not offering any deals on travel insurance although this changes all the time so it would be worth doing a quick check beforehand to determine if you can bag yourself some AVIOS when it comes to renewing your insurance.
Through the AVIOS store, you can purchase single trip or annual, multi-policy insurance and earn 5 AVIOS per £1. Be sure to check the coverage as well as the price as a quick quote for my husband and I looked pretty pricey!
Car Hire
Book car hire for your trip through Top Cashback and earn between 6.6% and 12.1% cashback which can be converted into AVIOS. Alternatively you can book through the AVIOS store to earn 3 AVIOS per £1 spend.
As you can see, it isn’t all about the flights. There are plenty of other ways you can earn when booking a trip and of course, if you have a credit card you can also double dip by earning points from your travel credit card too.
How have I fared this year?
As the half year end approaches, I though it worthwhile showing you the breakdown of my points earning. If you are American and reading this, you will be seriously under-impressed given the myriad opportunities you have to earn, however if you are British this is a respectable balance, considering I have earned no points at all from flights!
| Source | Sum of airmiles |
| AVIOS | 77,255 |
| Marriott | 152 |
| Holiday Inn | 139 |
| Lloyds Bank credit card | 221 |
| AMEX Gold credit card | 69,401 |
| British Airways credit card | 67 |
| Top Cashback | 7,275 |
| Lufthansa | 1,500 |
| Miles and More Card | 1,500 |
| Virgin Flying Miles | 8,827 |
| Tesco | 7,181 |
| Virgin Credit card | 1,646 |
| Grand Total | 87,582 |
As you can see over 72,000 points come from credit cards (around 83%) with Tesco and Top Cashback being the next best sources of points, proof indeed that you do not need to fly to earn a bunch of AVIOS points.
These will all help me on my way to flying business for less than economy. If you are unsure of the difference, or wonder if it even worthwhile redeeming for business class, then check out ‘What’s the difference?‘
So over to you, here’s a roundup of the tasks for this week.
This week’s tasks:
- Register for Heathrow Rewards (assuming you are likely to use the airport).
- Check out the AVIOS store and Top Cashback to determine which might offer you some options for parking, travel insurance and currency for any upcoming trips.
- Download this free airline alliance infographic if you need a reminder of which airline belongs to which alliance.
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Interesting post. I didn’t know about Avios Points and fly in and out of Heathrow about once each decade. It’s a robust program for gathering credits and I can see the benefits. If my situation changes…
Hi Elaine, perhaps not for you in that case but if you know anyone else who uses the Sirport, you could always lend them your card lol
It’s always my goal to double-dip (or even triple-dip) on all travel spending and as much shopping as possible. I am curious to know how you earned points through TopCashback?
John, probably the easiest way to answer that is with this post Top Cashback. It is definitely my best find of the last year and I’ve earned quite a few points as you can see in my latest AVIOS quarterly update.
Interesting, I didn’t know about AVIOS miles. Good to learn there are lots of ways to earn them. Thanks for sharing.
Great guide for earning points. A lot of people miss out on easy ways to earn points like this.
Great tips! I always love earning miles–we are a bit crazy about collecting them, lol! I never knew about the extra points from the airport lounge–sounds like the perfect way to earn a few extra miles! 🙂
Didn’t know about this system. Thanks for the tip! I’m from Portugal and not sure that our airlines work with this system. But, anyway, always glad to be informed. 😉
I want to be better at travel hacking and take advantage of all the great benefits! The problem is we rarely use credit cards as we live in Cambodia where we pay for everyday expenses in cash. I’ll have to look more into the airline alliances to at least accrue those miles when we fly. Thanks for this post!
Jen it is definitely harder to travel hack without credit cards although not impossible. This is a guest post I wrote on the subject although it is geared towards people with British ties so some of it may not be relevant.Travel Hacking without a credit card
I have to admit that I don’t use enough of these frequent flier miles and other travel hacks. Thanks for laying them out like this making things easier to understand. Maybe it’s high time I start looking into this.
Some great ways to earn more AVIOS points without flying more! I had no idea you could earn so many points so many different ways.
Most people don’t but there really are a ton of ways to earn even without leaving the ground
I don’t use frequent flyer programs as an airline employee, but this post gives a good run-down of benefits that extend beyond flight tickets. Would be nice to get the car hire discounts!