Business Class flights To India for £425 Return: My Guide to Collecting Many Avios Points

I am obsessed with collecting Avios points. For me it combines some of my favourite things/foibles: travel, bargain hunting, luxury for less plus a sprinkling of obsessive goal striving.

If you’re totally new to the party, Avios points are the reward currency of the British Airways Executive Club but there are many many ways of collecting them that don’t involve being a frequent flyer (I’m not). You collect them and then use them for (almost) free flights or discounts off ticket prices and you can also use them (and collect them) with their One World alliance partners

This year Olly and me are flying Business Class to Delhi for £425 (normally £2,500-3000) and to Athens Business Class return for £30 each and all from using these tactics below.

To give you an idea of what your Avios points will get you I had a quick look at the following 2 examples for 60,000 points:

• 1 business class return flight London to Marrakech

• 1 economy return flight London to NYC

Here’s how I do it

Firstly you need a British Airways Executive Club account, this is free to apply for.

Next…..

Apply for a American Express British Airways American Express Premium Plus Card

This is the big one, apply for the above card and collect 1.5 Avios for every £ you spend on anything. We use this for ALL our personal and work expenses. It has an extortionate interest rate so you do need to make sure you clear the card in full every month.

If you use my referral link here you’ll get 33,000 Avios if you spend £6000 on it in the first 3 months

The other benefit of the Premium Plus card is you can get a Companion Voucher when you spend £15,000 each Cardmembership year on the Card, which you can use to either take a companion with you in the same flight and cabin or, if travelling solo, a 50% discount on the Avios price you pay for your flight. In simple language this means if I travel business class on my Avios points to say Miami if I use my companion voucher Olly travels with me for free (plus airline tax etc)

Secondly favourite the Avios shopping affiliate site. and download the app.

The Avios shopping site is an affiliate scheme and you can collect Avios when you shop with more than 2,000 partners. You use the links on their website or app to visit the retailers website and shop as you normally would. I without fail check on here first before shopping on-line to see if the shop is on here. The big ones I collect miles on are: Booking.com, John Lewis, Boots, Space NK and Net a Porter but so many places you will probably regularly shop at are on there.

Recently I needed a new laptop and clicked through to the Apple Store via the Avios shopping site. I earned 3248 Avios plus buying it on my BA Amex card gave me another 1700 Avios. It does quickly add up particularly if you have a lot of work expenses like me.

And finally link your Uber, Nectar and BP reward cards to automatically transfer any points on those cards straight to Avios.

There’s nothing that brings me more joy than sitting in business class with my glass of fizz knowing it’s cost me 5% of the normal ticket price.