People focus way too much on the complicated stuff when it comes to earning miles, or Avios. Sure, flying is great and so is taking out a credit card, but what about the simple stuff – like the stuff you do every single day? Enter: online shopping. You can earn an uncapped, insane amount of Avios Points by shopping through your favourite retailers online, just for making one extra click to that store from BA.
With the holidays on the way, the amount of bonus points you’ll earn from every bit you spend is doubled, tripled or more. Here’s a list of the best offers worth taking advantage of, like 9 Avios per pound spent at Apple. That’s like 9,000 Avios for buying a laptop, plus whatever you’d earn from your credit card anyway. That’s enough for a flight from London to Paris…
This is really simple, and even more overlooked. When you buy things online, you can almost always earn miles by clicking to your favourite online store via your favourite airline. Basically, you go to BA’s e-store, you find your favourite shop, you click over and then your favourite store tracks the purchase back to your BA account, and voila – miles.
It does this because you sign into your Avios account on the BA e-store, and the tracking links then tell BA how many miles to give you, based on your purchases. It works for everything from Adidas to Apple, Selfridges or buying a new phone plan. It can take a bit of time for the points to post – like weeks.
And of course, if you buy your stuff with a rewards credit card, any of the British Airways Avios are on top of whatever you earn from your credit card anyway.
The Limited Time Avios Offers
Obviously, merchants get pretty amped up about the holidays and all the money they’ll be extracting out of your pockets. To try and win your business, some raise the number of Avios per pound/dollar spent for a limited time, and that’s often the best time to make your big purchases. Why earn 2 Avios per when you can earn 6x, 10x or more! Here’s a look at the best offers in the UK e-store. You can find separate offers for the US e-store here.
Double Avios per £1 are available on the following retailers:
- John Lewis: Up to 4 Avios/£1 (up from 2)
- Harrods: Up to 12 Avios /£1 (up from 6)
- Sonos: 10 Avios/£1 (up from 5)
- Adidas: 12 Avios/£1 (up from 6)
- Mr Porter: 12 Avios/£1 (up from 6)
Triple Avios per £1 are available on:
- M&S: 6 Avios/£1 (up from 2)
- Selfridges: Up to 18 Avios/£1 (up from 6)
- NET-A-PORTER: Up to 18 Avios/£1 (up from 6)
- Fortnum & Mason: 15 Avios/£1 (up from 5)
- Argos: 3 Avios/£1 (up from 1)
- Lego: 15 Avios/£1 (up from 5)
- The White Company: 9 Avios/£1 (up from 3)
- Currys PC World: 6 Avios/£1 (up from 2)
- Apple: 9 Avios/£1 (up from 3)
- ASOS: 9 Avios/£1 (up from 3)
- Lookfantastic: 15 Avios/£1 (up from 5)
- Groupon: 18 Avios/£1 (up from 6)
- Notonthehighstreet: 12 Avios/£1 (up from 4)
- Hotel Chocolat: 18 Avios/£1 (up from 6)
You can shop all the BA e-store offers here.
First things first, you need a British Airways Executive Club account, so that you can earn Avios. Assuming you already have one, you need to make sure you login on the British Airways e-store before going to make your purchases at your favourite retailer. Make sure you don’t have cookie blockers or incognito mode on, otherwise the purchase may not track.
Because you naturally want to get your points, it’s always best to take a screenshot of each step showing the Avios per £/$ offer, and then your final shopping basket when you purchase the stuff, along with confirmation. This way, if there’s any issue with the tracking, you have evidence to build your case. It’s rare that things don’t track, but it’s always good to be prepared.
To take a screenshot on a Mac computer, hold Command + Shift + 3 until you hear the photo sound.
After that, just wait it out for your points to post and enjoy the practically free flights or upgrades you earned just from doing your holiday shopping with a bit of savvy. Cheers to that…
Since when were BAs version of taxes, the surcharges and carrier charges “practically free”?
In reality often comparable carriers are offering less expensive cash fares than the Avios redemption charges…
I’d say under £30 return in Europe isn’t bad, and you can use more Avios to pay just £1 for the ticket…
I earn’t 36,000 Avios using BA eStore. Booked Hotels.com via eStore instead of booking direct. Would never have thought about using it until I say the article a few months ago. Massive thanks.
Do you know if I might still get the points when I click through to Apple and then change to the German store? UK won’t deliver to me. E-Store shows the tracking but I didn’t find anything about switching the shop afterwards. I know this kinda specific but maybe you know 🙂 TIA
Can I use the eStore and a cashback site like Topcashback ? If I click through from one and the the other will it register both or just the second one?
the most recent cookie wins, so whichever you click from should get the business.