British Airways are the UK’s largest airline and have a pretty good rewards program. Their version of air miles and called Avios, and you can earn them in all the usual ways: through flying, credit cards etc… However, they also have their own shopping portal called “Shopping with British Airways“. Through this you can earn huge amounts of extra Avios with over 2,000 shops in the UK. In this article I’ll explain how, and show you just how much you could earn.
What is Shopping with BA?
Normal British Airways Avios Credit Cards (like American Express and Barclaycard Avios) will only earn you 1 to 1.5 Avios for every £1 you spend on the card. However, through Shopping with BA you can earn much more. The most I’ve been able to get is 15 Avios per £1 but even some of the larger UK brands will still give you between 5-10 Avios per £1.
All you need to do is login to the Shopping with BA website with your British Airways Executive Club details. Next register your credit card to your Avios account (do this in the “My Account” section of the website). Then find a shop you want to shop at and click “shop now”. A new page will open on that shops website, and you just need to complete your purchase using the credit card you just registered and wait a few days to a few weeks.
Remember! To collect Avios on purchases there are a few things you should probably do… Some of these aren’t essential, but it definitely doesn’t hurt. For example, I’ve made purchases before with the wrong credit card and only realised afterwards that the card I used isn’t registered on my Avios Account. I added the card to the Avios account straight after making the purchase and still received my bonus Avios:
- Make sure cookies are enabled on your browser (it needs this to track what you’re doing, hopefully not in a suspicious way)
- Don’t take too long or open too many new tabs, this can sometimes make the link timeout so you would then need to manually claim the Avios instead of it being automatic.
- Add your credit card to your Avios account before making the purchase
- Remember to use the correct credit card/s registered to your Avios account!
Why is it so Great?
Firstly, there are so many shops to choose from, both online and on the high street. There are the big shops like Deliveroo, John Lewis, M&S etc… Then there are some really niche stuff like Aircraft Model Store (for all the Avgeeks out there), Airalo (which I used to buy travel eSIMs) and Zooplus (which we use to buy all our cat food).
Different stores will give you different Avios rates. I’ve found most of the places I’m interested in shopping at will have over 4 Avios per £1 though. Some like Harvey Nichols are 12 Avios per £1 and even go as high as 15 Avios per £1 with Airalo. At the time of writing they have over 2,000 stores available, so just search the shop you want and chances are it’ll be on there.
Now I’ll briefly explore the kind of deals you can get with all of your newly earned Avios… The cheapest Avios flight I could find would be a one way trip from Dublin to London on Aer Lingus costing just 4,000 Avios plus £11.70. Worth noting that the price is only this low with Aer Lingus operated flights. British Airways flights still cost 9,250 Avios.
Another example would be pretty much any short haul flight in Europe, which will cost you 9,250 Avios plus £0.50 for a one way flight. It’s pretty easy to find these deals all over Europe, I’ve just chosen Geneva to Heathrow as it’s a trip I’ve done before. So as you’ll see in the next section, just by buying one mattress through Shopping with BA, I earned enough Avios for a return trip from London to Dublin, or almost enough for a one way trip from London to Geneva…
Examples
It just so happens I’m in the process of moving house at the time of writing so have had many opportunities to maximise my Avios earning when buying furniture and stuff. Below is a picture of just a few of the Avios spending deals I’ve been able to get…
Probably the best deal I got was buying a mattress from Dreams. Earning 8 Avios per £1 spent I managed to get a whopping 8,660 Avios. Almost enough for a one way flight within Europe (or a return trip from London to Dublin). Then at Harvey Nichols I made a few purchases earning 10 Avios per £1.
Worth noting that you don’t earn Avios on the VAT portion of your purchase. So I spent £1,350 at Dreams, but only earned Avios on £1,082. You still get plenty of Avios though, even without the VAT amount.
Also worth noting… That £183.33 purchase at Harvey Nichols which earned 1,834 Avios actually ended up being returned and refunded. But I still ended up getting the Avios on my account. I think most of the time they take back the Avios if there is a refund, but in this case I got lucky and basically got an extra 1,834 Avios for free!
Stacking offers with AMEX
Another great thing about the Shopping with Avios portal is it lets you stack offers from various places. I have an Amex Platinum Card which gives you a £50 credit to spend at Harvey Nichols twice a year.
Luckily, Harvey Nichols has one of the best Avios earning rates of up to 12 Avios per £1 spent. So of course I had to buy something, I ended up spending £300. The 12 Avios per £1 is only valid for purchases over £500, so I got a still good 10 Avios per £1. As they don’t give you Avios on the 20% VAT that meant I earned 10 * 250 = 2,500 Avios. Within about 30 minutes of making the purchase it appeared on the Shopping with BA website.
Then it also happened that I had recently referred a friend through Amex which gave me a bonus 3 Membership Reward (MR) points for every £ spent. So from that £300 purchase in total I got 2,500 Avios through the Shopping with BA site, plus 1,200 Amex MR points thanks to the referral bonus, plus the £50 Amex credit. And remember, Amex MR Points can be transferred 1:1 for Avios. So from spending £250 in total I got 3,700 Avios. Considering a one way flight from London to Dublin in Economy is only 4,500 Avios that’s a pretty great rate.
By the way, if you fancy getting an Amex Platinum Card for the offers above and more great benefits, consider using my referral link at the bottom of the page for an extra sign up bonus!
Bottom Line
So hopefully this has shown you how easy it is to earn loads of extra Avios just through regular shopping. Even the best cashback or air mile credit cards don’t come anywhere near to matching the amount of Avios you can get through the Shopping with British Airways portal. It also stacks really well with American Express offers too.
Go to the Shopping with British Airways website to get started!
More from me…
Please feel free to check out other related posts I’ve written:
- British Airways Boeing 787 from Hong Kong to London – Avoid Economy Class!
- Which is the Best London Airport? – Heathrow vs Gatwick vs Stansted…
- The Plaza Premium Lounge at London Heathrow Terminal 2
And if you fancy earning some fantastic rewards and Avios points through American Express, please use my referral links below:
The Platinum Card – You Receive 45,000 Membership Reward points after spending £6,000 in the first 3 months of membership: https://americanexpress.com/en-gb/referral/platinum-credit?ref=fREDEGgRA5&XLINK=MYCP