How To Earn Avios Miles With The British Airways Shopping Portal

How The British Airways Shopping Portal Works

British Airways partners with select retailers that award you Avios points in exchange for collecting marketing data about your shopping purchases. You may be familiar with other shopping portals such as Aeroplan, Alaska Airlines, Great Canadian Rebates, Rakuten, and more. There are plenty of shopping portals to choose from, especially when it comes to airlines, so make sure to choose the one that works best for you. In this article we’ll be focusing specifically on the British Airways Avios eStore shopping portal.

Shopping portals can be a lucrative and easy way to double dip and earn points.  Simply by clicking through to a retailer’s website from the British Airways Shopping Portal you can earn bonus Avios miles. With no extra effort required, just click on the retailer of your choice from the catalogue to be directed to their website and start online shopping like you normally would.

Just make sure to login to your British Airways Executive Club account first, and click through the retailer’s logo in the catalogue to visit their site to earn Avios. The number of Avios you’ll earn are always listed in the catalogue beside each retailer.

Once you’ve clicked through to a retailer’s website, it will open in a new tab. You can always visit the shopping portal in the previous tab to confirm your click has been tracked. You should see something like this:

Within 5 days your miles will show as pending in your account.

Exclamation Point! Your purchase will be linked to your Executive Club account and your Avios miles will post anywhere from a few days to several months depending on the retailer.

Yes, frustratingly it can take quite a while for the miles to appear in your account, but it’s worth the wait to earn lots of extra points with minimal effort.

You can check out the list of participating retailers for the Avios eStore here.

Create a Shopping Strategy

You’ll find lots of retailers you probably already shop at, so start getting in the habit of using a shopping portal to complete your purchases.

Take some time to scan through the entire shopping catalogue and make a shortlist of brands you use frequently, or can see yourself using in the future.

Here are a few examples of my favourite retailers I would go through the shopping portal for:

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There are a lot of brands on there that I like, but I usually go through Amazon to buy them and receive faster and free shipping. Amazon is not a retailer in the British Airways shopping portal, but it is in the Aeroplan Shopping Portal, which is great for Canadians.

There are also a few makeup brands I use (MAC, Urban Decay, Benefit) that I could purchase individually through the shopping portal, but for convenience’s sake, it makes more sense for me to do one order through Sephora.

Sephora doesn’t belong to the British Airways shopping portal, but it does to Aeroplan. So my strategy would be to earn some extra Aeroplan miles every time I order from there, which brings me to my next point.

You’ll want to consider what airline makes the most sense for you to be collecting loyalty points for.

Will it be Aeroplan (includes Air Canada and Star Alliance partner airlines), British Airways (includes Alaska Airlines), Delta SkyMiles (includes WestJet) or others?

It’s quite common to see the same retailers appear in multiple shopping portals. So to make sure you’re earning the miles in the currency you need. You’ll want to figure out what airlines you’re more likely to fly, and then use that shopping portal primarily.

I’m more inclined to earn Avios and redeem them for Alaska Airlines flights to Hawaii or Las Vegas, so I would first look to shop through retailers in the British Airways shopping portal.

Then, for purchases at Amazon and Sephora, I would shop through the Aeroplan store since those retailers belong to the Aeroplan eStore.

If I was looking to make a major purchase, say, a new laptop, I can see Microsoft belongs to both shopping portals, but since I want to primarily earn British Airways Avios, I’ll click through the Avios eStore as opposed to Aeroplan.

I would also look to capitalize and wait for a bonus points promotion through the shopping portal for big purchases. Sign up for shopping portal mailing lists, check social media, and check the website to see when these promotions are happening. They happen frequently.

You can start to see how it makes sense to create a shopping strategy and be aware of the retailers you can be earning miles for.

Alternatively, Get Cash Back

If the retailer you’re looking for isn’t in your desired shopping portals you’re looking to earn miles for, check out Great Canadian Rebates for retailers that offer cash back incentives.

Some notable big name retailers you can get cashback with include:

• Amazon
• Atmosphere
• Best Buy Canada
• BRMB Backroad Mapbooks
• Cabelas
• Canadian Tire
• eBay.ca
• Etsy
• Gift Cards
• GoDaddy
• Home Depot
• Hudson’s Bay
• Lowes
• National Car Rental
• Sport Chek
• Staples
• Walmart
• Well.ca

You can sign up for a Great Canadian Rebates account and find some lucrative cashback deals for yourself.

Earn Avios on Hotel Stays

Booking hotel stays is one of my favourite ways to use shopping portals, and I’m surprised more people don’t know about it.

But wait, you might be asking…

“Do I get hotel loyalty points and perks if I book my hotel stay through a shopping portal?”

The short answer is…YES!!! You can earn bonus airline miles AND the hotel perks and points you know and love.

If you’re new to shopping portals and how hotel loyalty programs work, then let me explain something first:

Most hotels are very strict about qualifying stays and how you earn hotel loyalty status.

In most cases, to earn hotel points and be entitled to loyalty perks like room upgrades, early/late checkout, lounge access etc, you must book direct through the brand’s website (Marriott, Accor, Best Western etc.)

Better deals might exist through a third-party booking sites like Hotels.com, Expedia, or Booking.com, but you’ll be giving up the chance to earn hotel points and climb the loyalty ladder towards more frills.

I choose to give my loyalty to Marriott hotels the majority of the time because it’s easy for me to transfer my American Express points there.

However, if I’m staying somewhere where there isn’t a Marriott Hotel (ie. The Watermark Beach Resort in Osoyoos, BC), I always book that hotel through a third-party because they don’t have a loyalty program, and rates are cheaper, especially in the winter off-season.

Out of curiosity, and good practice, I always end up checking the third party booking sites even if I have no intention of booking through there, but usually, the paid rate is not much or at all different than booking direct, and I just can’t stand to miss out on the loyalty perks! The only way to earn loyalty status is to book direct.

PointsWise Tip

Remember, you can fast-track your way to hotel loyalty status with a premier travel rewards Card like the Amex Platinum Card Canada. Apply now!You’ll automatically receive elite loyalty status with these hotels when you become a Cardmember:

• Marriott Bonvoy: Gold Elite
• Hilton Honors: Gold
• Shangri-La: Jade
• Radisson Rewards: Gold
• BONUS: Status match your automatic Marriott Gold Elite status to > Wyndham Rewards Diamond to > Caesars Rewards Diamond for some serious Vegas perks.

With elite loyalty status, you’ll receive benefits like these:

• Room upgrades
• Early and/or late check out
• Free breakfast
• Welcome gifts

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The British Airways shopping portal does feature third-party booking sites like Hotels.com, Booking.com, Expedia, and Trip Advisor, but that’s not what we’re after.

In order for us to earn Avios miles and hotel points, and get our hotel loyalty perks, we want to click through and book direct through the hotel retailers: Marriott, IHG, Hilton, Best Western, Radisson, etc.

Those links will send you to the brand’s website and you’ll be able to book your hotel stay as you would normally. The only difference is that click will be recorded in your Executive Club account and that’s how you’ll earn those Avios miles too!

Avios eStore Points Breakdown Example

Example Time

I usually go to Las Vegas every year, and I’d like to stay at The Cosmopolitan again.

The Cosmopolitan is an Autograph Collection Hotel under the Marriott brand, so we can click through Marriott Bonvoy from the British Airways shopping portal.

From there we’ll be taken to the Marriott website where we can complete the booking as usual.

Let’s skip ahead with our speculative booking and look at our paid rate to calculate how many miles we’ll earn!

And of course, if we use our Amex Platinum Card Canada to book this and earn 2x the points. And our Platinum Card also gives us automatic Gold Elite status with Marriott so we can earn 25% more points, plus be entitled to a room upgrade and late checkout![/fusion_alert][fusion_text]

So here’s the points breakdown:

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Wow! So just by being PointsWise, with very minimal effort, we’ve earned over 9,300 total points on just over a $600 purchase! The real gem here is earning 5x Avios miles through the shopping portal for simply clicking a button!

I hope this example of how to use a shopping portal for everyday purchases, and still get your hotel loyalty perks has opened up a new door in your travel hacking world! This is one of the simplest ways to start earning points fast so have fun watching your points balance increase fast!