Avios Portal Black Friday: 50% Bonus Returns + Why the Avios App Is Essential for Points Collectors

The Avios Shop has returned with its Black Friday promotion for 2025, and it's running for considerably longer than traditional Black Friday offers. Members of The British Airways Club can now collect a 50% bonus on their online purchases at over 1,000 participating brands until 28 December – giving you plenty of time to turn your festive shopping into reward flights. Just like last year's promotion, this extended offer means you can strategically time your purchases throughout the holiday season to maximise your Avios earnings.

The promotion is remarkably straightforward. When you shop through the Avios Shop portal, you'll earn 50% more Avios than the standard rate at participating retailers. This applies across a massive range of categories including fashion, electronics, home goods, beauty products, and more.

Some standout earning rates with the 50% bonus include up to 21 Avios per £1 spent at Harrods, 20 Avios per £1 at Ray-Ban, 18 Avios per £1 at Ralph Lauren, and 15 Avios per £1 at FatFace. There's also a special enhanced rate for John Lewis & Partners available between 24 November and 7 December 2025.

To put this in perspective, with British Airways reward flights starting from just 9,250 Avios plus 50p one-way to destinations like Amsterdam, Paris, or Geneva, even modest holiday shopping could fund a European city break. You can check exactly how many Avios you need for specific British Airways flights using our dedicated tool.

It's worth noting that some categories are excluded from the 50% bonus. These include travel, utilities and telecoms, banking and insurance, plus specific merchants like The Bicester Collection, Royal Caribbean, Avios for Thoughts, and The Wine Flyer. Standard earning rates still apply to these categories, but you won't receive the additional 50% boost.

Additionally, rewards may not be calculated on delivery costs and VAT or taxes, and individual product earn rates can vary by merchant. Always check the specific terms for each retailer before making your purchase.

The Avios Shop works through a simple click-through system. You log into your British Airways Club account, navigate to the Avios Shop section (either via the website or app), click through to your chosen retailer, and shop as normal. Your Avios will then be tracked and credited to your account after your purchase is verified.

It's crucial that you click through from the Avios Shop each time you make a purchase – you can't just bookmark your favourite retailer and expect the Avios to track. The portal needs to register your session to ensure the transaction is attributed correctly.

Alongside the main Avios Shop promotion, The Wine Flyer – the Avios-powered online wine delivery service – is offering its own Black Friday deal. Between 21 November and 1 December, members of The British Airways Club can collect four times the usual Avios rate when ordering wine.

For wine enthusiasts looking to stock up for the festive season, this represents a significant earning opportunity. The Wine Flyer allows you to both collect and spend Avios, making it a versatile option for those looking to either boost their balance or use existing points towards their purchases.

The Avios Shop has also launched a new 'Shop our Edit' range, which works differently from the traditional click-through portal. This curated selection features hundreds of products across 17 brands including Apple, Antler, and Smythson.

The key difference here is that you can reduce the cash price of products by up to 25% using your Avios, whilst also earning a bonus 15 Avios per £1 on the remaining 75% of the price between 21 November and 1 December. This creates an interesting opportunity for those with substantial Avios balances who want to use some points whilst continuing to earn more.

The range includes the latest Apple technology such as the iPhone 17, alongside traditional travel essentials like suitcases, sunglasses, neck pillows, eye masks, and Chilly's water bottles. It's particularly useful if you're looking to spend Avios on something tangible rather than saving everything for flights.

Whilst you can access the Avios Shop through the British Airways website, I'd strongly recommend downloading the dedicated Avios App if you haven't already. It's become an increasingly powerful tool for managing your Avios, and recent updates have made it genuinely useful rather than just a token mobile offering.

The app provides a centralised hub for tracking your Avios balance across all your accounts (British Airways, Iberia, Aer Lingus, Qatar Airways, Finnair, etc.), viewing recent transactions, and planning future redemptions. But more importantly for this Black Friday promotion, it makes accessing shopping portal offers remarkably convenient.

One of the app's most useful features is the personalised home screen, which shows you offers based on your shopping preferences and the brands you've previously engaged with. This means you don't need to trawl through hundreds of retailers looking for good earning rates – the app surfaces relevant opportunities automatically.

The app also now displays details of your American Express Companion Vouchers and Barclays Upgrade Vouchers – something that even the British Airways app cannot manage. This makes it easy to check expiry dates and usage status without logging into the full website.

You can access the Avios Shop directly through the app by selecting 'Shopping online' from the menu. The interface is clean and responsive, making it just as easy to browse and click through to retailers as it would be on desktop. Plus, you'll receive push notifications about special promotions and enhanced earning rates, ensuring you never miss an opportunity to boost your balance.

If you're not already using it, I'd recommend downloading the Avios App and having a look around. It's free, works seamlessly with your existing British Airways Club account, and genuinely makes managing your Avios more convenient.

The real magic happens when you stack this promotion with your existing credit card earning. If you're using an Avios-earning credit card for your purchases, you'll collect both the portal bonus and your card's standard earning rate.

For example, if you're using the Barclaycard Avios Plus card which earns 1.5 Avios per £1 on purchases, and you're shopping at a retailer offering 2 Avios per £1 through the portal (3 Avios per £1 with the 50% bonus), you'd be collecting a total of 4.5 Avios per £1 spent. That's a phenomenal return on everyday spending.

Business owners have even more opportunities here. Using the Capital on Tap Business Rewards card (which earns 1 Avios per £1) alongside the portal bonus means you're collecting substantial Avios on legitimate business expenses whilst the purchases would have been made anyway.

I'll be using this promotion quite heavily over the next few weeks. With the extended duration until 28 December, there's no rush to make all your purchases during the actual Black Friday weekend – which often sees retailers' websites struggling under heavy traffic anyway.

My approach will be to make a list of everything I need to buy over the festive period, then check which retailers are participating in the Avios Shop promotion. For items where multiple retailers are available, I'll compare the earning rates and choose accordingly. Sometimes a retailer offering 6 Avios per £1 (9 with the bonus) will be more valuable than a 2% discount elsewhere, particularly if you're already planning to buy at full price.

I'll also be paying close attention to the John Lewis enhanced rate between 24 November and 7 December, as that's typically where I'd buy electronics and homeware anyway. The ability to earn substantial Avios whilst shopping at a trusted retailer with excellent customer service is genuinely valuable.

For business purchases, I'll continue using my Capital on Tap Business Rewards cards whilst clicking through the portal for any suppliers who participate. Even if the portal rate is modest, the combination with the card earning makes it worthwhile. You can read more about the best UK business credit cards for earning Avios in our comprehensive guide.

The Avios Shop Black Friday promotion represents one of the best opportunities of the year to boost your Avios balance through everyday spending. With the 50% bonus running until 28 December and enhanced rates at popular retailers like John Lewis, there's genuine value here for anyone planning festive purchases.

Combined with an Avios-earning credit card and accessed through the increasingly capable Avios App, this promotion can turn necessary spending into meaningful travel rewards. Whether you're saving for a short-haul European city break or putting Avios towards a more substantial redemption, every bit helps.

Just remember the golden rule: only make purchases you were planning to make anyway. The goal is to maximise rewards on spending that serves a genuine purpose, not to manufacture spending for the sake of earning points. But if you're shopping over the festive period regardless, you might as well collect bonus Avios whilst doing so.

For more information on ongoing Avios Shop promotions throughout the year, check our BA Shopping Portal Offers category page where we track the latest enhanced earning opportunities.

Happy shopping and happy earning!