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Code for 1,000 Avios for opening a BMI Diamond Club account still works

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I must admit, I was pretty surprised when I read this Flyertalk thread, but it seems that it is correct. 

You still receive 1,000 BMI Diamond Club miles – instantly – when you sign up for BMI Diamond Club and use promotional code 1JA1KD.  I tried it yesterday and it works!  However, I expect BA to close this down pretty quickly.

(If there is already something in the Voucher Code box when you click on the link above, delete it before adding the 1JA1KD code.)

Since July 3rd, you have been able to transfer BMI Diamond Club miles to British Airways Executive Club Avios, using the BAEC ‘Combine My Avios’ function in Manage My Account. 

You cannot transfer BMI miles into an avios.com or Iberia Plus account directly, but this is easily worked around by transferring them first to BAEC and then to avios.com or Iberia.

So … if you or anyone in your family does NOT have a BMI Diamond Club account but does have an Avios account, here are 1,000 easy miles.  Sign them up to BMI Diamond Club and then transfer the 1,000 mile bonus out.  You must have a matching date-of-birth in your BA and BMI accounts in order to do the transfer.

Note that you cannot do this for children because kids can only join Diamond Club via a family account, and the sign-up form for that does not allow you to input a promo code.

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (April 2024)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus card

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios card

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending £15,000 Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital on Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 12th May 2024, the Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa card is offering a bonus of 30,000 points, convertible into 30,000 Avios. You must have a Limited Company to apply. Click here to learn more and click here to apply.

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You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus.

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

There are also generous bonuses on the two American Express Business cards, with the points converting at 1:1 into Avios. These cards are open to sole traders as well as limited companies.

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points sign-up bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and FREE for a year Read our full review

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.

Category

British Airways and Avios

Comments (32)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Darren says:
    16 Aug16 August 09:00

    Seems they have closed the loophole already.

  • Mightyrailroader says:
    16 Aug16 August 10:00

    Well, it worked at 0955 16 August, 2012. Miles in BAEC within 5 mins. Odd, but good if you can make it work. Smithy

  • Raffles says:
    16 Aug16 August 10:06

    You did something wrong, Darren. I just tried it again and it worked fine, that was 10.03am.

    • Darren says:
      16 Aug16 August 10:38

      Just tried it again and it worked. 😉 Thanks

      • angela rogan says:
        16 Aug16 August 11:11

        this isnt working for me because the field for the code is uneditable, im unable to delete the code already in place

        • ups says:
          16 Aug16 August 22:40

          I had the same problem – if you click the Create link on top of the bmi homepage, then click on Sign Up underneath, it comes up with a disabled voucher code field.

          If you use the direct link to Diamond Club that Raffles has given in his post, this should come up editable (defaulted with ‘OWE’ which you should delete).

  • 1000 Free British Airways Avios Points - View from the Wing says:
    16 Aug16 August 12:16

    […] Via Head for Points, you can still sign up as a british midland Diamond Club member even though that program isn’t long for this world since the airline was acquired by British Airways. […]

  • pazza2000 says:
    16 Aug16 August 12:45

    I think this has now been closed. Transfer fails at final stage (all acc details matching)

    • Raffles says:
      16 Aug16 August 12:46

      If you’ve got the 1000 miles but they won’t transfer, it is probably because you do not have a Date of Birth and email match between your BA and BMI accounts. They won’t close this down by making a complex change to the transfer software, they will do it by cancelling the code (which they haven’t yet!).

      • pazza2000 says:
        16 Aug16 August 13:00

        DOB/Email/Name match. I can see the balance, and it is only at the final stage when the move fails, and then going forward you can access your BMI account via ‘combine my avios’ but given access to no balance.

        • Raffles says:
          16 Aug16 August 14:23

          Comments at View from the Wing suggest problems today with all BMI to BA transfers, even with existing accounts. When this is sorted you should be able to move the 1k out.

  • 1000 Free British Airways Avios for New BMI Members - New Girl in the Air says:
    16 Aug16 August 12:48

    […] yourself up, sign your partner up, and tell your friends to sign up.  Unfortunately, according to Head for Points, you’ll only get bonus miles for anyone 18+ (children cannot join BMI directly, only as part […]

  • Raffles says:
    16 Aug16 August 14:52

    View from the Wing comments suggest that the transfer process is now working ok again.

  • Kadence says:
    16 Aug16 August 17:49

    None of the BMI accounts I just created are showing 1000 miles

    • Raffles says:
      16 Aug16 August 20:16

      Kadence, you are doing something wrong then, because I just did one 2 minutes before posting this and it still works PERFECTLY. Did you delete the code in the Voucher Code box and add in 1JA1KD?

      • Kadence says:
        16 Aug16 August 22:12

        i just tried setting up an account for my daughter using Chrome, no go. I have a screen shot w/ the code in there…still doesn’t work

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