bmi Diamond Club closes today for non-UK members

I’m sure no-one needs reminding of this, but bmi Diamond Club finally closes its doors today to members outside the UK.

Technically, Australia and New Zealand-based accounts will also remain open, but will be frozen until BA decides what to do with them.  Residents of those countries cannot join British Airways Executive Club due to a deal with Qantas – a deal, of course, which ends in March 2013.

As of tomorrow, Diamond Club will exist only for the benefit of a few thousand holders of the MBNA Diamond Club credit cards in the UK – as that is now the only way to collect DC miles.  The only way to spend them is to transfer them to Avios.

If you still have miles in your DC account (and I don’t – I transfer them to Avios as soon as they hit each month from the credit card) then you may want to double-check that the address on your account is a UK one. 

If you have lived overseas at any point in the last few years, you may have changed it over and not changed it back.

My memories of Diamond Club

I did an article a couple of months ago, when the Diamond Club credit card closed to new entrants, about what DC had done for me.  As I wrote then:

And bmi miles were worth more than Avios, because:

availability to spend them was better,

you needed fewer of them for most places,

the multiplier for business class was 150% (BA is 200%) and first class was 200% (BA is 300%) and

you could do ‘cash and miles’ redemptions, allowing you to effectively ‘buy’ half the miles you needed for 0.7p each

I’ve lost track of the redemptions I did, but they included:

3 friends and myself to Dubai (Lufthansa first class out, business back)

3 friends and myself to New York (Lufthansa first class out, business back)

Swiss first class out to Singapore, back from Tokyo

Singapore Airlines first class Singapore to Tokyo

Myself and my wife to the Maldives (redeemed to Dubai, cash ticket to Male)

Business class to Moscow for myself and my wife (on a bmi plane, amazingly!)

Continental business class to New York for my brother and his wife

Happy memories.  But tomorrow is literally a new year, so we must move on!

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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:

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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