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Get 12 months interest-free credit on British Airways flights

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I have run a few posts recently about the 35,000 mile sign-up bonus on the American Airlines credit cards, issued by MBNA.

This is great deal – as long as you can make the £5,000 spending target within six months.  This is an example of where 35,000 AA miles can take you.

When I wrote my original post, I mentioned that MBNA offers 12 months interest free credit on American Airlines flights booked via aa.com and charged to the card. 

American Airlines

Reader Neil dropped me a line to say that, looking at his initial American Airlines credit card statement, 0% interest free credit applies to ANY flights booked via the aa.com website.  As all British Airways flights are bookable via aa.com, this effectively means that you can get 12 months free credit on BA bookings.

There are three things remember if you want to try this:

First, you would get double Avios points if you pay with a British Airways Premium Plus Amex for your BA flights.  You might find the double Avios more valuable than 18 months interest free credit.

Secondly, if you have an American Express Platinum charge card, remember that you need to pay for your flights with an Amex-issued Amex card to be covered under some parts of their travel insurance.  As the AA cards are issued by MBNA, you would not be covered.

Thirdly, if you decide to use your AA card for interest-free BA spending, you should stop using it for general spending.  This is because – rather sneakily – MBNA charges interest on all new purchase whether or not you settle your bill at the end of the month if you carry forward a balance.  For example, if you carry over £1,000 of aa.com spending and spend another £200 during the next month, you will be charged interest on that £200 even if you clear the bill at the month end.

That said, if you can work around the points above, this is another good reason to get the AA card before the 35,000 mile bonus is withdrawn at the end of May.

Want to earn more points from credit cards? – April 2024 update

If you are looking to apply for a new credit card, here are our top recommendations based on the current 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

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Barclaycard Avios card

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

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

You can see our full directory of all UK cards which earn airline or hotel points here. Here are the best of the other deals currently available.

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

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

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

Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard

15,000 bonus points and 1.5 points for every £1 you spend Read our full review

Earning miles and points from small business cards

If you are a sole trader or run a small company, you may also want to check out these offers:

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.

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

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

Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa

Huge 30,000 points bonus until 12th May 2024 Read our full review

For a non-American Express option, we also recommend the Barclaycard Select Cashback card for sole traders and small businesses. It is FREE and you receive 1% cashback on your spending.

Barclaycard Select Cashback Business Credit Card

1% cashback uncapped* on all your business spending (T&C apply) Read our full review

Category

American Airlines and AAdvantage, British Airways American Express

Comments (33)

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

  • James67 says:
    27 May27 May 06:44

    I wonder if MBNA ring fence this flight spending. I would be wary of using it gor fear of a nasty surprize such as that many people undoubtedly get by taking up one of their heavily promoted balalance transfer offers.

    • Rob says:
      27 May27 May 06:55

      I have added a 3rd bullet point to address this.

      • 21h21j says:
        27 May27 May 17:48

        Pretty sure MBNA say that they will use any payments against the highest apr first. Also my KLM flights booked on KLM.com are showing as 0% apr so definately not just flights from aa.com

        • callum says:
          27 May27 May 21:41

          All UK credit cards do, including the MBNA card. However, you are always charged interest on purchases – it is just waived if you pay off your statement in full. You wouldn’t be paying off the statement in full so that interest therefore won’t be waived.

          I’m not sure if all cards work like this, but it’s why you’re generally advised not to mix promotional rates with normal rates.

  • flibbly says:
    27 May27 May 07:11

    I’m away from home at present, and don’t have my login details for MBNA with me, so I may well be wrong here, but I’m fairly confident I only got offered 12 months interest free not 18 months. Its possible different people got different deals of course.

    Also, as I mentioned the other day. My statement shows the interest free icon next to BA flights bought from ba.com not aa.com.

    • Rob says:
      27 May27 May 07:15

      … which is just weird! I saw your other post but as I haven’t tried it myself I didn’t want to ‘officially’ spread this.

      It does now say 12 months interest free credit on the application form. I have amended the post title.

      • flibbly says:
        27 May27 May 07:54

        Thats fair enough. It seems they may be erroneously awarding this interest free option on far more than they intended (e.g. see Bobby’s post below)

  • Idrive says:
    27 May27 May 07:25

    Hi i tried to book BA via AA but european flighrs (the ones i searched) were costing 3 times more! I will check again later today!

    • James67 says:
      27 May27 May 08:12

      Yes, changed day unfortunately. There was a golden era about 7 years ago when I was buying BA domestic flights at the basic £30 ow even at last minute. Saved a fortune on that but it hurt a lot when they finally got wise to it.

  • Bobby says:
    27 May27 May 07:31

    just received my first statement and the 2.5k i spent on TACA through lifemiles.com is shown as 0% on the analysis page, I pay off in full so wont be testing it out.

  • Alan says:
    27 May27 May 07:47

    Has anyone had the points from their first statement show up in their AAdvantage account yet? I told them my a/c number in advance, but I’m wondering if they’ve just created a second account for me!

    • flibbly says:
      27 May27 May 07:53

      Yes, mine were there in a couple of days.

      • Alan says:
        27 May27 May 07:56

        Ah thanks – will give them a buzz!

        • Neil says:
          27 May27 May 15:45

          I wouldn’t bother today if I were you. I’ve spent the last hour trying to get this sorted and in the end you have to speak to the AA Advantage team in the states. it’s a public holiday over there apparently so will have to call tomorrow. MBNA created another AA account for me, despite me giving them my existing number and after several painful phone calls with people on at least three continents, I’ve given up for now!

          • momomo says:
            27 May27 May 17:25

            It has been 7 days since my fiancée’s statement and still no points. (For the record, she didn’t have an AAdvantage account on application; MBNA created one for her.)

            One MBNA rep told us it could take 5 working days for points to move across, another said 7 calendar days and the latest suggested they should appear very soon after the statement is printed and I should get in touch with AAdvantage. Those who have had points post all seem to have them within 48 hours of statement date.

            I’ll be calling AAdvantage tomorrow too.

          • Alan says:
            27 May27 May 23:39

            Ah OK, that seems rather likely! Will try them later this week.

          • Alan says:
            28 May28 May 20:04

            Argghh! Yes, as expected MBNA have gone and created a new account for me rather than using the one that I’d already given them! I don’t know why they don’t just have the option on the application form to enter your existing card number – would save all this hassle. Now (after 10 min on hold to MBNA to get the new a/c number) am on hold to AA to try and get them to merge accounts!

    • Rob says:
      27 May27 May 08:06

      They should hit AA within 48 hours of your online statement being generated. If it has been longer than that then I would ring MBNA and see what number they used.

  • Polly says:
    27 May27 May 09:45

    Just a thought, don’t you get 3 avios per £1 spent when booking directly with BA, using the BAPP? That would make the booking more valuable?

    • Rob says:
      27 May27 May 09:48

      Yes you do, so if you have one of those this probably isn’t worthwhile

  • Blackberryaddict says:
    27 May27 May 10:06

    I bought some flights on AY for work, using our corporate travel agent – even those are showing as interest-free on my statement.

  • Sir Stamford says:
    27 May27 May 10:54

    I think there is also a fourth point to note:

    Don’t forget the 10% discount you get for using selected MBNA Diamond Club cards or even as a former BA shareholder by booking directly with BA. If you assume half of the £5k spend is fares and the rest on taxes and charges, you are potentially losing out on £250 by booking BA flights on AA.com.

    Sir Stamford

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