An interesting one for BMI credit card holders

Are you one of the many people who still holds one of the old BMI (British Midland) credit cards?  You would have been pretty crazy to cut them up, given that you will be earning up to 2.5 Avios per £1 on a Mastercard.

If you have one of these cards, you will be using ‘Combine My Avios’ every month to move your Destination Miles from Diamond Club across to British Airways Executive Club or avios.com.

Here is something I have noticed recently …..

Usually, with ‘Combine My Avios’, your details need to match PERFECTLY for the transfer to work.  Full name, home address, email address and date of birth – it seems that at least three of these need to match.

When moving Destinations Miles into Avios, though, the restrictions are weaker.  From a bit of testing, it seems that only surname and address need to match.

This means that you may be able to transfer Destinations Miles into the Avios account of another family member.  For example, my Mum has a BMI credit card and her Avios account is now at exactly 18,000 Avios (enough for a Club Europe redemption).

I decided to ‘freeze’ her account at this level, and have been moving her Destinations Miles into my own BA account.  (Not a fortune, just a couple of hundred a month.)  We only share surname and account address, not email address or, obviously, date of birth, but the transfers are going through OK.

If you or a family member still have a BMI credit card, you may be able to use this to distribute your credit card miles in a more effective way ….

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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.