Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Reminder: British Airways American Express bonus offer ends May 21st

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Just a quick reminder that the current sign-up offer on the two British Airways American Express cards ends in two days:

The Premium Plus version, with the £150 annual fee, currently offers 25,000 Avios instead of 18,000 Avios. You must spend £3,000 within three months to receive the bonus.

The basic, free, card currently offers 9,000 Avios instead of 3,000 Avios. You must spend £1,000 within three months to receive the bonus.

British Airways Premium Plus American Express

My full review of the benefits of the Premium Plus card is here.

My full review of the free card is here.

For clarity, the only people who cannot get the bonus on this card are those who have cancelled a BA Amex in the last six months.

You are OK if you have (or have recently cancelled) a Lloyds Avios Rewards card, an Amex Gold, Amex Platinum, SPG Amex or any other American Express, MBNA or Lloyds-issued Amex.


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

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

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:

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

Comments (33)

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

  • JamesH says:

    On a somewhat unrelated note, do you have any idea when there might be another Amex MR avios conversion bonus offer?

  • MW3410 says:

    Hi Rob. A little OT but I recently recommended 2 friends for Amex’s. 1x SPG card & 1x BA (Blue) card. both were successful in their applications so I was expecting 5,000 points for the SPG & 4,000 points for the BA card. However, when I checked my own Amex account today Amex have posted 18,000 points for each card recommendation. WOW..!! 36K for 2 recommendations is this a glitch in the system or is there currently a mega promotion going on that I wasn’t aware of?

  • What's the Point says:

    BAPP – by far and away the best credit cards Mrs WTP and I own (assuming 2 of you want to travel in Business/First). Got both cards this year, hit the spend targets and have now booked 2 x First class trips to India and South Korea, for 120k + 180K respectively.
    Ok so maybe not on everyone’s destinations of choice, but they have great redemption availability, good weather and are 10+ hours to maximise the time on the plane!
    Never travelled First, so pretty excited about going twice in less than 12 months.

  • CG says:

    I currently hold an Amex Gold with a number of MR points. Could I apply for the BAPP card and transfer the MR points to it before cancelling the Gold card, or are the points mutually exclusive?

    • Alan says:

      No – they’re totally different. The BAPP directly earns Avios (and the SPG Amex directly earns SPG points). The Gold/Plat earn the much more pluripotential MR points which can then be transferred to other schemes.

  • C77 says:

    Although if you are just converting AX gold MR into BA Avios (which is all I do) then it does amount to the same thing. Now I’ve hit all my gold bonuses and received my BAPP, I’ll cancel the gold and concentrate on hitting bonuses and the £10k 241 – should take me about 6 months I reckon. At which point, I’ll get someone to refer me for gold, cancel down the BAPP and repeat….. for as long as this points gravy train will allow me to…

  • David says:

    This offer seems to have gone back down to 18,000 today. Did it expire this morning or does it run to midnight?

  • C77 says:

    Also no referral bonus for BA Amex anymore. Just the traditional green, gold and platinum referrals seem to be eligible for the bonus. Same thing applies for other over-branded Amex (Starwood etc..)

  • C77 says:

    Correction – AX appear to have split the referral bonus off to another page for the BA plastic. Noticed a link to this in my BAEC account which just shows the 2 BA cards:

    British Airways American Express® Credit Card – 4,000 for you / 4,000 for them
    British Airways American Express® Premium Plus Card – 9,000 for you / 19,000 for them

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

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