Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Up to 50,000 – yes 50,000 – free Membership Rewards points for Amex Platinum holders

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If you have an American Express Platinum card, this is a fantastic deal.

If you don’t have an American Express Platinum card, this deal may well persuade you to get one – especially as it runs until the end of February.

Take a look at this.

American Express is offering 10,000 Membership Rewards points for every supplementary card you add to your Platinum charge card account.

This is a phenomenal deal.  10,000 Membership Rewards points gets you 10,000 Avios amongst many other things.  More importantly, supplementary cards are FREE.

You can take a look at the Membership Rewards catalogue hereThe airline redemption partners are here.

If you don’t currently have any supplementary cardholders on your Platinum charge card, you could earn 50,000 bonus Membership Rewards points by adding the maximum five people.

As an Amex Platinum charge card holder, you are allowed to issue FIVE supplementary cards.  The first one will come as a Platinum card and will receive ALL of the Platinum card benefits.  They will receive their own Priority Pass for airport lounge access and can claim their own Starwood Gold, Club Carlson Gold and Le Club Accorhotels Platinum status cards.  They also receive Eurostar lounge access.

The other four supplementary cards will be Gold or Green.  These cards will benefit from the Platinum travel insurance coverage but do not qualify for any hotel status cards or a Priority Pass.  You also do not receive the Lounge Club airport lounge access card that comes with a standalone Amex Gold.

Here are a few other points to remember:

All of the charges on the supplementary cards appear on YOUR statement as the main cardholder.

You, as the main cardholder, are legally liable for ensuring they are paid.

Supplementary cardholders must be over 18.

A supplementary cardholder is not treated as being an American Express cardholder in their own right.  This means that, if they later choose to apply for their own Gold or Platinum card in their own name, they will be treated as a new customer and will receive a sign-up bonus.

Whilst you are liable for any spending by supplementary cardholders, American Express will still do ID checks on your applications.  If the applicant does not have a UK bank account and/or does not appear on the electoral roll, on the council tax register and/or does not have other credit cards in their own name, they are likely to be refused.  I tried and failed to get a supplementary Amex card for our nanny a couple of years ago.

As you can see from the application page, this offer runs until February 28th 2015.

If you do not already have a Platinum charge card but had been thinking about it, this may swing it for you.  As well as the 30,000 Membership Rewards points you receive for signing up, you could also receive a further 50,000 points for issuing five supplementary cards.  My full review of Amex Platinum can be found hereThe application page for new cardholders is here.

Note that you MUST use this link to apply for your supplementary cards in order to receive the 10,000 bonus points.  Any other link, including adding supplementary cards during the application process for a primary card, will not work.


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 (205)

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

  • Gill says:

    Can someone have more than 1 supplementary card – on different accounts.
    Both me and OH currently have plat cards. Can we both add my mum as a supp card holder?

  • danksy says:

    As an aside; when I’ve added supplementary card holders the cards have been delivered to my own address; not theirs!

    😛 😛 “Unforutanately” 😛 😛 I forgot to issue all my supplementary card holders with their cards (apart from my other half as a supplementary platinum holder!)

  • Mike says:

    If I added a supplementary card in my own name, do you think I would get the points? I’ve been meaning to do that anyway (to make accounting a bit easier).

    • Rob says:

      I know some people do this (with the 2nd card marked ‘business’ or similar) if they work for themselves and want to separate expenditure. Not sure if this would count under the terms of this promotion, but if you were planning to do it anyway then now is as good a time as any.

      • Andy says:

        With the plat card you can actually get a plat AC (additional card) in your own name anyway if you ask for it…this is in addition to the 5 other supplementary cards for other people, with one of these of course being platinum.

        Going to cancel 4 family members and re-add them and see if I get the MR points…nothing ventured…

        • Mike says:

          Ah really? I don’t see a way to apply for that on the website (nor a category on the ‘contact us’ form). Do I just ring and ask?

          • Andy says:

            Yes – that is what I did. It was mentioned in the welcome book with the plat card that I got back in 2006 which I found when having a clear out, so i phoned up a couple of years ago to see if it was still available and it was. I also have an AC one on my BA PP Amex. Having both makes it extremely easy to separate personal and client /business expenses….and as a bonus also gives an additional card to register for offers

          • Mike says:

            Sweet, I’ll check it out later. Thanks for the heads up!

          • Mike says:

            Found it, hidden away at the very bottom of the T&C on the back of an application form for supplementary card holders:

            “Your annual Cardmembership fee for The Platinum Card includes The Platinum Card for you and: an Additional Platinum Card to separate your business and personal spend, for example, a Platinum Supplementary Card so that you can share the unique benefits with one special person and up to four Supplementary Cards in your choice of Gold or Green for your partner, family, friends or colleagues.”

            I rang up and they put through the request straight away! 🙂

          • PJK says:

            Iet us know whether you get the 10000 MR bonus for your own AC supplementary card Mike

  • Jeremy I says:

    Morning all! Just to clarify a point assuming I don’t have the card already (which I don’t) – I apply through Raffles link for myself and then refer a friend for my other half to get 18k? Then each of us

    Secondly, what criteria will Amex apply to approving the supplementals or is it a given that all 5 would be approved since they are not formally cardholders.

    This does seem like a genuinely good deal – question then becomes if and when to cancel the card (IIRC Raffles thinks the maths can work out to make the £450 worth it; others cancel after 6 months or so no questions asked)?

    Finally – I booked my first redemption using HfP tips last week – CMB to LON in Thai F using United Miles !!! I literally could not be more excited.

    • Jeremy I says:

      *apols – “Then each of us … adds 5 supplementals”

    • Rob says:

      As long as supps meet the criteria I outlined in the article they should be ok.

      Yes, you can refer your wife for her own card and get the 18k.

  • Damien says:

    Is it possible to have the Amex Gold and Platinum cards at the same time…. or do they force you to do an upgrade?

    • TimS says:

      You can have them both at the same time but you won’t get any introductory bonus for the second one (ie if you currently hold gold you won’t get an introductory bonus for plat).

      • Louie-m says:

        You do get a 15,000 MR point bonus for upgrading from Gold to Platinum though – see Tangey’s post above.

  • Amar says:

    Hi,
    Just wondered if you cancel after 3 months (after spending £2000 to get the 30,000 bonus) are you entitled to a pro-rata refund and do you get to keep all the reward points?
    Thanks!

    • TimS says:

      You would get a pro rata refund on the fee. I would transfer the MR points out before cancelling though I believe you might be able to keep the MR account open for a short time after cancelling but not long.

  • MoNkEyMaN says:

    Thanks for this, I suddenly feel the need to add more supplementary card holders.

  • Jonty says:

    It looks like there is a £170 fee per card after the first one ? Is the fee being waived on this
    offer because when you go to the Apply page it certainly says £170 per additional ?

    • Rob says:

      It is £170 for additional Platinum cards after the first free one, Gold or Green supplementary cards are free.

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

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