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Why some people are missing their 15,000 Avios BA Amex loyalty bonus

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I wrote earlier last week about the generous bonus of 15,000 Avios points which British Airways has awarded to anyone who has held a British Airways American Express card since it launched in 2001.

Well, not quite ‘anyone’.

I have had a few emails from people who have held the card since 2001 and have not received the bonus.

BA Premium Plus American Express card BAPP

Almost all of these people have one thing in common:

At some point between 2001 and today, they upgraded from the free BA Amex to the Premium Plus card.

So, the situation is:

If you have had the free card for 15 years, and are actively using it, you got 15,000 Avios

If you have had the Premium Plus card for 15 years, and are actively using it, you got 15,000 Avios

If you upgraded or downgraded from one card to the other during the past 15 year, you did NOT got a bonus

I genuinely do not believe that British Airways intended this to happen.  They will have asked Amex for a list of everyone who has held a card continuously since 2001 and this will have excluded people who upgraded or downgraded during that time.

Plenty of Avios, Amex and BA employees will read this, so hopefully they can take another look and issue the bonus to those people who do deserve it but have been tripped up on a technicality.

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:

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

British Airways American Express

Comments (75)

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

  • Kevin says:
    22 Nov22 November 17:00

    Regardless, the way it’s been administered is appalling. The BA (and Amex) guys I spoke with yesterday had no idea about the bonus. To be fair, the BA guy said he would pass it on to be investigated – I will post the outcome “as-and when”

  • Emily says:
    23 Nov23 November 13:59

    Hi, I didn’t receive the 15,000 bonus Avios either. However…. on checking my account I have:
    Car Hire – Avis – Avios Winner 18,000
    This seems to relate back to the Avis competition in October – thanks Rob for promoting it, I would not have entered otherwise! (I completely missed the email that I had won!)

  • Alexandra says:
    23 Nov23 November 17:16

    My husband has had the BA Blue Amex card since 2001 and when I saw the various posts about the loyalty reward from BA for 15000 Avios I asked him to call up and check it out as he had not received these promotional Avios. He has spoken to Amex 3 times and BA Executive club twice and each time referred them to the HFP website. Both BA & Amex categorically said each time that they have not heard about this promotion (having referred to promotions dept, supervisors etc etc). My husband is not one to give up easily he will pursue something to the bitter end if he thinks he should be getting it. We know that BA play hard ball but based on our experience it is difficult to believe that this promotion does exist. Why is there such a wall of silence if they have it “on their screens” or maybe we are missing something?

    • the real harry says:
      29 Nov29 November 20:21

      resilience is a good quality to possess

      or as we call it: just try another agent until you get what you want

  • Roger I* says:
    29 Nov29 November 15:29

    Not good news. 🙁

    E-mail just now from BA:

    QUOTE
    Thank you for getting in touch with us about the Amex Loyalty 15 Year Anniversary bonus Avios promotion.

    If you qualify for the award your account will be credited with 15000 bonus Avios.

    However, due to the sheer volume of customers eligible for the promotion, it has taken longer than expected to credit all accounts.

    If you have not received your award by the start of January 2017, please contact us again.
    UNQUOTE

    • Rob says:
      29 Nov29 November 15:46

      It is good news, because you weren’t actually going to get them at all but our little PR effort means that you now will, just not for a bit ….

  • Anne says:
    5 Dec5 December 10:51

    I was too busy to chase this up with Amex or BA, but I received my 15k email anyway, today.

  • Kevin says:
    6 Dec6 December 17:25

    I promised to revert – and am pleased to say, following my call to Amex and then to BA last month, my 15,000 Avios arrived today!

  • HayMow says:
    9 Dec9 December 10:27

    Just to say a BIG thanks to you, Rob, for pursuing this for us – my own 15k finally arrived (without my contacting BA again) in the last week – hubby’s not yet arrived, but he didn’t join till a few months later in 2001 (vs my Jan01 start) so hopefully they are going through in date order and these will appear by the early Jan mentioned above 🙂

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

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