Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Update on the Amex / Amazon deal – points showing, gift cards OK, Prime OK, so jump in

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There was a huge response to my article on Monday about the fantastic new Amazon offer from American Express.

It is available for many – but not all – British Airways American Express, Amex Gold and Amex Platinum cardholders.

You will find this offer on the ‘Offers’ tab of your British Airways American Express / Amex Gold / Amex Platinum statement page online, or in the app.

There are a few versions.  You will hopefully see some combination of:

Get 500 / 1,000 Avios / Membership Rewards points when you spend £25 at amazon.co.uk before 19th September using your BA Amex / Amex Gold / Platinum card

It isn’t clear who gets what and you may have got nothing if you are very unlucky.

It is limited to the first 20,000 people to register so I recommend you sign up immediately.  You have until 19th September to make a purchase and have it post to your Amex account.

There was some confusion over the wording of the offer.  It said “purchases made with Market Place Sellers, Amazon Prime or subscriptions to Amazon Prime” do not count.  Secondary terms and conditions also implied that gift cards would not count, even though American Express has no idea what you bought.

I did a test purchase on my own Amazon account for a £25 gift card.  I AM an Amazon Prime customer.  Within 2 minutes of making the purchase I got an email from American Express saying “Congratulations, you have earned 500 bonus Avios – if your transaction meets the offer terms”.

The 500 bonus Avios have now posted to my account.  See below (click to enlarge):

Amex Amazon screenshot

This means:

gift card purchases do count

even Amazon Prime customers still earn the bonus on gift cards

This offer should be a no-brainer for qualifying BA Amex / Amex Gold / Amex Platinum cardholders, especially if you have the 1,000 points version.  £25 is a ludicrously low purchase limit for earning 1,000 Avios or Membership Rewards points.

As I found, purchases of Amazon e-gift cards count.  These can be bought online via this link and added to your personal Amazon account via this page.  The balance is used automatically on your next purchase.

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

American Express Membership Rewards, British Airways American Express

Comments (169)

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

  • The Original Nick says:
    9 Aug9 August 07:07

    I can confirm my 1000 MR points are on my Amex Platinum account after purchasing a £25 gift card.

  • J harvey says:
    9 Aug9 August 07:22

    I only have Amex Green and received 500 MR points bonus which I used to buy a gift card.

  • Neil Spellings says:
    9 Aug9 August 07:30

    After two Amex chats this morning, both told me that it was a targeted offer for people who didn’t redeem any Amex offers during 2016 and 2017. The offer only appeared on one of my eight Amex cards, but neither agent would add the offer to any of the other seven.

    • Third Passport says:
      9 Aug9 August 08:04

      I had the same and was really impressed with the speed of their responses, which tells me that they are pre-canned answers 🙁

    • Anna says:
      9 Aug9 August 08:22

      Hmm. We got the offer on the BAPP, even though we used the Ticketmaster offer a few weeks ago.

  • Paul says:
    9 Aug9 August 07:58

    I ordered an amazon e-gift card for £25 yesterday morning using my Amex card and received an email within 5mins saying I had qualified for 1000 bonus avios points.

    • Rob says:
      9 Aug9 August 09:27

      … but the email small print says gift card orders don’t count. Which, as I guessed, I have now proved is rubbish.

  • Joseph Heenan says:
    9 Aug9 August 07:58

    Unless you particularly want a gift card, there is no need to jump through that hoop – simply topping up your account via £25 works (I just tried it on my BA+ amex and immediately got the email from amex to say I’ve ‘used my Amazon offer’).

  • Chang says:
    9 Aug9 August 07:59

    Same thing – chatted this morning to a rep and he said it was a targeted offer and it was beyond his control since the offer was provided by the marketing team.Bummer. Can’t get it on my Amex Gold

    • Chris says:
      9 Aug9 August 18:29

      Guys – for anyone interested, these ‘excuses’ are all BS.

  • Chris says:
    9 Aug9 August 08:07

    A few years back, such an article about a small number of Avios would have barely any replies. £25 of spend on bonus point items in Tesco might have netted 4,500 Avios not 500!

    How things have changed.

  • SR says:
    9 Aug9 August 08:13

    Not visible on my BA Blue. Had to ring as the chat function wasn’t functioning for me yesterday. Was told it couldn’t be added directly but that the agent would ‘contact the offer team’ to see if they’d add it, and I should contact them after 24 hours via chat to see if it arrived. I’ve done that via chat this morning, and they’re still unable to help and have advised I ring back the phone team. Feel like I’m being given the run-around on this one; by far the worst service I’ve had from Amex since getting the card. Usually they’re excellent – have there been changes behind the scenes, other than closing the ’email contact’ option?

    • Anna says:
      9 Aug9 August 08:26

      It sounds as though the popularity of the offer has taken them by surprise and they’re not really sure what to do, given that people are getting contradictory responses. Maybe compounded by new staff working the chat facility now they have removed the email option?

      • SR says:
        9 Aug9 August 09:58

        Entirely possible on both counts. Compared to my previous interactions with Amex staff, this one has been very disappointing.

        • Chris says:
          9 Aug9 August 18:32

          Best get used to it – lots of staff have been made redundant – cost cutting most prevalent.

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