Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Three quick things for Wednesday (SPG Amex, BA Amex, Tesco / Blinkbox)

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UPDATE – JUNE 2025:  This is an old article, and the credit card information given is likely to be out of date.

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Three quick things which don’t justify their own post!

First … the 20,000 Starwood points (= 25,000 Avios) bonus on the Starwood American Express card is still showing on the americanexpress.co.uk website. This implies that the offer has been extended to 14th February for everyone, and not just the select few who were emailed about an extension. The offer has gone from the homepage of the Starwood website, though.

Second … I now have an end date for the current, very generous, BA Amex promotions. This is 3rd March. If you don’t have a BA Amex and are thinking about it, I would act before then.

The free card currently offers either 9,000 Avios.  The Premium Plus card offers 25,000 Avios.

Thirdly …. if you signed up for the Tesco / Blinkbox promotion, remember that you must register your Clubcard number on your Blinkbox account by 8th February to receive your 1,000 Clubcard points. These are due to be credited by 22nd February.

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How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (June 2025)

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:

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

Get 5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways American Express Premium Plus Card

30,000 Avios and the famous annual Companion Voucher voucher Read our full review

British Airways American Express Credit Card

5,000 Avios for signing up and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending £15,000 Read our full review

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.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold Credit Card

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

50,000 bonus points and great travel benefits – for a large fee Read our full review

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital on Tap for limited companies. You earn points worth 0.8 Avios per £1 on the FREE standard card and 1 Avios per £1 on the Pro card. Capital on Tap cards also have no FX fees.

Capital on Tap Visa

NO annual fee, NO FX fees and points worth 0.8 Avios per £1 Read our full review

Capital on Tap Pro Visa

10,500 points (=10,500 Avios) plus good benefits Read our full review

There is also a British Airways American Express card for small businesses:

British Airways American Express Accelerating Business Card

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

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.

The American Express Business Platinum Card

50,000 points when you sign-up and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

The American Express Business Gold Card

20,000 points sign-up bonus and FREE for a year Read our full review

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.

Category

British Airways American Express, Marriott Bonvoy American Express, Tesco Clubcard

Comments (18)

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

  • Ant says:
    6 Feb6 February 09:35

    Good morning Raffles,

    I cancelled my BA Amex on 29/8 and I have an email from Amex confirming this. Therefore the 6 months would be up by 1/3.
    Do you think I will get the 25,000 avios if I apply on the 2/3 for a new BAPP card or is it too close to the end of 6 months?

    • Raffles says:
      6 Feb6 February 10:10

      I think its too soon, to be honest. The bonus will drop below 25,000 for a bit, but I am sure at some point in the next few months we will see 25k or possibly even 30k again.

      • Ant says:
        6 Feb6 February 21:47

        Thanks. So I will wait a bit longer before I get a BA Amex.

        I have the Preferred Gold card, can I apply for the Platinum and get the 50,000points?

        Thanks

        • Raffles says:
          6 Feb6 February 21:55

          No, sorry. You would need to cancel Gold and wait at least 6 months.

    • MBX says:
      6 Feb6 February 18:45

      Could you call them up and ask?

  • gnarly says:
    6 Feb6 February 11:17

    Or even more than that. I believe that some strange extra bonuses have been appearing recently.

  • pazza2000 says:
    6 Feb6 February 14:13

    Is 20k Sign up Bonus the best we have seen on the SPG?

    • Raffles says:
      6 Feb6 February 15:31

      Yes, I think so – at least as far as publicly available offers go.

  • Neilypokie says:
    6 Feb6 February 20:22

    Can I have an SPG and BA premium plus? ( ie is this as simple as £35 for 25k avois?

    • Raffles says:
      6 Feb6 February 20:44

      Yes, that’s fine – subject to Amex being happy to give you more credit, of course. Reduce the limit on your current card (you can do this online) if it is crazily high.

  • Neilypokie says:
    6 Feb6 February 21:11

    Thanks raffles. Credit limit is 20k+, so reducing sounds like a great idea.
    Is this card better than me taking a platinum one for the 50k bonus?
    (I’ve messages you same question on PtS too, so please ignore it there.
    Thanks for advice.

    • Quix says:
      6 Feb6 February 21:35

      can you not do both? plat seems like it will stay at 50k for a while though

      what credit limits is amex likely to give in relation to one’s household income and existing credit, does it matter if someone in the household already has amexes?

      • Raffles says:
        6 Feb6 February 21:56

        Plat 50k ends 3rd March, now on the Amex website

        Not sure how much credit Amex likes to give vs household income but if you have more than a £10k limit on any single card then it is perhaps too much. You will have a gut feeling of whether (given the sum total of all credit limits on all cards) you have too much credit for your income.

    • Raffles says:
      6 Feb6 February 21:36

      I’ve just sent you a PM via paidtoshop, so read that! Platinum is the better card if you are looking for a large pile of Avios, especially as it seems the 50,000 point deal will be ending on 3rd March.

  • Akhil Gupta says:
    7 Feb7 February 20:46

    Quick question:
    I have an SPG amex and so does my partner. We both got our 20k SPG points which are sitting in our accounts. Want to keep them there as we can change them to many different frequent flyer programmes (our main FF account is with BA). At present they have a 20k SPG points to 25k miles promo. Does this have an end date? Trying to think whether to keep them with SPG for the time being or transfer to BAEC?

    • Raffles says:
      7 Feb7 February 21:15

      No, the 20k to 25,000 miles deal is permanent.

      Infact, if you wait then BA will almost certainly repeat their ‘25% bonus on hotel transfers” at some point, which will get you 31,250 Avios.

  • MBX says:
    7 Feb7 February 20:51

    “Automatic enrolment into the Starwood Preferred Guest programme”. How does this work, will I receive some kind of registration confirmation through the post?

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

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