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Amazingly, the old bmi credit cards just got better!

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If you hold one of the old BMI credit cards, you probably had a text message recently telling you that MBNA was writing to you with details of enhanced benefits on the cards.

You probably thought that this would relate to the improved mileage earnings on the bmi cards, which I wrote about here.

But you would be wrong!

Whilst the letters have not yet arrived, the details have been posted on the Diamond Club website here.

First, the cards have a funky new look:

Diamond Club cards

Secondly, the site confirms the increased mileage earning I wrote about before.  Amazingly, the MasterCard with the £60 annual fee now earns 2.5 Avios per £1, a frankly astounding rate for a non-Amex card.  The fee-paying Amex cards will also carry this rate.

Thirdly, it is confirmed that you will earn double Avios – so 5 Avios points per £1 on some cards! – when you buy BA flights using the card.

Fourth, though, is the real surprise:

You will receive a 10% discount on all British Airways flights paid for with some of the MBNA credit cards!

Now, this discount is only off the base fair, excluding taxes, so the net discount will be a long way short of 10%.  It is still serious money when booking long-haul premium tickets, though.

You can use the discount as many times as you like.    The only rules are that all flights must start in the UK and the cardholder must be one of the passengers.

So, oddly, if you have one of the old BMI credit cards it is now far superior to the British Airways Amex.

There is little sense continuing to use your BA Amex once you are past the £10,000 threshold for the 2-4-1 voucher, and if you have the 2.5 Avios per £1 MasterCard then you will be laughing very heartily this morning.

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (April 2024)

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

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

25,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

British Airways American Express

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

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

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital on Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios.

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.

Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa

Huge 30,000 points bonus until 12th May 2024 Read our full review

You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus.

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

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.

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

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 and Avios

Comments (61)

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

  • JK says:
    15 May15 May 11:11

    I think I know the answer to this already, but I just have to ask… Is there NO WAY on earth for a new customer to sign up for one of these?! Surely, if the suspicion is that they’re re-vamping the product, surely they’d want lovely new customers like me!

    I’m gutted I don’t have one of these damn things! 5 Avios per £1 – Jesus H. Christ! That would net me well in excess of 1mm Avios per year!!

    I presume it’s illegal to sell on a credit card in your own name? (I kid, I kid…)

  • Steve C says:
    15 May15 May 13:21

    This just doesn’t make sense to me. I’ve had the BMI Mastercard 1.5 per £1 card for absolutely yonks now and applied for the American Airlines card a couple of years ago (and still have it). At the time my credit limit was split between the 2 cards, fair enough but wildly in favour of the American Airlines card. I phoned to get the limits re-allocated and was told no can do, and have been told so repeatedly by them, as MBNA were looking to sell their UK business, this was not possible and yet here we are with new AA cards still being issued and tweaks to the existing BMI set up! Has MBNA been acquired or am I likely to be able to finally get my limits reallocated?!?! Surely this is a way just to burn their pool of DC/Avios to give to customers and close the cards completely. Why would BA allow a non-branded card to give better points (2-4-1 excluded)?

    • Rob says:
      15 May15 May 14:20

      Sales of MBNA was abandoned, Bank of America is now keeping it, including the UK arm.

      BA allows the non-branded card to give more points because MBNA is paying for them! BA couldn’t give a monkeys if MBNA gave 10 Avios per £1, as long as BA got their 0.5p (or whatever) per point.

      As per other comments, this is all posturing by MBNA as they attempt to win the BA Amex deal from Amex. Remember that MBNA already gives 2 miles per £1 on the Virgin Black Amex, so they are happy to pay up in order to win the contracts.

  • simon says:
    15 May15 May 14:38

    I wish I had one of these – you lucky lucky sods.

    • Rob says:
      15 May15 May 15:33

      Ironically I’m not using mine at present because I have spend targets on new AA and Miles & More credit cards to hit!

      • simon says:
        15 May15 May 16:26

        Just got the AA card but have a stack of deposits to pay for work with airlines so I should be able to do it as quickly as I can clear it as they only gave me a 5k limit.

        Waiting a bit to get the SPG card as well as I really fancy a trip to the US asap 🙂 I think now I am in the points game the only thing holding me back is how quick I can get the cards without hurting my credit rating.

        Still waiting for a BA bonus for transfer at the moment. have 100k sat waiting to move over. Wish you could move AMEX to AA at 1:1 – gues you can go through SPG at 2:1

        • Rob says:
          15 May15 May 17:27

          Yes, Amex to SPG to AA is the best way to get them across. You can also go via Carlson or Hilton but the conversion rate is worse (a bit, with Carlson, a lot, with Hilton).

  • Susan says:
    15 May15 May 16:02

    Only have the free BMI cards but still might be time to buy stand alone travel insurance so don’t need to use the Amex Platinum card to pay for travel.

  • Chris Storrie says:
    15 May15 May 16:30

    Fairly new to this but do these BMI amex cards qualify for AMEX rewards? I’ve always had this BMI card to earn avios on my spend just trying to figure out if i’m also missing a trick with regards amex rewards

    • Sir Stamford says:
      15 May15 May 17:43

      These MBNA BMI AMEX cards DO NOT earn AMEX rewards.

      Only selected cards (such as Preferred Rewards Gold, Platinum) issued directly by American Express UK earn Membership Rewards points.

      Sir Stamford

  • Rob says:
    15 May15 May 17:43

    Yes, should be, it goes through your card as British Airways.

  • Sir Stamford says:
    15 May15 May 17:56

    I think you have just answered your own question.

    The AMEX Premium card provides a “2 for 1” voucher which could save you lots of Avios. For example, if you redeem the “2 for 1” voucher on a first class return BA flight to, say, SIN, you are potentially saving 210,000 Avios.

    Admittedly, you get a slightly better earn rate with the BMI card, but will you gain an extra 210,000 Avios?

    I concur with Raffles’ suggestion that you should consider spending the first £10k on the AMEX Premium card to trigger the 2 for 1 and then put all your subsequent spends to the BMI Amex card.

    Sir Stamford

  • Simon says:
    15 May15 May 20:03

    How I regret finding this blog 2 weeks after the BMI cards closed to new applicants, I still have the apply now page bookmarked and check it every so often in case it gets re-enabled.

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