Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Introducing American Express Corporate Cards for the business owner

Links on Head for Points may support the site by paying a commission.  See here for all partner links.

UPDATE – JUNE 2025:  This is an old article, and the credit card information given is likely to be out of date.

To learn about current credit card bonuses, benefits, terms and interest rate information, take a look at our directory of the top UK travel credit card offers – please click HERE or use the ‘Credit Cards’ menu above.  Thank you.

Keep up to date with new UK credit card bonuses by signing up for our free daily or weekly newsletters.

I usually focus on personal credit cards on Head for Points, for obvious reasons. I also occasionally touch on credit cards aimed at sole traders or very small companies, when they have very attractive sign-up bonuses.  Today I want to cover American Express Corporate Cards.

This post, for example, outlines the 40,000 Membership Rewards points bonus currently available on the American Express Business Gold and the 60,000 Membership Reward points bonus currently available on the American Express Business Platinum.

These are for very small businesses and sole traders.  (The Comments below suggest that having a personal Gold or Platinum card will not stop you getting Business Gold or Business Platinum and another sign-up bonus.)

Running a larger business?

If you run a bigger business, you could also consider giving American Express Corporate Cards to your staff. There are five products available – Green Corporate Card, Gold Corporate Card, Platinum Corporate Card and the British Airways American Express Corporate Card and Corporate Card Plus.

The British Airways American Express Corporate Card is particular interesting, as a company earns a 50% bonus on all British Airways On Business points earned from flights charged to the card. The British Airways Corporate Card Plus also earns the company an extra 2,500 On Business points for every employee who spends over £25,000 per year on the card.

Individual or centralised billing can be arranged for American Express Corporate Cards, depending on your preference. Employees also have access to various Amex insurance and travel assistance products, depending on which card they have. The Platinum Corporate Card includes a Priority Pass for airport lounge access.

Your employees will also earn Membership Rewards points or Avios when they spend on the card.  Some companies have agreements with Amex for these points to be paid directly to the company (ie to you as CEO!) although I don’t know if this is available to everyone.

If you want to find out more about earning Membership Rewards points or Avios from corporate credit cards, please click here and submit the form.

PS. If you are not a regular Head for Points visitor, why not sign up for our FREE weekly or daily newsletters? They are full of the latest Avios, airline, hotel and credit card points news and will help you travel better. To join our 70,000 free subscribers, click the button below or visit this page of the site to find out more. Thank you.

earns points from credit cards

Want to earn more points from credit cards? – June 2025 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 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

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.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 15th July 2025, the sign-up bonus on the Marriott Bonvoy American Express Card is TRIPLED to 60,000 Marriott Bonvoy points. This would convert into 25,000 Avios or into 40 other airline schemes. It would also get you at least £300 of Marriott hotel stays based on our 0.5p per point low-end valuation. Other T&C apply and remain unchanged. Click here for our full card review and click here to apply.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 14th August 2025, the sign-up bonus on the Hilton Honors Plus debit card is TRIPLED to 30,000 Hilton Honors points. You will also receive Gold Elite status in Hilton Honors for as long as you hold the card. Click here for our full card review and click here to apply.

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

British Airways American Express Premium Plus Card

30,000 Avios and the famous annual Companion Voucher voucher 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

Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard

18,000 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:

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

Capital on Tap Pro Visa

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

Capital on Tap Visa

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

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

Category

American Express Membership Rewards

Comments (10)

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

  • James Ward says:
    28 May28 May 08:25

    Last time I contacted Amex Customer Service I was told (after some discussion amongst various people in the office) that the signup bonus was not available if you hold or have held another MR-awarding Amex card in the past six months.

    Do you have any experience or inside knowledge to the contrary? I’d certainly apply for one if these cards (if not two – I own two LTD Co.s so I assume each business could apply for one?)

    • Rob says:
      28 May28 May 08:30

      With the Business cards, you cannot get a bonus if you have a personal card as the cardholder remains responsible for the card.

      My understanding is that the Corporate cards are different as the points and account are ‘owned’ by the company and not a person.

      • James Ward says:
        28 May28 May 09:10

        Ah, I see. Do you know what the min requirements for t/o or employees for the Corp cards? Both my businesses are more likely to fall under their criteria for the business cards, rather than corporate, I would have thought.

        • Rob says:
          28 May28 May 11:22

          Honestly don’t know. I think the difference is simply that Corporate Cards are for handing out to employees – so other people apart from the account creator have a card – whilst the Business cards are designed mainly for one-man bands without large numbers of employees also holding cards. In general, with Amex, if you’re happy to pay the fees then they will probably have you!

      • Michael Christie says:
        28 May28 May 18:02

        Hi Raffles

        thats not correct – i have a gold charge card which is my personal one (got 20k points bonus with it in dec) – and then applied for the platinum charge card when the 60k points bonus came out in march….i was accepted for both cards and received both bonuses. They are both on my Amex website logon and its my name that is associated to both rewards.
        My wife has also had the personal platinum card last year – and then applied for the gold business amex and received the 40k points for it also….they are also sitting in her MR account.
        I havent transferred any MR points to my BA account – will do it now as a test but dont see it being a problem as its my name the card is registered to.
        Will post back in to advise whether they post successfully.

        • Rob says:
          28 May28 May 19:29

          Thanks for that. I said what I said because a friend of mine, who has Amex Gold, rang Amex about getting Business Gold and was told that he wouldn’t qualify for the bonus.

          Not that I should have believed the Amex call centre, of course!

          • Michael says:
            28 May28 May 19:39

            No problems – AMAZING site btw.. I called the call centre just after being accepted for the platinum business and they said I wouldn’t be applicable for the bonus. My wife had had one earlier with the gold business card – so just waited for the card , spent the 6k to achieve the spend and the 60k points came a few days after hitting the spend.

          • James Ward says:
            29 May29 May 16:21

            Fantastic news! I’ll apply.

        • Michael Christie says:
          30 May30 May 11:32

          the 1000 points transferred successfully to my BA account from the Amex Platinum Business MR account (which is in my name).
          Job done.

  • Rob says:
    6 Jun6 June 10:44

    As your wife is technically an employee then you should be OK, yes. Do read the insurance document carefully, though, for obvious reasons.

    You don’t get the Cathay Gold with Business Plat but I think all of the hotel card/ are available (but double check if it matters).

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

New to Head for Points?

Welcome!  We’re the UK’s most-read source of business travel, Avios, frequent flyer and hotel loyalty news. Let us improve how you travel. Got any questions? Ask them in our forums.

Get 25,000 Avios with the Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

GET A SIGN-UP BONUS OF 18,000 VIRGIN POINTS!

Latest Forum Posts

Get 50,000 bonus points (worth 50,000 Avios) and £400 of dining credit with The Platinum Card

Check reward flight availability instantly for free!

See a whole year of reward seat availability on one page at SeatSpy.com

Special offer: Get 30,000 bonus Hilton Honors points until 14th August 2025

Booking a luxury hotel?

Our luxury hotel booking service offers you GUARANTEED extra benefits over booking direct. Works with Four Seasons, Mandarin Oriental, The Ritz Carlton, St Regis and more. We've booked £1.7 million of rooms to date. Click for details.

Get points worth 20,000 Avios with 'first year free' American Express Gold

The UK's biggest frequent flyer website uses cookies, which you can block via your browser settings. Continuing implies your consent to this policy. Our privacy policy is here.

Got it!