Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Get 2,500 Membership Rewards points when you spend £250 at Amex Travel

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An interesting promotion has popped up on the American Express Travel website, for anyone who has an Amex card enrolled in the Membership Rewards programme.

Amex is offering 2,500 Membership Rewards points (worth 2,500 Avios amongst other things) if you spend £250 on flights, hotels (pre-paid) or car hire before 1st August.

The Amex travel home page is here – you should see the ad for this promotion on this page.

I am not sure if booking hotels via Amex Travel counts as a third-party booking or not and therefore takes away your chance of earning hotel points, stay credit and elite benefits.  It probably doesn’t, since Amex is not a rooms wholesaler like Expedia.  However, you may want to be careful here.

The best thing to book is probably a flight, since it will have no impact on the miles you will earn.

This is effectively a 10% rebate if you value Avios points at 1p and spend close to £250, so it is worth seeing if you can find a way to use it.


earns points from credit cards

Want to earn more points from credit cards? – April 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.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 30,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

30,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

80,000 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:

American Express Business Platinum

50,000 points when you sign-up 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 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 1 Avios per £1 Read our full review

British Airways American Express Accelerating Business

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

Comments (18)

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  • Mike says:

    I just booked a BA flight (economy) through Amex travel to get this promotion. I tried to upgrade it on the BA website to plus, but it said that only the agent can do it (even though the website says that I can upgrade agent booked travel). The flight was the same price as on the BA website. Am I stuck with the class I bought?

    • Rob says:

      If you are trying to upgrade using Avios, you can only do it from Economy if you have bought a fully flexible fare. If you want to be offered a cheap cash upgrade, then you might have locked yourself out – my wife never gets offered these on all of her corporate agent-booked tickets.

      • Mike says:

        I rang amex and they could upgrade me for cash – it cost a bit more (~10%) than it would have to book through BA directly (including amex’s £20 ‘change fee’).

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

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