Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

New – higher – British Airways American Express bonuses now available

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UPDATE – AUGUST 2025:  This credit card article is now out of date, but don’t worry.  We produce a monthly directory of the top UK travel credit card offers – please click HERE or use the ‘Credit Cards’ menu above.  Thank you.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 14th October 2025, the sign-up bonus on The Platinum Card from American Express is increased to 80,000 Membership Rewards points. This would convert to 80,000 Avios! The spend target is changed to £10,000 within SIX months of approval. T&C apply. Click here to apply.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 14th October 2025, the sign-up bonus on the American Express Preferred Rewards Gold Credit Card is doubled to 40,000 Membership Rewards points. This would convert to 40,000 Avios! The spend target is changed to £5,000 within SIX months of approval. T&C apply. Click here to apply.

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

My top article today outlines the special 20,000 Starwood points sign-up bonus that is now available again on the SPG Amex card.

At the same time, Amex will also today temporarily increase the sign-up bonus on the two British Airways cards:

The Premium Plus version, with the £150 annual fee, now offers 25,000 Avios instead of 18,000 Avios.  You must spend £3,000 within three months to receive the bonus.

British Airways Premium Plus American Express

The basic, free, card now offers 9,000 Avios instead of 3,000 Avios.  You must spend £1,000 within three months to receive the bonus.

Note that, if you are reading this first thing on Thursday morning, the higher rates may not yet be showing.  Give it a little time.

My full review of the benefits of the British Airways American Express Premium Plus card is here.  Amex’s own home page is here.

My full review of the free British Airways American Express credit card is here.  This is actually the most improved deal jumping from 3,000 to 9,000 Avios.  Amex’s own home page is here.

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How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (August 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.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 14th October 2025, the sign-up bonus on the American Express Preferred Rewards Gold Credit Card is doubled to 40,000 Membership Rewards points. This would convert to 40,000 Avios! The spend target is changed to £5,000 within SIX months of approval. T&C apply. Click here to apply.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 14th October 2025, the sign-up bonus on The Platinum Card from American Express is increased to 80,000 Membership Rewards points. This would convert to 80,000 Avios! The spend target is changed to £10,000 within SIX months of approval. T&C apply. Click here to apply.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold Credit Card

Your best beginner’s card – 40,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes 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

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.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 14th October 2025, the sign-up bonus on The American Express Business Platinum Card is increased to 120,000 Membership Rewards points. This would convert to 120,000 Avios! The spend target is changed to £12,000 within three months of approval. T&C apply. Click here to apply.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 14th October 2025, the sign-up bonus on The American Express Business Gold Card is TRIPLED to 60,000 Membership Rewards points. This would convert to 60,000 Avios! The spend target is changed to £6,000 within three months of approval. The card remains free for the first year. T&C apply. Click here to apply.

The American Express Business Platinum Card

120,000 points when you sign-up and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

The American Express Business Gold Card

60,000 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

Comments (56)

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

  • RochdalePioneers says:
    7 Nov7 November 21:29

    Thanks to Raffles for the referral link, one free card applied for and in the post. Since I cottoned onto this Avios gig I’ve been busy with my Amex Gold card, but 11k points for £1k spend (including bonus) is better than the 2-3k I’d get buying rail tickets with my Gold card.

    Question. Card arrives next week hopefully, a grand on rail tickets before Christmas, I get my Avios points when? Best to then cancel this card (as my Amex Gold is better for normal use with bonus MR points) or should I leave it open?

    • James says:
      7 Nov7 November 22:25

      You should get the Avios straight away – they are credited as a bonus with the transaction that takes you over the spend threshold.

      If you are not going to spend any more on it or push for the 241 voucher (which is after a £20k spend on the free card and, as Raffles points out, not worth doing as youd be better off paying the fee and getting the extra Avios) then you could cancel and reapply for another bonus in >6 months

      • RochdalePioneers says:
        8 Nov8 November 08:04

        Unlikely to make use of a 2-4-1 voucher inside its 12 month window this year, plan to bank as many points as possible using Amex Gold’s bonuses (eg I get 5 points per £1 at my local Esso/Tesco Express filling station) plus take easy bonuses like these 10k free points, and then work on a 2-4-1 for my 40th in 2016…..

  • Simon says:
    8 Nov8 November 07:25

    This sign-up bonus for the free card ends on Feb 12th 2014, I assume the Premium Plus offer will also end then.

  • Mark says:
    8 Nov8 November 12:29

    There also appears to be a decent bonus available on the Gold Charge Card at the moment… 9K referrer plus 22K referee, no fee in the first year (with a year’s worth of double supermarket & fuel points) and two free lounge visits through the Lounge Club scheme.

    Spend requirement is also lower than the BAPP at £2K over 3 months. With the possibility of a conversion bonus and more flexibility this may be a better option for many (or go for both if you are you able to put enough spend through them…..).

    • Nick says:
      8 Nov8 November 17:16

      I had an email about this card recently – they were offering the standard 22,000 avios, plus a satnav and a nikon camera. Bizarre

      • Rob says:
        8 Nov8 November 18:56

        Amex does a lot of testing. There is a VERY targeted mailshot offering 40,000 points on the SPG card – someone sent me details of it – for example. There was also a mailshot offering 40k + £200 fee discount on Amex Plat earlier this year, again only sent to a small number of people.

  • Elena says:
    8 Nov8 November 21:27

    Is it worth going for the BA or the SPG card?
    I am thinking of applying for this one to get the 2 for1 voucher. So I think I will be using this one for a while.
    Do you know if there is any conversion bonus for Avios coming soon?

    • Rob says:
      8 Nov8 November 22:28

      Both of these offers come around every 6-8 months, so whichever one you hit now, the other one will almost certainly come around again!

  • The Other Steve says:
    10 Nov10 November 12:42

    I’m going to have to wait unti January before I can apply for any card after getting an Amex in July – hope they still have a good offer.

    • Rob says:
      10 Nov10 November 13:20

      Why, what card did you get in July?

      There is NO block on getting the SPG bonus, whatever other Amex cards you have. The only cards that block the Gold and Platinum bonuses are other Gold and Platinums. The BA bonus is only blocked if you’ve recently cancelled a BA Amex.

  • Another Steve says:
    11 Nov11 November 01:03

    I got the Platinum Charge Card
    I thought I read somewhere that you can only get one promotional bonus per 6 months.

    • Rob says:
      11 Nov11 November 09:55

      No, that’s not how it works.

      The cards break down into 4 groups. You can only have 1 bonus PER GROUP every 6 months. The relevant groups for us are:

      Plat / Gold / Green / Centurion charge
      BA / BA Premium Plus
      SPG
      Nectar

      If you’ve got a Platinum charge, you can sign up for anything from the other 3 groups at any point and get another bonus.

  • Yet another Steve says:
    11 Nov11 November 09:20

    Slightly random question for you Raffles. Say you cancel a credit card, and settle the account. Then a few weeks/month later, a retailer refunds a certain amount to that credit card (which you then transfer to a different Amex credit card). Does the refund “reset” the 6-month clock? Or is the effective date the date you called to cancel?

    I have this situation with a few pre-orders I made with Tesco Entertainment, where they refunded a few pounds under their price promise after I cancelled the card, so I’m trying to work out when I can re-apply.

    • Rob says:
      11 Nov11 November 09:59

      Absolutely no idea. In theory, credit card accounts never really die – MBNA still shows online accounts I cancelled many years ago, and the card numbers don’t get reissued ….

  • Scottish Lassie says:
    13 Nov13 November 20:10

    Hello,
    Sorry slightly off topic but my query relates to the BA Amex premium card and I just wondered if you guys could help…I have a BA Amex card which I’ve currently spent just over £10k, I’m nowhere near able to earn £10k by the end of Dec to earn a companion voucher but I think I read somewhere that if I called and asked to be upgraded to the BA Premium card they would be able to transfer my spend from my original card thus gaining me a companion voucher? Sounds too easy and I’m wondering if I’m missing something……I suppose I wouldn’t be eligible for the reward points that id get if I just opened a new card but I’d rather have a companion voucher to be honest!
    Thanks for your help!

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