Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Last chance to get 25,000 Avios sign-up bonus with the Starwood Amex card

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

UPDATE – NOVEMBER 2024:  This article is now out of date, but don’t worry.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.

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

Just a quick heads up that tomorrow is the last day to apply for the Starwood Preferred Guest American Express card with the current 20,000 point bonus.

This can be transferred into 25,000 airline miles with most airlines including BA and Virgin.

SPG Amex

Full details of the offer are in this article here.

My full review of the card is here.  The official Amex page is here.

Remember that you can still get the bonus on this card even if you already have a Platinum, Gold, Nectar, Green or British Airways Amex card (or indeed any MBNA or Lloyds Amex card).


best travel rewards credit cards

Want to earn more points from credit cards? – November 2024 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 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

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

Huge 80,000 bonus points and great travel benefits – for a large fee Read our full review

Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard

30,000 bonus points (TO 18 NOVEMBER) 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

30,000 points (TO 9TH DECEMBER) plus good benefits Read our full review

Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa

20,000 points (ONLY TO 9TH DECEMBER) 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

For a non-American Express option, we also recommend the Barclaycard Select Cashback card for sole traders and small businesses. It is FREE and you receive 1% cashback when you spend at least £2,000 per month.

Barclaycard Select Cashback Business Credit Card

Get 1% cashback when you spend at least £2,000 per month* Read our full review

Comments (58)

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

  • andy l says:

    I would still recommend this to people however the amount of chasing up one needs to do with Amex and Spg is not for the faint hearted! I still have not a single point transferred successfully to my spg account nor have I been credited the bonus introductory points. Amex staff to be fair are excellent on the phone and so I am confident I will be successful eventually….. It is trying my patience in the meantime.

    • Neilc says:

      Andy, I has the same problem with Amex member rewards refer a friend. 18000 points not credited – 5 weeks of customer service trying to sort it out. I asked for a complaint to be raised with the ‘executive team’. Issue was then resolved by that team 2 days later with extra 5k for inconvenience!

    • dan says:

      Same here andy…
      I have been told the sign up bonus will clear after the 3rd month. The earnt points have not posted but as you say the team are on it!

    • Ian says:

      Having exactly the same problems Andy. Not a single point posted to spg yet despite half a dozen emails and phone calls. The 20k bonus is now due also.
      It’s now been elevated to executive level so we’ll see what happens.
      I couldn’t honestly refer anyone to this deal whilst these problems remain an issue.

      • Rob says:

        Very odd. I have never had a problem with the SPG card and the posting of points. Once you’ve confirmed they hold the right SPG account number for you then it should (but clearly isn’t) be trouble free.

    • Kiran says:

      I had this issue – SPG points vanished from AmEx but never appeared at SPG. Turns out my (pre-existing) SPG account address didn’t match my AmEx address and Starwood refused the points transfer. The 1000 referal points credited after £1k and the 20000 points credited after £2k. Now have to just hope they transfer ok!

    • Stu says:

      I got the refer-a-friend bonus straight away but the elusive 20k bonus still hasn’t posted! I got the 3-month story off them but I might ring up again if others have had luck pestering them. To rub salt into the wound, the friend I referred’s 20k posted with the qualifying transaction!

      Maybe a sneaky way of Amex reducing the pro-rata refunds it has to give?

  • Dave says:

    I started using my card on 15th of January and had the bonus points appear on the amex website shortly thereafter but my points have not been transferred to my SPG account yet.

    Seems strange

    • Rob says:

      The cut-off date is 6 days before your statement date. Any points showing on ‘Statement minus 6’ are sent across. Other points get held over for the next month.

    • Idrive says:

      It’s indeed normal. If everything is in order and the account is correctly linked to SPG, then you will have them transferred to your SPG account 6 days (Raffles correct me if wrong) before the end of statement period. this happens also with my BA Card. Practically they transfer the points in a batch once a month. So plan carefully about your spending if you need them at a particular time.

  • Graeme says:

    Yep, I have to echo the experiences of people above. Getting them to add the points on the Amex side is a battle, then getting them to link the accounts (which linked fine during application, so entirely down to them) is proving impossible. I need the points to convert to Avios to get an upgrade as well.

    Hopefully they’ll feel the need to compensate me like Neilc!

  • pauldb says:

    I just cancelled my card and their attitude was a surprise. The last time I cancelled a card (having kept it for a full year, not just a couple of months, but only having used it enough to trigger a bonus) I got a bit of grilling from the agent.
    This time she was at pains to tell me I could reapply for the card or any other and would be eligible for any bonuses. I already have a Plat and BA card, so I’m surprised Amex would want to push others at me, which I’d only use for the bonuses.

    • Rob says:

      The target they work towards is sign-ups ….

    • Will says:

      I cancelled a card recently and said “as you can see I haven’t used this for 2 months and now have the SPG card with you that I am using” she was like “ok and cancelled” no hassle at all

  • Dmitri says:

    Would one still get the bonus if one applies by the 31st and the application is not successful immediately. I ask this because I haven’t lived at my current residence for a year as yet and invariably all applications need a further review.

    Is it the date of application that matters or the date on which it is processed and deemed successful ?

    • Rob says:

      It is based off the date you apply, you will be OK. Perhaps keep a screenshot just in case.

  • Frenske says:

    Any idea what would be the sign-up bonus after tomorrow? Maybe more 😀

    On a side note, is there a way to find out when you cancelled an AmEx card? Will the cancelled AmEx disappear from your lists of cards on their website after 6 months?

    • Jonny says:

      would expect it to go back to 10,000 bonus points (which is under half as attractive as the current bonus as don’t get the extra 5k when transferring to airlines)

      I don’t know how to find out when you cancelled a card – previously i’ve just stuck a note in my calendar for c. 6 months after cancelling. Am sure Amex would tell you if you called them up. cancelled cards seem to show up for ages online though!

      • pazza2000 says:

        …& for years at Amex’s end. I called recently to transfer the card fee refund statement credit on my newly cancelled MR card to another and they were looking into my old MR account for it cancelled almost 3 years ago.

  • Paul says:

    I don’t know what’s going on with this card at the moment as the last time I held it the points posted to my SPG account like clockwork. This time round I’m in the same boat as others above – despite several phone calls and reassurances not one point has transferred across to SPG. My partner took out the card as well and is in exactly the same situation. Something is clearly not working as it should right now.

  • Idrive says:

    I am sorry to hear you are all having problems. I had no linked account when applied but i managed to solve the issue in one go with a single call to Amex where i spoke to a dedicated nice and friendly Customer rep in Belfast or up north ( i don’t remember exactly) and gave her my SPG Acc # to link . I also had a chat on the SPG site with a SPG rep to check first.
    Remember, the points will be transferred once a month, while the bonus should be posted together with the transaction which triggered the bonus. I had a beer that lead me to 21004 points:-)

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

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.