Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

One year of British Airways lounge access with Amex Platinum …. you need to decide soon

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I wanted to gently remind everyone that time is running out if you want to apply for the American Express Platinum card in order to get the free Cathay Pacific Marco Polo Club Gold card.

The last day to apply for the Cathay Pacific Gold card will be 31st March.  However, you must have your American Express Platinum card in your hand first.  This means, realistically, that you need to apply for Amex Platinum in the next 2 weeks to be certain that you receive it before 31st March.

If you are not familiar with this offer, this is how it works.

When you take out an American Express Platinum charge card you can apply for a Cathay Pacific Marco Polo Club Gold card, valid for one year

Cathay Pacific, like British Airways, is a member of the oneworld alliance.  This means that your Cathay Pacific Gold card gives you the same benefits as a British Airways Silver card when you fly with BA.

In particular:

You can use BA lounges, even when flying economy – and bring a guest

You can use the lounges of any other oneworld airline when flying with them (Qantas, Qatar, Cathay, Finnair, Royal Jordanian etc)

You can select seats on BA flights for free

You get an additional baggage allowance (BA only)

You can check-in at business class desks

The full list of benefits from a oneworld Sapphire card (which is what both BA Silver and Cathay Gold offer) can be found here.

But doesn’t Amex Platinum have a £450 fee …?

Yes, it does.  However, the fee is refunded pro-rata when you cancel.

When you cancel, you keep the Cathay Gold card for the remainder of the 12 months for which it is valid.  You also keep the three hotel status cards for the rest of the year – Starwood Gold, Accor Platinum and Carlson (Radisson) Gold.

There is also a very lucrative sign-up bonus with Amex Platinum, although you can only get this if you have not had an Amex Gold or Amex Platinum in the last six months.  You will receive 30,000 Amex Membership Rewards points, which can be converted into 30,000 Avios or 30,000 Virgin Flying Club miles amongst other things.

This is how the maths could pan out for you:

Apply for American Express Platinum within the next 2 weeks, to guarantee that you receive your card by late March

Go online and order your Cathay Gold, Starwood Gold, Accor Platinum and Club Carlson Gold cards (last day for ordering Cathay Gold is 31st March)

Spend the £2,000 in 3 months required to trigger the 30,000 Membership Rewards points

Transfer your 30,000 points – plus the extra points from your spending – into 30,000  Avios, Virgin Flying Club miles or whatever other programme you choose

Cancel the card after three months for a pro-rata fee refund

So, for just £112, you will get ….

So, assuming you cancel the card after three months, for a net cost of just £112 (3/12th of £450):

you will have earned 30,000 Avios and

you get the equivalent of a British Airways Silver card for a year and

you get Gold status at Starwood hotels for a year and

you get Platinum status at Accor hotels for a year and

you get Gold status at Carlson (Radisson, Park Inn) hotels for a year.

Which sounds OK to me.  A lot of people who take out the card intending to cancel actually end up keeping it, because the benefits package (which includes full travel insurance, Eurostar lounge access, two Priority Pass lounge access cards, access to Fine Hotels & Resorts deals, UK Hotel Collection deals and special Platinum promotions such as the free Melia hotel night last year) is impressive.

My full review of the American Express Platinum card is here.


best travel rewards credit cards

Want to earn more points from credit cards? – December 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

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 Business Rewards Visa

10,500 points (=10,500 Avios) and NO FX fees 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 (188)

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

  • Stuart says:

    Do you have to post your BA flights to Cathay to get the option to select seats for free? Or is this just a case of calling up customer services and saying you’re sapphire with Cathay, if not BA, so please select me some seats?

    I guess the same applies to baggage. Do you get the additional allowance if you’re posting the flight to BAEC?

    • Andrew says:

      No you don’t need to post to Cathay, can just use the card for the benefits.

      You can use the Finnair website to change the FF number on a booking (for example to book seats in advance for free, then change back to BA)

    • Rob says:

      Yes. It may take occasional faffing with agents but its not a problem. At worst, let them change the number in your booking then get the lounge ticket desk to change it back.

      • susan says:

        You can even change the number yourself after doing Online check in so the boarding card shows One World Sapphire but the miles credit to BAEC.

  • avidsaver says:

    Hi Raffles If you upgrade from Gold to Platinum do all the same benefits apply?

    • Rob says:

      Yes, you will be fine.

    • Simon says:

      Yes they do – albeit you have a different bonus of 15,000 for spending £1k within 3 months.

    • Mark says:

      Be careful if you already have a supplementary card holder on the Gold. It is not obvious when you upgrade, but they will automatically be given a supplementary Platinum. If you also request them a supplementary when you complete the web forms, they will end up with duplicate cards (and priority pass) and you’ll be charged £170 for an extra supplementary Platinum.

      Resolved with a call to Amex.

      • wytco0 says:

        Oops that explains why I have a £170 charge showing on my account, AMEX hasn’t told me officially whether I will get platinum yet as they referred my applications buts its showing there now.

        • Jason says:

          Doh! Despite reading Mark’s comment I still fell into the trap! Amex customer services very quick to resolve (although still waiting for it to disappear though). J

          • Mark says:

            They finally removed the charge on mine yesterday. It’s taken a couple of weeks, with a bit of chasing.

  • Jkaps says:

    If I already have an Amex platinum card how do I get the Cathy pacific gold card for free?

    • Rob says:

      Go to americanexpress.co.uk/platinum, look under Platinum Benefits and then Travel. There is an online form to complete.

      • judith says:

        on speaking to amex i am told the marco polo membership is only free with a personal platinum card not a company one?! Can i just pay the $50 to cathay pacific to get the card even if we are not intending to fly with them?

        • Rob says:

          No. Paying $50 directly to Cathay just gets you a basic card which comes with no lounge benefits.

  • Joel says:

    Anyone knows what happens if you already have CX gold? (Which will expire in 6 months or so)

    • Rob says:

      No. You could potentially open a new Cathay account, if they didn’t spot your existing one, but that means your miles will get split. I doubt they will extend your current card.

  • CapnJack says:

    Does this apply to the UK plat. dollar and euro cards also?

    • Rob says:

      No, these cards have different benefits. You do not get Cathay Gold but I think you do get some of the hotel cards.

      • Danny says:

        UK platinum dollar (and I presume Euro) cards do receive Cathay Gold status–although only for card holders living in certain countries (including the UK). There was a post about this on flyertalk in January. I successfully tested this by applying for a dollar card, and my Gold status came through last week. However it may now be too late–see my other post below

  • Ant says:

    Do the supplementary card holders also get the Cathay Gold?

  • Matthew says:

    What is in Airport Lounges..? Any free stuff..?

    • Rob says:

      BA are very good. All the food, wine, beer, spirits, fruit, newspapers, magazines, coffee, biscuits etc you can handle! PC’s, printers, showers. Nice Champagne Bar in Galleries First but Cathay won’t get you in there.

      • Matthew says:

        All free..?

        • Rob says:

          Obviously …..

          Generally decent stuff as well. Concorde Room, not accessible with Cathay Gold, has Johnnie Walker Blue on tap which is £170 per bottle retail for example.

          • Matthew says:

            I had no idea, perhaps you can highlight the benefits more. I’ve travelled quite a bit but always assumed airport lounges were just a slightly quieter place to sit.

          • Mark says:

            I do recall using an AA lounge at Chicago many (>10) years ago on BA silver status and being given tokens for a couple of drinks on entry. If I’d wanted more I would have had to pay. Also, some lounges in the US (again not BA) insist on waiter service for which they then inevitably expect a tip.

            BA branded lounges are always help yourself affairs, with the exception of the Concorde room, and no cash required.

            I have noticed a sharp reduction in pre-packaged items in the Galleries Club lounges at Heathrow (bags of crisps remain, but cookies etc are now in jars without individual wrapping). Not sure if that is due to catering changes, or they are trying to prevent people walking out with a bag full of goodies 🙂

          • CV says:

            as an add on to Mark’s comments i heard of a lounge that prevents help yourself access to alcohol when some charter flight passengers are in, apparently they were filling up their own bottles with the free alcohol!

          • TimS says:

            AA Lounge at JFK still give you a max of 2x beer tokens on entry (or at least they did when I was last there a year ago) and everything else is cash. The “free” food selection was also little more than nibbles & fruit. All hot food was again cash only

            But I think that is a US AA lounge thing. The AA lounge at LHR had no restrictions/tokens for alcohol or food.

          • AndyGWP says:

            Can’t seem to reply to comments (assume there is a maximum thread depth), however can confirm that bog standard* booze is free for all in the Admirals Club @ JFK and ORD now 🙂 no vouchers necessary for that. I think they do dish out vouchers for people to use on ‘better drinks’ (depending on class of ticket / status perhaps?). The food options in the main appear to be white chocolate pretzels, a bit of cheese and biscuits etc

            *Bog Standard = Coors, Budweiser, etc and a white / red house wine (ie. Chardonnay etc)

          • Rob says:

            I was never aware of this on the first time I used an AA lounge – I was given drink tokens and therefore assumed (not illogically) that none of the booze was free!

            Choice of snacks in AA lounges is woeful ….. Fundamentally, there are no decent airline lounges in the US run by US airlines.

          • AndyGWP says:

            I assume that’s why the couple in front of us (who’d travelled F on the previous flight we had shared) were given vouchers. The lounge thing is all quite new to me – I just know we didn’t get vouchers but we got free booze haha 😀

            Interestingly, the AA Admirals website is next to useless so I had assumed it wouldn’t be free, but they have signs at the bar telling you what you can have (there and ORD) 🙂

            Regardless, I’d have never have known if it wasn’t for my Platinum AMEX (though as you know, that perk ceases in March and becomes a perk solely of a credit card you can only get in the US 🙁 )

          • Lady London says:

            BA Galleries First has Johnny Walker Blue on the shelf for self-pour too! The other end of the lounge from the champagne bar if you can stagger there.

          • Rob says:

            Ah, I never walk down that end. I will give it a go next week when I am there (kiddy free, for once!).

  • Tim Rogers says:

    How strict are Amex on the income requirements for Platinum? I’m not there, but have strong credit and a few years history from the Gold Charge Card and the Gold Credit Card (got both at the moment).

    • Rob says:

      It is household income, so you could decide to take a broad view based on your flatmates etc. However, if you have Gold you can’t get the normal sign up bonus for Plat, only the 15000 for upgrading (see link on the Avios Promos page).

      • avidsaver says:

        Hi Rob
        I’ve looked at the gold to plat upgrade application form and it asks for “personal income” not “household”. We have a household income in excess of the 40k but my personal income is around 32k. Will it be a wasted credit check or are they likely to refer to the original gold application details? Any thoughts? As ever, many thanks.

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