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Reminder: British Airways American Express bonus offer ends September 30th

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Just a quick reminder that the current sign-up offer on the two British Airways American Express cards ends tomorrow:

The Premium Plus version, with the £150 annual fee, currently offers 25,000 Avios instead of 18,000 Avios. You must spend £3,000 within three months to receive the bonus.  Household income of £20,000 required.  Representative APR of 56.4% variable including the fee based on a £1200 credit limit.

The basic, free, card currently offers 9,000 Avios instead of 3,000 Avios. You must spend £1,000 within three months to receive the bonus.  Household income of £20,000 required.  Representative APR 15.9% variable.

British Airways Premium Plus American Express

My full review of the benefits of the Premium Plus card is here.

My full review of the free card is here.

For clarity, the only people who cannot get the bonus on this card are those who have cancelled a BA Amex in the last six months.

You are OK if you have (or have recently cancelled) a Lloyds Avios Rewards card, an Amex Gold, Amex Platinum, SPG Amex or any other American Express, MBNA or Lloyds-issued Amex.

Note that you cannot have both of the British Airways American Express cards in parallel.  You need to choose between them, and if you want to swap over you need to telephone Amex and upgrade or downgrade your account.

Want to earn more points from credit cards? – September 2023 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

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: The sign-up bonus on the Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard is doubled to 30,000 Virgin Points if you apply by 2nd October. You receive 15,000 Virgin Points with your first purchase and a further 15,000 points if you spend £3,000 within 90 days. Apply here.

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

30,000 points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard

30,000 bonus points (SPECIAL OFFER TO 2ND OCTOBER) 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

40,000 points bonus 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 Business Rewards Visa

Get a 10,000 points bonus plus an extra 500 points for our readers 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 on your spending.

Barclaycard Select Cashback credit card

1% cashback and no annual fee Read our full review

Category

British Airways American Express

Comments (21)

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

  • James says:
    29 Sep29 September 06:23

    I need to open a BA account for my wife as well as an Amex. I’ve discovered that if I open it on October 1st rather than today, we will have the same membership year, otherwise it will be off by one month from my account and thus ruin my mileage run plans.

    Can I put in her IB number on the Amex application, and then ring up Amex in a few days after I’ve opened the BA account, to give them the actual BA number and apologise for entering the wrong one?

    • James says:
      29 Sep29 September 06:23

      I mean TP run.

      • Phillip says:
        29 Sep29 September 07:21

        If you are planning on going for status for both of you, your membership year will change again when you hit your next tier, which, if you do together, should align both of your membership years.

        In short, I would guess there is a potential that if Amex can’t verify a valid BAEC for her, they might open one, so I expect a lot of running around from your end to cancel etc etc.

        • Raffles says:
          29 Sep29 September 09:29

          Do Blue membership years now reset when you hit Bronze?

          • Alan says:
            29 Sep29 September 12:29

            I thought they changed the whole system a few years back so you now *didn’t* reset your year when you moved up a tier? Instead you get the status for the remainder of that year and for the following one. The previous system used to reset the year though.

          • Rob says:
            29 Sep29 September 14:23

            Exactly, I was just a little confused by the earlier comment and was wondering if (from Blue) they actually did still do it. But apparently not.

        • James says:
          29 Sep29 September 10:59

          I don’t think this is correct. I achieved Bronze in July and my membership year stayed the same.

          The only way to change membership year (AFAIK) is to close your account and reopen it – which I have done for my wife. This will also have the benefit of fixing her name (which was entered incorrectly the first time), and changing her email address, which resulted in an error whenever we tried to do it online previously.

      • ups says:
        29 Sep29 September 09:22

        Just say you don’t have one and then call after a few days to tell them you want to like the one you opened. I don’t think that will be a problem. They might not even have opened one by then.

  • Yagamimo says:
    29 Sep29 September 08:11

    Just to check, is the minimum spend for the 25,000 bonus avios £3000, or £2000 as stated above?

    • Adam W says:
      29 Sep29 September 09:07

      It is £3000 as stated on the Amex site. I believe Raffles has confused the BA Amex min spend with that of the Plat and Gold charge cards.

      • Rob says:
        29 Sep29 September 09:26

        Yes, sorry, have corrected. The min spend often goes up when there is an offer on which is why I get confused!

  • Nathan says:
    29 Sep29 September 08:19

    Any idea when this offer is likely to come back?

  • Adam W says:
    29 Sep29 September 09:13

    Thanks for the heads-up. Think I’d have missed this otherwise.

  • Mark2 says:
    29 Sep29 September 09:19

    Correct. I think it was more than that very recently but my be wrong. True that the £50 limit is a pain.

  • Tayo says:
    29 Sep29 September 12:52

    Hello Raffles, I currently have a TSB Avios card and also an MBNA Avios card. Would I be eligible for the bonus points if I apply for this card. Thanks

  • Nick says:
    29 Sep29 September 13:52

    I asked Amex a question last night which seemed to stump them:

    Does the application have to be MADE by 30 Sept, or ACCEPTED by 30 Sept? I only asked because my wife’s application was referred. The agent I spoke to was unaware that there was even an offer on, but guessed that any deadline would apply to the making of the application. Incredibly, when I mentioned that I had referred my wife, I was told that she would get the sign-up bonus of 25,000 as well as the 26,000 for the referral, and I would get the 9,000 for referring her. Obviously the agent got it wrong (and repeated it when I told her she must be wrong), but it would be amazing if it were true.

    • Rob says:
      29 Sep29 September 14:21

      I think you can see by that last bit the low level of knowledge of Amex agents!

      It goes by the day you apply, not the day you are accepted (which of course you can’t control).

      • Nick says:
        30 Sep30 September 11:04

        Thanks – thought so, but just wanted to check. I am a bit tempted to feign indignation when my wife ‘only’ gets the 26,000 points and ask them to listen to the call and apply the 25,000 extra… but I do like Amex and I actually find that their agents are normally fantastic, so I think I’ll give it a miss.

  • Adam W says:
    29 Sep29 September 13:57

    It’s probably also worth mentioning that the 100% bonus on purchased US Airways miles promo (as posted here:https://headforpoints.com/2014/09/08/100-bonus-when-you-buy-us-airways-miles-convert-to-american-airlines/) expires tomorrow too.

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

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