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Travelex replacing Moneycorp at Heathrow – what happens to the BA partnership?

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During June, Travelex is taking over the Moneycorp foreign exchange desks at Heathrow.

There seems to be a continual merry-go-round here, because it wasn’t too long ago that Moneycorp replaced American Express Currency Exchange.

What is not clear at the moment is what happens to the British Airways Executive Club partnership with Moneycorp.

Moneycorp

The BA partnership has been a bit of a joke ever since American Express Currency Exchange pulled out.  BA had an exclusive deal with Amex for earning Avios on foreign currency.  When Amex lost their desks at Heathrow, they remained as BA’s exclusive partner for pre-ordering currency.

This was a bit tricky, of course, since you couldn’t actually collect it at the airport.  The only way to earn Avios on pre-ordered currency was to use American Express Currency Exchange online and have it delivered to your home or office.

(There is one upside to this.  If you pre-order currency online from Amex via this site – to earn Avios – or this site, which doesn’t earn Avios but has better exchange rates, it is charged as a purchase to your Amex card.  This means that you earn points on the transaction and that it counts as qualifying spend towards any sign-up bonus or BA Amex 2-4-1 voucher.)

BA agreed a deal with Moneycorp to award Avios for ‘walk-up’ transactions at Heathrow.  If you pre-ordered at substantially better rates, you were not meant to earn Avios – although Moneycorp would occasionally award them accidentally.  You need to be a little short in the brain department to buy foreign currency at Heathrow without pre-ordering it, however, given the spread of around 20%. 

There is no sign at the moment of a new Travelex deal being agreed with British Airways.  This may mean, as of the end of June, there is no way of collecting Avios on currency purchases at Heathrow.


How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (April 2024)

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

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

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

British Airways American Express

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.

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

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital on Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios.

Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa

Huge 30,000 points bonus until 12th May 2024 Read our full review

You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus.

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

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.

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points sign-up 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

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.

Comments (20)

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

  • JAXBA says:

    Before Moneycorp, and before Amex, Travelex were the BAEC partner. I remember using them in T4 and T3 pre-T5.

    They also used to be a place to drop off BA/UNICEF Change for Good envelopes too…

    I’m sure there’s some behind the scenes process they’ll dig out and dust off again!

    • Save East Coast Rewards says:

      Travelex carried on being a BA partner well into their T5 move. There used to be a Travelex in Galleries South.

  • Jileen says:

    How does this work? I have a Moneycorp card which I usually top up at a Moneycorp counter of whichever airport I’m departing from with my BA Amex card. Based on the advertised promos it suggests a better rate if you pre-order online. However, if my Moneycorp card and Amex is linked do I still need to “pick up”from the airport / have it delivered to home?

    • callum says:

      You don’t need to do it at a counter, you can do it online.

      Though you do realise their fees are generally more expensive than your Amex card for purchase transactions?

  • Stuart says:

    Only slightly OT but has anyone received their Supercard yet?

    • Guesswho2000 says:

      There’s a thread on MSE about this, someone had received theirs but the majority haven’t as yet. I haven’t had mine yet.

    • Mark says:

      Yes, although it didn’t work. Turns out they’d sent me more than one and cancelled the duplicates, so still waiting for the one that hasn’t been cancelled to turn up!

  • flood says:

    I got one yesterday. Loaded it into the app, but trying to switch which credit card it links to crashes the app…

  • dgsupersonic says:

    I received mine yesterday. Activated fine on app and CC linked too but didn’t have the chance to use it yet.

  • gnarlyoldgoatdude says:

    Won’t you still earn Avios if you hand over your Heathrow rewards number and convert?

    • Rob says:

      Yes, but that is 1 HR point per £10 converted, so 10 Avios for every £100!

  • Dan says:

    Are you 100% sure about foreign currency from the Amex website being classed as a purchase rather than cash?

    I sent Amex a secure message a month or so ago, and they said i’d need to “activate cash withdrawal” on my Amex Gold, in order to withdraw cash – and then i got the impression interest would be charged?

    “I would like you to know that you can certainly purchase foreign currency using your American Express Preferred Rewards Gold Charge Card. However, before you make an attempt to purchase currency you need to enrol your account into Cash Advance facility.

    You can opt for Cash Advance facility by visiting the following link, download and submit the completed application form for Cash Access:

    http://www.americanexpress.com/uk/cash” .

    • Liz says:

      I ordered £600 of US $ on my BA Amex recently and it went through as a purchase and not a cash advance as per Rob’s advice – didn’t have to activate anything. The avios appeared on my Amex account after 2/3 days. I got 600 avios plus 600 for the amex spend!

      • skins says:

        I seem to remember from previous HFP posts that this works for Amex issued cards only. Can anyone confirm?

        • Alan says:

          I’ve never tried it on a non-Amex issued card myself but that it definitely what I’ve seen reported on here before by Rob – it’s an Amex-issued only thing.

        • Rob says:

          In my experience (ie what I have been told by people who experimented with MBNA Amex cards), yes.

    • Alan says:

      This is a long standing issue, Dan – Rob is correct and the agents are wrong 🙂

      • Dan says:

        Thanks Alan! I’ll give this a try (perhaps for a amount initially!)

  • Londonbus says:

    Or enjoy Supercard, Halifax Clarity and your Santander Zero – and with the money you save pay cashl for a revenue J ticket with Finnair or QR for your next Asian trip.

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

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