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Get 10,000 Mile & More miles with the UK credit card – biggest bonus in 11 months

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UPDATE – APRIL 2025:  This article is now out of date, but don’t worry.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.

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Lufthansa and MBNA have brought back a decent sign-up bonus for the Miles & More credit card.  This is the first increased bonus on this card since November 2015 and the first since the 0.3% cap on interchange fees came into place.

Normally the bonus is a dull 1,500 miles. However, until 30th November you will receive 10,000 miles.

Full details can be found here.

The card has no fee.  The representative APR is 22.9% variable.   This is 6% higher than it was a year ago.

The miles are paid in two instalments:

1,500 miles with your first purchase (as per normal)

8,500 miles when you spend £1,000 within 90 days

You will also receive a £15 discount code valid against a future Lufthansa flight booking.  I would not value this highly as such codes are commonly available as regular HfP readers will know.

The cards come as a double-pack with an Amex and a Visa. The earnings rate is surprisingly good – 1.5 Miles & More miles per £1 on the Amex and 0.75 miles per £1 on the Visa.

You also receive a 33% miles bonus on ALL your spending for the first six months, on both cards. This takes the Amex up to 2 miles per £1, a very impressive earnings rate for a free card.

One of the key benefits of the Miles & More credit card is that it stops your Miles & More miles expiring. Without the card, your miles have a 3-year expiry. Unlike Avios, Miles & More miles expire after three years even if you have earned other miles in the meantime.

The card has no annual fee.

The issuer is MBNA, which also issues the American Airlines, Etihad, Emirates, Virgin and United cards in the UK. They are generally quite good at accepting modest earners (my Mum, who is retired on a modest pension, got a BMI card with no problem a few years ago).

You cannot churn MBNA cards. If you have already had the Miles & More card, you should not receive a second sign-up bonus if you apply again although they are happy to give you the card.  In reality, if it has been a few years, you may find that you do get it – but don’t count on it.

Miles & More miles only have value for long-haul redemptions, due to the crazy taxes on short-haul flights. These are often higher than the cost of buying a cash ticket outright ….

Miles & More does runs monthly mileage sales which often have very good bargains – see this example for example.

Miles & More is NOT an American Express Membership Rewards partner, so you cannot top up your balance directly using Amex points. The only option would be to transfer Amex points to Starwood and then to Miles & More, but that only gets you 0.5 M&M miles per 1 Amex point, or 0.625 if you transfer 20,000 Starwood points at once to get the 5,000 miles bonus.

You could, of course, also get the Starwood Amex card (review here) with a sign-up bonus 10,000 points and transfer those into 10,000 Miles & More miles.  Lufthansa is also a Heathrow Rewards partner if you have any of those to convert.

You can find out more about this sign-up bonus on the Miles & More website here.


earns points from credit cards

Want to earn more points from credit cards? – April 2025 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 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

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 Visa

NO annual fee, NO FX fees and points worth 1 Avios per £1 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

Comments (29)

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

  • Andy says:

    Don’t forget that M&M are also good value for US domestic on UA – 17,000 for a one way premium service in businessfirst on the direct transons (or you can book another routing with up to two connections) with just a few $ in taxes is pretty good value. You also get lounge access without status on the PS routes (to/from LAX/SFO – EWR) with this award.

    I still have my Diamond Club (aka ex-BMI) card, which is now effectively useless for earning.
    Do MBNA allow you to switch cards, which would save me the hassle of re-applying and, potentially ending up with a measly credit limit (my BMI limit is very high)?

    • David says:

      Just apply for the new card, then ask for your high BMI limit to be moved across, then close dc card.

  • Tom says:

    This is interesting. I’m looking for a Star Alliance program to join as I am flying Turkish and New Zealand in the coming months (all business class) – I was veering towards Miles and Smiles as I’d get the most for my Sydney -> Manchester flight in J, but this might make it worth going with M&M (which is probably a better option in the long run too)

    • Gavin says:

      Look at Aegean scheme assuming you will be able to do some flying in Greece or routed via Athens

      • John says:

        If flying longhaul in J, may not need any A3 flights at all, just double the mileage requirement. I was looking at a TG J fare to NZ which would earn 46000 miles or so.

        M&M is only a good option if you plan to spend lots of money with LH group airlines.

        • David2910 says:

          I spent ages weighing up earning and burning options on *A a year ago when I had some ANA flights to credit. Agean and asiana indeed seemed like people’s choice, but the former needs Greece legs, and the latter (if I recall correctly) had expiry risk written all over it. Turkish also seemed popular but the website was so confusing I lost interest. so M&M with the free card to maintain miles, and being a European airline (with potential for one day first class which is very good for Europe airline) made it obvious choice (for me). Do it.

  • Nick says:

    O:T, Just received an email offering 500 Avios for Supplementary cards added to my BA CC. Also, my Mum was offered 1000 MR points yesterday for a Supplementary card added to her Amex Gold Card.

    • Roger says:

      Yes received mine too but I am cancelling mune after wife gets her BAPP bonus and me for referral.

  • Chia Yau says:

    Can I transfer the 10000 miles and more to other partner like SPG ?

  • rossmacd says:

    Does anyone know the rules of the M&M credit card, and M&M account location?

    For example, my M&M account is based in Switzerland (where I am based!), but I could easily qualify for a M&M Credit Card in the UK. Would this cause any problems crediting the 10k miles (and associated miles for spending) to my Swiss based M&M account.

    I know some FF programmes are sticky on this (e.g. BAEC)

    • czechoslovakia says:

      Just the question I was wondering about. Anyone? I already have a local CZ card feeding my M&M account.

    • Zander says:

      My M&M account is based in Germany, I hold the UK MBNA, German M&M Mastercard Elite and the Swiss AMEX. There have been no issues with all 3 linked to the German account.

      I’d recommend the German card if you have a German bank account as well.

      • rossmacd says:

        Perfect thank you!!

        • David says:

          Continuing form this, has anyone moved abroad after taking out MBNA cards that pay loyalty points? Have you managed to keep the card?
          (such as the M&M card, plus AA, Etihad, etc, etc).

          Like most financial services providers, MBNA state they can’t normally open up accounts people outside the UK (headaches of KYC etc), but existing customers can normally keep their accounts.

          However, this is a generic statement on their website. It could easily apply to only being able to keep a non-reward earning card, etc.

          Does anyone have any experience of keeping their cards going? Particularly M&M, also VS and AA.

  • Judith says:

    Can these miles be converted to Avios or Amex points?

  • danksy says:

    Slight O/T but I wonder if SPG amex will have it’s normal November promo….?

  • Greg says:

    Can someone please advise a rough example of what this might be redeemable against? I.e am I looking at a decent saving on a long haul from the uk? Thanks

    • Greg says:

      Thanks David. Better than slap in the face then, and with no fee, maybe worth it.

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

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