Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Great BA Amex / Amex Gold / Amazon offer: 500-1000 easy Avios or Membership Rewards points

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American Express and Amazon have launched a generous offer for many – but not all – British Airways American Express, Amex Gold and Amex Platinum cardholders.

It is limited to 20,000 people, so I strongly suggest you register as soon as possible.  To put this in perspective, HFP gets 25,000 unique visitors daily and the number of BA Amex cardholders, let alone Gold and Platinum, is well into six figures.

You will find this offer on the ‘Offers’ tab of your British Airways American Express / Amex Gold / Amex Platinum statement page online, or in the app.

There appear to be a couple of versions.  Both my wife and I have:

Get 500 Avios when you spend £25 at amazon.co.uk before 17th September using your BA Amex

However, a reader sent me:

Get 1,000 Avios when you spend £25 at amazon.co.uk before 17th September using your BA Amex

There is also:

Get 500 / 1,000 Membership Rewards points when you spend £25 at amazon.co.uk before 19th September using your Amex Gold / Platinum

It isn’t clear who gets what and you may have got nothing if you are very unlucky.

It is limited to the first 20,000 people to register.  The only rule is that “purchases made with Market Place Sellers, Amazon Prime or subscriptions to Amazon Prime” do not count.   Does this mean that if you are an Amazon Prime customer, like myself, it does not count? (it seems not – see below)  Or is it a typo, meaning that purchases via Prime Now do not count?  Or only purchases made using Prime next day delivery, which you can opt out from?

I did a test purchase on my own Amazon account for a £25 gift card.  I AM an Amazon Prime customer.  Within 2 minutes of making the purchase I got an email from American Express saying “Congratulations, you have earned 500 bonus Avios – if your transaction meets the offer terms”.  Assuming that it does, since Amex has picked up the transaction and has no idea what I bought, this means:

gift card purchases do count

even Amazon Prime customers still earn the bonus on gift cards

This offer should be a no-brainer for qualifying BA Amex / Amex Gold / Amex Platinum cardholders, especially if you have the 1,000 points version.  £25 is a ludicrously low purchase limit for earning 1,000 Avios or Membership Rewards points.

As I found, purchases of Amazon e-gift cards seem to count.  These can be bought online via this link and added to your personal Amazon account via this page.  The balance is used automatically on your next purchase.


earns points from credit cards

Want to earn more points from credit cards? – May 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 Credit Card

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 Card

30,000 Avios and the famous annual Companion Voucher 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:

The American Express Business Platinum Card

50,000 points when you sign-up and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

The American Express Business Gold Card

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 Card

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

Comments (406)

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

  • GQ says:

    Hilarious comments over a tenner? Hey big spender….

    btw anyone had their pounds worth of martiott reward point’s?! :o)

    Get a grip people…

    • Graeme says:

      I am amused at the bizarre feeding frenzy of activity for what effectively is a ten quids worth of Avios tops, even if it is effectively free.

      Equally the widespread condemnation of the chat functionality seems to have miraculously changed to one of adulation when they have said yes to requests for adding this off to offers and memory of the secure messaging is long gone…

      • David says:

        Isn’t the very point of this website that many of us enjoy partaking in a bizarre feeding frenzy over a few avios/alternative points…?

        The tips and tricks on here are what’s paying for me and the other half to go BA First to Tokyo next year – and I can’t wait! 🙂

        • Graeme says:

          it is – that’s why i was amused… but come on, some of the attitudes some have have really can be a bit childish and petulant..

          I just think you win some you lose some in this game and thats part of the fun, but the level of injustice and drama that some of the comments have beggars belief, you think Amex had asked for a kidney not offered some ‘free’ MR/Avios 🙂

      • Alan says:

        Nope – the secure messaging were just as good in these situations but without all the issues trying to get hold of someone.

        I’d asked them to log my issues with them removing secure messaging and inadequately staffing online chat – had an email today saying they’ve logged a formal complaint and will investigate! Not expecting much to come of it but at least they did do as requested and properly note that I was frustrated by the new system! 🙂

        • Graeme says:

          i didn’t say it wasn’t (secure messaging) but perception of the chat has changed when computer says yes…

          • Alan says:

            Yep, can certainly appreciate that point from some of the comments! 🙂

        • Polly says:

          Same here. Miss secure msg. Got a survey to fill in today and last week, so am bringing itmtomtheir attention. Maybe too many staff cuts?

  • Kinkell says:

    Apparently I am a top customer of Amex(!) ha ha! Retired NHS employee that I am….and not a doctor! And the offer is targeted to those who are not high spenders! The lady I have literally just spoken to states that after a chat with her manager, there is no way she can add the offer to any of our cards. I have explained, read out some of the HfP comments and told her that some folk have it on a few cards, and are getting the offer added to even more cards. Still absolutely adamant she is not adding to any of our 4 cards.
    Definitely out of sorts this morning!

    • RKP says:

      A customer care exec I spoke to refused to add the offer to my card too saying they have been sent memo to not add this offer to everyone over the phone. Its targetted one

    • Mark LLL says:

      OT but Amex CS related.

      Reading comments across several older articles on HfP I had formed the impression that Amex Customer Support were almost always very obliging.

      However this has not been my (admittedly very limited) experience.

      Not complaining, but some details for the curious, others should skip the following:

      Received e-mail offer 3k MR to add a supp card to Gold Rewards Charge. Understood must use embedded link. I began my application via the link, but failed to complete – I became concerned it was a phishing scam. Later completed my sup application while logged in to my online account. Got the sup card but no 3k MR. Left it a couple of weeks, still no MR. Called CS and politely asked about the missing MR explaining how I’d started the application via the link in the offer, and my reason for completing the application via my online account. Was immediately told I had no entitlement because I’d failed to use the link so no reward and he (for it was a male) said there was no way he could just give out MR to any cardholder who asked as then everyone would be asking for points they had not earned.

      • John says:

        Sounds like a case where HUACA would have worked.

      • Alan says:

        I know it’s a small number of points but I’d escalate that to a formal complaint. I also received an email offer for supplementary cardholder saying it must be made via the link, but every time I tried it I got an error – eventually got them to honour the points manually after they tried the link too and found it didn’t work. Clearly something up with their website though with all these issues.

  • Phil says:

    Thanks for the heads up. I never normally look at offers on my BA Amex, but got 1000 Avios for £25.00 spend. Used wife’s non-Prime account ‘just in case’, bought a gift voucher and got the Amex confirmation of ‘1000 Avios within next 5 days’ about 2 minutes later. This, coupled with 5 upcoming Hilton Sale overnights before 31 August as part of a very cheap cycling tour along the Rhine, mean a minimum of 13,000 Avios for a net spend of around £300.00. Cheers HFP!

  • RKP says:

    I called up Amex customer care and they refused to add this offer to my BA premium plus amex card. They said they have been given a memo to not add this offer to customers over the phone as its customer targeted offer

    • BA says:

      Maybe try the online chat?

      • RKP says:

        Thanks, I tried online chat and they added it quickly. I am very desperate to get as many avios as Quick as Possible for booking of reward flights to tokyo in spring 2018 (without burning too many £££’s). I have 90k now, 50k more to collect. Every little helps 🙂

  • sam says:

    used this offer this am but no email to say i got the avios – only the confirmation of purchace of gift card. anyone else not get an email? rob got one by return.

    • Geoff says:

      Same here – and if I look at the offer under ‘my offers’ on the amex web site, it doesn’t say ‘offer redeemed’ as it usually does.

    • Martin says:

      Same problem with me. No email to say I got the avios. Did exactly what you and Rob did.

      • Alan says:

        I have the same problem, It says on the detailed terms that gift cards are excluded. Whoops I now have £100 on my Amazon account and I haven’t got the extra Avios. I think I will have to spend the credit before I can do a transaction ( not gift card) that does count.

        • Alan says:

          Thanks Lumma. I will do that then.

        • Rob says:

          Wait until the base points hit your Amex card overnight.

        • Alan says:

          I highly doubt that will be necessary – based on previous offers it is very likely the points will just post!

  • Jonnie says:

    Must have run out as cannot find on website

  • RKP says:

    Guys, Just got the offer 1000 avios for £25 amazon spend added by Chat customer care. Remember, chat customer care is supported by Amex India and other remote locations (not from the UK). So, Hail Amex India customer care. From my recent experiences with Amex UK customer care over the phone, is they are just a bunch of scum bags who’s sole motive is to FOB the card holder away, do not go out of the way to help the customer, different ways to say NO. I suggest, dont waste time in talking to UK customer care on phone, login to Amex online a/c, scribble thru your card details, you will see chat icon appear in few minutes or so, initiate chat conversation, ask them politely as a disappointment instead demanding the offer, and VOILA they will add the offer.

    • Graeme says:

      I am sure this opinion of UK based CS is not swayed by the fact the online chat staff gave you what you wanted and the UK guys didn’t – a sweeping and unjustified view of their operation to label them as scum bags is quite pathetic IMHO.

      • Trevor says:

        Agreed, my experience has always been excellent.

      • RKP says:

        Well, that’s my opinion based on the assistance I have sought from Amex UK customer care over the phone. I have made complaints in past with Amex UK complaints team of why not a consistent response from across their customer care medium – over the phone in UK hrs vs Email response vs Chat. Out of which, the worst response and experience over a variety of issues such as fraudulent redemption of membership points, card cancellations, offer enquiries, invoking of protection insurance on purchases. When you escalate the issues to complaints, seemingly they don’t have answers and all they have is Apologies and they fix it (which frustrates me why in the first instance they didn’t fix). I am not making it out by myself. 90% of instances with a sample size of 10 different instances of situations where I have asked Amex UK customer care for help. An exceptional case will always be there.

    • bill says:

      That’s exactly what happened with mine, I got through a lady in the UK via the chat and said she couldn’t do it. Waited a few mins tried again, got someone in India and politely asked if they could apply the offer. Not only did she apply it to the card I asked but also to the other 5 cards I had.
      A little politeness goes a long way.

  • Calz says:

    Got the 1,000 MR points, woop

    OT sold my last ink cartridge on eBay. 40,000 avios (or lots of uber credit) for 0.38P per mile. Happy days, thanks Rob.

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