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New year, new credit card? The best bonuses and market gossip

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It is three months since I last did a round up of what is coming and what is going in the world of UK airline and hotel credit card sign-up deals.  The reason for the delay is that things got a little quiet.

Since October, we have had ‘MBNArmageddon’ with EIGHT airline credit cards taken off the market on the same day.  The following cards are no longer available to new applicants:

Lufthansa Miles & More

Emirates Skywards

Emirates Skywards Elite

Virgin Flying Club White

Virgin Flying Club Black

Etihad Guest

United Airlines MileagePlus

American Airlines AAdvantage

Our updated directory of the 15 remaining UK travel credit cards can be found by clicking the ‘Credit Card Offers’ tab at the top of the site or – for email, Flipboard, Apple News or mobile readers – by clicking here.

Don’t forget that 13th January is the last day to pay HMRC tax bills with a personal Visa or Mastercard credit card.  Learn more in this article.

What is new?

The market has been very static since MBNA culled its line up in October.

The one bit of news on the horizon is that Virgin Atlantic will be back in the market with a new product within the next two months.  Virgin Money will be the issuer.

I know a little more about this than I am allowed to reveal, but not much.  I don’t know about sign-up bonuses or what the long-term spend incentives will be.  I hope to have early access to the information when it is ready to go.

Are any other ex-MBNA airlines ready to launch a new card?

No, not as far as I know.  I know from discussions with two of the airlines on the ‘ex MBNA clients’ list that they are virtually nowhere in terms of discussions with new providers.

It could be that their contracts with MBNA stopped them from talking to other issuers whilst MBNA was still accepting new applicants.  It is also possible that MBNA pulled the rug suddenly and took the airlines by surprise.

It seems that Lloyds Bank, the new owner of MBNA, was not keen to operate rewards cards long term.  Look at the American Airlines card – the new version, only launched this year, was not an American Express and had a high annual fee.  It should have been workable even under the new EU interchange fee rules.  Lloyds / MBNA still decided to pull it.  I know that Lloyds / MBNA has no interest in launching new products, without an Amex, for Lufthansa, United, Emirates or Etihad.

We still don’t know when Lloyds Bank is going to pull the plug on the Lloyds Avios Rewards card.  The plug has to be pulled, because American Express has withdrawn all of its licences.

This is the end of the gossip and speculation paragraphs.

Amex Reward Credit Card ARCC

What else is new?

If you don’t follow HfP closely, you may have missed the mainstream launch of the American Express Rewards Credit Card (ARCC) in the Autumn.

ARCC is a standard Amex-branded credit card.  It has no annual fee and no substantial benefits, except for the ability to collect Membership Rewards points at 1 point per £1 spent.

There are three versions of the card available:

LOW RATE – 5,000 Membership Rewards points bonus and a representative APR of 9.9% variable (click here)

or

BASIC – 10,000 Membership Rewards points bonus and a representative APR of 22.9% variable (click here)

or

PURCHASES – NO sign-up bonus but 0% APR on purchases for 18 months and a representative APR of 22.9% variable beyond that (click here)

The first two cards require a £500 (5,000 points version) or £1,000 (10,000 points version) spend within three months to trigger the bonus.  You won’t get a bonus if you’ve had a Gold, Green or Platinum Amex in the last six months.

There are two reasons why you should consider getting an ARCC card:

As I wrote in this article, it is your solution if you are planning on cancelling a Gold or Platinum Amex to avoid the annual fee, but do not want to cash in your Membership Rewards points just yet.  The free ARCC card keeps your Membership Rewards points alive.

As I wrote in this article, the ARCC card is BETTER than the free British Airways Amex card if you don’t plan on spending £20,000 to trigger the 2-4-1 voucher.

Starwood Preferred Guest

In the US, American Express has signed a deal with Marriott – which now owns Starwood – to become a Marriott credit card partner.  This makes it more likely that the Starwood Preferred Guest American Express card will remain in some form if Amex can make the interchange fee sums work.

It is worth taking a look at the Starwood Amex if you have never had it.  My full Starwood American Express review is here.  The key point is that you will get the sign-up bonus of 10,000 SPG points – worth roughly £150 of hotel stays or 10,000 airline miles or Avios – irrespective of whether you have the BA, Gold or Platinum Amex cards. You can learn more here.

Representative APR 39.7% variable including fee based on a notional £1200 credit limit.

Other offers

British Airways is still running an improved sign-up bonus on its two British Airways American Express cards.  No closing date has been given for this deal.

There is a slight tweak this time.  The Premium Plus card is offering 25,000 Avios for signing up.  The free BA Amex, however, is only up to 5,000 Avios from the usual 3,000 Avios – this is usually increased to 9,000 Avios.

I would guess that Amex is trying to encourage more people to take the Premium Plus card by widening the gap in the sign-up bonus.  Frankly, you shouldn’t get the free BA Amex if you are planning to earn the 2-4-1 Avios flight voucher – this article explains why.

PS. If you are not a regular Head for Points visitor, why not sign up for our FREE weekly or daily newsletters? They are full of the latest Avios, airline, hotel and credit card points news and will help you travel better. To join our 65,000 free subscribers, click the button below or visit this page of the site to find out more. Thank you.

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.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on the ‘free for a year’ American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card is increased from 20,000 Membership Rewards points to 30,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (30,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on American Express Platinum is increased from 50,000 Membership Rewards points to a huge 80,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (80,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

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

Category

American Express Gold card, American Express Platinum card, Amex Rewards Credit Card, British Airways American Express, IHG One Rewards, Marriott Bonvoy, Marriott Bonvoy American Express, Virgin Atlantic and Flying Club

Comments (46)

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

  • Dartmouth says:
    30 Dec30 December 12:46

    OT – I may be moving to China next summer. Any tips on what to with BAEC account and card strategy before moving? For EC is it simply a case of changing address?

    • guesswho2000 says:
      31 Dec31 December 04:36

      BAEC just change the address to your new country. This works for everywhere unless you live in Australia (a hangover from the BA/QF tie up from years back), where you can’t have a BAEC account…well, you can, but you have to ‘live’ in Austria…or just leave it domiciled in the UK, which is what I did as you can’t have an Avios.com account outside the UK/SA. If you want to retain the ability to transfer between them (and IB, I assume) the addresses must match.

      As for the card (I assume you mean the BA Amex), I believe you can’t hold that outside the UK at all – if you leave it reg’d in the UK (along with the BAEC account I presume) it’ll still work, but I believe as soon as the monthly points go over to BAEC once the account is ex-UK, the card will be closed – there’s info on Flyertalk from people who have asked the same question, I’m not 100% sure on this one, I cancelled mine when I left. The 241 voucher has to be used on flights from the UK anyway, I believe.

      Amex will let you keep your UK cards once you move though (BA excepted), none of their UK products have 0% forex, so not worth using them much, but they’re good to have for return trips and for the global transfer service (Amex will open you an account in China pretty much straight away, when you apply put the UK card number down when asked about existing Amex cards) – this will help with a lack of credit history. It took a while as Amex AU liaised with Amex UK for a lending decision before they’d issue a card, and they wanted ID docs and payslips, but went fairly smoothly all in all. If you have an MR points balance, bear in mind you can transfer them to your new country (if you get a card there with MR) at the current currency exchange rate – you can make one transfer a year. However, check first as transfer rates vary between MR programmes (we have 4x different MR programmes in Aus!) and the transfer partners vary (no BA/IB here, for example) so keeping them in the UK might make sense in some instances.

  • the_real_a says:
    30 Dec30 December 14:27

    Out of interest does anyone know which “departments” own the credit card in the airlines? Does this fall under the marketing remit?

  • Thywillbedone says:
    30 Dec30 December 15:15

    Hi Rob,
    Do you think there will be a bonus (on conversion to Avios) offered by HSBC any time soon on its Premier Rewards scheme to UK-based cardholders (I note there is a bonus for US cardholders on at present)?

    Thanks

    • Rob says:
      30 Dec30 December 16:38

      They told me last Autumn that the 2016 one would be the last. Never say never but ….

  • the real harry1 says:
    30 Dec30 December 16:08

    might suit your student sprog for Easter vac?

    Air China flights available directly on their website to New Zealand for multiple dates in March, April and May 2018.

    Examples:
    OUT 9 March -> RTN 23 March – £517.51
    OUT 18 March -> RTN 1 April – £517.51
    OUT 10 April -> RTN 24 April – £520.51
    OUT 6 May -> RTN 20 May – £520.51

  • Chris d says:
    30 Dec30 December 21:14

    I would be very interested in hearing from anyone who manages to justify the annual fee for the Amex Platinum. Compared to the US card which gives a sizeable amount of the fee straight back in credits, the benefits feel pretty feeble to me. The complimentary partner cards may go some way to dividing the “cost”, but by the same token many of the benefits (lounge access excepted) are shareable anyway.

    The smattering of mid tier statuses may be valuable in keeping you out of the worst rooms, there again I’m Platinum with SPG (one of the better chains for status recognition) and things are quite variable even there.

    Just genuinely curious to understand the value proposition for those who use it. I know different cards have different “Amex Offers”, so maybe those are genuinely quite appealing.

    • Rob says:
      30 Dec30 December 22:04

      Many of us old timers still get a free BAPP for having Plat which knocks off £195. Travel insurance save a decent chunk and if you give out supplementary cards to your extended family they get it too. Rest of it is down to travel patterns – whether you value the Priority Pass airport lounge access, Eurostar lounge access, the car hire insurance, the Fine Hotels & Resorts luxury hotel benefits (the guaranteed 4pm check-out is worth a lot to me), hotel status cards etc. My wife also benefits from the PP and hotel status benefits on work travel.

      I also only make HFP payments on my card and therefore write off the £450 as a business expense.

      • Chris d says:
        31 Dec31 December 15:39

        Thanks, that’s actually very insightful! I can actually see how it might be valuable. The HSBC Premier World Elite seems like a slightly stronger offering for (admittedly less good) lounge access and insurance. I hadn’t realised about car hire insurance, actually, that would add up to a substantial saving if like me you buy the car company’s full package every time.

        I still don’t think I can justify it, without the same annual fee discounts and tax write-downs, and indeed no partner with whom to share the benefits, but at least I can understand why people in their right mind do have the card 🙂

        • the real harry1 says:
          31 Dec31 December 15:48

          I can’t justify it either fwiw – we fly too infrequently

          the 10-shot PP for about £11.50 each lounge visit will make more sense for some (though you can’t get a free guest in)

          or the Plat stacks up if you time it right, ie: a) hit bonus spend target nice & quick & bank the points; b) get in a few lounge visits; c) cancel promptly for a rather minor pro rata cost ie x days/ £450

  • Slamberry says:
    30 Dec30 December 22:16

    On the subject of new cards, Amex Platinum are giving some unexpected (at least to me) MP’s away: I just added my OH as an AU to my Platinum Charge Card and received 5,000 MP’s as a “1st Platinum Supp Bonus”. I then referred her from my Amex Platinum to a BA Premium Plus Card. I expected nothing to happen as they are in different schemes: one collects MPs and one collects Avios – however, when she clicked on the link the standard 25,000 Avios bonus had jumped to 26,000 so she signed up and was instantly approved. Two days later I checked into my MR account and Amex had dropped an 18,000 MP referral bonus in there. Is this suppossed to happen Rob? I’ve heard of some people getting 18,000 for referring from Plat to Gold (which I believe should be 9,000) but this was a (pleasant) surpise…

  • SS says:
    30 Dec30 December 22:20

    Any thoughts on whether the Hilton Barclaycard will get pulled given the interchange fee cap?

    • Rob says:
      30 Dec30 December 22:55

      No, not heard anything from Hilton. I do know why IHG dropped them, however, and it is difficult not to see Hilton following suit if Barclaycard takes the same approach.

      • Slamberry says:
        30 Dec30 December 23:17

        Interesting. Rob, you value a HH point at 0.33p under the present 2017 regime and you earn 2 per £1 of regular card spend, so that’s a 0.66% return against a 0.3% interchange fee cap. IHG points were worth 0.4p – 0.5p but you only got 1 point per £1 spend, so they yielded / cost (depending upon whether you are the cardholder or the car provider) a 0.4% – 0.5% return/ cost on spend against the 0.3% interchange cap. I’d assumed the IHG decision was based on this maths. I suspect the decision on the HB card’s future lies squarely in the interplay between what Hilton want to charge and what Barclaycard want to pay per point. If Hilton won’t budge on the present arrangement, I’m guessing it comes down to whether Barclaycard are willing to share some of their interest income from cardholders carrying a balance and pay Hilton a little more per point.

      • SS says:
        31 Dec31 December 16:31

        Thanks.

        May have to try get one soonish in case it gets pulled!

  • Alan says:
    2 Jan2 January 09:15

    I’m sure this has been asked before, so I apologise for asking again but can someone clarify the situation with fees and the AMEX Gold and Platinum MR cards please?

    I currently have a Gold Card that I will use to refer my wife when her 6 months fallow period is over. I will cancel and renew 6 months later – pretty standard practice.

    I was considering upgrading my card to the Platinum card for a short while so that I can refer my wife and get the better sign up bonus (not decided yet though as cash is not that abundant at the moment). Obviously, after I refer my wife I can cancel my Platinum card and get a rebate on the unused months but, if I referred my wife for a Platinum card would she be able to “downgrade” to a Gold after getting the 30,000 points bonus and be refunded the annual fee and, not be charged a fee for the Gold card?

    Or is this all too much faff anyway and I should stick to the original plan for Gold/Gold churn?

    Cheers

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