Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

What are the best credit card sign-up deals for May 2018? – plus a news round-up

Links on Head for Points may support the site by paying a commission.  See here for all partner links.

UPDATE – APRIL 2024:  This article is now out of date, but don’t worry.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.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 12th May 2024, the Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa card is offering a bonus of 30,000 points, convertible into 30,000 Avios. You must have a Limited Company to apply. Click here to learn more and click here to apply.

Keep up to date with the latest UK credit card bonuses by signing up for our free daily or weekly newsletters.

It is time for our regular round up of what is coming and what is going in the world of UK airline and hotel credit card sign-up deals.

‘Stuff’ is still going on after a relatively dull period.  The market is slowly coming to terms with the interchange fee caps and is moving forward.  Below you can read about:

  • A new bonus worth 2,400 Avios on the free Tesco Clubcard Mastercard
  • The upcoming closure of the MBNA Virgin Atlantic cards
  • The return of the Marriott Rewards Mastercard and
  • The overnight change of Amex Gold from a charge card to a credit card

Virgin Atlantic Reward free credit card

Our directory of the 16 main UK travel credit cards can be found by clicking the ‘Credit Cards’ tab at the top of the site or – for email, Flipboard, Apple News or mobile readers – by clicking here.

What is new in the last month?

Get 2,400 Avios with the FREE Tesco credit card

The newest new news is the 2,400 Avios or 2,500 Virgin Flying Club miles sign-up bonus on the FREE Tesco Clubcard Mastercard.

The bonus is actually 1,000 Tesco Clubcard points but that converts into Avios or Virgin miles at the rates above.

We rarely see a bonus on this card.  You don’t even need to hit a spend target – you get the bonus as soon as you make your first transaction.  The representative APR is 18.9% variable.  My full article on the deal is here and you can apply here.

The Tesco Clubcard Mastercard is the most generous free Visa or Mastercard for earning Avios unless you have a £75k+ salary and qualify for HSBC Premier.

The Tesco Premium card is still offering 12,000 Avios

The Tesco Premium credit card is offering a sign-up bonus of 5,000 Tesco Clubcard points until 11th July.  This means that the bonus is worth 12,500 Virgin Flying Club miles or 12,000 Avios.

There is no spend target.  You simply need to make one purchase in Tesco within the first two months.

The snag is the £150 annual fee, which basically nets off the bonus.  This means that whether you get the card depends on how you value the other benefits, including free travel insurance and a strong (for Avios) earning rate which works out at 0.6 Avios per £1 spent.

If you spend over £5000 per year with Tesco on this card, including petrol, you receive an end-of-year bonus of another 5,000 Clubcard points.  This does make it a decent proposition but clearly not many people spend that much.

You can apply here but read my full article on the deal first.  Representative APR 56.5% variable, including the fee, assuming a £1200 credit limit.

The Marriott Mastercard is coming back

Marriott has announced that the free Creation-issued Marriott Rewards Mastercard will return in August.

If the package remains unchanged, this is an OK card.  You earn 1 Marriott Rewards point per £1 spent, which I value at 0.5p.

Existing cardholders, from before the card was withdrawn two years ago, get two good extra benefits.  You receive 2,000 Marriott Rewards point for free, every year, as a gift.  You also receive 10 nights credit towards elite status which gives you Marriott Rewards Silver automatically.  It isn’t clear if these benefits will remain.

Marriott Rewards Mastercard

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold became a credit card

With absolutely no notice at all, American Express turned its Preferred Rewards Gold charge card into a credit card overnight.

This has no impact on existing Gold charge card holders.  However, I would stress a couple of points:

If you have Gold charge, you are allowed to apply for Gold credit.  You won’t get a sign-up bonus but you would get another ‘free first year’ and another two Lounge Pass vouchers.  This is a tempting idea if you are currently paying for Amex Gold charge.

It will no longer be possible to get a bonus for upgrading from Gold to Platinum, as you cannot upgrade a credit card to a charge card – they are totally different products from a regulatory standpoint

My full article on the change is here.  Representative APR 57.6% variable including the annual fee (free in year 1) based on a notional £1,200 credit limit. Interest rate on purchases 22.9% APR variable.

MBNA is closing its Virgin Atlantic White and Black cards – apply for the new ones now

In April we saw the welcome launch of the two new Virgin Atlantic credit cards.  As these are brand new, you should – if you haven’t read my recent articles – read these three pieces: one, two and three.  They will help you decide which card to get.

If you don’t have any existing Virgin Flying Club miles, I wrote this article to help you decide if the new credit cards were a good excuse to start collecting.

Last week, MBNA wrote to all existing Virgin Atlantic credit card holders telling them that ‘changes were coming’.  The letter was purposely vague, but I am treating it as the official ’60 days notice of closure’ which means that you should expect the cards to be turned off at the end of June or thereabouts.

To summarise the key facts about the new Virgin Money-issued Virgin Atlantic cards:

You CAN apply for these cards – and get a sign-up bonus – if you already have the MBNA Virgin Atlantic credit cards.  You don’t need to wait for your MBNA cards to be closed.

The free Reward card has a 5000 miles sign-up bonus, earns 0.75 miles per £1 and comes with a 241 or upgrade voucher for spending £20,000 per year

The £160 Reward+ card has a 15000 miles sign-up bonus, earns 1.5 miles per £1 and comes with a 241 or upgrade voucher for spending £10,000 per year

The cards are issued by Virgin Money so it is very unlikely that you will be conflicted due to having any other cards from the same bank

You can apply for the free Reward card here and the £160 Reward+ card here.   You can compare the cards side-by-side here.

Frankly, as long as your credit is excellent, picking up 5000 miles from the free Virgin Reward credit card seems a no-brainer especially as there is no minimum spend threshold.

Legal stuff: I need to tell you that the free Reward card has a representative APR of 22.9% variable.  The Reward+ card has a representative APR of 63.9% based on a notional £1200 credit limit and the annual fee.  The representative APR on purchases is 22.9%.

Want to earn more points from credit cards? – April 2024 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.

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

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a 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:

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 12th May 2024, the Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa card is offering a bonus of 30,000 points, convertible into 30,000 Avios. You must have a Limited Company to apply. Click here to learn more and click here to apply.

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

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

Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa

Huge 30,000 points bonus until 12th May 2024 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 Business Credit Card

1% cashback uncapped* on all your business spending (T&C apply) Read our full review

Category

General

Comments (108)

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

  • RussellH says:
    14 May14 May 10:06

    > Frankly, as long as your credit is excellent, picking up 5000 miles from the free
    > Virgin Reward credit card seems a no-brainer especially as there is no minimum
    > spend threshold.

    That was my initial reaction too – then I thought “What can I do with 5002 Flying Club miles?” (I still have 2 in my a/c). I then realised that I would need to get another 4998 from somewhere before I could transfer the miles into Hilton points. Picking up miles on Virgin West Coast is VEERRRY slow; the only other thing I can see is 16 000 e-Rewards points, which is a **lot**, so I for one am passing on this.

    • Optimus Prime says:
      14 May14 May 10:18

      You could convert them into IHG points? 5000 points could be useful during ‘Points Break’ promotions.

      • Rob says:
        14 May14 May 10:21

        Obviously if you don’t have an existing Virgin collection and don’t plan to build it up then 5000 isn’t much use at all (although 10k transfers to 10k IHG – which count as status points – or 15k Hilton)!

        • Cate says:
          14 May14 May 10:31

          We don’t actively save Virgin points but we signed up our credit cards to Virgin’s shop for Waitrose spend. Ticking over in the background we have roughly 6,000 points. If we take the new, free Virgin card then that’s another 5,000 each. It’s an extra pot that one day may be useful and cost nothing to earn.

      • Alex W says:
        14 May14 May 22:21

        I believe you still need 10k minimum before you can transfer to IHG.

    • Lumma says:
      14 May14 May 10:22

      Get an extra 1000 and you could cash them out for £36 off a Virgin flight with the fixed 0.6p per mile part pay offer they have.

      They’re pretty easy to accrue though Virgin miles. I think I started with a free 3000 miles from some promotion that they were running a while back and I’m now sitting on over 50,000. The big game changer will be when we get the ability to redeem on air France an KLM, as long as this comes with sensible taxes and charges

    • Matt says:
      14 May14 May 11:13

      I’ve never flown virgin and only started collecting about 3 years ago when they were offering 3000 miles to sign up to the free Virgin Red App. I am now on 25,000 through Waitrose spend, 8000 mile ISA sign up and 5000 mile VM credit card sign up. I will be transferring them to IHG this year to earn Spire mainly just for the purpose of getting the welcome choice bonus of 25,000 points and double base points on hotel spend (I’m not expecting any other status benefits for being spire over and above platinum).

    • Genghis says:
      14 May14 May 11:48

      Personally I don’t see £50 of points for free as a no brainer if there’s a hard credit search involved. I want at least about £100 profit from each application.

      • Luckyjim says:
        14 May14 May 20:13

        +1

      • Ali says:
        14 May14 May 20:42

        +2

        • Mark says:
          14 May14 May 20:56

          +3, I am very picky about which cards I churn and how many applications I do so I don’t end up with a credit history littered with checks. Amex churns don’t seem to affect my score but I noticed a deterioration after some non Amex applications a couple of years back.

  • Scottydogg says:
    14 May14 May 10:21

    O/T
    Could anyone point me in the right direction so i can find out what BA flights leave from Gatwick on a sunday night , for any given date ?
    I’ve been looking about and and unless you know where you want to go then its heard to find out the options .
    We are wanting a city European city break and we would ideally be flying from Gatwick after 4pm on a sunday , any ideas how i can find out what the options are ?

    • Anna says:
      14 May14 May 10:31

      I’m sure they will have a departures page on the Gatwick website, you’d probably need to check it on a Sunday.

      • Anna says:
        14 May14 May 10:32

        I think most city break type flights on BA go from LHR though.

    • Cate says:
      14 May14 May 10:38

      You can go onto google flights, choose LGW as departure point, specify ‘after 4pm’, choose ‘Europe’ as destination, choose ‘one world’ carrier and any Sunday date you are interested in. You then get all the prices for all of Europe on the day, time, one world carrier on the map. You just change the Sunday night date and the map will refresh.

    • Scottydogg says:
      14 May14 May 12:31

      Thanks for the replys , i will give these a go 🙂

    • Tilly says:
      14 May14 May 14:13

      Have you tried BA holiday finder? Pop in LGW as departure airport and date you want to go and think all the options should come up.

  • New Card says:
    14 May14 May 10:33

    Has anyone had recent trouble with points not posting on the Amex Gold and Platinum companion cards after the £500 minimum has been spent? The points haven’t posted either for me or for a family member.

    • Craig says:
      14 May14 May 11:02

      Yep, two chat sessions had no effect, one phone call to Brighton and it was all sorted.

      • New Card says:
        14 May14 May 11:15

        Thanks! Did you have to wait until 30 days after you met the spend threshold before calling? I tried ringing and they said they couldn’t do anything before then (and were generally quite unhelpful)…

  • Mark says:
    14 May14 May 11:31

    Does anyone know any travel hacking sites for European residents? I’ve just successfully booked a first/business flight for my family to SFO from London thanks to this site but I’ve just moved to Estonia and there doesn’t appear to be much by way of cc/avios offers outside of the UK.

    Any suggestions appreciated!

    • Rob says:
      14 May14 May 11:38

      There is usually something per country but Estonia may be scraping the bottom of the barrel if I’m honest! Vielfliegertreff is probably the most comprehensive German site (if you speak it), there are lot of Dutch sites due to KLM being strong. Not sure about Scandi but I’m sure SAS has some followers.

    • Yan says:
      14 May14 May 23:09

      You can easily find ~£1k J deals from Europe to US&Asia every month if not every week these days. Currently there is a Finnair J sale from the Baltic States to China at the moment (€1,2-1.3k). insideflyer.de and yhbu should cover most of these if you don’t mind reading Germans 🙂

  • Ken says:
    14 May14 May 11:46

    It is tempting to think of the £150 fee for the Tesco Premium card as a potential deal-breaker. I think not. Far from it, in fact. Yes, the annual fee cancels out the opening bonus, but think of the potential earning. And, think of this in Avios rather than Tesco points. For every pound spent at Tesco you get 4.8 Avios. You get 2 Tesco points, one from the credit card and one for being a Clubcard member. Or, just think of the credit card as earning you 2.4 Avios for every pound spent at Tesco. That’s a pretty high earning rate. I also use mine when a company I am buying from does not accept Amex or PayPal (paid using Amex). Here 0.6 Avios is not bad for a credit card that pretty much everyone accepts.

    So, can I reach the £5000 a year with this card. Yes, absolutely. Mostly buying from my local Tesco store. If I were to spend the whole £5000 at Tesco, how many Avios would that earn per year? Well I would get 5000 Clubcard points for the £5000 spent and 5000 Clubcard points for the bonus. That’s a whopping 10000 points or 24000 Avios. And remember, you get the 5000 Clubcard point as well for a grand total of 29000 Avios. I know that many people, either through choice or necessity, may not do most of their shopping at Tesco, but I do. For me it is a great card and well worth sacrificing the opening bonus to pay the fee.

    • Genghis says:
      14 May14 May 11:49

      “For every pound spent at Tesco you get 4.8 Avios.“
      You get that too on the free debit card (until Apr 19)

    • luckyjim says:
      14 May14 May 13:12

      You have to factor in how much you lose by not using your grocery and petrol spend to help hit sign up bonuses. It’s not just about the earnings rate.

  • Steven says:
    14 May14 May 12:30

    Does any other hotels match to the IHG rewards club?

    • Rob says:
      14 May14 May 13:25

      Look at statusmatcher.com

      Hilton will definitely do it via their current promo, link on our Hotel Promos page.

  • Cate says:
    14 May14 May 12:58

    I think the Amex SPG card may be a little more valuable than it seems at the moment, especially if you consider a parties past practical solution to one cancelling the card. May be useful for those on Sprat Platinum mattress runs – 12 Sprat points per pound.

  • Charlie says:
    14 May14 May 13:40

    I have had the BA amex blue card for a few years now, but think its time to upgrade to the the black version, as I think I am able to achieve a £10K per year spend now for the 2for1 voucher.

    Will I be able to qualify for the 25K avios bonus if I upgrade? Or should I cancel my blue card and wait 6 months?

    • MarkH says:
      14 May14 May 14:30

      You need to cancel and wait 6 mths to get the 25k sign up bonus.

      There is a random 6k bonus that some people get when upgrading from BACC to BAPP but it’s not guaranteed.

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

New to Head for Points?

Welcome!  We’re the UK’s most-read source of business travel, Avios, frequent flyer and hotel loyalty news. Let us improve how you travel. Got any questions? Ask them in our forums.

NEW: Sign-up bonuses boosted to 3,000 and 18,000 points

Latest Forum Posts

Get 40,000 bonus points (worth 40,000 Avios) and £300 dining credit with The Platinum Card

Check reward flight availability instantly for free!

See a whole year of reward seat availability on one page at SeatSpy.com

Get £10 when you spend £150 on your free Currensea card

Booking a luxury hotel?

Our luxury hotel booking service offers you GUARANTEED extra benefits over booking direct. Works with Four Seasons, Mandarin Oriental, The Ritz Carlton, St Regis and more. We've booked £1.7 million of rooms to date. Click for details.

SME? SPECIAL OFFER TO 12TH MAY EARN POINTS WORTH 30,000 AVIOS WITH CAPITAL ON TAP

Get 20,000 bonus points, four airport lounge passes and your first year free with American Express Gold

The UK's biggest frequent flyer website uses cookies, which you can block via your browser settings. Continuing implies your consent to this policy. Our privacy policy is here.

Got it!