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Flybe closes its UK Mastercard credit card to new applicants

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Flybe has pulled its credit card from the market for new applicants.

Has the curse of Head for Points struck again?  At a credit card conference in February I explained why – from the point of view of the issuer – the Hilton Honors Visa card had the worst balance between sign-up bonus and long-term rewards of any card on the market.  Within a week, Hilton had pulled it.

This Tuesday, I gave over a full article to the Flybe credit card and why I didn’t find it very exciting.  You agreed in your comments.  Yesterday Flybe pulled the card from the market. 

The marketing page is still on the website but at the bottom it says “We are no longer accepting new applicants.”

I am assuming it was nothing to do with me.  This is actually good news if it means a more rewarding, possibly Avios-driven, Flybe-branded credit card will appear in the future.

And should we buy the airline?

Following another dismal trading statement last week, the market capitalisation of Flybe had dropped to just £24m yesterday morning.  There is, of course, a lot of debt in there as well which explains the low figure.

However, £24m is worrying low.  It is a strange state of affairs that, if we had a whip around amongst Head for Points readers, we could buy the airline.

We have enough London-based investment bankers, entrepreneurs and hedgies amongst the readership to get the money together.

I should probably clarify for the purposes of Stock Exchange rules, since I spent 16 years in my previous life putting together deals like this, that I have no intention of doing so 🙂 but it simply goes to show what a parlous state the airline is in.

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How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (April 2025)

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

Get 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

30,000 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.

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

The Platinum Card from American Express

80,000 bonus points and great travel benefits – for a large 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, and the standard card is FREE. Capital on Tap cards also have no FX fees.

Capital on Tap Visa

NO annual fee, NO FX fees and points worth 1 Avios per £1 Read our full review

Capital on Tap Pro Visa

10,500 points (=10,500 Avios) plus good benefits Read our full review

There is also a British Airways American Express card for small businesses:

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

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

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

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

Category

General

Comments (175)

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

  • Flying Misfit says:
    1 Nov1 November 07:08

    OT – Not sure if this has been previously brought up but vaguely recall someone in comments asking about whether statements are still accessible on cancelled Amex card accounts.

    Cancelled an SPG card yesterday. Generally thought pdf statements and transactions history was inaccessible after cancellation. Found that this is the case when accessing on desktop but when I accessed via app on mobile, still had access to the pdfs. Tried this on some previously churned cards and also found pdfs available.

    • Peter K says:
      1 Nov1 November 08:48

      That’s interesting. I always download/screenshot transactions before cancelling.

  • Anna says:
    1 Nov1 November 07:11

    OT – last night there was an offer for 3000 avios to add a supplementary card to my current BAPP. Applied and the 3000 avios have posted overnight, result! However, there is still no sign of the 500 bonus avios for spending £5 so there seems no logic to their methods. OH’s 500 avios posted after 5 days!

    • FlyUpTop says:
      1 Nov1 November 07:21

      Same here, lots of qualifying transactions since saving the offer but still no reward. Trying to get an agent on live chat is near Impossible and I know what answer I would get if I called up – wait until offer expires then give us a call..

      • Tilly says:
        1 Nov1 November 07:26

        Ditto. On both mine and husband’s BAPP cards.

      • Brighton Belle says:
        1 Nov1 November 07:33

        It took a week for my 500 to appear

      • Shoestring says:
        1 Nov1 November 07:37

        it’s worse than that – the first numpty you speak to will say wait 90 days

        • Anna says:
          1 Nov1 November 08:58

          I’ve had that conversation! If it’s 90 days then so be it – but why for some customers and not for others? Is it not some kind of automated process?

        • RTS says:
          1 Nov1 November 09:28

          Fob off tactics 101.

        • RussellH says:
          1 Nov1 November 10:25

          Well, the Ts+Cs do say up to 90 days… and from 30 Nov too.

          “Rewarded Avios should appear on your billing statement within 5 days from qualifying spend but may take up to 90 days from 30 November 2018.”

  • Thomas Howard says:
    1 Nov1 November 07:13

    The situation at Flybe is what got me thinking what would happen to a BA booked NQY-LGW-CGN if anything happened to BE.

    Is there a price at which Flybe becomes attractive to IAG? BE offer routes Walsh has said he’s not interested in, but is that because they lack suitable aircraft or because they don’t see them as being profitable under any circumstance?

    • Stu N says:
      1 Nov1 November 09:19

      BA sold BA Connect to Flybe about 10 years ago to get rid of unprofitable domestic routes. Don’t see them buying it back any time soon.

    • Lady London says:
      1 Nov1 November 16:08

      I think you’d be getting the bus to Gatwick! BA doesn’t seem to think regional routes are really profitable. Not sure how British Midland is doing these days.

  • Oli says:
    1 Nov1 November 07:14

    Any idea what would happen to the Stobart operated flights if Flybe go bust? I am about to buy Stobart flights on the Flybe website for next February and April

    • Shoestring says:
      1 Nov1 November 07:47

      Your contract is with Flybe

    • Lady London says:
      1 Nov1 November 16:11

      Gotta feeling Sleazy might cover some of the Stobart destinations – they were coming up when I mistyped some destination s on a search yesterday. Not sure if that means Sleazy could be working with Stobart too? I;m still hoping to land on the beach one day at Sunburgh.

  • Tilly says:
    1 Nov1 November 07:27

    Got another 50 points on the Marriott game this morning.

  • Aron says:
    1 Nov1 November 07:41

    OT:

    Has anyone noticed FLR is only available from LCY now?

  • Shoestring says:
    1 Nov1 November 07:45

    OK here are my test results on success emails.
    7x Spend £20 @Amazon, get £5 – 4x success emails, 7x prompt payment.
    2x Spend £5 anywhere, get 500 Avios – 0x success emails, 2x 4 days later payment.

    • Alan says:
      1 Nov1 November 08:10

      Interesting, thanks. In my experience…

      3 x £20 @ Amazon – 2 x success emails. 2 x very prompt payment, 1 x payment after 10 days.
      1 x spend £5 anywhere – 0x success emails, awaiting Avios credit but only purchased on Tuesday evening.

    • RTS says:
      1 Nov1 November 09:30

      Lucky git. I have NONE of those offers available across 6 cards.

  • Rolf says:
    1 Nov1 November 07:52

    I must have been one of the last people getting a Hilton credit card before it was closed to new customers in March. I got the free night sign-on bonus but haven’t used the card ever since. Is it worth holding on to it or is it better closing it now and wait for the new Hilton credit card that was rumored about over the summer?

    • Wally1976 says:
      1 Nov1 November 08:36

      Personally my wife and I have held onto ours and use them for all our non Amex spend. I think there’s more to lose than gain by getting rid of it but others may think differently.

      • Nate1309 says:
        1 Nov1 November 10:16

        +1 my wife and I used ours for that too. Both linked to Curve. Though that may chance this month……

    • Peter K says:
      1 Nov1 November 08:54

      I like the guaranteed Hilton gold for £10k spend.

    • Genghis says:
      1 Nov1 November 10:45

      The Hilton card costs nothing and I don’t need the credit elsewhere so for me no harm in keeping it. I cancelled MBNA VS black card just before it closed. Had I kept it I would have got the enhanced bonus offer on the new VM card. Hilton might do something similar?

      • Doug M says:
        1 Nov1 November 11:42

        I cancelled my MBNA Virgin card to avoid another fee around three months before Virgin Money launched the new one. I was offered the enhanced bonus, and I’m sure I read others were too. Are you sure you had marketing email allowed, that was the problem for quite a few.

        • Genghis says:
          1 Nov1 November 12:41

          “Are you sure you had marketing email allowed”
          Yes. Luck of the draw I guess.

      • RussellH says:
        1 Nov1 November 12:06

        Who knows??

        I had the IHG Barclaycard as well as the Hilton one. The IHG Creation M/card launched before the Barclaycard ended and I made the mistake of going for the Creation one as soon as IHG promoted it, so missing out on the additional bonus offered when the Barclaycard did finally close.

        On the other hand, Rob mentioned last week (I think) that Hilton were struggling to find a replacement card issuer, so the Barclaycard version may well be with us for some time yet.
        Since for me it is much easier to get IHG points from stays than it is from Hilton, the Hilton card is much more useful.

    • Anna says:
      1 Nov1 November 12:27

      You get Hilton Silver just for holding the card which may be useful if you don’t have any other way of getting status.

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

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