Should you leave American Express for 24 months until you can get a new sign-up bonus?

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We have spent a lot of time in the last few days discussing the new American Express sign-up bonus policy. In most cases, you need to cancel all of your personal American Express cards and wait two years before you would qualify for any new sign-up bonuses.

As I pointed out on Thursday, for someone who does not have an American Express card and has not had one in the past 24 months, you can still earn 65,000 Avios relatively quickly.

This is the best strategy for maximising Avios under the new Avios rules:

For your first card:

Get the Starwood Preferred Guest American Express (bonus of 30,000 Marriott Bonvoy points) or Nectar American Express (20,000 Nectar points) or Platinum Cashback or Platinum Cashback Everyday. I would see the Starwood option as the most valuable.

Once you have got your first card, you are disqualified from bonuses on most of the other cards. There are two exceptions however:

For your second card (or third card, order is not important):

Get The Platinum Card (bonus of 30,000 Membership Rewards points) because the only restriction on getting this is if you have held another Membership Rewards-earning card (Preferred Rewards Gold, American Express Rewards, Green, Gold Business, Platinum Business) in the previous 24 months

For your third card (or second card, order is not important):

Get the British Airways American Express Premium Plus card (bonus of 25,000 Avios) because the only restriction on getting this is if you have held either British Airways American Express card in the previous 24 months

The reason for the order here is that as soon as you get The Platinum Card or the British Airways Premium Plus card, you block yourself from all of the bonuses in the first list.

Under the new rules, if you had not previously had a personal American Express card, this strategy will earn you:

30,000 Marriott Bonvoy points from the Starwood American Express or 20,000 Nectar points

plus

30,000 Membership Rewards points from The Platinum Card

plus

25,000 Avios from the British Airways Premium Plus card

If you converted the 30,000 Marriott Bonvoy points into 10,000 Avios and the 30,000 Membership Rewards points into 30,000 Avios, you would have earned 65,000 Avios fairly quickly from sign-up bonuses.

What are your options as an existing cardholder?

If you are currently an American Express personal cardholder, you have two options.

Option 1 is to carry on as you are, keeping one of the American Express cards in your wallet but knowing that in most cases you will never be eligible for another sign-up bonus

Option 2 is to cancel all of your personal American Express cards and start the 24 month clock on when you can pursue the strategy above

For a lot of people, I think Option 2 is pretty attractive.

Option 2 allows you, in two years time, to pick up 65,000 Avios relatively quickly via the application strategy I outline above. Your partner can do the same. Importantly, you can refer your partner for the cards using the ‘refer a friend’ programme. Add in the referral bonuses and you can still earn over 150,000 Avios between two people once every two years.

What would you do for 24 months whilst you are waiting?

Spend on a totally different card.

There are LOTS of non-American Express cards out there that you can use for the next 24 months and some are pretty attractive. Here are the most valuable options:

Virgin Atlantic Reward Mastercard – annual fee £0 – earns 0.75 miles per £1 – sign-up bonus of 5,000 Virgin Flying Club miles – our review / apply

Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard – annual fee £160 – earns 1.5 miles per £1 – sign-up bonus of 15,000 Virgin Flying Club miles – our review / apply

Miles & More Global Traveller Diners Club and Mastercard – annual fee £79 – earns 1.25 miles per £1 – sign-up bonus of 5,000 Miles & More miles – our review / apply

IHG Rewards Club Mastercard – no annual fee – earns 1 point per £1 – sign-up bonus of 10,000 IHG Rewards Club points – our review / apply

IHG Rewards Club Premium Mastercard – annual fee £99 – earns 2 points per £1 – sign-up bonus of 20,000 IHG Rewards Club points – our review / apply

HSBC Premier Mastercard – no annual fee – earns 0.5 airline miles per £1 – no sign-up bonus – our review / apply

HSBC Premier World Elite Mastercard – annual fee of £195 – earns 1 airline mile per £1 – sign-up bonus of 40,000 airline miles – our review / apply

There are plenty of alternatives out there. It is worth remembering that KLM and Air France will soon be redeemable with Virgin Flying Club miles, adding a lot of extra options.

You get some decent long-term incentives too. The IHG Rewards Club Premium Mastercard offers you a free night voucher each year if you spend £10,000. The Virgin Atlantic credit cards offer a 2-4-1 or upgrade voucher each year if you spend £10,000.

If you think you prefer Option 1 – carrying on as you are – remember how hard it would be to earn 65,000 Avios via normal spending

If you cancel all of your American Express cards, I showed you above how – in 24 months time – you can pick up 65,000 Avios fairly quickly via three applications.

If you choose to keep your existing cards, you will obviously continue to earn miles as you always did. However, think about how much spending would be required over the next two years to earn 65,000 Avios:

£65,000 on the free BA Amex, Amex Gold or Amex Platinum

£43,333 on the British Airways American Express Premium Plus

£52,000 on the Starwood Preferred Guest American Express

Most people can’t hit these targets and are better off cancelling everything – you will earn more miles from Amex by cancelling and waiting 24 months. This also ignores the huge number of points you’d earn by diverting your spend to one of the other cards above.

The ‘elephant in the room’ is the BA Amex 2-4-1 voucher

The key problem, if you cancel all of your American Express cards to restart the 24 month clock, is not earning a British Airways American Express Premium Plus 2-4-1 voucher.

You might be happy to skip the voucher for two years, especially if you have existing vouchers to use up. If you are still earning a lot of Avios via other routes (like flying) you may well need to bite the bullet and keep your BA Amex open.

This doesn’t totally stop you getting other bonuses. You would still be eligible to apply for The Platinum Card every 24 months and receive a 30,000 points sign-up bonus.

And you need an Amex to pay the taxes on your 2-4-1 tickets ….

Remember that you need to pay the taxes when you redeem a British Airways 2-4-1 voucher using an American Express card. Despite what the rules say, it doesn’t need to be a BA Amex and it doesn’t need to be in your name (Amex does not check names as part of its card verification) but you WILL need access to an American Express.

And possibly a Platinum-coloured elephant too ….

For some people, The Platinum Card poses a similar dilemma. What will you do for airport lounge access, travel insurance, hotel status etc during your 24 month hiatus?

Finally, do the Amex cashback offers have value to you?

Most of us have save £100+ per year via the cashback offers added to our Amex card statements. You should factor the loss of those savings into your calculations.

New American Express sign-up bonus rules

Ignore this article entirely if you have a small business

Forget everything you just read if you have a small business. The sign-up rules on Amex Gold Business and Amex Platinum Business have not changed and you can reapply for those and receive a new bonus after just a six month gap.

Conclusion

You need to decide if you are going to walk away from American Express entirely for the next 24 months.

For many HfP readers, this may be a sensible strategy. Put your credit card spend on other products and then, in two years time, return to American Express and get three cards in quick succession – earning 65,000 Avios – using the strategy above.

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 Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

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

15,000 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

American Express Gold card, American Express Membership Rewards, American Express Platinum card, British Airways American Express, Marriott Bonvoy American Express

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

Ralph says:

23 Mar23 March 09:26

Rob – all this sounds sensible except it doesn’t cover the issue of needing not only to pay the taxes/charges on a BA Amex card but also to continue to hold it at the time of travel which generally will greatly extend the 24 month period. It sounds like this rule is going to come in to play even if it has been ignored up to now.

Also, assuming people want to earn the 2-4-1, in any event the 24 month period only starts from the date you cancel, so in practice the period of being ‘out of the market’ is greater than 24 months and there is no card other card than BAPP that earns as many Avios (specifically) during your ‘out’ period which should be factored in to the calculation.

Finally, it seems that the new 24 month waiting period is something of a compromise vs the position in the US (lifetime) and in some other countries where it is up to five years, so I don’t know that you can be that confident of getting the ‘welcome’ bonus in the next cycle if they extend the look back period again. Of course, they may also increase the sign up bonus and ongoing earning rate which ought to be the corollary of what they are doing now.
- Rob says:
  
  23 Mar23 March 09:56
  
  Not only does Amex not do name verification, ba.com is incapable on seeing what sort of Amex you are using.
  - Ralph says:
    
    23 Mar23 March 10:23
    
    Correct that they don’t do name verification, but the card and type (eg BAPP vs Gold) is easily identifiable. From the BA end, the voucher number is in fact linked to a card number. We book a few F open jaw tickets with 2-4-1 requiring a call to BA. Although I am authorised to speak with BA on her account to use her voucher, I always pay the taxes on my own BAPP card, but last month was told I had to use the card number linked to the voucher… regrettably I think their IT is getting savvier.
    - Shoestring says:
      
      23 Mar23 March 10:28
      
      but is it them just saying that without checking the ‘card number linked to the voucher’?
      
      When I get refunds on her shop purchases for my wife, the cashier nearly always says it has to be back onto the card used for the original purchase (and that can usually be checked on the receipt) – but 9 times out of 10 I just stick in my own debit card and there’s no check, no issues arising.
    - Anna says:
      
      23 Mar23 March 14:22
      
      They are telling you the Ts and Cs, not whether their IT will detect which card you use. What’s interesting though is – did they let you use her card to pay the taxes?
    - John says:
      
      23 Mar23 March 18:13
      
      9 out of 10 cashiers compare the card to the 4 digits on the receipt when I try that. For the 10% who don’t, I obviously stick in a debit card. If you really want to be sneaky I guess you could use some sleight of hand to swap the card after showing it.
Andy S says:

23 Mar23 March 09:27

Am I being dumb.

Been reading with interest the comments on this recent change and the talk of the new 24 month cycle. In reality is it not a lot longer.

Get BAPP card, spend 10k to trigger 2-4-1 however long that takes, take any number of months to book and fly, all this time having to keep the Amex card. (surely you need to keep card until after you fly as you might want to change existing booking as we have done recently on out current 2-4-1)
Cancel card then wait 24 months from date of cancelation. Possibly up to 5 years from getting one card to the next with the new 1 Amex policy?
- Chabuddy geezy says:
  
  23 Mar23 March 09:53
  
  Keeping the ba amex until you fly is a complete red herring in my view. As Rob has pointed out Amex do not use name verification when you pay so you can use any amex.
  
  All these rumours have come from Jeff who has a rationale that he was right about the end of churning so he must be right about keeping the ba amex too. I think most people could see the sign up bonuses were unsustainable for amex but making you keep the ba amex until you fly seems less clear from a business and payment technology perspective for amex.
  
  If people make enough predictions some of them may become reality eventually. (While they casually ignore all of their incorrect predictions.) As an example we all know all frequent flyer schemes devalue in the long run. The people who predicted 2 years ago that avios would devalue imminently were clearly wrong.
  - Ralph says:
    
    23 Mar23 March 10:28
    
    I really hope you are right about the red herring, but personally don’t fancy the risk. These things don’t seem to get better.
    - Rob says:
      
      23 Mar23 March 11:19
      
      Amex is almost certainly losing the BA contract anyway, so it will make little difference medium term.
  - ankomonkey says:
    
    23 Mar23 March 16:58
    
    As soon as they stopped the welcome bonuses in the US it was always likely that something would happen here before too long. I feel most on here could have predicted some sort of change…
- Rob says:
  
  23 Mar23 March 09:55
  
  No, because you can ignore what Amex says – as soon as you’ve triggered the 241 you can cancel the BA card. You will need AN Amex to pay the taxes when you book your 241 flight but it doesn’t have to be yours, yet alone a BA Amex.
Liz says:

23 Mar23 March 09:29

Does the Kris Flyer scheme allow you to buy airmiles. I was collecting Marriott points to eventually convert to KF but if they don’t allow you to buy miles I will have to abandon that strategy. Was saving for a future trip back to Oz and wanted to do the SIN-BNE leg on Singapore. Now they have increased that leg to 62k we will struggle to reach that. May end up converting what we have saved already to Avios. I have 90k and hubby has 44k Marriott pts so far. My long term plan is now out the window me thinks.
- Jtz says:
  
  23 Mar23 March 09:32
  
  Hey Liz I’m saving up for krisflyer too, I think the other option besides marriott and the bonus when moving a large amount, is Heathrow rewards…might be worth a try if you know someone going to Heathrow? Not entirely sure how it will move to your krisflyer ,but Heathrow to spg, spg to krisflyer might work.
  - Liz says:
    
    23 Mar23 March 09:40
    
    I’ve already got 3800 Heathrow rewards sitting for transferring and hope to do another 3000 bonus offer in June when enroute home from USA but still won’t be enough without huge amounts of Marriott pts. We don’t stay in Marriotts – was just storing the points because of the KF 3 yr rule. Dilemmas dilemmas dilemmas!
    - Mikeact says:
      
      23 Mar23 March 10:02
      
      We managed to get rid of ours last year on a couple of shortish flights while on our way to/from NZ/AUS. Only a few hundred left which we won’t be adding to…I need to check if KF will take them back for charity use.
    - Jtz says:
      
      23 Mar23 March 14:51
      
      How do you move Heathrow rewards points is someone else’s account to your krisflyer? Is it through spg?
    - Liz says:
      
      23 Mar23 March 17:11
      
      You can move KF miles direct from Heathrow Rewards to your own KF account. No need to go via SPG.
John says:

23 Mar23 March 09:29

There’s a few comments above about self-referrals. Not something I’ve come across before. Is this for real?
- Freddy says:
  
  23 Mar23 March 09:32
  
  Apparently it does work but the bonus has been declined on occasion. I just refer my wife and vice versa
krys_k says:

23 Mar23 March 09:34

Business cards are an interesting proposition. I’m a director of three separate companies. Does that therefore mean (on paper) that I can get three cards? And then churn (I’m not really into churning – have had my Lloyds and BA for over five years; I go for spend)?
- Rob says:
  
  23 Mar23 March 09:53
  
  Yes you get the card, no you don’t get the bonus.
  
  The MR account is PERSONAL. If you already have an MR account you won’t get the bonus. If you’ve not had a personal MR account for 6 months you’ll get the bonus on your first SME card but not the 2nd or 3rd.
Jim says:

23 Mar23 March 09:36

To check I have this right 🙂

Currently on SPG card which I will cancel next month.
I was planning to go on Amex gold and BA Amex in May this year when my 6 months is up.
Now have to wait until Nov 2020 – 18 months + 6 I’ve waited already – to go back on Gold and BA.

But would need to wait to April 2021 I wanted to do 3 cards (gold, Ba and spg)?

Ta

J
- Billy says:
  
  23 Mar23 March 09:44
  
  If ive read it correctly you would need to wait 24 months in total for Gold or apply now for platinum. You can apply now for BAPP
  - Shoestring says:
    
    23 Mar23 March 09:50
    
    yes cancel SPG & wait 24 months to get Gold
    no can’t get Plat as have to wait 24 months after cancelling Gold (so another 18 months wait for Jim)
    yes can get BAPP now
- Rob says:
  
  23 Mar23 March 09:52
  
  No, you need to wait until April 2021 to get a Gold, assuming you cancel SPG next month.
  
  Correct for BAPP (I assume you meant BAPP) and Gold. Wrong for free BA – you need to wait until April 2021 for that. You also couldn’t get free BA and Starwood in April 2021, only one of them.
  - Jim says:
    
    23 Mar23 March 10:32
    
    Thx all, looks like cancel then wait 24 months (meanwhile review the wife’s card justify!)
    J
    - Jim says:
      
      23 Mar23 March 10:33
      
      Justify !! History !!
Lloyd says:

23 Mar23 March 09:49

Can I check I am correct in my thinking? My wife and I both currently hold platinum and SPG cards. I have the free BA card. Additionally I have a 241 voucher expiring in May 2020 which I earnt from a BAPP. Wife needs to cancel platinum anyway next month to avoid the annual charge. She has never held a BA card. We are both self employed as sole traders.
Wife cancels platinum, in 6 months time I can refer her for gold business card and I get the referral points, she gets the sign up bonus. As she has never held the BA card, I can refer her at any point for the BAPP and also get the referral bonus and she gets the sign up bonus.
In order for me to get a sign up bonus I have to cancel platinum, wait 6 months and then sign up for gold business card.
I can use my 241 voucher before May 2020 as long as I pay taxes using my BA card; assuming they don’t decide I must use a BAPP card to pay them as that was the card I earned the voucher with (which I no longer have!)
All correct?!
- Qwerty Bertie says:
  
  23 Mar23 March 10:04
  
  Why not, in six months time, refer her instead for the platinum business? I know the spend target is much higher, but after the application she can issue you a supp. card (might get you her 5k points; I don’t know if that works with business cards) and you can spend to help her hit the target.
  
  Vice versa if you’re canelling your personal platinum and getting a business card.
Freddy says:

23 Mar23 March 09:55

Anyone thinking of jumping to the virgin card may want to hold out for them to boost the initial bonus like they’ve done on a couple of occasions in the past – hope that helps!
- Qwerty Bertie says:
  
  23 Mar23 March 09:59
  
  Absolutely. I signed up in the last quarter of 2018 when Rob highlighted the offer. Received 25k instead of 15k.