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A good new BA Amex ‘bonus Avios’ promotion which requires registration

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If you have a British Airways American Express card, an interesting new promotion could be waiting for you. 

Many, but definitely not all, cardholders seem to have it.  My wife and I do not.

You need to go to the American Express website here, log in, go to your BA Amex statement page and scroll down to ‘Offers’.

You may see a variant of this:

British Airways American Express special offer

Spend £500 & get 500 Avios – up to three times
Save to Card to get 500 Avios on a transaction of £500+ at participating Avios travel partners like BA, Marriott and Avis by 15th July 2019. You can redeem this offer up to three times.

There are also variants offering 1,500 Avios for £1,500 spend and 3,000 Avios for £3,000 spend.

These are the partners who count – note the currency restrictions:

British Airways – £ only

Avis UK – £ only

BA Holidays – £ only

Heathrow Express – £ only

Selected Marriott hotels in Europe –  spend can be in £, €, SEK or CHF

The small print – despite the wording saying “a transaction [singular] of £500+” – confirms that it is based on combined spend, so you can mix and match partners to hit the target.

Beware these two catches

Whilst the offer mentions 15th July as the closing date on a number of occasions, this is NOT true.  The small print makes it clear that only charges made to your card by 30th June will count.  15th July is the cut-off date for transactions made by 30th June to hit your card statement.

Be wary with the Marriott offer.  There is a 3% foreign exchange fee on your British Airways American Express card.  It MIGHT make sense to use your BA Amex outside the UK when you factor in the value of the base Avios and the bonus, especially if only part of your qualifying spend is in foreign currency, but it also might not.  Anyone with a different credit card with 0% FX fees may want to use that instead and forget about the bonus.

My view is that this is NOT a bonus so generous that you should chase it.  However, 30th June is a long way away.  REGISTER NOW and then, if your combined spend across these partners hits the £500 / £1500 / £3000 target, you’re sorted.

You need to register by logging in to the Amex website here or via the Amex app.

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

Avis and Avis Preferred, British Airways American Express, British Airways and Avios, Marriott Bonvoy

Comments (46)

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

  • Laurence Andrews says:
    21 Apr21 April 05:38

    Thanks! I have the offer in the App and have signed up. Good bonus deal!

  • BJ says:
    21 Apr21 April 06:22

    While everything is welcome let’s face it, this deal is absolutely rubbish in comparison to the generous amex offers for BA last year. Hopefully, the practice of splitting bookings for 2+ people into single per person transactions on amex statements is not suddenly going to cause problems. Thanks for highlighting 30 June cut off; I thouggt I would be getting 3×500, now I know I can only get it once so now I can use different card if I prefer.

  • MDA says:
    21 Apr21 April 06:40

    Do amex normally have closing date restriction on their offer terms?

  • Roger* says:
    21 Apr21 April 07:14

    Yes, thanks for the warnings.

    I hope that this one sticks. There was a one-off 500 Avios bonus offer for £500 (?) spend a year or so. I made several qualifying purchases but received no bonus, in spite of chasing. Life’s too short to pursue 500 Avios.

    • Roger* says:
      21 Apr21 April 07:16

      P.S. Where’s my elephant ‘logo’ next to my nme? not showing this time.

      • Crafty says:
        21 Apr21 April 07:38

        It’s there.

        • Roger* says:
          21 Apr21 April 07:44

          Thanks, Crafty! It was definitely missing at first, but I’m glad s/he has returned. 🙂

      • Lumma says:
        21 Apr21 April 09:52

        Where’s my elephant! Where’s my elephant!

        Hey, they’re playing the elephant song!

        Love that, it reminds me of elephants

    • BJ says:
      21 Apr21 April 07:24

      Last year tgere was an offer for £200 if £1000 Or £100 off £800, I think but cannot quite remember.

      • John says:
        21 Apr21 April 10:47

        Wasn’t that trailfinders and/or amex travel, or for a specific BA flight

        • Peter K says:
          21 Apr21 April 13:16

          In 2017 it was £100 off £800 spend on BA.

        • BJ says:
          21 Apr21 April 13:19

          I’m sure there was a BA version too, might have been the year before…time flies when collecting avios 🙂

  • John C says:
    21 Apr21 April 07:19

    Will the bonus be removed if you make the purchase a cancellable one and cancel in two months time?

    • BJ says:
      21 Apr21 April 07:22

      Yes

    • Alex W says:
      21 Apr21 April 07:29

      Yes and what you’re proposing is tantamount to theft. It’s this kind of behaviour that leads Amex to cut sign up bonuses for everybody.

    • Brains says:
      21 Apr21 April 08:06

      If by chance you have to cancel its not your fault! Plenty of people will do this. I might do a couple myself.

    • Mike says:
      21 Apr21 April 08:34

      The bonus can not be removed if you have already spent the AVIOS………………………

      • Lumma says:
        21 Apr21 April 09:53

        They could put your avois earned on the card into minus until you earn them again

        • Stu N says:
          21 Apr21 April 10:22

          Yes, that’s what happens.

        • Tom says:
          21 Apr21 April 10:28

          Which is a really depressing situation to be in, by the way. Avois debt. Happened to me last year when I had to cancel a flight.

        • Mike says:
          21 Apr21 April 13:05

          But if you cancel the card it matters not – on churning (oh those were the days) my AMEX ‘s was often in minus numbers – the highest being minus a very high 25 K – for triggering a refereed GOLD sign up bonus and then getting the item refunded after transferring the MR out to AVIOS (I needed the 25 K in order to upgrade a reward flight to first).

        • Russ says:
          21 Apr21 April 14:10

          @ Tom “Which is a really depressing situation to be in, by the way. Avois debt. Happened to me last year when I had to cancel a flight.”

          Blimey not come across this before. Was this a flight you’d actually booked or was it one you’d earmarked for future booking that you had to forgo? Do they just cancel your flight if booked or do they give you notice of intent?

  • KS says:
    21 Apr21 April 07:33

    Just signed up and used it. Thanks for the flag!

  • Nick says:
    21 Apr21 April 08:01

    Did not get on mine or my partners card, annoying considering have £4000 BA holiday to pay off in the next few weeks 😢

  • Lee says:
    21 Apr21 April 08:04

    Not on any of ours having checked the app.

    • ADS says:
      21 Apr21 April 10:26

      might be worth checking the website – some people report fewer offers in the app compared to what they see when they login to the website

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

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