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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

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

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.

  • Craig says:
    21 Apr21 April 08:17

    I have it on my wife’s card but not mine. Unfortunately, I have only just started working towards a 241 whilst she has 18p to go for hers.

  • Dan says:
    21 Apr21 April 08:19

    Not a bad offer I guess – but I value 500 Avios at around £5, so let’s get this in proportion…..a £15 rebate (in Avios currency) on £1500 spend. I agree with rob that it’s worth saving but definitely not worth chasing!

    • John says:
      21 Apr21 April 10:48

      Put £1500 in the bank and you’ll get £15 after a year

      • Thomas Howard says:
        21 Apr21 April 12:21

        but in 2020 your £1515 will only be worth £1487.73 in 2019 pounds,

      • Lady London says:
        21 Apr21 April 12:24

        Where’s the excitement in that? I’d rather earn half as much via a “gaming” method if it didn’t turn out as well as I’d hoped. the £15 lost is my “gaming” fee.

        Convert it into another currency right now and the value of it might increase by rather more particularly in the next 6 months or so.

    • CV3V says:
      21 Apr21 April 12:01

      Agreed, nothing worth changing plans for to get this bonus, if this within peoples plans then a bonus it is. My offer was spend £3000 for 3000 Avios, chasing the equivalent of £30 of Avios isn’t worth it. Annoying as I just booked redemption flights, but I didn’t get the £500 offer, but for 500 Avios who really cares.

      Spend £20 on a Tesco Mobile rocket pack and get 4800 Avios.

  • Tracy says:
    21 Apr21 April 11:43

    I have the £1500, 1500 Avios variant. Thought I would be able to get it as I will be booking 241s in July but if cut off is 30th June I am out of luck 🙁

    • Anna says:
      21 Apr21 April 17:10

      Book the flights early then ring up and change the dates later? Depends how much you want an extra 1500 avios!

  • Pid says:
    21 Apr21 April 11:52

    My Amex offers have been rubbish for the last year or so. Very rarely get any in my plat or BAPP. Spoken to Amex and they just say it is based on spend patterns but spend has not changed and I used to get loads.

    • Dev says:
      21 Apr21 April 12:28

      +1
      They even told me that I don’t receive offers because I have opted out of marketing emails and offers, which I did more than 10 years ago and that doesn’t explain why I had the offers until the first half of 2018. As for the Amex Travel booking rebates, they told me that it depends on spend, the more I spend the greater the chance of receiving the offer. When I pointed out that my spend through Amex Travel last year was in excess of £10,000 the response was that the offer is targeted to select Amex Platinum customers. 😄

      • KBuffett says:
        21 Apr21 April 12:55

        My offers are very poor too. I genuinely thinks it’s because I spend too much. Why give an offer to someone who’s going to spend anyway?

        • ADS says:
          21 Apr21 April 16:33

          yeah, i do wonder if that’s the problem !

          i hardly ever use my BA Amex and i get loads of offers !!

      • Lyn says:
        21 Apr21 April 13:22

        The rules for opting out of marketing emails and offers have changed in the last 10 years though, especially a year or two ago with the new EU laws. It could be worth deliberately opting back in,

      • Pid says:
        21 Apr21 April 22:28

        They said the same to me about marketing but I have always opted in!

    • Jovanna says:
      21 Apr21 April 23:54

      I have a Plat card. I’ve had one offer on it in 10 months. I also have two Gold cards (one is a supplemental card) and the BA card. I don’t do too badly for offers on those.

      I’m still waiting for my £200 off £600 spend on the Plat card from the end of February. When I contacted Amex, they said I had to wait up to 90 days.

  • Mr Dee says:
    21 Apr21 April 12:09

    O/T Morrisons offer of 10% off over £50 spend unlimited use is back on some cards

    • RussellH says:
      21 Apr21 April 15:33

      Last December it was off all spending at Morrisons. Definitely one of the useful offers, like Lidl, Wilkinsons and WH Smith.
      Unlike most of them which seem to be aimed at those who buy ridiculously overpriced clothing. And it is stll ridiculously overpriced after the Amex offer!
      I have the 500 Avios for £500 spend offer, and I have a Marriott stay in the next few days. But as that is likely to come to 15% of the necessary spend at most I shall stick to using my Marriott MasterCard and – hopefully – get double points on that spend.

  • Cwyfan says:
    21 Apr21 April 17:22

    Anybody worked out how this actually works?

    With a number of partners, and multiple spends, what triggers each 500 avios each time, up to thrice?

    For example, if I spend £240 with one partner, and £290 with another, making more that £500 combined, so getting 500 avios, I assume, does the £30 excess count towards the next £500, or is it lost?

  • Vinz says:
    21 Apr21 April 21:44

    I spent 500+ 3 days before the offer appeared. So annoying, will call amex to see what they can do!

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