Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

American Express launches a spend-based bonus promotion for Gold and Platinum cardholders

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American Express has launched a new bonus points offer for many people – but not everyone – who have Preferred Rewards Gold or The Platinum Card.  The deal may also be available to Green, Centurion and Amex Rewards Credit Card holders.

It is a very simple ‘spend this, get that’ offer.

On my Platinum card, I have:

‘Spend £6,600 betweeen 11th July and 11th August and receive 6,000 bonus Membership Rewards points’

My wife has a more reasonable offer on her Gold card:

‘Spend £700 between 11th July and 11th August and receive 1,000 bonus Membership Rewards points’

There are a couple of things you need to note:

You are not automatically registered.  You need to go to the ‘offers’ section of your Amex online statement page and click ‘save to card’.

It doesn’t start until 11th July

Spend via ‘Payment Aggregators’ such as PayPal does not count

Looking at our comments section yesterday, there are many different versions of this offer.  The most aggressive was:

‘Spend £13,300 between 11th July and 11th August and receive 10,000 bonus Membership Rewards points’

I think the smallest was:

‘Spend £300 between 11th July and 11th August and receive 500 bonus Membership Rewards points’

Important ….

If you are tempted to hit your target by putting your Summer holiday spending onto your American Express card, remember that Amex charges a 3% foreign exchange fee.

The bonus points above do NOT offset the 3% fee.  You are still better off using a specialist credit card which offers no rewards but has no FX fees.  The free Tandem Money credit card is even better, offering 0.5% cashback on your FX spending as well as not charging any FX fees.

I think it is fair to say that I won’t be triggering my 6,000 bonus points, although I am sure we can divert £700 of spending onto my wife’s Preferred Rewards Gold.

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

American Express Gold card, American Express Platinum card, Amex Rewards Credit Card

Comments (151)

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

  • Nigel Williams says:
    2 Jul2 July 08:23

    Nothing on my plat
    Nothing on the OH Gold (or her Supp Plat)

    We must not be worthy 🙁

    Also, same story with the useless spend offers (currently at 40) – Why give us status at a bunch of hotel chains, then try to send us elsewhere????

  • MS says:
    2 Jul2 July 08:25

    I’m getting something on my BA Amex but only related to Avios purchases:
    “Save to Card and receive 10,000 bonus Avios when you purchase 20,000 Avios for £335 online”

    • JPa says:
      2 Jul2 July 09:01

      That is for buying Avios points now just general spending.

    • Dragonfly says:
      2 Jul2 July 09:13

      I got the same on my BA Amex – bonus for buying avios from BA.
      Nothing on hubby’s Amex Plat for bonus on general spending.

  • Nick Wilson says:
    2 Jul2 July 08:28

    Hi
    Would anyone happen to know the answer to this as I can’t find anywhere. The article mentioned Spend via ‘Payment Aggregators’ such as PayPal does not count. Is this the same for the Lloyd’s upgrade voucher? I have spent over 7k but a lot was on PayPal and I have had no email saying I have earned voucher. Man6 thanks

    • Rob says:
      2 Jul2 July 08:40

      The Lloyds card has nothing to do with Amex so I doubt it is a problem. Perhaps give BA a call to see if a voucher has been issued as you cannot see it online anywhere now.

      • Doug M says:
        2 Jul2 July 09:45

        I can still login to my Avios account and see the voucher.

      • Hamley P says:
        2 Jul2 July 09:59

        My amex was pulled months ago. If I spend 7k on the other card, would I still get this upgrade voucher?

      • Nick Wilson says:
        2 Jul2 July 12:12

        Thanks Rob.
        Yes Hamley, the Avios MasterCard still goes
        Towards the voucher but for one final year only

    • Lady London says:
      2 Jul2 July 11:51

      Juste wondering why the exclusion of PayPal? Is it because PayPal then earns the percentage on the merchant side of the transaction, and not Amex?

      • Peter K says:
        2 Jul2 July 14:18

        Almost certainly yes, in the same way apple pay does.

      • the_real_a says:
        2 Jul2 July 19:22

        More likely its because its impossible to identify the underlying merchant. I would imagine that the analytics team is looking to understand “what kind” of the spend people could bring to AMEX from elsewhere… and everything hidden behind paypal/izettle etc does not allow them full visibility.

  • JM says:
    2 Jul2 July 08:38

    I got a better one for once….
    “Spend £5,000, get 10,000 bonus Membership Rewards points”

  • David Butcher says:
    2 Jul2 July 08:47

    Nothing at all – I’m sure they are doing their best to drive me away!

  • boi says:
    2 Jul2 July 08:56

    normally I am lucky with amex….this time around I have nothing on our 3 platinum cards. oh well….

  • SimonW says:
    2 Jul2 July 09:10

    I got £5700 for 4,000 extra MR points….It does say “Limited to the first 2,000 Cards to save the offer” So people who didnt get the offer might just have been too slow. I saved mine to my card on Sunday morning.

  • RTS says:
    2 Jul2 July 09:11

    I got nothing! WTF?!

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