Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Get bonus Avios on all BA Amex spend until 27th December

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American Express is currently running a special offer for all British Airways American Express cardholders.

You may have been emailed about this last week, but if you have opted out of email marketing you won’t have seen it.  The offer is automatic (Amex has confirmed to me that all cardholders are eligible) and does not require registration.

You will earn 1 bonus Avios for every £4 you spend on your BA or BAPP (or indeed BAP if you’re an old timer) American Express card until 27th December.

Bonus Avios on British Airways American Express spending this month

The bonus is ‘per transaction’ and you receive one bonus Avios for every full £4 spent.  A £7.99 purchase would earn one bonus Avios, for example, whilst a £12 purchase would earn three.

The official terms and conditions for the deal are very badly written and imply that you get one bonus Avios per transaction of £4+.  I have spoken to Amex and they have confirmed that it is one bonus Avios per multiple of £4, as in my example above.

The offer is valid for both UK and overseas spend.

For British Airways Premium Plus cardholders, this bonus takes the effective rate – at least on larger transactions where the impact of rounding down is negligible – to 1.75 Avios per £1 spent.  This is highest earning rate on any UK travel rewards credit card, at least for the next 17 days.

If you applied for a card today it should arrive before Christmas, allowing you to get the bonus over the first couple of days of the sales.  The free British Airways American Express card comes with a sign-up bonus of 5,000 Avios (apply here, full BA Amex review here) whilst the Premium Plus card comes with a sign-up bonus of 25,000 Avios (apply here, full BA Premium Plus Amex review here).


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:

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

Comments (130)

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

  • Craig says:

    Also worked for £2.50 off flowers for my Mum’s birthday and when Mrs S ordered some coffee pods for me to take to work.

  • Shoestring says:

    O/T a day ago I went for the Amazon buy £50 of giftcards get £6 Amazon credit offer – big ad on my Amz homepage & I passed eligibility check – was somewhat sceptical I’d get it as you’re not supposed to have used it in the last 36 months & I definitely did!

    Well: I just got an email confirming my £6 credit, use by date end of March

    • Secret Squirrel says:

      Tip:
      If the Amazon credit does not materialise and it did not state your excluded from the promo, just contact CS & they will credit your account.

  • Ian M says:

    Interesting offer from Amex. Considering we are led to believe that Amex lose money on every £ you spend on the BAPP, why are they running a promo to issue an even higher amount of avios?

    • Chrisasaurus says:

      Because they do make money on interest and if any statement is going to not be paid in full it’ll be the one after xmas…

  • Harry T says:

    OT:
    Has anyone managed to buy Avios from Spanish GroupOn via the Iberia Plus Store and receive the extra Avios from the Iberia Plus Store for GroupOn purchases? It’s currently offering 21 Avios per Euro but says in the T&Cs “You will not receive a reward when buying deals of 2,000, 4,000, 8,000, 12,000 or 20,000 Avios (or any amount of Avios).”

    • MattB says:

      I have in the past (>1yr ago) but don’t think there was such a disclaimer at that time.

      • Shoestring says:

        it used to work – as did EUR10 discount for new customers/ new email – both have been stopped

    • Secret Squirrel says:

      @Harry
      I think I got 7 x avios per Euro spent, you definitely do not get 21 x avios through IB store for Groupon avios purchases.
      Did you buy an avios voucher?
      I’m still waiting more than 3 weeks and still not credited?

      • Harry T says:

        I didn’t buy one because the Aer Lingus deal looks slightly better, if the extra Iberia Plus Store Avios don’t credit. 7 Avios per Euro doesn’t sound bad though! Have they come through for you or just tracked?

        • Secret Squirrel says:

          Tracked at present, go payable probably when they credit the AVIOS.
          With the 2K plus IB AVIOS this route worked out slightly better deal than Aerclub.
          I done aerclub groupon also! 😜

  • Matt says:

    Is anyone seeing the bonus BA Amex points posting yet? All my spend in December so far shows the usual points but nothing under bonus, unless the “normal” rate is actually higher? (I can’t even remember what I get on this card anymore!)

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