Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

New BA Amex offer – get 3,000 bonus Avios for £300 of British Airways spend on your card

Links on Head for Points may support the site by paying a commission.  See here for all partner links.

A good new offer should be showing on your British Airways or British Airways Premium Plus American Express card.

If you spend £300 or more at ba.com between registration and 16th February, you will receive 3,000 bonus Avios.

For clarity, this bonus comes from American Express, not British Airways.  The bonus Avios will be added to the ‘pending Avios’ showing on your online American Express statement and will be transferred over as part of the monthly sweep into your British Airways Executive Club account.

The offer is limited to the first 50,000 people to register.  This is quite a large number, clearly, but there are a lot of cards out there and I imagine BA or Amex will do an email over the next few days.  I recommend you register now, just in case.

I don’t know if the offer itself is targeted or if all BA Amex cardholders have it.

You need to visit the American Express website here, log in and navigate to the statement page for your British Airways American Express card.  The promotion should show under the ‘Offers’ tab at the bottom of the screeen.  It should also be possible to register via the ‘Offers’ section of the American Express app.

1000 Avios with £100 British Airways American Express spending

Here is the small print – don’t get caught out:

Your transaction needs to be made at ba.com.  There is no mention of transactions booked via the call centre counting.

You can only earn the bonus once although supplementary cards would be OK if the deal appeared on the ‘Offers’ page for that card.

Your qualifying spend needs to be in Pounds.  If you book a flight which starts outside the UK, it is likely that it will not be priced in Sterling and so will not qualify for the bonus.

Your payment must be made directly with your American Express card.  You cannot use an aggregator such as PayPal, which recharges a transaction to your BA Amex.  You CAN use Apple Pay or similar.

Whilst not mentioned in the small print, historically this has been a cumulative offer so the £300 does not need to be spent in a single transaction.  This makes sense, because if you buy multiple tickets from British Airways in one booking, each person is charged individually to your American Express statement.

For clarity, if you buy Avios via this page of ba.com, it will NOT trigger the bonus.  ‘Buy Avios’ transactions are handled by an intermediary called points.com, and it is points.com that appears on your credit card statement.

PS. If you are not a regular Head for Points visitor, why not sign up for our FREE weekly or daily newsletters? They are full of the latest Avios, airline, hotel and credit card points news and will help you travel better. To join our 65,000 free subscribers, click the button below or visit this page of the site to find out more. Thank you.

earns points from credit cards

Want to earn more points from credit cards? – April 2025 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 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

Get 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.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on the ‘free for a year’ American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card is increased from 20,000 Membership Rewards points to 30,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (30,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on American Express Platinum is increased from 50,000 Membership Rewards points to a huge 80,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (80,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 30,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

30,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

80,000 bonus points and great travel benefits – for a large 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:

American Express Business Platinum

50,000 points when you sign-up 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 Pro Visa

10,500 points (=10,500 Avios) plus good benefits Read our full review

Capital on Tap Visa

NO annual fee, NO FX fees and points worth 1 Avios per £1 Read our full review

British Airways American Express Accelerating Business

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

Category

British Airways American Express, British Airways and Avios

Comments (159)

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

  • tony says:
    21 Jan21 January 09:30

    I’ve got a BA.com transaction showing as pending on my card. I’ve just added the offer now. Will it trigger the bonus?

    • Stu_N says:
      21 Jan21 January 10:40

      That often works OK. If it’s flight-only booked in last 24 hours you can cancel for free and re-book which might be worth considering.

  • Karen Kendrick says:
    21 Jan21 January 09:33

    We are about to book a flight using a 241 voucher – will the cost of taxes count towards the £300 spend please?

  • Martin says:
    21 Jan21 January 09:43

    Iv only just got the the BA premium I have had it two weeks however never had a single offer yet do you need to trigger your spend first or turn it on somewhere ?

    • Harry T says:
      21 Jan21 January 10:43

      It can take a few weeks or months for the offers to appear in a reasonable volume. It seems to correlate with how much you use the cards. Just keep using the card and offers should start to pop up.

  • Henry says:
    21 Jan21 January 10:27

    OT at T3 Heathrow just I have lounge key with Hsbc options are either No1 or Aspire.
    Any recommendations?
    Thank you

    • Shoestring says:
      21 Jan21 January 10:50

      both reviewed on HFP

      only No1 lets you reserve ahead for £5 online

      both regularly turn away lounge pass holders when they get busy

      • Henry says:
        21 Jan21 January 12:07

        Thanks Shoesting just got into No1 very impressed to be honest.
        Lovely views of airfield and not over crowded.
        Also saved a fiver by not pre booking 😁

        • Jane says:
          21 Jan21 January 12:21

          Good to know that it’s quiet this time on a Tuesday. I shall be there same time in 3 weeks – but I think I shall still pre-book. Did you use a dragonpass voucher to get in ?

          • Shoestring says:
            21 Jan21 January 15:46

            he used Lounge Key

            OP – sorry didn’t read it slowly enough ie you were already at LHR – No1 is better than Club Aspire IMV but Aspire do a nice single malt Scotch whisky and cold Guinness

            both good lounges

  • andy says:
    21 Jan21 January 10:57

    OT – have just booed OSL-DOH_BKK in business with Qatar with the flight back being BKK-DOH-ARN-OSL. Booked on their website and put my BA exec number in. I know I’ll earn 560 tier points from the OSL-DOH-BKK/BKK-DOH-ARN legs, but will I earn avios and tier points for the ARN-OSL leg as it appears to be on scandianvian airlines? (Although i guess it would end up being a codeshare?

    • Rob says:
      21 Jan21 January 11:13

      You don’t earn BA tier points if the OPERATING airline is not in oneworld. Qantas has an exception, which is why QF-coded Emirates tickets earn, but it is an exception.

    • vol says:
      21 Jan21 January 18:52

      “have just booed OSL-DOH_BKK in business with Qatar”

      This really made me giggle 😀 😀 – I just had images of you sitting their booing the service in business 😀

  • ChrisA says:
    21 Jan21 January 11:05

    O/T SAA cutting more routes.
    How long before the JNB-LHR route is cut, and we’re left with even fewer routes to one of the UK’s most popular long haul destinations.
    I understand that one of the reasons that airlines don’t like the route is the fact that aircraft have a long wait on the tarmac before the return overnight flight. Might it not be possible for that aircraft to be used for an internal flight in SAA during the day?

    • Rhys says:
      21 Jan21 January 11:42

      I’d imagine LHR-JNB would be one of the last routes to be cut – it’s probably their ‘flagship’ route for business and prestige factor!

    • WaynedP says:
      21 Jan21 January 11:55

      SAA generally a depressing tale.
      I think that international operators flying domestic routes is banned world-wide, hence why you can’t get a foreign domiciled operator flying you from Heathrow to, say, Edinburgh. Otherwise it would be ideal to use foreign planes to ferry passengers from JNB to CPT, or DBN, or even PLZ and return to JNB, before departing back to country of origin.
      But there are sensible ways around such restrictions. Lufthansa faces a similar challenge when flying FRA to WDH in Namibia three times a week. It departs FRA early evening, arrives WDH following morning and only stays 2-3 hrs before return daylight flight back to FRA arriving around 7pm. While it’s best to arrive in ZA in the morning and get to your destination during daylight, it’s perfectly acceptable to arrive in a country like DE at night time and still have plenty of safe, reliable options of getting around. Likewise for London.
      ZA, time to catch a wake-up

  • Josh says:
    21 Jan21 January 12:26

    Perfect timing – I need to pay to select some seats which may end up costing over £300 for the two of us both ways. As this’ll be through ba.com I’m guessing this would qualify?

    • Rhys says:
      21 Jan21 January 12:45

      Yep

    • Rob says:
      21 Jan21 January 13:20

      There’s never a perfect time to pay £300 for seat selection in my view!

      • Peter K says:
        21 Jan21 January 14:03

        Would you still say that if your two children were 3 and 5 and you wanted the 4 seats in the middle block though, but had no status to get them free?

        • WaynedP says:
          21 Jan21 January 14:41

          I think Rob’s point is that someone in your position should not have to pay a penny to be seated together as parents with children, and I agree. Efficient economic pricing of an “add-on” with a perceived value (like paying extra for a specific seat) only works if consumer is “free” to choose to pay the price for it, or not. Your position means you are a captive victim, and the “free market” argument breaks down, both economically and morally IMO.

        • SimonW says:
          21 Jan21 January 15:03

          Still not worth £300. BA seat families together. If not, people would move. Who would demand to stay seated next to your 3 year old, while you sat across the aisle!?

        • Anna says:
          21 Jan21 January 19:57

          If your kids are that young you’ll be allocated your seats together by BA a few days before check in opens. I’ve never paid for seat selection in J and never not ended up together.

          • Charlieface says:
            21 Jan21 January 20:21

            TBH I would say the same about economy. And people are happy to move

  • Gulz says:
    21 Jan21 January 12:59

    OT… has good to go parking closed down? I can’t seem to find any availability for any time for any terminal. I do vaguely remember reading an article on here about it (unless I’m imagining), but can’t seem to find it now!

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

New to Head for Points?

Welcome!  We’re the UK’s most-read source of business travel, Avios, frequent flyer and hotel loyalty news. Let us improve how you travel. Got any questions? Ask them in our forums.

Get 25,000 Avios with the Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

GET A SIGN-UP BONUS OF 18,000 VIRGIN POINTS!

Latest Forum Posts

Get 80,000 bonus points (worth 80,000 Avios) and £400 of dining credit with The Platinum Card (Offer ends 27th May)

Check reward flight availability instantly for free!

See a whole year of reward seat availability on one page at SeatSpy.com

Get up to 10,000 bonus Hilton Honors points

Booking a luxury hotel?

Our luxury hotel booking service offers you GUARANTEED extra benefits over booking direct. Works with Four Seasons, Mandarin Oriental, The Ritz Carlton, St Regis and more. We've booked £1.7 million of rooms to date. Click for details.

SME? GET THE ONLY FREE SMALL BUSINESS CREDIT CARD WHICH CAN EARN AVIOS

Get points worth 30,000 Avios with 'first year free' American Express Gold (ends 27th May)

The UK's biggest frequent flyer website uses cookies, which you can block via your browser settings. Continuing implies your consent to this policy. Our privacy policy is here.

Got it!