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British Airways drops plastic cards for Executive Club status members

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British Airways has decided to end the practice of automatically sending out plastic cards to Gold, Silver and Bronze members of British Airways Executive Club.

It has also stopped issuing paper ‘Golden Tickets’ to hand out to staff members who provide excellent service.

Gold members will still be able to issue digitial ‘Golden Tickets’ via an upcoming new feature on ba.com, which will have the added advantage of allowing you to nominate multiple people.

British Airways drop plastic cards for Executive Club status members

Intriguingly, Gold Guest List Members, Premier card holders, Gold for Life and Gold Guest List for Life Members WILL continue to receive membership packs and physical Golden Tickets.

Anyone who does still want to receive a Bronze, Gold or Silver plastic card – and the associated luggage tags – can order one via their Executive Club account.


How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (April 2024)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous 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

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending £15,000 Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

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

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital on Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios.

Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa

Huge 30,000 points bonus until 12th May 2024 Read our full review

You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus.

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

There are also generous bonuses on the two American Express Business cards, with the points converting at 1:1 into Avios. These cards are open to sole traders as well as limited companies.

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

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.

Comments (181)

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

  • tom1 says:

    o/t Tesco / virgin auto convert bonus

    Has anyone got the 1,000 (?) bonus points for turning this on yet?

  • Roy says:

    O/T I presume there’s no reason why the reduction in points requirement for IHG Spire wouldn’t apply to points earned via the credit card, too?

    I suspect that for many this change has made achieving Spire elite status primarily through credit card spend achievable when previously it wasn’t. (For me, it’s changed it from clearly impossible to merely very difficult 🙂

    So, the question is, should we go for it? Should I put all my credit card spend through the IHG card? I’m thinking that 25,000 bonus points on £27,500 spend – less if you get points from IHG stays – seems to make the IHG card significantly more attractive this year.

    Maybe worth an article, Rob? At least once things have calmed down from the current 8-articles-a-day chaos 🙂

    • Rob says:

      Article on this is actually already written …. I am saving it for Monday.

  • AJA says:

    I wonder when the no physical BAEC card policy kicked in? My Tier Point year ended 8 February 2020. In today’s post I received my renewal envelope from BAEC with a letter dated February 2020 confirming that I have renewed Silver status and enclosed in the envelope is a card showing validity until 03/21. Unlike last year however there were no luggage tags. That is fine with me.

  • Roy says:

    O/T Anyone have any idea what’s happened to Holiday Inn Express properties in Hamburg? None of them (City Centre, Hauptbahnhof, St Pauli) seem to be bookable any more.

    Are changes afoot for the HIX brand?

    • Roy says:

      Thinking about it, I guess it must be related to lack of demand. (Central Hamburg hotel demand is very much driven by shows at the Hamburg Messe, which are pretty much non-existent now due to the 1,000-person limit on public events.)

      Anyone know what’s happened to the hotels in question, though?

    • Roy says:

      Ok, to answer my own question, it appears that Hamburg’s Holiday Inn Express hotels (all three of them) – have rebranded as Premier Inn!

  • Aliks says:

    I’m calling BA to cancel a reward flight to Spain that is due to take off at 10 am tomorrow. There is a recorded message that cuts off every time, — just before the bit telling the caller what to do about flights within the next 72 hours.
    Does anyone know a better contact number than 0344 493 0747?
    I cant cancel online as I already checked in – 30 minutes before the Spanish government put the country on lockdown.

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

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