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Barclays Premier Rewards closing – Avios coming?

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Customers of Barclays Premier received an email on Thursday telling them that Barclays Premier Rewards is closing on 15th December. Apparently:

“in recent years fewer people have been using it, with only a small number of our Premier customers now benefitting from the programme.

We’re truly grateful for your loyalty and we’re looking at new and different ways to recognise that. We’re working hard behind the scenes to improve the benefits we give you and make sure you get even more from Premier in the future.”

The reason this is relevant is that Avios signed a major deal with Barclays Premier earlier in the year.

The partnership was meant to launch this Summer. We don’t know the details, but there would be a generous switching bonus and presumably the opportunity to earn from credit cards and other products.

Covid put the brakes on the launch and there will not be a public launch until 2021. I understand there may be a soft launch for existing customers before then, but I don’t recommend moving to Barclays Premier until a large Avios bribe is offered.

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.

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.

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.

Category

British Airways and Avios

Comments (29)

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

  • KBuffett says:
    17 Oct17 October 07:44

    It’s a shame about Barclays Premier Rewards. The restaurant discounts were good and convenient to access via the app. I’m not surprised that fewer people were using it as they had fewer offers other than the restaurants.

  • Bonglim says:
    17 Oct17 October 07:59

    If anyone from Barclays is reading this a decent premier offering might be what is required to switch me from hsbc premier to Barclays premier account.

    Now I have a basic Barclays account; that I use as a second account. (There is always a risk of account freeze with hsbc – never happened to me though. Do you think I should be closing that now?

    • BS says:
      17 Oct17 October 08:16

      Agreed. I’m waiting to move from HSBC because of their pro-China stance. I am not principled enough to do this without a large Avios bribe though…

      • KBuffett says:
        17 Oct17 October 09:28

        Isn’t every company Pro China? Do you have a smartphone? If so, I suggest you bin it. I hope you don’t have anything else that’s made in China.

        • Callum says:
          17 Oct17 October 09:58

          No, every company is not Pro China. And there is a distinct difference between interacting with China and publicly announcing that you fully support the Chinese crackdown on Hong Kong.

          Is there a reason why you think that you should never act on your principles if you’re not willing to do so 100%, no matter the cost?

        • cinereus says:
          17 Oct17 October 10:51

          Is it really so hard to understand the difference between using Chinese manufacturing and what HSBC is doing?

      • Nick_C says:
        17 Oct17 October 12:13

        You can’t really expect the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation to have anything other than a pro-China stance if they want to remain in business. HSBC makes 90% of its profit in Asia, with China and Hong Kong being the major drivers of growth.

        I agree in principle with boycotting Chinese companies where at all possible. In the case of HSBC however, I’ve just opened my third current account with them (M&S, joining First Direct and HSBC) purely so I can have a third regular savings account paying 2.75% interest. They won’t be making any money from me, so my conscience is clear.

        • Lady London says:
          17 Oct17 October 19:20

          Pragmatic decision from HSBC / Jardine (are they still Jardine?) given where their business is. They’ve been in business successfully in Asia a long time. So any sphere of interest they take up or drop is worth taking note of.
          ‘

      • Dubious says:
        18 Oct18 October 03:13

        Hasn’t stopped the Government of China publicly critiquing HSBC for it’s position…

    • EwanG says:
      17 Oct17 October 12:13

      Rather than closing your account directly, you could always do a current account switch to Lloyds or RBS and pick up £100 for doing so.

    • the_real_a says:
      17 Oct17 October 14:53

      My HSBC account was suspended for depositing £750 cash until such point i could prove where that cash came from.

      • Rob says:
        17 Oct17 October 16:47

        Mine was also audited at one point, partly because – in the early days – I was funnelling HfP payments into it. I am ex-staff though so I get more leeway.

      • Lady London says:
        17 Oct17 October 19:25

        £750? What were they smoking?

        I’d have challenged them right back. Time was, I could easily have regarded that as relatively small change.

        Is the threshold for money laundering considerations not £10,000 ? The world’s gone mad if you were challenged for that amount.

        • The real John says:
          17 Oct17 October 20:28

          There is no threshold for money laundering suspicions.

          If the police find £1000 cash on you or in your house they can seize it until you prove it is not the proceeds of crime.

  • ChrisW says:
    17 Oct17 October 08:00

    Wow has does Norwegian still have the lights on? They were hanging by a thread even before covid when travel conditions were favourable. This will be a full year (at least) before they resume longhaul flights.
    I thought they would be one of the first airlines to fold.

    I wonder what their daily cash burn is….

    • ChrisBCN says:
      17 Oct17 October 08:41

      It’s been a common trope for YEARS on these comment pages that ‘Norwegian is about to go bust’… Add something about stopped clocks.

    • Chrisasaurus says:
      17 Oct17 October 08:41

      You missed it, they crashed and burned and were sort of rescued by their government but only a heavily restructured operation and only after basically letting their (separate) international operations go under

      • ChrisBCN says:
        17 Oct17 October 09:46

        It’s not actually going bust though is it, from a traveler point of view. They are still flying today, and are planning to return to London. That’s not going bust.

        • Chrisasaurus says:
          17 Oct17 October 13:21

          To be fair a traveller can’t exactly get in a plane they’re only “planning to” fly…

          • ChrisBCN says:
            17 Oct17 October 14:52

            You can quite happily book a ticket for London to USA today, not something you could do if they were bust.
            Wether the flight will actually run next year is a separate question, I agree. At the moment they are operating much like the zero interest BA savings accounts that people have been paying into…

  • Mr. AC says:
    17 Oct17 October 08:16

    A bit sad about Barclays Premier – never got to use the free Heritage Society membership. That is totally gone now. The app says however that if you haven’t used the free Gourmet Society membership before, you can still apply and use it for 12 months even after the app is gone.

  • Dubious says:
    17 Oct17 October 08:33

    Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer members can in redeem miles for Shangri-La Golden Circle Awards. This does give a route for Amex Points > SQ > GC…but poor value.

  • babyg says:
    17 Oct17 October 09:12

    hmmm enjoyed the 20k Avios for signing up, the money (think £14?) they gave me every month and used the heritage society only once… shame its going…

  • KBuffett says:
    17 Oct17 October 09:29

    Like others, I didn’t use any of the Heritage stuff. Wish I had

  • JRC says:
    17 Oct17 October 11:12

    We’ve used lots of the Premier benefits over the years – RAC cover, English Heritage (canned this year – got £120 from Barclays Customer service after complaining), travel insurance, £10-15 credit each month for mortgage and home insurance with Barclays and a few other bits. Will prob jump ship to HSBC as had been considering the HSBC premier credit card for a while.

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