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Got a British Airways American Express card? New spend bonus launched on Monday

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American Express has launched a new spend bonus for British Airways American Express Premium Plus and free British Airways American Express cardholders.

It is surprisingly generous, possibly more generous than it needs to be, which is odd but I’m not complaining – especially as I have a hotel bill to pay this week.

It is limited to the first 60,000 people to register.

British Airways American Express Premium Plus spend bonus

I get 10,000 bonus Avios for spending £5,000 by 30th November.

This is such a decent deal that it is worth paying the 3% foreign exchange commission to settle my hotel bill bill this week. As long as I cap the amount at £5,000, I will be paying £150 in fees to bank 17,500 Avios in total which is fine by me.

(Obviously it would make more sense to do the spending in the UK and not pay any FX fees. However, as per our other article today, I have a similar offer on my Business Platinum card that will keep me busy until mid November once I get home.)

Looking at reader comments, there do not seem to be alternative versions of this offer. It is either ‘10,000 Avios for spending £5,000’ or nothing if you have Premium Plus.

The free BA Amex offer does have different versions

On the free British Airways American Express there are reports of:

  • ‘1,500 Avios for spending £1,000’
  • ‘2,000 Avios for spending £2,000’

…. and that’s it. There are also quite a few reports of people getting nothing, so don’t get your hopes up.

Remember that you need to opt in to these offers via the ‘Offers’ tab on your BA Amex statement page in the app or Amex website. Spending does not count towards your target until you opt in.

For clarity, spending on supplementary cards does not count. Neither does PayPal spend recharged to your Amex.

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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

Comments (182)

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

  • Doc says:
    23 Aug23 August 10:43

    Got spend £2k get 2k avios by 30/11 here on the Blue card

  • Peter Taysum says:
    23 Aug23 August 11:09

    Brilliant; I had the same offer and have “saved it” thanks! 🥳

  • WaynedP says:
    23 Aug23 August 11:14

    Doubly delightful that this offer stacks with all other BA Amex offers.

    Suddenly spending £100+ at Sweaty Betty goes from being “highly unlikely” to “interestingly appealing”.

    • Andrew says:
      23 Aug23 August 11:39

      And the rebates you get from other offers don’t come off your total spend, so the initial charge will be what’s counted towards the spend threshold. Good timing for the Mr Porter £500/£100 offer today too (triple stacking with 9 Avios/£1 on the BA portal)

    • CarpalTravel says:
      23 Aug23 August 11:43

      Woah now! SB becoming appealing? Let’s not get *too* carried away! 😀

      • Chrisasaurus says:
        23 Aug23 August 13:36

        Wonder if the PE firm that bought them last month paid by Amex and got 12% back 🙂

  • CarpalTravel says:
    23 Aug23 August 11:45

    Just wondering, I have a pending transaction for £400 from Saturday, it is just a hold at the moment, the goods are to be despatched tomorrow when the actual charge will be posted.

    Does anyone know if that means it will form part of the spend total?

    • Andrew says:
      23 Aug23 August 12:09

      It won’t. Transaction date is what’s counted. Same as offers on their final day can still be used even though they remain pending until after the offer has closed.

      • CarpalTravel says:
        23 Aug23 August 12:57

        Perfect, thank you Andrew for that! I’ll cancel and re-order.

        • Paul says:
          23 Aug23 August 16:23

          You want to be careful with that approach. Unless others know better I think you’ll get a refund during the qualifying period which will then be taken off your qualifying spend. So no net benefit. You’d need to wait for the refund to be processed prior to accepting the offer.

          • CarpalTravel says:
            23 Aug23 August 21:01

            That’s a good point! It turned out that I have missed the cancellation cut off anyway (without having to actually speak directly to people) so I have just left it. I think I am going to get ruined with a BA refund in September too from a booking made last year, so I might just have to write this offer off.

  • LDTx says:
    23 Aug23 August 11:51

    On a marginally related note my BA Chase Visa card charges 0% FX commission, and the converted amount in USD on my statement is always made at precisely that day’s fixing for the currency pair. Chase has been applying an unadvertised 400% Avios bonus on all purchases this summer. I’ve been in Italy for a few weeks and have earned far more than 10K Avios on significantly less than the GBP 5K/USD6.8K required for this BA Amex “special” offer LOL

  • Vit says:
    23 Aug23 August 12:30

    Seem like my partner’s card stuck with the blue card’s “algorithm” (i.e. spend 2k to get 2000 avios) as it has just been upgraded bapp to trigger 2-4-1. Do you think it is worth bothering amex with this as we do have upcoming expenses and can easily trigger £5k in 3 moths. Many thanks.

    • FFoxSake says:
      23 Aug23 August 15:05

      Same “problem” here. But I’m going to wait a few days and see if the spend £5k get 10k avios offer also comes in… I’m an optimist 😉

      • Vit says:
        24 Aug24 August 21:55

        haha! Why not!? I will do as well. Planning to keep the BAPP for a good while though so hopefully it will come through.

  • Jon says:
    23 Aug23 August 12:34

    Nice. Woke up to this news in Grenada and still able to save to my card ready for t( hotel bill Saturday.

  • Ancient says:
    23 Aug23 August 12:35

    I recently upgraded to BAPP to miss the fee increase. Only targeted for the 2K for £2K spend offer.

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