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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.

The following has appeared on my British Airways Premium Plus card – click to enlarge.

British Airways American Express Premium Plus spend bonus

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

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.

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:

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.

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

Category

British Airways American Express

Comments (183)

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

  • Michele says:
    24 Aug24 August 08:54

    Sorry if this has already been covered. I did try to read all the posts to find an answer but it was taking ages. Anyway. i have the offer of spend £5k to get 10,000 avios. My question is does the spend have to be dated 23rd Aug or later? I have almost £4k on this months statement when it is issued in the next day or so which I will pay in full. I would be ecstatic if it was payments after 23rd and not just transaction dates 🙁

    • Kevin C says:
      24 Aug24 August 09:52

      Sorry, the spend will need to be dated 23rd or later.

      • Michele says:
        24 Aug24 August 10:02

        Darn, I thought as much but had a wishful thinking moment 🙁 Thanks for your response Kevin.

    • BuildBackBetter says:
      24 Aug24 August 15:24

      It’s always what you spend after you save the offer.

  • David S says:
    24 Aug24 August 10:00

    I have the 10,000 offer but using the BA shopping portal gets me equally good offers. Over 2,500 Avios for approx £50 for a years subscription to Nord VPN recently

    • swifty says:
      24 Aug24 August 11:01

      David, I thought a similar thing, except I didn’t ever get the 4k and 3k for home insurance and car insurance from tesco bank/go compare. They love their claw back on that portal. The 90 odds and sods avios will post though though!

    • CarpalTravel says:
      24 Aug24 August 11:33

      Some VPN’s are very CB heavy, like up 60%, so it is worth checking. Personally I did Hotel Chocolat and got 1956 points for a roughly £110 spend. I was buying anyway so easy pointage!

    • illuminatus says:
      24 Aug24 August 12:32

      Avios aside, better go for Windscribe or ProtonVPN

    • Justin says:
      24 Aug24 August 15:53

      I remember seeing this portal when I first signed up to BA but have since completely forgot it! I dread to think how many points I’ve missed out on!!!

      Sadly I already have a VPN subscription, otherwise that NordVPN offer would be extremely tempting!

      Anyways, thanks for the reminder and hopefully I’ll remember to use it in the future!

      • CarpalTravel says:
        24 Aug24 August 15:58

        Virgin have one too although it almost inevitably offers half that of the BA one. When it matches then I use the virgin one as I am targeting their miles more at the moment.

        On the BA one I have just added up the last 12months I have collected 7,850 miles. Not to be sniffed at!

        • Justin says:
          24 Aug24 August 16:15

          Certainly not! Sadly, just in this past week alone, I’ve calculated I’ve missed out on a potential 4,500 points!

          I’ll certainly look into the Virgin one – I don’t have a Virgin card but I do have an airline account… although I have never used it apart from the now defunct Tesco Clubcard Points> Virgin Miles! Sadly, I transferred all these points to Hilton during lockdown as I didn’t believe they’d survive (before anyone asks why i didn’t get wine vouchers…. it’s because i don’t drink).

          Thanks for the info.

          • CarpalTravel says:
            25 Aug25 August 13:24

            No worries! Not sure if you will see this comment but just to add as a tip, if you (or anyone) ever find your points expiring due to age and non-activity, these are great ways of keeping the account active.

            My Virgin points some years ago were ageing so I bought something insignificant online, going via the Virgin shops portal, earning me a whopping 2 airmiles!

            It also extended the points balance life by two years. 🙂

  • JohnT says:
    24 Aug24 August 11:43

    Just had offer email, which says “Supplementary Cardmembers on your Account can enjoy this great Offer too. They visit their Online Account and save the Offer to Card.” But no-one seems to have had the offer on supplementary cards!?

  • Lee says:
    24 Aug24 August 11:52

    Also had this offer to save to supplementary cards – but it isn’t there.

    Looks like an error from Amex.

    • gordon says:
      24 Aug24 August 12:40

      I called Amex and they say you can register the supplementary cards to count towards the spend. But waiting for a call back from them to confirm this 🤷‍♂️

  • Lee says:
    24 Aug24 August 12:02

    I would urge anyone who had this email re supplementary holders being able to save it to contact Amex via their chat. They are escalating the issue.

    • Sally B says:
      29 Aug29 August 13:58

      Tried it and this is the answer I got:-
      I have checked and I can see this is an offer based on solicitation and is available for the targeted cards…

      As a valued Card Member there may be future offers available for the supplementary card as well.
      Make sure you visit our website and check for exclusive offers just for
      American Express Card Members. New offers are added on a regular basis
      so you never know what exciting offer may be waiting for you
      You may be sent offers tailored to your account based on a
      variety of factors and the types of promotions that are available.

  • Toby says:
    24 Aug24 August 12:21

    If Amex are reading this – thank you – and more targeted rewards once you hit the 2 for 1 voucher limit that encourage useage would also be very welcome!

  • Oxonboy says:
    24 Aug24 August 14:07

    I got both the 2000 Avios for £2k and 10000 for £5k. Accepted both but wonder how it will work. Recently downgraded to free blue card.

  • Paul says:
    24 Aug24 August 14:28

    Any chance of me getting this offer if I take out the card now?

    • CarpalTravel says:
      24 Aug24 August 16:02

      There is always the chance, but I certainly wouldn’t bank on it. When I signed up to the PlatBus I still got the £100 (i think it was) credit on a single £1k+ spend even though it had been running for a week or so before I applied.

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