ENDS MONDAY: Get a 45,000 Avios with the British Airways Amex Accelerating Business Card

UPDATE – APRIL 2024:  This article is now out of date, but don’t worry.  We produce a monthly directory of the top UK travel credit card offers – please click HERE or use the ‘Credit Cards’ menu above.  Thank you.

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.

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If you run your own business, small or large, you have 48 hours left to get an enhanced sign-up bonus on the British Airways Accelerating Business Credit Card.

It comes with a substantial 45,000 Avios sign-up bonus until Monday 28th February. This compares to the standard bonus of 30,000 Avios.

Even better, if you hold the personal British Airways American Express Credit Cards, you DO qualify if you have a small business of some kind.

You can sign up here.

The representative APR is 108.4% variable, including the annual fee.  The representative APR on purchases is 28.5% variable.

What is the British Airways American Express Accelerating Business Credit Card?

In 2019, American Express launched a new British Airways Credit Card for SME’s – the British Airways American Express Accelerating Business Card (which I will now call “BA Amex Business” for short). 

The card was relaunched in 2021 with a totally new earning structure. The package is a now a lot easier to understand, with the sign-up bonus, annual spend bonuses and day to day spending all earning Avios.

Get 45,000 Avios as your sign-up bonus

You will receive 45,000 Avios if you are accepted for the card and spend £5,000 within your first three months.

Do you qualify for the BA Amex Business sign-up bonus?

You qualify for the bonus as long as you haven’t held a British Airways American Express Accelerating Business Card or any other American Express Business Card within the last 12 months.

You WILL receive the bonus if you currently only have personal American Express cards. This includes the personal British Airways American Express cards.

What is the annual fee?

The annual fee for BA Amex Business is £250.

What is the day to day earning rate?

There are two ways to earn points with the BA Amex Business Card:

• You earn 1.5 Avios for virtually every eligible £1 you spend on the card, plus

• You earn 2 On Business Points for every £1 (double the standard rate of 1 point per £1) you spend with British Airways

On Business is the British Airways loyalty scheme for small businesses.  If you are not a member, please read our full review of British Airways On Business here.

Earn 30,000 Avios each (calendar) year as an annual bonus

The annual spending bonus was previously earned as On Business Points but has now changed to Avios and is substantially more valuable.

You will receive 10,000 bonus Avios for every £20,000 of purchases you make on the card.

You can earn this bonus up to three times per calendar year, meaning a maximum annual bonus of 30,000 Avios.

This means that, if you spent exactly £20,000 or £40,000 or £60,000 on the card, you would be earning an average of 2 Avios per £1. No other card, either from American Express or elsewhere, can match this.

Are there any other benefits?

You get typical American Express Credit Card benefits:

• Up to 56 days to pay interest free

• Up to 99 FREE supplementary cards for your employees

• Travel inconvenience cover (with higher payouts if you or your baggage is delayed on a British Airways flight)

• Travel accident protection

• Purchase protection

• Refund protection

See this page of the American Express website for full details of these benefits.

What can you do with the 45,000 Avios sign-up bonus?

Quite a bit, as it turns out. It isn’t clear if air fares will be lower or higher than historic levels once travel starts to pick up speed, but having a pot of Avios to call upon is always helpful.

If you’re running your own business, every penny saved on travel costs is a penny in your pocket at the end of the day. Business travellers are more likely than leisure travellers to be booking flights at short notice, or booking for major trade shows when thousands of other people are heading in the same direction. This is where you can make real savings.

The Avios redemption price list, route by route, is here.

45,000 Avios would get you, for example:

• nine off-peak one-way economy flights to Amsterdam
• four off-peak one-way economy flights to Athens
• three off-peak one-way economy flights to New York
• an off-peak one-way premium economy flight to Cape Town
• an off-peak one-way premium economy flight to Shanghai

Note that taxes and charges apply to all bookings. Some of the flights above will give you the option of using more or fewer Avios in return for a lower or higher taxes and charges element.

All Avios bookings can be cancelled for a full refund of all points, taxes and charges – less a £35 per person cancellation fee – up to 24 hours before departure. This gives you added flexibility when planning your business, or indeed leisure, travel.

Who can apply for the BA Amex Business Card?

There are few requirements to get BA Amex Business.  To quote from the Amex website:

• The business has a current UK Bank or Building Society account
• You/The business have/has no County Court Judgements for non-payment of debt
• You are aged 18 or over
• You have a permanent UK home address
• You will pay the annual Cardmembership fee of £250

For sole traders, you can give details of your personal bank account. There is no requirement for your business to be VAT registered.

Conclusion

If you have a small business, the British Airways American Express Accelerating Business Card is now a far more interesting proposition following its relaunch last year.

This is especially true if:

• you can trigger annual spend bonuses for spending £20,000+ on the card each year, and/or

• you have substantial British Airways spending which will benefit from earning bonus On Business Points

An increased limited time sign-up bonus of 45,000 Avios for spending £5,000 in the first three months, if you qualify, is worth taking very seriously.

The card has the same fee as the personal British Airways Premium Plus American Express Credit Card. However, as you can hold both cards, even BA Premium Plus cardmembers may want to apply for BA Amex Business, pick up the 45,000 Avios sign-up bonus and give the card a try.

You can find full details, and apply, on the British Airways Accelerating Business website here.

The offer ends on Monday night.

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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:

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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