Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Barclaycard has fixed its issues and an exclusive special offer is coming

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On Monday we ran three articles on the brand new, and very exciting, Barclaycard Avios Mastercard credit cards.

Things didn’t go well. As you will know if you tried to apply:

  • the application website was not functioning
  • when it was functioning, acceptance did not seem as high as we were hoping, so we are working with Barclays to optimise acceptance for HfP

Update: we wanted to clarify a point on the article below – there are no actual issues with the Barclaycard acceptance process, it’s working fine, but Barclaycard are keen to improve the acceptance rate for HfP readers so are working on some optimisations.

HFP-Barclaycard-Avios-Plus-Card

Barclaycard has fixed its problems and a special offer is coming

Barclaycard is, of course, very unhappy that this has happened.

They have told us that we will see a special sign-up offer for a very limited period at a later point. This will hopefully encourage everyone who admitted defeat after facing problems this week to sign up.

In a statement yesterday, Barclaycard told us:

We apologise to Head for Points readers for the technical difficulties experienced when we launched our Barclaycard Avios and Avios Plus credit cards. We can confirm that this has now been resolved. We will be coming back to you with an exclusive offer within the next few weeks.”  

If your application has been rejected, you may want to reapply in few weeks time, once we have worked with Barclaycard to improve acceptance for our readers.

If you want to try your luck now, perhaps because you have some spending coming up which you need to trigger the sign-up bonus, it’s best to check your eligibility first using their free tool – the information is reused in the application so it doesn’t take long, and there is no impact to your credit file. You can check your eligibility and apply for the free Barclaycard Avios credit card (5,000 Avios bonus) here. You can check your eligibility and apply for the Barclaycard Avios Plus credit card (25,000 Avios bonus) here.

If you missed our content on Monday, the first of our three articles on the Barclaycard Avios Mastercards is here.

Bear with us. We’ll keep you in the loop. In the medium and long term, these two cards will be an excellent addition to the wallet or purse of all UK Avios collectors.

To learn more about the cards, read our Barclaycard Avios Mastercard credit card review here:

The representative APR is 29.9% variable.

…. and our Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard credit card review here:

The representative APR is 80.1% APR variable, including the annual fee.  The representative APR on purchases is 29.9% variable.


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 (299)

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

  • qiang says:

    my application on 1st march could not be found in Barclay system, despite hard searches on my credit history. called them on last week, was told to wait for two weeks for any feedback by post, called again today, I was advised to apply from scratch again! not to mention the long waiting time on the phone to get hold of someone.

  • h1jfg says:

    As long as I can use the Barclaycard Avios Plus as a normal credit card then I’ll be happy. Key benefits for me are (a) the sign-up bonus, and (b) the annual cabin upgrade voucher. Got this card alongside a new Barclays Premier account, for both me and my wife, so that should give us 4x cabin upgrade vouchers per year. Two for her. Two for me. And 4x sign-up bonuses in year 1. Then add in another two 2-4-1 vouchers per year from BA AMEX and 2x new 60,000 Avios bonuses on AMEX platinum. Plus a referral bonus. And I think that will be enough to keep me going. I’ll cope with the card not working with Applepay or Curve.

  • h1jfg says:

    Someone on another thread just said that they couldn’t use the new Barclaycard Avios Plus credit card to buy a ticket on BA website. Authorisation failed.
    I’m still waiting for my replacement card following the “envelope open and torn” issue.
    How have Barclaycard got this launch so wrong.

    • Dave P says:

      I am in the same position, I also registered a potential data breach with them, based on the amount of personal informations sent out in an un sealed envelope. I will be giving them a month or so to sort apple pay / curve, then I will be cancelling.

      Not concerened about missing out on future offers as this is one brand I will not be using again after this card.

  • JRH says:

    Annoying that the bonus start date appears to be from when I applied for the card rather than when I received and activated the card, 6th March, vs 18th March. Twelve days less to earn the bonus…

    • Rob says:

      We have made Barclaycard aware of this issue. Let’s see what happens.

  • Adam says:

    So, I eventually got my card working today. Ordered in 02nd March, working 21st March. Called Barclaycard and not interested in waving the first month fee. Said they cant do it. Guy went missing for 1hr trying to sort but nothin.
    Next issue is that they don’t work when trying to use them to order from Argos. Is this to do with the corporate numbering.
    Anyone else get this. Customer service said I needed to use chip and pin, then it will work. Still nothing. Then they said it’s Argos fault as it went through but they didn’t take the money. I’ve never had this experience with any credit card before.
    Doesn’t work with Curve, Apple Pay which everyone is aware of I guess. So it’s looking like unless I go into a store to purchase they don’t work. Trouble is with Argos unless the thing is in stock, you can’t purchase in store.
    Very very poor customer service. No clue why it’s not working. Just crazy.

    • Rob says:

      Works with Curve. A chip and pin purchase should unlock everything. That is security these days.

      Apple Pay coming but of course Curve works with Apple Pay if you really need it now.

  • Andrea says:

    On the Barclaycard website they now mention a bonus for existing cardholders:
    Barclaycard Avios card – 1,000 Avios when you spend at least £1,000 within three months of receiving the card
    Barclaycard Avios Plus card – 5,000 Avios if you spend at least £3,000 within three months of receiving your card

    They would be received if you switch your existing Barclaycard to one of these two.
    Is this the offer that was meant to go live at some point this month? And what happens if instead I wish to keep my Barclaycard and apply to a new Avios card account altogether?

    • Rob says:

      This is as good as it will get for existing cardholders I believe. You must surrender your existing card to get this.

  • Steveo says:

    Are we able to register for Mastercard world travel benefits as this is the world elite version? I’m not sure if it is a glitch but I have recently tried and the message said that they were unable to verify my enrolment?

  • Vinay says:

    Hi Rob, should we still be waiting for an exclusive hfp readers offer? been holding off on the application for this:)

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

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