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.

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

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