Ignore the British Airways American Express hotel promotion

If you have a British Airways American Express card, which is the case for the majority of our UK readers, you may have received an email from Amex last week.

It offered you a special 10% discount off the Avios price of any hotel booked on the British Airways hotel portal. The BA hotel booking page is here.

You need to book by 30th June for travel by 31st December.

This offer isn’t worth it, however.

When you book a hotel on the British Airways hotel booking portal and pay with Avios, you get around 0.55p per Avios redeemed. With this offer, you’ll get a little over 0.6p.

However, if you turn your Avios into Nectar points and book on the Nectar Hotels website, you’ll get 0.8p per Avios. Our article here explains how. This is, clearly, far better.

Even at 0.8p per Avios via Nectar Hotels it is only worth thinking about for independent properties. Big brand hotels will usually have ‘member discounts’ which are exclusive to their own websites and which make the 0.8p a false valuation. You will also be giving up any hotel loyalty points or status benefits at a branded hotel by booking via Nectar Hotels.

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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.