Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

An update on the huge Barclays and Barclaycard ‘100,000 Avios’ offer

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UPDATE – APRIL 2024:  This article is now out of date, but don’t worry.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.

Keep up to date with the latest UK credit card bonuses by signing up for our free daily or weekly newsletters.

We ran four (!) articles yesterday to explain the astonishing new 100,000 Avios bonus offer just launched by Barclays and Barclaycard.

If you missed it, start reading here.

Readers had a lot of questions about eligibility in various niche scenarios. We have forwarded these to Barclays and will do a further article when we get feedback. The most common question was whether people who join Premier Banking by paying £20 per month – which is allowed, if you don’t earn £75,000 – are eligible for the 100,000 Avios bonus.

100,000 Avios with Barclays Premier

There is one update we need to tell you about.

During Monday and early Tuesday, the application website for those new to Barclays had a typo which confused many people.

Question 3 was meant to say (and now does say) that you should tick one of:

  • Do you have a gross annual income of at least £75,000?
  • Do you have at least £100,000 in savings and/or investments?
  • None of the above

It originally said ‘Do you have a gross annual income of at least £75,000 paid into a Barclays current account?‘ and ‘Do you have at least £100,000 in savings and/or investments with Barclays?’. Obviously anyone new to Barclays would have ticked ‘None of the above’, at which point you were kicked out of the application process!

If this happened to you on Monday or early Tuesday, you can try again via the Barclays website here.

To find out more about the benefits you’ll get with the Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard credit card, read this article.

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.

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.

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.

Category

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard, Barclays Premier, British Airways and Avios

Comments (127)

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

  • bruinbrown says:
    5 Oct5 October 03:56

    With the current Bonvoy global promotion, the terms unfortunately limit it to just paid stays. A reservation on points won’t be eligible for the 2000 bonus points unlike previous promotions.

  • Lumma says:
    5 Oct5 October 04:50

    I have the same offer on my ARCC

  • Basher says:
    5 Oct5 October 05:35

    So I filled out the updated legibility checker with “none of the above” and was still told I’m not legible for the 100k bonus points. So you do have to earn over 75k or have 100k in savings to qualify. No option to pay £20pm and still qualify. Poorly advertised promotion imo.

    • Erico1875 says:
      5 Oct5 October 06:58

      It’s quite clear. 75k PA or 100k invested

      • LittleNick says:
        5 Oct5 October 09:09

        Sadly I suspect to qualify for the 100k bonus requires the 75k income, hopefully Rob can confirm if the case or not in the next few days

        • Mr(s) Entitled says:
          5 Oct5 October 09:56

          OR have £100k in savings OR investments.

          • Ryan says:
            5 Oct5 October 10:15

            Can’t see anything on the website that says so, it just say’s you need to be a premier banking customer… which you get free if you meet one of those

            It looks like the £20 option is available but they don’t make it obvious

      • Basher says:
        5 Oct5 October 17:39

        Reading the comments, I would say it’s not!

    • aq.1988 says:
      5 Oct5 October 18:20

      I agree that the offer is poorly worded. It doesn’t specify that you must earn £75k or have £100k invested with them to get the 100k; it only says you need that to qualify for free Premier Banking.

      From their website:
      “Collect a guaranteed 100,000 Avios bonus when you open a:

      Barclaycard Avios Plus credit card (£20 monthly fee), and Premier current account with Barclays Avios Rewards (£12 monthly fee).

      Simply open all of them, or any you don’t already have, between 3 October and 30 November 2022.

      You’ll need to keep them for four months or more, starting from the date you open the last product.”

      I meet the criteria and upgraded to Premier in the app, and switched on Avios Rewards.

      My wife does not meet the criteria, but she was able to upgrade to Premier in the app quite simply, they did ask income but there was no mention of a £20 fee if you don’t qualify, although I’m sure they will be charging it. She already has the Avios Plus card, and Barclays current account.

      She then switched on Avios Rewards for £12. But as we were worried that she won’t qualify for the 100k points, she asked in the chat and they confirmed that as long as you have the Plus card and Avios rewards for at least 4 months, she will get it. She also called up CS, and they confirmed the same again. I know the agents might not know for sure, but she took a picture of the chat and took details of the agent she spoke to just in case.

      I don’t want to get other people’s hopes up if the agent was wrong and Rob gets confirmation otherwise from Barclays, but thats what our experience was.

      • LittleNick says:
        5 Oct5 October 23:20

        Interesting, I get the impression that Barclays doesn’t want too many customers paying the £20 for premier for 4 months, bagging the 100k Avios then leaving, seems they’d tolerate a small proportion doing this but if everyone does then not sure it would suit their bottom line

  • Kowalski says:
    5 Oct5 October 06:26

    It’s on my Bonvoy Card also

  • John says:
    5 Oct5 October 06:34

    Hyatt Regency also running £100 cash back on £250 minimum spend on a broad range of European hotels.

  • Pb says:
    5 Oct5 October 06:41

    Anyone know If you have Barclays business card does it exclude you from the offer ? TIA.

  • Geoggy says:
    5 Oct5 October 07:19

    If you can get Barclays to apply some sensible discretion to those of us that applied for the card 48 hours before this deal launched and still dont have the card, that would be great as I got nowhere on live chat.

    • Rob says:
      5 Oct5 October 07:24

      Doubt live chat agents have the authority to give you £1,000 compensation!

      Cancel under the 14 day cooling off period. Only risk is that you are still not treated as a new customer.

      • Geoggy says:
        5 Oct5 October 07:34

        I understand – well could you clarify that if I do this I will have to wait another 6 months or not?

        • Rob says:
          5 Oct5 October 07:40

          We don’t know. I doubt Barclays knows. It will be coded into a computer somewhere.

          The cooling off rules are not ‘be forgotten’ rules.

          • Geoggy says:
            5 Oct5 October 08:32

            Ok thanks Rob appreciate your insights. You seem to hinting at the fact cancellation won’t work, but I guess it’s a no lose gamble for me. I’ve waited 5.5 months to apply as it launched just after I got a Barclaycard as it came up tops for spending abroad. I may as well just ditch it now and wait 6 months again then wait to see if this offer ever comes back. Unless of course you’ve been told this is a one off ;0)

  • John G says:
    5 Oct5 October 07:19

    “The most common question was whether people who join Premier Banking by paying £20 per month – which is allowed, if you don’t earn £75,000 – are eligible for the 100,000 Avios bonus”

    Why not just answer this question in the article? The answer is no!

    • Rob says:
      5 Oct5 October 07:22

      They’ve not actually said that to us. They just made us remove all references to it.

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