Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Astonishing 70,000 Avios sign-up bonus for the British Airways Premium Plus American Express!

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I’ve never seen anything like it. British Airways has just launched an exclusive 70,000 Avios sign-up bonus for the British Airways Premium Plus American Express card.

This is, frankly, shocking. I’ve never seen anything like it in all these years.

Just as surprising is a sign-up bonus of 20,000 Avios on the free British Airways American Express card.

70,000 Avios British Airways Premium Plus American Express card

You can learn more about the cards in our British Airways Premium Plus American Express review here and our free British Airways American Express review here.

Here is the legally required interest rate information on the two cards:

British Airways American Express:

The representative APR is 30.0% variable.

British Airways Premium Plus American Express:

The representative APR is 137.8% variable, including the annual fee.  The representative APR on purchases is 30.0% variable.

Yesterday we wrote about a new ‘open to all’ bonus of 35,000 Avios for the British Airways Premium Plus card. There was no special bonus launched on the free card.

I need to stress that we were not told in advance about this (far) better ba.com exclusive deal. American Express had provided us with details of the 35,000 Avios offer but nothing else. There was even a formal press release circulated to the media on the 35,000 Avios deal on Tuesday evening. No-one bothered to mention that a much better offer was available.

Full details are on this page on the BA website. You must be logged in to see it.

Get a limited time 70,000 Avios sign-up bonus!

For British Airways Premium Plus, if you sign up by 21st February, you can earn a sign-up bonus of 70,000 Avios when you spend £3,000 in the first three months.

I cannot stress how crazy this offer is. If ANY member of your family qualifies for this bonus, I would persuade them to jump in.

What is even more impressive is that the spending requirement is unchanged. You only need to spend the usual £3,000.

20,000 avios free british airways american express credit card

What are 70,000 Avios worth?

This is our main article on what Avios points are worth. We generally say that you should expect at least 1p when used for premium cabin flights.

However, even in the worst possible scenario – that you convert to Nectar points and spend them in Sainsburys, at Argos or at eBay.co.uk – your 70,000 Avios are worth £467 of Nectar credit. Not bad for a sign-up bonus …..

Do you qualify for the 70,000 Avios bonus?

Remember that you are only eligible for the sign-up bonus on the Premium Plus card if you have NOT held a British Airways American Express (free or Premium Plus) card in the past 24 months.

You ARE eligible if you currently or have held The Platinum Card, Preferred Rewards Gold card, Green card, Nectar card, Platinum Cashback cards, Marriott Bonvoy card, American Express Rewards Credit Card, Business Platinum or Business Gold cards.

You ARE eligible if you are currently a supplementary cardholder on a British Airways American Express card held by someone else, but have not held a card in your own name in the past 24 months.

The bottom line is that if you haven’t had either of the British Airways American Express cards in the past 24 months, you will qualify for the 70,000 Avios.

What about the free British Airways American Express card?

Clearly 20,000 Avios on the free card – requiring a spend of £1,000 in three months – is also exceptional.

However, with a 70,000 Avios bonus on the table with the Premium Plus card, I don’t see why you would want to bother with the free card unless the £3,000 spend target is a problem.

Note that the rules for getting the bonus on the free card are tougher than on the British Airways Premium Plus American Express. The rule is that you cannot have had ANY personal American Express cards in the past 24 months.

The Premium Plus card has far looser rules – you only need to have gone 24 months without any British Airways American Express card.

Conclusion

I have no idea why British Airways has decided to offer such a ludicrously generous offer but only tell people about it via its own website.

The offer runs to 21st February. I strongly recommend you jump in if you can.

The application page is on the BA website here.

If you want to know more, we did an article on the core benefits of the British Airways Premium Plus American Express card here. If you don’t want to pay an annual fee, a similar article on the benefits of the free British Airways American Express card is here.


earns points from credit cards

Want to earn more points from credit cards? – April 2025 update

If you are looking to apply for a new credit card, here are our top recommendations based on the current sign-up bonuses.

In 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

Get 5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

You can see our full directory of all UK cards which earn airline or hotel points here. Here are the best of the other deals currently available.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 30,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

30,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

80,000 bonus points and great travel benefits – for a large fee Read our full review

Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard

18,000 bonus points and 1.5 points for every £1 you spend Read our full review

Earning miles and points from small business cards

If you are a sole trader or run a small company, you may also want to check out these offers:

American Express Business Platinum

50,000 points when you sign-up 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

Capital on Tap Pro Visa

10,500 points (=10,500 Avios) plus good benefits Read our full review

Capital on Tap Visa

NO annual fee, NO FX fees and points worth 1 Avios per £1 Read our full review

British Airways American Express Accelerating Business

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

Comments (557)

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

  • Matt says:

    Did the welcome email from Amex for the 70K offer mention the offer? As on her online account there isnt a tracker bar….

  • Fang says:

    I clink on this link in the article and applied:
    Full details are on this page on the Amex website.
    I have got the card now – but I cant see anywhere mention of the 70000 mile offer (it wasn’t in the application and is not shown anywhere in my (new) online account. The agent couldn’t tell me if I have the promo – they suggested making a transaction, to find out IF I have it. Seems a bit odd to me. Any views? (Also, my OH supp card has identified him as a long term Amex member – ‘member since’ on the card)

    • Matt says:

      Sounds like we are in the same boat. Know I applied via the correct link, I just like the reassurance of the tracker!

    • Rob says:

      Have faith. Amex rarely screws this stuff up.

    • anna says:

      My battle over both trackers continue. Had already 3 chats. Send a lot of screenshots. I was told all bunch of bull why I cannot see any tracker – either for the 70.000 avios or companion voucher, not in the app, not via website. Things I was told to do – uninstal app, wait few hours, install it back, spend and when this will clear, the trackers should be there. Now is – please, wait for the first statement. I added my husband and got the 3.000 avios for that immediately. I am being reassured I am eligible for the promo, but I want the reassurance of both trackers, as I want to keep the card for 12 months and use the 241 voucher for the trip to Japan. So – they do have a problem there, no denying about that. Now we will wait for my husband supplementary card to see if the tracker will appear when he will be set. I will let you know how that goes.

      • Anna says:

        I have now both trackers visible when I login via website. One shows 70.000 avios and the spend countdown. I applied on 12 January, the spend date is set to 21 April. The other shows tracking for companion voucher with cut of date of 11 January. I think the app is not there yet, but it might appear there soon too. So problem solved! Thank you Amex!

  • Fang says:

    I cant even find any reference to the 70k miles in the T&C’s !

  • Shaddy says:

    So I’ve worked out if you click on the link it redirects you to Amex. However on the iPhone an apply now appears towards the top of the screen, and another towards the bottom. It seems whilst both apply now buttons are for the same card, the top one carries no bonus!! I’m hoping I’m wrong but looking at the web addresses they are totally different!

  • Sian says:

    Has anyone who applied just before this offer went live been able to get amex / ba to honour the 70k bonus?

  • Chris says:

    My wife is an authorised user (second card) on my Amex card. She does not have an Amex card in her name as a primary holder. Can she apply for the basic BA card and receive the 20,000 Avios sign up bonus? Thanks for your amazingly informative emails.

  • Kev-the-rev says:

    As Andy says back on page 15 of these comments the link which leads to 70,000 points ends with “cpid=100504447”
    I’m glad that I applied with a desktop browser….

    • sloth says:

      I used this link, have just double checked the address, but don’t have the countdown bar

  • Kraut says:

    So there’s no reason why you can’t sign up for this, collect the 70k points after 3 months and then immediately cancel the card and keep the Avios? Is there a pro-rata annual fee you have to pay?

    • Christian says:

      I rang up & a very nice lady told me 70k airmiles promo. Gave her my Avios number too. Took 60 seconds. Now just trying to find somewhere who takes Amex.

    • Rob says:

      You pay the fee pro rata, yes.

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

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