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SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on the ‘free for a year’ American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card is increased from 20,000 Membership Rewards points to 30,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (30,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on American Express Platinum is increased from 50,000 Membership Rewards points to a huge 80,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (80,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

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This article is sponsored by American Express

British Airways and American Express have launched generous sign up bonuses on the three British Airways American Express Credit Cards.

This includes the British Airways American Express® Accelerating Business Card as well as the two personal cards.

These bonuses are EXCLUSIVE to members of the British Airways Executive Club and can only be claimed via British Airways channels such as ba.com, avios.com and British Airways Executive Club emails.

If you go to the Avios credit card page on shopping.ba.com here, you can log in to your British Airways Executive Club account and apply from there.

It is not a public offer and you will not see it promoted elsewhere on HfP or on any other channel. You will need to log in to your Executive Club account and follow the link to receive the offers.

60,000 Avios British Airways Premium Plus American Express card

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

British Airways American Express Credit Card:

The representative APR is 30.0% variable.

British Airways American Express Premium Plus Card:

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

British Airways American Express Accelerating Business Card:

The representative APR is 106.7% variable, including the annual fee.  The representative APR on purchases is 27.6% variable.

What bonus is available on the personal cards?

There is a huge 60,000 Avios sign-up bonus for the British Airways American Express® Premium Plus Card. This is up from the standard bonus of 30,000 Avios.

The spend target is the usual £6,000 within your first three months of Cardmembership.

There is also a sign-up bonus of 7,000 Avios on the Fee free British Airways American Express® Credit Card.

The spend target is the usual £2,000 within your first three months of Cardmembership.

Do you qualify for the 60,000 Avios bonus on Premium Plus?

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

You ARE eligible if you currently hold or have held The Platinum Card®, Preferred Rewards Gold Card, Green Card, Nectar Card, Amex® 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 60,000 Avios.

You need a personal income of £35,000 to be accepted for the British Airways Premium Plus Card. The card has an annual fee of £300.

7,000 avios free british airways american express credit card

Do you qualify for the 7,000 Avios bonus on the Fee free card?

The rules for getting the bonus on the Fee 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, as we noted above, has far looser rules – you only need to have gone 24 months without either of the British Airways American Express Cards.

The Fee free card requires a personal income of £20,000.

Irrespective, with a 60,000 Avios bonus on the table with the Premium Plus Card and an offer which would allow you to earn up to 2,500 Tier Points coming later this year, I don’t see why you would want to bother with the Fee free card unless:

  • you don’t meet the higher minimum income requirement for the Premium Plus Card
  • you would struggle to meet the £6,000 spend target within three months

You can learn more about the cards in our British Airways American Express Premium Plus Card review here and our Fee free British Airways American Express Credit Card review here. These reviews do not reflect this new bonus due to the closed nature of the offer.

get 45,000 bonus avios on the British Airways American Express Accelerating Business Card

What bonus is available on the small business card?

Exclusively to British Airways Executive Club members via British Airways channels, you can receive a bonus of 45,000 Avios on the British Airways American Express® Accelerating Business Card.

This is a substantial increase on the usual bonus of 30,000 Avios and means you could collect up to 165,000 Avios if you spend £60,000 in your first year.

You need to spend £5,000 in your first three months of Cardmembership to receive the bonus. As with the personal card offers, you must apply through your British Airways Executive Club account by 25th February to qualify.

There is an annual fee of £250, which should be tax deductible as a business expense, although you should take professional advice.

Do you qualify for the 45,000 Avios bonus on the Accelerating Business Card?

The bonus is available to any small business owner (sole traders are accepted) who has not held an American Express Business Gold, Business Platinum or Accelerating Business Card in the previous 12 months.

Holding a personal American Express card won’t stop you receiving the bonus as long as you meet the criteria above.

There is a minimum income requirement of £20,000. This is based on your PERSONAL income as the applicant, and not the profits of your business.

You can find out more about the card in our review here. This review does not reflect this new bonus as it is not available publicly.

How to apply

Whilst you will complete your application on the American Express website, you will only see these bonuses if you click out from BA channels, including shopping.ba.com and avios.com, first.

If you do not see the higher bonus on the application website, do not proceed. Go back to ba.com and try clicking through again.

The easiest way to do it is to head to Avios credit cards page on shopping.ba.com and log into your British Airways Executive Club account. You should see the offers if you’re a member without a Card. If you already have a Card, you’ll be able to refer friends or family for the Cards from this page so they can get the offer.

All three offers end on 25th February 2025.

Category

British Airways American Express

Comments (107)

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

  • Barrel for Scraping says:
    31 Jan31 January 10:10

    “This article is sponsored by American Express”

    So if Amex hadn’t paid for placement you’d not have told the readers about the offer as it would sacrifice your own referral fees!

    Back in the past HfP would always let you know about the best offers regardless whether or not there was something in it for them, that’s how you became the most popular blog in the UK.

    • EC says:
      31 Jan31 January 10:47

      It always amazes me the amount of people that feel the need to comment on these articles about impartiality. To anyone that has followed points websites for any meaningful amount of time, Rob has always been exceptionally upfront about everything – I would say far more upfront than any other points website out there (given the industry isn’t always UK based, bound by the same regulation and as such not the most honest). He’s mentioned several times before that he doesn’t run this website to maximise shareholder profit/pursue avenues that would generate maximum profit at the expense of reader experience. And having read the site for years, it’s clear that’s true.

      If you feel you’re not getting the full information about which cards to get from this site – you’re free to do your additional research elsewhere. To attack a man that a) runs this website as a means of income b) has done his best to remain impartial over the years is not helpful to anyone. There are plenty of other websites out there you can go on to get biased information from. But in my many years of reading this site, Rob has always been very critical when he feels something isn’t worth it.

    • Barrel for Scraping says:
      31 Jan31 January 10:55

      The about page needs updating then 😁 if you read that then it sounds like it’s an award winning travel site not a financial services business.

      • memesweeper says:
        31 Jan31 January 11:23

        I think an editorial policy or about us page would be useful, as @EC comments, regular readers know the policies, and newbies could be directed to read it.

      • BJ says:
        31 Jan31 January 11:55

        It’s more travel and loyalty but the emphasis has shifted in recent years so a mission statement might help. Personally I much preferred the HfP of the first six years to the last six years but at the end of the day it’s a business and and needs to support Rob and his various employees. Besides page views have continued to grow so HfP must be giving most people what they want and expect.

        • Rob says:
          31 Jan31 January 12:05

          You can type a random month into the URL eg headforpoints.com/2017/04 to compare content. There’s very little change (we had Anika by then so there was an additional staff member to handle reviews) except that the articles were a little shorter. If I take a quick look at April 2017 it is virtually identical to today, in fact a lot of the articles run then are still being run today in updated form.

        • BJ says:
          31 Jan31 January 13:05

          I am not going to dispute the data but it does feel to me that there is more on reviews and credit cards and reminders but accept that may be wrong and I know some if it is sometimes run as extra articles. There is also the question of familiarity, those of us who have been around a long time may not notice some things so much as those who have more recently started to follow. For instance, articles on stuff like points sales and even some hotel promotions. Newbies I think notice everything, oldies I think notice more big ticket stuff like RFS going global, amex introducing 24 month requirements etc. At least that’s how it is for me, no idea about others who have been around a while.

          • Rob says:
            31 Jan31 January 13:36

            In 2017 there were no VS cards, no Barclaycards, no Accelerating Business, no Capital on Tap and Amex was far less aggressive in its promotions. We always covered the offers out there.

        • No longer Entitled says:
          31 Jan31 January 15:31

          There used to be a lot more deals around. 3V cards, mini-cabbages, print cartridges etc in addition to the more direct travel related offers, and fewer programmes being revenue based (either to earn or burn) means that a lot of the fun has gone out of it. Through no fault of HfP.

        • BJ says:
          31 Jan31 January 18:46

          @Thywillbedone, that’s part of it too, there were times (especially on Clubcard days) that multiple extra things were breaking requiring extra articles 🙂 And way back at the start there were the joys of BMI, its superb reward chart and its crazy call centre that made them better still. Few newbies would believe what was once possible.

        • BJ says:
          31 Jan31 January 21:38

          Oops, that was meant to be @no longer entitled sorry

    • Richard says:
      31 Jan31 January 16:37

      I’m genuinely curious – not in a critical kind of way! – about exactly how “American Express restricts promotion of these offers”. It’s right there on BA’s main landing page, not at all secret. So what lever can Amex pull to stop it being covered on MSE? Is it an (unintended?) consequence of regulation somehow?

      • Nick says:
        31 Jan31 January 17:37

        Some companies don’t want mega promotion so they ask sites not to write about it. e.g. NatWest… they tell the bloggers (etc.) that the offer will be pulled immediately if they cover it. There’s a lot nowadays that never makes it to MSE.

        • Richard says:
          1 Feb1 February 16:50

          That makes complete sense when it’s a genuinely exclusive offer (that’s been sent out by email for example), but when it’s literally on the home page of a major airline… it feels weird. I hadn’t realised they could apply censorship to that extent (although quite possibly I should have done).

    • thewoat says:
      31 Jan31 January 17:09

      Would explain being about 2 weeks late telling people about this too.

  • polly says:
    31 Jan31 January 10:26

    Sounds like you are “scraping the barrel” here in your criticism. How much help have you gained over the years from Robs site? He regularly promotes no profit to him cards and offers.
    You would have received an email from BA too. And it will be in the forum..Seriously, a little more appropriation here would be welcome. I, for one was glad to read of this offer. Turns out we don’t qualify due to having business gold. They’re pretty good ones too.

    • Spike Spiegel says:
      31 Jan31 January 10:37

      +1

    • Barrel for Scraping says:
      31 Jan31 January 10:52

      It’s not run out of the goodness of anyone’s hearts it’s a business with a city office and 4 full time staff. The whole point of HfP to me is to get the best deals just by looking at the articles. If I want to read through pages and pages of forums there’s better places for that (FlyerTalk). If you subscribed to Which? Magazine would you be happy if they deliberately didn’t mention the best deals?

      To be fair though Rob is always open to why certain decisions are made and is open to criticism. It does seem a little crazy that a regulated financial service business isn’t allowed to mention offers without permission (also that’s the reason they can’t mention Revpoints as Revolut wants to approve anything written about them which understandably they don’t want to do).

      • MPC says:
        31 Jan31 January 11:09

        Zzzz…. It was mentioned and there is a search function which I use regularly when re-aquainting myself of the finer points of madness like all the changes to Virgin vouchers and BA tier points. It’s a free resource, if you think it’s not up to scratch I’m sure Rob won’t stand in your way if you want to stand up your own.

      • camille55 says:
        31 Jan31 January 11:31

        “It’s not run out of the goodness of anyone’s hearts it’s a business with a city office and 4 full time staff”.

        And? Genuinely curious of the motivation behind posts such as the OP’s starting the discission on this article today.

        @ OP – given you know its a business, whats wrong in it earning revenue (even a profit!!) from a paid-for article? It said at the outset Amex sponsored it, so it is published to promote their products.

      • Rui N. says:
        31 Jan31 January 20:05

        Which? doesn’t cover a lot of brands…. And what they cover in terms of appliances is quite biased to a certain type of clientele.

    • Ken says:
      31 Jan31 January 11:06

      Nothing is more certain than people moaning about everything.

      Wait long enough and there will be moans about status, devaluations, spend thresholds etc etc

      Comparisons with paid services like Which ?
      seem fatuous to say the least.

      I’m surprised any of the team respond.

    • BJ says:
      31 Jan31 January 12:06

      And he’s kept it free despite many of us in the earlier days suggesting that it would continue to succeed even as a subscription service. I thinkbthere was a time when it was a real frain on him socially and financially but despite that he kept it not only going but growing.

      • Rob says:
        31 Jan31 January 12:18

        Frankly it was a good excuse to get out of the house given the two very young kids at the time 🙂

        In fact it remains a good excuse to get out of the house!

        • BJ says:
          31 Jan31 January 13:10

          Yes, we got that too, I remember your comments about a urine-soaked child in the middle of the night one time … I hope he’s not reading now 🙂

          • The Savage Squirrel says:
            31 Jan31 January 13:18

            My favourite of all time is the one about the worst thing about parenting is fishing poo out of the bath. Maybe save that for the wedding speeches 😀

          • Polly says:
            3 Feb3 February 19:15

            Wow, that brings back memories… along with the cabbages, etc etc. they were fun days, agree with you BJ on that. As for the 3V sagas.. thrilling! We don’t get out much !

  • DubJ says:
    31 Jan31 January 10:45

    This feels a tad desperate from BA. Post Statusgate I surmise they’ve seen a flurry of BAPP cancellations (including mine). 60k avios won’t move the needle, and I’ll be burning my 500k avios stash on economy short haul over the next 14 months (whilst I still have status). After that, business redemptions until I hit 0 avios and terminate my relationship with BA completely. It’s been grand, but it’s over now 😛

  • Ironside says:
    31 Jan31 January 10:54

    Thank you, Rob (and Katie). I’ve been holding off restarting my BA PP, and thanks to this article I will wait no longer.

  • Sam S says:
    31 Jan31 January 11:10

    Sadly this offer is no good to me due to the 24 month rule.
    However if and when I’m eligible again for the bonus I certainly won’t be rushing to sign up whilst it’s the standard 30k SUB. I’ll be holding out for an offer like this as absolute minimum (especially given the recent changes/terms to the card). 30k is nothing these days.

  • Ken says:
    31 Jan31 January 11:12

    It’s a promotion that has run before…

    Never understand why people can’t separate status from Avios. Easy enough to redeem on other carriers.

    80k plus Avios plus a 241 for £300 seems like a no brainer to me but there you go.

    People seem determined not only to spite their face, but happy to tell everyone as well

    • Rob says:
      31 Jan31 January 11:17

      There are a lot of people who seem to be struggling with the split between status / cash tickets and Avios / reward tickets.

      For example, I honestly don’t think I’ve ever paid for a Virgin Atlantic cash ticket in my life (employers have on my behalf) but I’ve no problem picking up the points and redeeming, albeit lets see how long that lasts under dynamic pricing.

      BA could scrap status tiers entirely and it would make no difference to my desire to earn and redeem Avios for BA flights.

      There WAS a closer link when 90% of air miles were earned from flying, but that % is far lower these days and for our readers even lower.

      • Londoner 79 says:
        1 Feb1 February 06:46

        Exactly. I am not one of those people who say they will never pay to fly with BA ever again now that I can no longer earn status. I will, but only when the BA flight is the best option for my journey. What I will stop doing is going out of my way to fly BA (or other OneWorld airlines) when there are better options available.

        I will continue to spend on my BA Platinum AmEx and shop at Sainsbury’s (by far the biggest sources of my Avios—I earn relatively few from flying) and enjoy a long-haul business class redemption on BA every year or so. This is a treat that I really value and couldn’t otherwise afford (or would have to make too many sacrifices elsewhere to afford).

        My only worry (as one of life’s cynics) is that with all these Avios being thrown around, they’re planning some kind of devaluation on redemptions in the not-so-distant future.

  • memesweeper says:
    31 Jan31 January 11:26

    “The Card is available to any small business owner (sole traders are accepted) who has not held an American Express Business Gold, Business Platinum or Accelerating Business Card in the previous 12 months.”

    Wrong I think, the sign up bonus is only available to new applications. The Accelerating Business card is a strong earner, and without a sign up bonus, is a potentially good fit for a high-spender anyway. I’m holding Business Gold at the moment, and considering a switch despite being ineligible for the bonus.

  • DanGK says:
    31 Jan31 January 13:01

    I’m not seeing an ‘Apply’ button. After clicking ‘Log in to Apply’ (and logging in) I’m taken to a page that tells me all about it… but no apply button?! Late night last night so a bit foggy – can anyone point me in the right direction? (In finding the apply button, not why I shouldn’t be drinking on a school night!)

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