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Add someone to your Amex account for 1,000 Membership Rewards points or 500 Avios

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American Express has two on-going bonus schemes to encourage cardholders to add supplementary cardholders to their accounts.  After all, the more people who are carrying a card, the more spend they can accumulate!

There are two offers, one for American Express Platinum and one for the British Airways American Express card.

The Platinum offer gives 1,000 Membership Rewards points for every supplementary cardholder you add.

Your first supplementary cardholder gets a Platinum card and can apply for all of the Platinum benefits including the Carlson Gold, Starwood Gold and Accor Platinum hotel statuses.  They also receive their own Priority Pass giving them access to 600 airport lounges, together with a guest.

Four other people can be give Gold supplementary cards on your account.  These do not qualify for the perks above apart from the travel insurance benefits.

In all cases, the charges for the spending on the supplementary cards appear on your statement.  You are legally responsible for their payment!

The British Airways American Express offer is worth 500 Avios points for every supplementary cardholder you add.

This is applicable to either the free BA Amex card or the fee-paying Premium Plus version.  It is not clear how many supplementary cards you can add to a British Airways American Express account but I know people with 3-4.

Note that it can take American Express a while to process applications for supplementary cards – it is not unusual for it to take six weeks.

PS.  One of the most common questions I am asked is ‘does having a supplementary card on my partners account stop me signing up for my own Platinum / Gold / BA Amex later?’.  The answer is No.  You can still apply in your own right and receive a sign-up bonus.

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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.

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.

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

Category

American Express Gold card, American Express Membership Rewards, American Express Platinum card

Comments (35)

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

  • Frenske says:
    9 Oct9 October 06:38

    Oddly there is a charge to get supplementary Gold Reward cards. If I remember correctly it is £24. Although I heard people saying you can get it for free if yoi contact them over the phone.

    • Erico1875 says:
      9 Oct9 October 07:39

      Im sure its £49 on my Gold acc

      • Raffles says:
        9 Oct9 October 07:41

        Gold is not part of this promotion, only Platinum and BA

        • Frenske says:
          9 Oct9 October 09:41

          True! But I find it odd that AmEx is trying to recruit more card users and basically rewarding the account holder to add users to account. At the same time basically don’t allow Gold Reward account holders to get supplementary cards.
          Perhaps this has something to do with the rather generous bonus system in the first year (and no feee).

  • JQ says:
    9 Oct9 October 06:48

    Any chance of getting this retrospectively if you got the supplementary card as part of the original application?

  • Brian says:
    9 Oct9 October 07:24

    Is the supplementary Platinum card free? Thanks.

    • Raffles says:
      9 Oct9 October 07:40

      Yes, as are the 4 supplementary Gold cards

      • Col A-B says:
        9 Oct9 October 09:09

        How odd. I was charged for my 2nd supplementary platinum card, so cancelled it & they very graciously pro-rata refunded the fee. Then refunded it again!

        Slightly OT – just had a letter & cheque for £170 from AMEX. It turns out that I’d requested 34k membership reward points be transferred to BA exec club in Aug 2013. The transfer never happened. I’m amazed I didn’t spot it, so clearly have too many Avios! I do feel they’re putting an awfully low monetary value on those MR. I have emailed/complained & await the outcome.

        • Brian says:
          9 Oct9 October 09:57

          If the transfer never happened, then you must still have (or been able to use for something else) the MR points. In which case, you’ve received 170GBP compensation for the ‘inconvenience’. What’s to complain about????

          • Col A-B says:
            9 Oct9 October 10:38

            When I wrote the transfer never happened I meant they transferred the 34000 MR out of my MR account, but they never got to my BA Exec Club account. And they didn’t bounce back to my MR account either.

          • Brian says:
            9 Oct9 October 11:12

            Ah, okay.

          • Alan says:
            9 Oct9 October 21:20

            That’s very poor show by Amex, although their MR IT does seem a bit dodgy at times! They should put the MR points back and give you some additional points/cash as compensation IMO. The cash on offer is nowhere near enough for 34k MR points, they’re obviously forgetting that there are more valuable redemption options than through their catalogue of gift vouchers and items, where they are only worth around ha’penny..

  • martin says:
    9 Oct9 October 08:12

    The Platinum account gives you the option of a green card rather than a gold one as a supplementary – which can be useful if the person you’re applying for already has a gold Amex in their wallet and needs a way of telling the two apart 🙂

  • Yorica says:
    9 Oct9 October 08:54

    Slightly off topic – but was it a year ago this month that the last Avios bonus conversion took place? Any sign of another one?

    I have to convert my MR before my first yr is up in Nov’14 for my amex gold preferred card.

    Before the one year is up I will be cancelling the card so there is only a few weeks to go before I have to convert.

  • Lissa says:
    9 Oct9 October 10:42

    Does the supplementary card holder have to be UK resident?

    • Brian says:
      9 Oct9 October 11:13

      I believe he/she has to share the same address, but I may be wrong…

      • Col A-B says:
        9 Oct9 October 11:21

        Don’t have to share the same address, I successfully added my mum who lives in a different county. As for being in the UK – don’t know.

    • Louie-m says:
      9 Oct9 October 18:00

      No. I added my aunt in Australia when she came for a long visit. Amex did require a witnessed copy of her passport and documents confirming her address though.

  • Teece says:
    10 Oct10 October 14:07

    The headline for this article makes it sound like you have to pay the MR/Avios to get the additional cardholder… Replace the ‘for’ with ‘and earn’?

    • Rob says:
      10 Oct10 October 14:26

      Fair point. The headline was a LOT longer but I cropped it due to Twitter and other social media feeds who can’t cope with something too long. I can change it now the feeds have gone out.

  • Hemz says:
    10 Oct10 October 20:53

    After signing up to the Amex Gold Card (thanks for the extra points Raffles!), I now have about 29,000 MR points. Should I transfer them straight away to my BA / Avios account or does it not matter? Anyone know if either do transfer bonuses? I don’t need to use the points for at least the next 6 months

    • What's The Point says:
      10 Oct10 October 21:07

      No harm in waiting to see if a bonus comes along. Although I would maybe do a transfer of 1,000 just to make sure that you set the link up correctly. As this might take a day or two in the first instance to get the points into your BA account.
      Future transfers happen a lot quicker.

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