Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Got a British Airways American Express card? New spend bonus launched on Monday

Links on Head for Points may support the site by paying a commission.  See here for all partner links.

American Express has launched a new spend bonus for British Airways American Express Premium Plus and free British Airways American Express cardholders.

It is surprisingly generous, possibly more generous than it needs to be, which is odd but I’m not complaining – especially as I have a hotel bill to pay this week.

It is limited to the first 60,000 people to register.

British Airways American Express Premium Plus spend bonus

I get 10,000 bonus Avios for spending £5,000 by 30th November.

This is such a decent deal that it is worth paying the 3% foreign exchange commission to settle my hotel bill bill this week. As long as I cap the amount at £5,000, I will be paying £150 in fees to bank 17,500 Avios in total which is fine by me.

(Obviously it would make more sense to do the spending in the UK and not pay any FX fees. However, as per our other article today, I have a similar offer on my Business Platinum card that will keep me busy until mid November once I get home.)

Looking at reader comments, there do not seem to be alternative versions of this offer. It is either ‘10,000 Avios for spending £5,000’ or nothing if you have Premium Plus.

The free BA Amex offer does have different versions

On the free British Airways American Express there are reports of:

  • ‘1,500 Avios for spending £1,000’
  • ‘2,000 Avios for spending £2,000’

…. and that’s it. There are also quite a few reports of people getting nothing, so don’t get your hopes up.

Remember that you need to opt in to these offers via the ‘Offers’ tab on your BA Amex statement page in the app or Amex website. Spending does not count towards your target until you opt in.

For clarity, spending on supplementary cards does not count. Neither does PayPal spend recharged to your Amex.

PS. If you are not a regular Head for Points visitor, why not sign up for our FREE weekly or daily newsletters? They are full of the latest Avios, airline, hotel and credit card points news and will help you travel better. To join our 65,000 free subscribers, click the button below or visit this page of the site to find out more. Thank you.

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

British Airways American Express

Comments (182)

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

  • Lev441 says:
    23 Aug23 August 07:52

    Have it on my BAPP but not on the GF’s card. Shame it wasn’t on there last week, as I put through £8k of spend!

  • Chrisasaurus says:
    23 Aug23 August 07:54

    Perfect timing for anyone booking several dozen flights from Jersey today 😉

  • Neil says:
    23 Aug23 August 08:01

    It’s almost like Amex know folks are trying to hold back spend until September! Lol

    • WaynedP says:
      23 Aug23 August 08:51

      Yes, on second thoughts I think it’s quite astute on Amex part.

      I agree there’s some pent-up spending waiting for 1 Sept, but probably relatively small amounts just to cross the threshold.

      This offer encourages spend on BAPP well beyond the Companion Voucher threshold trigger with a further incentive not to divert excess spending to an alternative credit card.

      Definitely works to incentivise me to settle my full outstanding BAH booking balance on my BAPP on 2 September.

    • Chrisasaurus says:
      23 Aug23 August 09:22

      Be careful giving too much credit to any business – quite possible the offer is devised by a revenue (or equivalent nomenclature in this type of business) team seeing only spend patterns and with no knowledge of the 241 change to put context to it.

      In that case their toolkit would still mostly consist only of offers like this so the result would be what we’re seeing…

      Much as with airlines – there’s a revenue arm which works to maximise ticket and ancillary revenue brought in and an operations team who deliver the services as cheaply as possible. The two have little to do with each other and are united only at the occasional board meeting when it’s suggested that revenues are under pressure in part because the service is a bag of crap.

      • Save East Coast Rewards says:
        23 Aug23 August 10:18

        As Rob pointed out in an earlier article this offer has appeared on other non BA cards too. So it looks unlikely to be related to the September changes as these only affected the BA cards

      • WaynedP says:
        23 Aug23 August 10:52

        @Chrisasaurus I’m sure your take is based on actual observed real-world experience, rather than my own hypothetical stab in the dark.

        But connecting the dots between revenue-generating dept and loyalty-programme dept in any business these days seems to me to be like an open goal begging to be landed.

        Fairly easy (according to my graduate son) to let a pattern-recognising AI program loose on the volumes of data that BA and Amex must have if they collaborated. Would generate loads of statistical correlations and patterns for further analysis.

        I’d be interested to know how close and detailed any existing collaboration between BA and Amex is already, eg when setting up offers like this. There must be some joint co-ordination surely ? Can’t possibly be random on Amex’s part, can it ? Serious question, no cynicism intended or invited.

  • Fred S says:
    23 Aug23 August 08:04

    Will supplementary card spend count towards target (on Bapp £5K)?

    • Graham Walsh says:
      23 Aug23 August 08:29

      I would have thought so. I don’t see the offer on my g/f supp card, so must roll up.

      • WaynedP says:
        23 Aug23 August 08:40

        Hmmm, I’m not so sure it’s safe to assume it would work like a Sign-up Bonus.

        T&Cs state it’s limited to spend on the card targeted and offer saved.

        I’m trying to find out from Mrs dP if she has the offer on her BAPP Supp (I have already saved it to my own primary).

        If she does have it, I suspect it would represent a second opportunity for us to earn another bonus 10,000 Avios for another chunk of £5,000 spend, but any spend on Supp wouldn’t count towards primary card target (regardless of whether or not she saves the offer on her card).

        Don’t know what it would mean if she doesn’t have it, but I wouldn’t expect spend on her Supp card to count towards the target saved on my card.

      • Chrisasaurus says:
        23 Aug23 August 09:26

        Graham, all Amex offers work per card. No exceptions.

    • Jimbob says:
      23 Aug23 August 08:34

      The T&C’s talk about per card rather than per account, so I’m going to assume spend on the supp card doesn’t count.
      Be good to get other’s thoughts though

      • Andrew says:
        23 Aug23 August 08:38

        I agree – wouldn’t count on supps counting towards this

      • Chrisasaurus says:
        23 Aug23 August 09:10

        As with every other offer, it’s per card and you may or may not be able to also add an offer to a supplementary card.

    • Mr. AC says:
      23 Aug23 August 09:30

      Offer not on my supplementaries. Supps not mentioned in the T&C. I would guess that’s a no. Would be great if someone asked Amex…

  • VerdantBacon says:
    23 Aug23 August 08:11

    This is giving essentially 2 Avios per £ extra, pair that with 3 Avios per £ spend on BA.
    Getting 5 Avios per £ to book unwanted flights on BA and exchange them at 2p per Avios.
    Not bad at all

  • Richard says:
    23 Aug23 August 08:13

    I have the free BA Amex card and got “Save to Card to collect 2,000 Avios when you spend £2,000 cumulatively anywhere until 30 November 2021. Valid once per Card for the first 100,000 Cardmembers to save the Offer. Terms and Conditions apply.”

  • Grimz says:
    23 Aug23 August 08:15

    I have the £1000 – 1500 avios but I am sitting at £9500 before upgrading to BAPP in November to trigger my voucher so I won’t be spending on this card.

    • Save East Coast Rewards says:
      23 Aug23 August 10:21

      I think (hope somebody can verify) you’re fine going over the £10000 on the basic card and then when you upgrade you’ll trigger the voucher immediately. Just make sure you don’t go over £12000 which from September will trigger the economy only voucher on the basic card

  • Matthew says:
    23 Aug23 August 08:17

    1500 for £1000 on my free BA

    • Youllnever says:
      23 Aug23 August 08:22

      Same here.

    • Alex Sm says:
      24 Aug24 August 11:38

      I would prefer this to ‘2000 for 2000’ which I got… hope it will count in pending transactions at the time of opt-in at least…. Just booked some Norwegian flights yesterday

      • Polly says:
        24 Aug24 August 11:46

        Sadly no, has to have been saved to work on any spend…we also did a large spend before this offer also…

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

New to Head for Points?

Welcome!  We’re the UK’s most-read source of business travel, Avios, frequent flyer and hotel loyalty news. Let us improve how you travel. Got any questions? Ask them in our forums.

Get 25,000 Avios with the Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

GET A SIGN-UP BONUS OF 18,000 VIRGIN POINTS!

Latest Forum Posts

Get 80,000 bonus points (worth 80,000 Avios) and £400 of dining credit with The Platinum Card (Offer ends 27th May)

Check reward flight availability instantly for free!

See a whole year of reward seat availability on one page at SeatSpy.com

Get up to 10,000 bonus Hilton Honors points

Booking a luxury hotel?

Our luxury hotel booking service offers you GUARANTEED extra benefits over booking direct. Works with Four Seasons, Mandarin Oriental, The Ritz Carlton, St Regis and more. We've booked £1.7 million of rooms to date. Click for details.

SME? GET THE ONLY FREE SMALL BUSINESS CREDIT CARD WHICH CAN EARN AVIOS

Get points worth 30,000 Avios with 'first year free' American Express Gold (ends 27th May)

The UK's biggest frequent flyer website uses cookies, which you can block via your browser settings. Continuing implies your consent to this policy. Our privacy policy is here.

Got it!