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Apologies for application issues with Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

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Yesterday we ran three articles on the brand new, and very exciting, Barclaycard Avios Mastercard credit cards.

As soon as we’d published them, the Barclaycard application website collapsed. At the time of writing (10pm) it is still not fully functioning. It may or may not be working when you read this.

I’m sorry for the inconvenience. We are in close contact with Barclaycard and as soon as everything is good to go we will let you know.

HFP-Barclaycard-Avios-Plus-Card

Are you an existing Barclaycard holder?

In our article yesterday we said that existing Barclaycard holders would need to cancel their card and wait six months if they wanted the sign-up bonus on the new card.

It turns out that Barclaycard has a Plan B for existing cardholders which will go live in a few days. We should be able to share full details soon, but basically there will be a route which will allow you to get the Avios cards and receive a bonus. It will be a smaller bonus than the one given to new customers, but it will be better than nothing. We will run an article on this as soon as the process is live.

For everyone else …. we’ll let you know as soon as applications are open.

If you want to try again now, in case it got fixed overnight, you can apply for the free Barclaycard Avios credit card (5,000 Avios bonus) here. You can apply for the Barclaycard Avios Plus credit card (25,000 Avios bonus) here.

If you missed our content yesterday, the first of our three articles on the Barclaycard Avios Mastercards is here.

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.

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (April 2025)

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

Get 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

30,000 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.

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

The Platinum Card from American Express

80,000 bonus points and great travel benefits – for a large 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, and the standard card is FREE. Capital on Tap cards also have no FX fees.

Capital on Tap Visa

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

Capital on Tap Pro Visa

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

There is also a British Airways American Express card for small businesses:

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

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

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

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

Comments (291)

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

  • DJ says:
    2 Mar2 March 11:13

    So jealous of those readers who were able to switch via the app. Mine is still showing as “No Option Available” 🥲

  • Eric Hiscock says:
    2 Mar2 March 11:36

    Re Upgrading flights from Premium Economy to Business class am I being too optimistic to think that it refers to a return flight? I am forever hopeful to get to Sydney!

    • Rob says:
      2 Mar2 March 11:39

      It’s not technically an upgrade voucher, its a ‘pay the Avios cost of the cabin below you’ voucher. So, yes, if you can get Club World Avios seats to Sydney then you’d only pay the Premium Economy cost.

  • James says:
    2 Mar2 March 12:46

    Sorry if this is already posted somewhere (I have looked!) but will you be able to combine the Amex 2-4-1 voucher with the Barclaycard cabin upgrade voucher?

    • Rob says:
      2 Mar2 March 13:14

      No – unless you are a family of 3.

      • Nick says:
        2 Mar2 March 13:42

        Imagine calling BA at midnight and going through that for flights to SIN or SYD :P. Obviously requires further looking into, but I wonder if all that could actually be done quick enough to help a family of 3. And will the upgrades be done online or require calling?

  • J says:
    2 Mar2 March 13:07

    Can the upgrade voucher be used along with the companion voucher?

    E.g. Buy a Premium Economy, use the companion voucher to make it 2 seats. Then use upgrade vouchers on those seats to Business?

  • namster says:
    2 Mar2 March 13:54

    can i do a BT from my Amex to barclaycard plus and trigger the bonus ?

    • DJ says:
      2 Mar2 March 14:33

      No, purchase only, just like every other reward cards in the market.

  • mark says:
    2 Mar2 March 14:45

    Word of caution: closing existing credit cards and opening line of credit with new cards does affect one’s credit rating. Please make sure you are well aware of the terms and conditions.

    • Rob says:
      2 Mar2 March 14:50

      Unless you were planning to get a mortgage or a remortgage within the next 6 months, it really isn’t worth giving a second thought to any credit report impact in my view.

  • Sam says:
    2 Mar2 March 15:23

    Thank you for sharing details relating to this!

    Couple of questions

    1) Can one cancel/downgrade post award of the 25k welcome bonus?

    2) Could one open the credit card account and then use the current account switching service to harvest avios from both the current account and credit card (and still being eligible to receive the 25k bonus on both?)

    Thank you!

    Sam

  • Barb says:
    2 Mar2 March 16:41

    Was so excited to have an non-amex avios card, but turns out they won’t accept Channel Island residents, which at least Amex does.

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

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