Prior to that, if you spent £20,000 per year on the free British Airways American Express credit card, you received a 2-4-1 companion voucher valid on any Avios flight in Economy, Premium Economy, Business or First Class.

Today, you only need to spend £12,000 per year to receive a 2-4-1 companion voucher but – and this is a big ‘but’ – it is only valid in Economy.

In February 2022, we saw another major change. Barclaycard introduced the Barclaycard Avios Mastercard – details here. This has the same earning rate as the free British Airways American Express card (1 Avios per £1) but comes with an upgrade voucher instead of a 2-4-1 companion voucher.

Should the average HfP reader hold the free British Airways American Express card?

To be honest, probably not. If you do have the free BA Amex, let’s look at why other cards may be better suited to you.

You can read our free British Airways American Express review here.

Do you spend under £12,000 on your free British Airways American Express?

Whether or not the American Express companion voucher on the free BA Amex card is worth having is, I admit, personal preference.

However, if you’re not spending £12,000 per year on the free BA Amex card, you’re not triggering the 2-4-1 companion voucher.

In this scenario, why are you holding the card? There are two better options open to you:

• Get the free Barclaycard Avios Mastercard – you earn the same rate (1 Avios per £1) and, as a Mastercard, it is accepted in more places than American Express. You are reducing the cards in your wallet or purse, because everyone needs a back-up Visa or Mastercard for their Amex anyway.

or

• Get the free American Express Rewards Credit Card – you earn the same rate (1 Avios per £1, if you choose to convert the Membership Rewards points into Avios) but you can also convert your points into many other airline or hotel loyalty programmes

Whilst the Barclaycard Avios Mastercard is a fairly self explanatory product, I will cover the Amex Rewards Credit Card is more detail because you are less likely to be familiar with it.

What you get with the Amex Rewards Credit Card is flexibility.

Yes, you can use your points for Avios.  You can send them over to BA via the Amex website and they will arrive within 24 hours.

However, you have other options.  Membership Rewards points can also be sent to Virgin Atlantic, Flying Blue, Emirates, Etihad or Delta among other airline partners.  You can also send them to Hilton Honors (1:2), Marriott Bonvoy (2:3) and Radisson Rewards (1:3).  You can convert them to Club Eurostar (15:1).  You can even use them for shopping vouchers.  You can see the airline partners here.

The Amex Rewards Credit Card gives you more choice.  You can still take Avios if you want, and at the same 1 Avios per £1 earning rate.  If you suddenly decide that you want hotel points, or that Virgin Points make more sense, or even that you want to abandon Avios altogether, you can.  Simply move your Amex points somewhere else instead.

With the free BA Amex card, your points are sitting in Avios from Day 1 and you can’t do anything else with them.  If Avios devalues its rewards, if BA stops flying your preferred route, if reward availability suddenly gets a lot harder to find, if Reward Flight Saver fees jump up, if new surcharges get added ….. you’re stuck. Your only way out is via a transfer to Nectar points.

There is literally no area where the free British Airways card outperforms the Amex Rewards Credit Card if you are not triggering the 2-4-1 voucher. You don’t even get bonus Avios when paying with the free BA Amex at ba.com – this is a benefit that only comes with the British Airways Premium Plus card.

Whether you get the free Barclaycard Avios Mastercard or the free Amex Rewards Credit Card, either is a better choice than the free British Airways American Express card if you spend under £12,000 per year.

Do you spend over £12,000 per year on your free British Airways American Express card?

If you spend £12,000 per year on the free British Airways American Express card, you might think that it IS worth keeping the card.

After all, you are earning the annual 2-4-1 companion voucher, valid for travel begun within 12 months of issue. This allows you to:

• book two Avios flights in Economy for the cost of one (full taxes are due on both tickets) or

• book one Avios flight in Economy for half of the usual Avios cost (full taxes are still due)

If you are an Economy traveller, you may well see some value here. Even if you don’t travel Economy on long haul flights, you would save a handful of Avios on a short haul European trip.

However …..

Once you are spending over £10,000 per year on your free BA Amex, you have a different decision to make. Should you upgrade to the £250 per year British Airways Premium Plus American Express card or the £20 per month Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard?

Yes, you probably should.

Reasons to swap your free BA Amex for the British Airways Premium Plus card:

• The 2-4-1 companion voucher on the free BA Amex is only valid on Economy tickets, whilst the voucher on the Premium Plus card is valid in ALL classes

• Holders of the British Airways Premium Plus American Express get access to additional Avios inventory when redeeming in Business Class, making it a lot easier to find seats

• The 2-4-1 companion voucher on the free BA Amex is only valid for one year, instead of two years for the BA Premium Plus voucher, which is a major issue if you want to book seats 355 days in advance

• The £2,000 of ‘extra’ spending required to trigger the voucher on the free card (£12,000 compared to £10,000 on the Premium Plus card) could be directed elsewhere, helping trigger sign-up bonuses on other cards

• You earn an extra 0.5 Avios per £1 spent and double Avios when you spend with British Airways and BA Holidays, which offsets some of the £250 annual fee on the Premium Plus card

There is no official upgrade form – you simply apply for the Premium Plus card via this link. American Express will recognise that you are upgrading and will copy over your existing spend and account data. If your application is rejected for some reason, give Amex a call.

Your card year remains the same, and if you have already spent £10,000 this card year on the free card then your 2-4-1 companion voucher is triggered immediately.

Note that you need a personal income of £35,000 to get the Premium Plus card.

Reasons to swap your free BA Amex for the Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard:

• The 2-4-1 companion voucher on the free BA Amex is only valid on Economy tickets, whilst the upgrade voucher on the Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard lets you travel in Business or Premium Economy, albeit not First Class (this is how the Barclaycard upgrade voucher works)

• The 2-4-1 companion voucher on the free BA Amex is only valid for one year, instead of two years for the Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard voucher, which is a major issue if you want to book seats 355 days in advance

• The £2,000 of ‘extra’ spending required to trigger the voucher on the free BA Amex (£12,000 compared to £10,000 on the Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard) could be directed elsewhere, helping trigger sign-up bonuses on other cards

• As it’s a Mastercard, you can use it in more places than an American Express card which makes it easier to hit the £10,000 target for the annual voucher

• If you’ve not applied for a Barclaycard Avios Mastercard before, you would qualify for a 25,000 Avios sign-up bonus – you won’t get a bonus if you swap from the free BA Amex to the British Airways Premium Plus American Express

Conclusion

Given:

• the September 2021 changes to the 2-4-1 companion voucher on the free British Airways American Express card, and

• the February 2022 launch of the Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

….. there are good reasons for EVERY holder of the free British Airways American Express card to reconsider whether it remains the card for them.

If you spend under £12,000 on the free British Airways American Express card, I believe that the free Barclaycard Avios Mastercard and the Amex Rewards Credit Card offer good alternative.

If you are spending five figures on your free BA Amex, you should consider whether there is value in swapping to either the fee-paying Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard or the British Airways Premium Plus American Express.

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Bonus: 25,000 Avios

Read our full review

Sign-up bonus and earn rate:

• Get 25,000 Avios when you spend £3,000 within 90 days
• Earn 1.5 Avios per £1 spent

Other information:

• Receive an Avios upgrade voucher when you spend £10,000 in a card year
• Upgrade a return BA flight for one person or two one-way flights for a couple
• Annual fee: £240, charged at £20 per month

Representative 80.1% APR variable based on an assumed £1,200 credit limit and £20 monthly fee.  Interest rate on purchases 29.9% APR variable.

Apply here

See if you qualify for the 25,000 Avios sign-up bonus +

You will receive 25,000 Avios as a sign-up bonus on the Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard credit card if you spend £3,000 within 90 days of signing up.

To qualify for the bonus, you must NOT, currently or in the previous six months, have held any other Barclaycard credit card.

You are OK if you had a supplementary card on someone else’s Barclaycard account.

You are OK if, currently or in the previous six months, you have had a British Airways American Express credit card.

For clarity, you can still apply for the Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard even if you do not qualify for the bonus.  You would still benefit from the upgrade voucher and the other card benefits.

Learn more about the card benefits +

When you spend £10,000 on the Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard, you receive a voucher entitling you to:

• book a return Avios flight for one person, paying the Avios of the next lowest cabin (ie book Club World but only pay the World Traveller Plus Avios requirement)
• book a one-way Avios flight, or one leg of a return flight, for two people, paying the Avios of the next lowest cabin

The voucher is valid for two years.  Full taxes and charges need to be paid on both tickets, based on the cabin you fly.

The voucher cannot be used to fly in First Class.

The voucher can be used for anyone, as long as the booking is made from the Avios account of the cardholder.

You receive your voucher within five days of reaching the spending target.

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

Bonus: 5,000 Avios

Read our full review

Sign-up bonus and earn rate:

• Get 5,000 Avios when you spend £1,000 within 90 days
• Earn 1 Avios per £1 spent

Other information:

• Receive an Avios upgrade voucher when you spend £20,000 in a card year
• Upgrade a return BA flight for one person or two one-way flights for a couple
• Annual fee: Free

Representative 29.9% APR variable

Apply here

See if you qualify for the 5,000 Avios sign-up bonus +

You will receive 5,000 Avios as a sign-up bonus on the free Barclaycard Avios Mastercard credit card if you spend £1,000 within 90 days of signing up.

To qualify for the bonus, you must NOT, currently or in the previous six months, have held any other Barclaycard credit card.

You are OK if you had a supplementary card on someone else’s Barclaycard account.

You are OK if, currently or in the previous six months, you have had a British Airways American Express credit card.

For clarity, you can still apply for the Barclaycard Avios Mastercard even if you do not qualify for the bonus.  You would still benefit from the upgrade voucher and the other card benefits.

Learn more about the card benefits +

When you spend £20,000 on the Barclaycard Avios Mastercard, you receive a voucher entitling you to:

• book a return Avios flight for one person, paying the Avios of the next lowest cabin (ie book Club World but only pay the World Traveller Plus Avios requirement)
• book a one-way Avios flight, or one leg of a return flight, for two people, paying the Avios of the next lowest cabin

The voucher is valid for two years.  Full taxes and charges need to be paid on both tickets, based on the cabin you fly.

The voucher can be used for anyone, as long as the booking is made from the Avios account of the cardholder.

The voucher cannot be used to fly in First Class.

You receive your voucher within five days of reaching the spending target.

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

Bonus: 25,000 Avios

Read our full review

Sign-up bonus and earn rate:

• Get 25,000 Avios when you spend £3,000 within 90 days
• Earn 1.5 Avios per £1 spent
• Earn 3 Avios per £1 spent with British Airways and BA Holidays

Other information:

• Receive a companion voucher, letting you book two flights for the Avios of one, when you spend £10,000 in a card year
• A solo traveller can use it for a 50% discount on the Avios for one ticket
• The voucher is valid in any cabin
• It can be used on British Airways, Iberia and Aer Lingus
• Annual fee: £250

Representative 113.1% APR variable based on an assumed £1,200 credit limit and £250 annual fee. Interest rate on purchases 31.0% APR variable.

Apply here

See if you qualify for the 25,000 Avios sign-up bonus +

You will receive 25,000 Avios as a sign-up bonus on the British Airways American Express Premium Plus card if you spend £3,000 within 90 days of signing up.

To qualify for the bonus, you must not have held the British Airways Premium Plus or the free British Airways American Express cards in the previous 24 months.

You are OK if you had a supplementary card on someone else’s British Airways American Express account.

You are OK if, currently or in the previous 24 months, you have held any other American Express card.

For clarity, you can still apply for the British Airways Premium Plus card even if you do not qualify for the bonus.  You would still benefit from the companion voucher and all of the other card benefits.

Learn more about the card benefits +

When you spend £10,000 on the British Airways American Express Premium Plus card, you receive a companion voucher entitling you to book two Avios redemption flights for the miles of one.

Alternatively, a solo traveller can use the voucher for a 50% reduction on the Avios required for one ticket,

This voucher is valid for two years.  Full taxes and charges need to be paid on both tickets.

This voucher is the most valuable perk available in the UK airline and hotel credit card sector in my view. It could save you 150,000 or more Avios when used for a long-haul redemption in a premium cabin.

The voucher with the Premium Plus card is far more powerful than the voucher given with the free British Airways American Express card.  You only need to spend £10,000, instead of £20,000, in a card year to receive it.  More importantly, the Premium Plus voucher is valid for two years and is valid in ALL cabins.  The voucher on the free British Airways American Express card is only valid for one year and can only be used for Economy flights.

You receive your voucher within a few days of reaching the spending target.  You need to fly the outbound leg of your 2-4-1 flight before the expiry date of the voucher.

The voucher can be used for flights on British Airways, Iberia and Aer Lingus.

You need a minimum personal income of £35,000 to apply for the card.

British Airways American Express

Bonus: 5,000 Avios

Read our full review

Sign-up bonus and earn rate:

• Get 5,000 Avios when you spend £1,000 within 90 days
• Earn 1 Avios per £1 spent

Other information:

• Receive a companion voucher, letting you book two flights for the Avios of one, when you spend £12,000 in a card year
• The companion voucher is only valid on Economy flights
• It can be used on British Airways, Iberia and Aer Lingus
• Annual fee: Free

Representative 31.0% APR variable

Apply here

See if you qualify for the 5,000 Avios sign-up bonus +

You will receive 5,000 Avios as a sign-up bonus on the free British Airways American Express card if you spend £1,000 within 90 days of signing up.

To qualify for the bonus, you must NOT, currently or in the previous 24 months, have held any other personal American Express card.

You are OK if you had a supplementary card on someone else’s British Airways American Express account.

You are OK if, currently or in the previous 24 months, you have held a Business American Express card.

For clarity, you can still apply for the British Airways American Express card even if you do not qualify for the bonus.  You would still benefit from the companion voucher and the other card benefits.

Learn more about the card benefits +

When you spend £12,000 on the British Airways American Express card, you receive a companion voucher entitling you to book two Avios redemption flights for the miles of one.  This voucher is valid for one year.  (Full taxes and charges need to be paid on both tickets.)

The voucher on the free British Airways American Express card can only be used on Economy flights.

The voucher can be used for Avios bookings on British Airways, Iberia and Aer Lingus.

You receive your voucher within a few days of reaching the spending target.  You need to fly the outbound leg of your 2-4-1 flight before the expiry date of the voucher.

If you want more flexibility, the voucher issued with the British Airways Premium Plus American Express card is valid for two years, only requires £10,000 of annual card spend and is valid in ALL cabins including Business and First.  The Premium Plus card also has a higher earning rate of 1.5 Avios per £1 on general spend and 3 Avios per £1 on spend with British Airways and BA Holidays.

You need a minimum personal income of £20,000 to apply for the card.

American Express Rewards

Bonus: 10,000 points

Read our full review

Sign-up bonus and earn rate:

• Get 10,000 Membership Rewards points when you spend £2,000 within 90 days
• Earn 1 Membership Rewards point per £1 spent
• Points transfer at 1:1 into Avios, Virgin Points and other airline and hotel schemes

Other information:

• Your best choice if you want a ‘free for life’ card which earns Membership Rewards points
• A good choice if you want to close a Gold or Platinum card but keep your points intact
• Annual fee: Free

Representative 31.0% APR variable

Apply here

See if you qualify for the 10,000 points sign-up bonus +

You will receive 10,000 American Express Membership Rewards points as a sign-up bonus on the American Express Rewards card if you spend £2,000 within 90 days of signing up.

Membership Rewards points are hugely flexible. You can transfer them into Avios, Virgin Flying Club or other airlines (at 1:1) or into various hotels schemes, into Club Eurostar or use them for shopping vouchers.

To qualify for the bonus, you must NOT, currently or in the previous 24 months, have held any other personal American Express card.

You are OK if you had a supplementary card on someone else’s American Express account.

You are OK if, currently or in the previous 24 months, you have held a Business American Express card.

For clarity, you can still apply for the American Express Rewards card even if you do not qualify for the bonus.  You may want to do this if you are thinking of swapping your Preferred Rewards Gold or Platinum card for a free alternative, and would prefer to keep your existing Membership Rewards points balance alive.

Learn more about the card benefits +

American Express Rewards is the only ‘free for life’ American Express card which lets you collect Membership Rewards points.

We do NOT recommend this card if you would also qualify for the sign-up bonus on American Express Preferred Rewards Gold.  The Gold card is free for the first year, comes with four free airport lounge passes and £120 of Deliveroo credit and has a higher sign-up bonus of 20,000 points.

The best reason to get American Express Rewards is if you are coming to the end of your free first year with American Express Preferred Rewards Gold, or no longer want to pay the fee on The Platinum Card, but want to keep your Membership Rewards points intact.

You need a minimum personal income of £20,000 to apply for the card.

Want to earn more points from credit cards? – January 2024 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 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 Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

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.

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard

15,000 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:

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

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

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points bonus 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 Business Rewards Visa

Get a 10,000 points bonus plus an extra 500 points for our readers Read our full review

For a non-American Express option, we also recommend the Barclaycard Select Cashback card for sole traders and small businesses. It is FREE and you receive 1% cashback on your spending.

Barclaycard Select Cashback credit card

2% cashback on all your business spend for 3 months (1% thereafter) and no annual fee Read our full review

If you are planning your credit card strategy for 2024, this article will help you decide which cards you can still go for.

It runs through the checklist of which UK American Express bonuses you can get based on the cards you have. This way I have written it below is, I think, the simplest way of looking at it.  It’s still not THAT simple however ….

Your American Express sign-up bonus decision tree

This is the decision tree you need to follow:

QUESTION:

Have you had ANY personal American Express cards in the previous 24 months?

If ‘no’:

You can apply for any personal American Express card and receive the full advertised bonus. 

This article outlines my recommended American Express application strategy to maximise your bonuses. A couple can earn 186,875 Avios relatively easily over the course of a year.

If ‘yes’:

You CANNOT get a sign-up bonus on the following cards:

• Platinum Cashback
• Platinum Cashback Everyday
• British Airways American Express (free card)
• Preferred Rewards Gold
• Marriott Bonvoy
• Nectar
• American Express Rewards

You MAY still qualify for a bonus NOW on:

• The Platinum Card (40,000 Membership Rewards points)
• British Airways Premium Plus (25,000 Avios)
• American Express Business Gold (20,000 Membership Rewards points)
• American Express Business Platinum (40,000 Membership Rewards points)
• British Airways American Express Accelerating Business (30,000 Avios)

Keep reading to see if you do actually qualify for the cards I just mentioned.

Note the new minimum income requirements

American Express reintroduced minimum income requirements in 2023. These are PERSONAL income limits – Amex no longer looks at your income at a household level.

The Platinum Card and the British Airways American Express Premium Plus card require an income of £35,000 per year.

All other personal cards require an income of £20,000 per year.

This HfP article explains your options if you earn under £35,000.

The 2024 Amex sign-up bonus rules by card type

I’m assuming here that you answered ‘Yes’ to the question above, and that you have had a personal American Express card in the previous 24 months.

We now need to drill down more closely into which cards you have or had. Basically,  “if you have THIS card, you MIGHT still qualify for a bonus on THAT card ……”

Remember that supplementary cards do NOT count as having ‘had’ a card.  If you are a supplementary on your partner’s Amex Gold, for example, you can still apply in your own name and get a sign-up bonus as long as you meet the other criteria.

If you currently have the free British Airways or British Airways Premium Plus Amex credit card:

You would need to cancel and wait 24 months before you can get a bonus on Platinum Cashback, Platinum Cashback Everyday, British Airways, British Airways Premium Plus, Preferred Rewards Gold, Marriott Bonvoy, Nectar, American Express Rewards

You can get a bonus NOW on The Platinum Card IF you have not held a Preferred Rewards Gold, The Platinum Card, Green or American Express Rewards card in the previous 24 months

You can get a bonus NOW on American Express Business Gold or American Express Business Platinum IF you have not held a Preferred Rewards Gold, The Platinum Card, Green, American Express Rewards, American Express Business Gold or American Express Business Platinum card in the previous 13 months and meet the qualifying criteria for having a small business

You can get a bonus NOW on British Airways American Express Accelerating Business IF you have not held a American Express Business Gold, American Express Business Platinum card or British Airways American Express Accelerating Business card in the previous 12 months and meet the qualifying criteria for having a small business.

If you currently have Preferred Rewards Gold, The Platinum Card, Green or American Express Rewards credit card:

You would need to cancel and wait 24 months before you can get a bonus on Platinum Cashback, Platinum Cashback Everyday, British Airways American Express, Preferred Rewards Gold, The Platinum Card, Marriott Bonvoy, Nectar, American Express Rewards

You can get a bonus NOW on British Airways Premium Plus IF you have not held a British Airways or British Airways Premium Plus card in the previous 24 months

You would need to cancel and wait 13 months before you can get a bonus on American Express Business Gold or American Express Business Platinum, assuming you meet the qualifying criteria for having a small business

You can get a bonus NOW on British Airways American Express Accelerating Business IF you have not held a American Express Business Gold, American Express Business Platinum card or British Airways American Express Accelerating Business card in the previous 12 months and meet the qualifying criteria for having a small business.

If you currently have a Nectar or Marriott Bonvoy American Express credit card:

You would need to cancel and wait 24 months before you can get a bonus on Platinum Cashback, Platinum Cashback Everyday, British Airways American Express (free version), Preferred Rewards Gold, Marriott Bonvoy, Nectar, American Express Rewards

You can get a bonus NOW on The Platinum Card IF you have not held a Preferred Rewards Gold, The Platinum Card, Green or American Express Rewards card in the previous 24 months

You can get a bonus NOW on British Airways Premium Plus IF you have not held a British Airways or British Airways Premium Plus card in the previous 24 months

You can get a bonus NOW on American Express Business Gold or American Express Business Platinum IF you have not held a Preferred Rewards Gold, The Platinum Card, Green, American Express Rewards, American Express Business Gold or American Express Business Platinum card in the previous 13 months and meet the qualifying criteria for having a small business

You can get a bonus NOW on British Airways American Express Accelerating Business IF you have not held a American Express Business Gold, American Express Business Platinum card or British Airways American Express Accelerating Business card in the previous 12 months and meet the qualifying criteria for having a small business.

If you currently have a Platinum Cashback or Platinum Cashback Everyday Amex card:

You would need to cancel and wait 24 months before you can get a bonus on Platinum Cashback, Platinum Cashback Everyday, British Airways American Express, Preferred Rewards Gold, Marriott Bonvoy, Nectar, American Express Rewards

You can get a bonus NOW on The Platinum Card IF you have not held a Preferred Rewards Gold, The Platinum Card, Green or American Express Rewards card in the previous 24 months

You can get a bonus NOW on British Airways Premium Plus IF you have not held a British Airways or British Airways Premium Plus card in the previous 24 months

You can get a bonus NOW on American Express Business Gold or American Express Business Platinum IF you have not held a Preferred Rewards Gold, The Platinum Card, Green, American Express Rewards, American Express Business Gold or American Express Business Platinum card in the previous 13 months and meet the qualifying criteria for having a small business

You can get a bonus NOW on British Airways American Express Accelerating Business IF you have not held a American Express Business Gold, American Express Business Platinum card or British Airways American Express Accelerating Business card in the previous 12 months and meet the qualifying criteria for having a small business.

If you currently have a Business Platinum or Business Gold American Express card:

You would need to cancel and wait 13 months before you can get a bonus on American Express Business Platinum or American Express Business Gold

You would need to cancel and wait 12 months before you can get a bonus on British Airways Accelerating Business

You can get a bonus NOW on ANY personal American Express card IF you have not held a personal American Express card in the previous 24 months.

For clarity … the bonus rules on the personal Amex cards only look at what other personal Amex products you have had in the past 24 months.  Any small business Amex cards you have are not taken into account.

And if you’re starting from scratch ….

If you have not had ANY personal American Express cards in the last 24 months, the best route to optimise the number of sign-up bonuses you can get is:

• start with either a Marriott Bonvoy, Nectar or one of the (less generous) Amex cashback cards

• follow up with either The Platinum Card or British Airways Premium Plus

• follow up with either The Platinum Card or British Airways Premium Plus (depending on which one you didn’t get in stage two)

If you look at the rules above, you’ll see that you can still get three bonuses in a short space of time as long as you do it this way.

If you have any sort of small business, you can also run the Business Gold, Business Platinum or British Airways Accelerating Business alongside your personal cards.

And remember ….

The discussion in this article is only about sign-up bonuses.  Subject to credit etc, American Express is still happy to accept you for any of these cards at any time – you just won’t necessarily get a bonus.

This is particularly important in relation to Preferred Rewards Gold where repeat cardholders DO still get another ‘first year free’ and DO still get another set of four airport lounge passes and £120 of Deliveroo credit.  You still get these, even if you don’t qualify for a sign-up bous.

NOTE:  If you hold, or have held in the past 24 months, a personal American Express card which is not discussed in this article, such as The Centurion Card or a card which is not currently available to new applicants, please do additional checks as to your eligibility for a new bonus.

The current policy on fee refunds

American Express is due to change its policy on pro-rata fee refunds in 2024.

The current situation is that nothing will change until at least 29th February 2024. Until that time, you can cancel any Amex card you hold for a pro-rata refund of the annual fee.

We will let you know via HfP when the firm date for ending pro-rata refunds is announced.

Confused?

If you are still not sure about your eligibility for a bonus after reading the article above, please ask in our forum.

Reference information

Here are links to our reviews on each of the cards, a link to the application website and the legally required interest rate information.  

Let me stress again – the bonus rules do NOT stop you applying for any of the cards.  They simply influence whether or not you will qualify for a sign-up bonus.

The Platinum Card from American Express

Bonus: 40,000 points

Read our full review

Sign-up bonus and earn rate:

• Get 40,000 Membership Rewards points when you spend £6,000 within three months
• Earn 1 Membership Rewards point per £1 spent
• Points transfer at 1:1 into Avios, Virgin Points and other airline and hotel schemes

Other information:

• Two Priority Pass cards, each allowing two people into 1,400 airport lounges
• Elite status in four major hotel loyalty programmes
• Comprehensive travel insurance
• £300 per year of restaurant credit
• £100 per year to spend at Harvey Nichols
• Annual fee: £650

Representative 704.6% APR variable based on an assumed £1,200 credit limit and £650 annual fee. Interest rate on purchases 31.0% APR variable.

Apply here

See if you qualify for the 40,000 points sign-up bonus +

You will receive 40,000 American Express Membership Rewards points as a sign-up bonus on The Platinum Card if you spend £6,000 within three months of signing up.

Membership Rewards points are hugely flexible.  You can transfer them into Avios, Virgin Flying Club or other airlines (at 1:1) or into various hotels schemes, into Club Eurostar or use them for shopping vouchers.

This is the ONLY personal American Express card where you still qualify for the bonus if you already hold a British Airways American Express card.

To qualify for the bonus, you must NOT, currently or in the previous 24 months, have held any other personal American Express card which earns Membership Rewards points.  This includes The Platinum Card and Preferred Rewards Gold.

You are OK if you had a supplementary card on someone else’s American Express account.

You are OK if, currently or in the previous 24 months, you have held any other American Express card, including the British Airways, Marriott and Nectar cards.

For clarity, you can still apply for The Platinum Card even if you do not qualify for the bonus.  You would still benefit from the long list of other benefits.

Learn more about the card benefits +

The Platinum Card from American Express comes with an unrivalled list of benefits for the keen traveller.

Your personal travel patterns will determine which of these is the most valuable.  The key benefits are:

Full comprehensive travel insurance for you, your family and the family of your supplementary cardholder, subject to enrolment

Two Priority Pass cards, each of which allows the holder and a guest unlimited free access to 1,400 airport lounges

Elite status in four major hotel loyalty schemes: Marriott Bonvoy (Gold), Hilton Honors (Gold), Radisson Rewards (Premium), MeliaRewards (Gold)

Access to Eurostar lounges, irrespective of travel class

£150 per year to spend in over 160 UK restaurants

£150 per year to spend in over 1,200 international restaurants

£100 per year to spend at Harvey Nichols, instore or online (no minimum spend required)

£300 per year of dining credit – £150 to be spent at 150+ UK restaurants and £150 to be spent at 1,200+ restaurants outside the UK

You need a minimum personal income of £35,000 to apply for the card.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Bonus: 20,000 points

Read our full review

Sign-up bonus and earn rate:

• Get 20,000 Membership Rewards points when you spend £3,000 within 90 days
• Earn 1 Membership Rewards point per £1 spent
• Get up to 12,500 bonus points each year based on your total spending
• Earn double points on all airline and overseas spend
• Points transfer at 1:1 into Avios, Virgin Points and other airline and hotel schemes

Other information:

• Amex Gold is our recommended ‘first card’ for a miles and points beginner
• Get four free airport lounge passes when you sign up, and a further four each year
• After your four free passes, you can visit further lounges for a small fee
• You receive £120 of Deliveroo credit each year (24 x £5 credits)
• Annual fee: Free for the first year, £195 from Year 2

Representative 88.8% APR variable.  Annual fee applies after the first year.

Apply here

See if you qualify for the 20,000 points sign-up bonus +

You will receive 20,000 American Express Membership Rewards points as a sign-up bonus on the American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card if you spend £3,000 within 90 days of signing up.

Membership Rewards points are hugely flexible, which is why we recommend this as the best choice for your first miles and points card.  You can transfer them into Avios, Virgin Flying Club or other airlines (at 1:1) or into various hotels schemes, into Club Eurostar or use them for shopping vouchers.

To qualify for the bonus, you must NOT, currently or in the previous 24 months, have held any other personal American Express card.

You are OK if you had a supplementary card on someone else’s American Express account.

You are OK if, currently or in the previous 24 months, you have held a Business American Express card.

For clarity, you can still apply for the American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card even if you do not qualify for the bonus.  You would still benefit from the four free airport lounge passes and the ‘no fee in Year 1’ offer.

Learn more about the card benefits +

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold comes with four free airport lounge passes.  These allow either you and up to three friends, or yourself four times, to visit any of the 1,400 lounges in the Priority Pass network.  You make additional lounge visits for £24 per person.  You receive an additional four free passes each year.

You earn double Membership Rewards points on all airline spend (made directly on an airline website) and all spend made outside the UK.

You will receive up to 12,500 bonus Membership Rewards points each year, based on how much you spend.

You receive £120 of Deliveroo credit each year.  Amex will repay you £5 for the first two Deliveroo orders charged to your Gold card each month.

Other benefits include a 10% discount on Hertz car rentals, Avis Preferred Plus car rental status and special deals at 350 selected hotels worldwide, where Preferred Rewards Gold cardholders receive a $75 in-hotel credit per stay.

You need a minimum personal income of £20,000 to apply for the card.

American Express Rewards

Bonus: 10,000 points

Read our full review

Sign-up bonus and earn rate:

• Get 10,000 Membership Rewards points when you spend £2,000 within 90 days
• Earn 1 Membership Rewards point per £1 spent
• Points transfer at 1:1 into Avios, Virgin Points and other airline and hotel schemes

Other information:

• Your best choice if you want a ‘free for life’ card which earns Membership Rewards points
• A good choice if you want to close a Gold or Platinum card but keep your points intact
• Annual fee: Free

Representative 31.0% APR variable

Apply here

See if you qualify for the 10,000 points sign-up bonus +

You will receive 10,000 American Express Membership Rewards points as a sign-up bonus on the American Express Rewards card if you spend £2,000 within 90 days of signing up.

Membership Rewards points are hugely flexible. You can transfer them into Avios, Virgin Flying Club or other airlines (at 1:1) or into various hotels schemes, into Club Eurostar or use them for shopping vouchers.

To qualify for the bonus, you must NOT, currently or in the previous 24 months, have held any other personal American Express card.

You are OK if you had a supplementary card on someone else’s American Express account.

You are OK if, currently or in the previous 24 months, you have held a Business American Express card.

For clarity, you can still apply for the American Express Rewards card even if you do not qualify for the bonus.  You may want to do this if you are thinking of swapping your Preferred Rewards Gold or Platinum card for a free alternative, and would prefer to keep your existing Membership Rewards points balance alive.

Learn more about the card benefits +

American Express Rewards is the only ‘free for life’ American Express card which lets you collect Membership Rewards points.

We do NOT recommend this card if you would also qualify for the sign-up bonus on American Express Preferred Rewards Gold.  The Gold card is free for the first year, comes with four free airport lounge passes and £120 of Deliveroo credit and has a higher sign-up bonus of 20,000 points.

The best reason to get American Express Rewards is if you are coming to the end of your free first year with American Express Preferred Rewards Gold, or no longer want to pay the fee on The Platinum Card, but want to keep your Membership Rewards points intact.

You need a minimum personal income of £20,000 to apply for the card.

British Airways American Express

Bonus: 5,000 Avios

Read our full review

Sign-up bonus and earn rate:

• Get 5,000 Avios when you spend £1,000 within 90 days
• Earn 1 Avios per £1 spent

Other information:

• Receive a companion voucher, letting you book two flights for the Avios of one, when you spend £12,000 in a card year
• The companion voucher is only valid on Economy flights
• It can be used on British Airways, Iberia and Aer Lingus
• Annual fee: Free

Representative 31.0% APR variable

Apply here

See if you qualify for the 5,000 Avios sign-up bonus +

You will receive 5,000 Avios as a sign-up bonus on the free British Airways American Express card if you spend £1,000 within 90 days of signing up.

To qualify for the bonus, you must NOT, currently or in the previous 24 months, have held any other personal American Express card.

You are OK if you had a supplementary card on someone else’s British Airways American Express account.

You are OK if, currently or in the previous 24 months, you have held a Business American Express card.

For clarity, you can still apply for the British Airways American Express card even if you do not qualify for the bonus.  You would still benefit from the companion voucher and the other card benefits.

Learn more about the card benefits +

When you spend £12,000 on the British Airways American Express card, you receive a companion voucher entitling you to book two Avios redemption flights for the miles of one.  This voucher is valid for one year.  (Full taxes and charges need to be paid on both tickets.)

The voucher on the free British Airways American Express card can only be used on Economy flights.

The voucher can be used for Avios bookings on British Airways, Iberia and Aer Lingus.

You receive your voucher within a few days of reaching the spending target.  You need to fly the outbound leg of your 2-4-1 flight before the expiry date of the voucher.

If you want more flexibility, the voucher issued with the British Airways Premium Plus American Express card is valid for two years, only requires £10,000 of annual card spend and is valid in ALL cabins including Business and First.  The Premium Plus card also has a higher earning rate of 1.5 Avios per £1 on general spend and 3 Avios per £1 on spend with British Airways and BA Holidays.

You need a minimum personal income of £20,000 to apply for the card.

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

Bonus: 25,000 Avios

Read our full review

Sign-up bonus and earn rate:

• Get 25,000 Avios when you spend £3,000 within 90 days
• Earn 1.5 Avios per £1 spent
• Earn 3 Avios per £1 spent with British Airways and BA Holidays

Other information:

• Receive a companion voucher, letting you book two flights for the Avios of one, when you spend £10,000 in a card year
• A solo traveller can use it for a 50% discount on the Avios for one ticket
• The voucher is valid in any cabin
• It can be used on British Airways, Iberia and Aer Lingus
• Annual fee: £250

Representative 113.1% APR variable based on an assumed £1,200 credit limit and £250 annual fee. Interest rate on purchases 31.0% APR variable.

Apply here

See if you qualify for the 25,000 Avios sign-up bonus +

You will receive 25,000 Avios as a sign-up bonus on the British Airways American Express Premium Plus card if you spend £3,000 within 90 days of signing up.

To qualify for the bonus, you must not have held the British Airways Premium Plus or the free British Airways American Express cards in the previous 24 months.

You are OK if you had a supplementary card on someone else’s British Airways American Express account.

You are OK if, currently or in the previous 24 months, you have held any other American Express card.

For clarity, you can still apply for the British Airways Premium Plus card even if you do not qualify for the bonus.  You would still benefit from the companion voucher and all of the other card benefits.

Learn more about the card benefits +

When you spend £10,000 on the British Airways American Express Premium Plus card, you receive a companion voucher entitling you to book two Avios redemption flights for the miles of one.

Alternatively, a solo traveller can use the voucher for a 50% reduction on the Avios required for one ticket,

This voucher is valid for two years.  Full taxes and charges need to be paid on both tickets.

This voucher is the most valuable perk available in the UK airline and hotel credit card sector in my view. It could save you 150,000 or more Avios when used for a long-haul redemption in a premium cabin.

The voucher with the Premium Plus card is far more powerful than the voucher given with the free British Airways American Express card.  You only need to spend £10,000, instead of £20,000, in a card year to receive it.  More importantly, the Premium Plus voucher is valid for two years and is valid in ALL cabins.  The voucher on the free British Airways American Express card is only valid for one year and can only be used for Economy flights.

You receive your voucher within a few days of reaching the spending target.  You need to fly the outbound leg of your 2-4-1 flight before the expiry date of the voucher.

The voucher can be used for flights on British Airways, Iberia and Aer Lingus.

You need a minimum personal income of £35,000 to apply for the card.

Nectar American Express

Bonus: 20,000 points

Read our full review

Sign-up bonus and earn rate:

• Get 20,000 Nectar points when you spend £2,000 within 90 days
• Earn 2 Nectar points per £1 spent
• Points transfer at 400 : 250 into Avios
• Points are worth 0.5p each when spent at Sainsbury’s, Argos or eBay

Other information:

• You can convert Nectar points into Avios, and vice versa
• Annual fee: Free for the first year, £30 from Year 2

Representative 37.8% APR variable.  Annual fee applies after the first year.

Apply here

See if you qualify for the 20,000 points sign-up bonus +

You will receive 20,000 Nectar points as a sign-up bonus on the Nectar American Express credit card if you spend £2,000 within 90 days of signing up.

Nectar points are worth 0.5p each if spent in Sainsbury’s, Argos or eBay.  They can also be converted to Avios at the rate of 400 : 250.  1 Nectar point gets you 0.625 Avios.

To qualify for the bonus, you must NOT, currently or in the previous 24 months, have held any other personal American Express card.

You are OK if you had a supplementary card on someone else’s American Express account.

You are OK if, currently or in the previous 24 months, you have held a Business American Express card.

For clarity, you can still apply for the Nectar American Express card even if you do not qualify for the bonus.  You would still benefit from the ‘no fee in Year 1’ offer.

Learn more about the card benefits +

The Nectar American Express credit card comes lets you earn 2 Nectar points for every £1 you spend.  This is on top of any Nectar points you would usually earn at Sainsbury’s and other Nectar partners.

Converted to Avios, you would be earning 1.25 Avios per £1.  This makes the card better value than the free British Airways American Express credit card for your first year, as the Nectar American Express is ‘fee free’ for the first 12 months.  There is a £30 annual fee from Year 2.

The sign-up bonus of 20,000 Nectar points is worth £100 to spend in Sainsbury’s, Argos or eBay.

20,000 Nectar points can also be converted into 12,500 Avios.

You need a minimum personal income of £20,000 to apply for the card.

American Express Platinum Cashback

Bonus: 5% cashback (to £125) for three months

Read our full review

Sign-up bonus and earn rate:

• Get 5% cashback on your spending for 90 days (£125 cap)
• Spend £0 to £10,000 per year and receive 0.75% cashback going forward
• Spend over £10,000 per year and receive 1.25% cashback going forward

Other information:

• Cashback paid in a lump sum after 12 months
• Annual fee: £25

Representative 36.7% APR variable based on an assumed £1,200 credit limit and £25 annual fee. Interest rate on purchases 31.0% APR variable.

Apply here

See if you qualify for the 5% cashback sign-up bonus +

You will receive 5% cashback on purchases on the American Express Platinum Cashback card within 90 days of signing up.  This is capped at £125.

To qualify for the bonus, you must NOT, currently or in the previous 24 months, have held any other personal American Express card.

You are OK if you had a supplementary card on someone else’s American Express account.

You are OK if, currently or in the previous 24 months, you have held a Business American Express card.

For clarity, you can still apply for the American Express Platinum Cashback card even if you do not qualify for the bonus.  You will receive the standard rate of cashback on your spending.

Learn more about the card benefits +

American Express Platinum Cashback is the most generous cashback credit card in the UK.

After the first three months, during which the special bonus rate applies:

• Spend £0 to £10,000 and receive 0.75% cashback on purchases
• Spend over £10,000 and receive 1.25% cashback on purchases

Cashback is paid in a lump sum at the end of each 12 month period.  If you close the card mid-year you will lose any accumulated cashback.

As our review shows, this card is better value if you will spend over £10,000 per year.  If you will spend under £10,000 per year, you should apply for the free American Express Platinum Cashback Everyday credit card instead.  The cashback rate is lower but this is offset by the lack of any annual fee.

You need a minimum personal income of £20,000 to apply for the card.

American Express Platinum Cashback Everyday

Bonus: 5% cashback (to £100) for three months

Read our full review

Sign-up bonus and earn rate:

• Get 5% cashback on your spending for 90 days (£100 cap)
• Spend £0 to £10,000 per year and receive 0.5% cashback going forward
• Spend over £10,000 per year and receive 1% cashback going forward

Other information:

• Cashback paid in a lump sum after 12 months
• Minimum spend of £3,000 per year required to receive cashback
• Annual fee: Free

Representative 31.0% APR variable

Apply here

See if you qualify for the 5% cashback sign-up bonus +

You will receive 5% cashback on purchases on the American Express Platinum Cashback Everyday card within 90 days of signing up.  This is capped at £100.

To qualify for the bonus, you must NOT, currently or in the previous 24 months, have held any other personal American Express card.

You are OK if you had a supplementary card on someone else’s American Express account.

You are OK if, currently or in the previous 24 months, you have held a Business American Express card.

For clarity, you can still apply for the American Express Platinum Cashback Everyday card even if you do not qualify for the bonus.  You will receive the standard rate of cashback on your spending.

Learn more about the card benefits +

American Express Platinum Cashback Everyday is the most generous free cashback credit card in the UK.

After the first three months, during which the special bonus rate applies:

• Spend £0 to £10,000 and receive 0.5% cashback on purchases
• Spend over £10,000 and receive 1% cashback on purchases

You must spend at least £3,000 per year to receive cashback.

Cashback is paid in a lump sum at the end of each 12 month period.  If you close the card mid-year you will lose any accumulated cashback.

As our review shows, this card is better value if you will spend less than £10,000 per year.  If you will spend over £10,000 per year, you should apply for the £25 American Express Platinum Cashback credit card instead.  The cashback rate is higher and you are better off even after paying the annual fee.

You need a minimum personal income of £20,000 to apply for the card.

Marriott Bonvoy American Express

Bonus: 20,000 points

Read our full review

Sign-up bonus and earn rate:

• Get 20,000 Marriott Bonvoy points when you spend £3,000 within 90 days
• Earn 2 Marriott Bonvoy points per £1 spent
• Earn 6 points per £1 spent at Marriott hotels
• Points convert at 3:1 into Avios or other airline miles

Other information:

• 15 elite night credits per year to help you towards higher status
• Free night, up to 25,000 points, when you spend £25,000 per year.
• Upgrade to Gold Elite status when you spend £15,000 in a card year
• Annual fee: £95

Representative 54.8% APR variable based on an assumed £1,200 credit limit and £95 annual fee. Interest rate on purchases 31.0% APR variable.

Apply here

See if you qualify for the 20,000 points sign-up bonus: +

You will receive 20,000 points as a sign-up bonus on the Marriott Bonvoy American Express card if you spend £3,000 within 90 days of signing up.

To qualify for the bonus, you must NOT, currently or in the previous 24 months, have held any other personal American Express card.

You are OK if you had a supplementary card on someone else’s American Express account.

You are OK if, currently or in the previous 24 months, you have held a Business American Express card.

For clarity, you can still apply for the Marriott Bonvoy American Express card even if you do not qualify for the bonus.  You would still benefit from the 15 elite night credits per year, the free night (up to 25,000 points) for spending £25,000 and Gold Elite status for spending £15,000.

Learn more about the card benefits +

You will receive 15 elite night credits per year in Marriott Bonvoy.  The first batch will arrive within 60 days on applying and then in Spring in each subsequent year.

15 elite nights will automatically get you Silver Elite status in Marriott Bonvoy and put you nearer to Gold Elite and higher tiers.

If you spend £15,000 per card year, you will be upgraded to Gold Elite status in Marriott Bonvoy.

If you spend £25,000 per card year, you will receive a free night voucher, valid at any hotel where reward nights cost up to 25,000 points.

You need a minimum personal income of £20,000 to apply for the card.

American Express Business Gold

Bonus: 20,000 Membership Rewards points

Read our full review

Sign-up bonus and earn rate:

• Get 20,000 Membership Rewards points when you spend £3,000 within 90 days
• Earn 10,000 additional bonus points whenever you spend £20,000 in a quarter
• Earn 1 Membership Rewards point per £1 spent

Other information:

• Annual fee: Free for the first year, £195 from Year 2
• Points transfer at 1:1 into Avios, Virgin Points and other airline schemes
• Get £100 per year to spend at Dell

This is a charge card, not a credit card. You must clear your balance in full each month.  Annual fee £195 from Year 2, free in Year 1.

Apply here

See if you qualify for the 20,000 points sign-up bonus +

You will receive 20,000 American Express Membership Rewards points as a sign-up bonus on the American Express Business Gold card if you spend £3,000 within 90 days.

Membership Rewards points are hugely flexible.  You can transfer them into Avios, Virgin Flying Club or other airlines (at 1:1) or into various hotels schemes, into Club Eurostar or use them for shopping vouchers.

To qualify for the bonus, you must NOT, currently or in the previous 13 months, have held any other American Express card which earns Membership Rewards points.  This includes Business or personal Gold, Business or personal Platinum and the personal American Express Rewards credit card.

You are OK if you had a complimentary card on someone else’s American Express account.

You are OK if the only American Express card you have had in the previous 13 months was a British Airways, Marriott Bonvoy, Nectar, Platinum Cashback or Harrods American Express card.

For clarity, you can still apply for the American Express Business Gold card even if you do not qualify for the bonus.  You would still benefit from the ‘no fee in Year 1’ offer.

Learn more about the card benefits +

You receive £100 of Dell statement credit per calendar year.  This is made available in two parts.  You receive a £50 credit on Dell purchases made between January and June and a £50 credit on Dell purchases made between July and December.  There is no minimum spend requirement.

You can apply for complimentary Amex business cards for your employees.

You will receive one consolidated statement showing the spend on your card and all of the complimentary cards.  All of the Membership Rewards points earned on the complimentary cards will flow into your personal account.

Depending on when in your monthly cycle you make a payment, you will effectively receive up to 54 days free credit on your spending.

American Express statements provide more underlying transaction detail for flights and certain other transactions than Visa or Mastercard statements, making it easier to reconcile transactions.

You need a minimum personal income of £20,000 to apply for the card.

American Express Business Platinum

Bonus: 40,000 Membership Rewards points

Read our full review

Sign-up bonus and earn rate:

• Get 40,000 Membership Rewards points when you spend £6,000 within 90 days
• Earn 1 Membership Rewards point per £1 spent
• Earn 10,000 bonus points in every month you spend £10,000+
• Points transfer at 1:1 into Avios, Virgin Points and other airline schemes

Other information:

• Get £200 per year to spend at Amex Travel
• Two Priority Pass cards, each allowing two people into 1,400 airport lounges
• Elite status in four major hotel loyalty programmes
• Get £150 per year to spend at Dell
• Get £300 per year to spend at job ads site Indeed
• Comprehensive travel insurance
• Annual fee: £650

This is a charge card, not a credit card. You must clear your balance in full each month.  Annual fee £650.

Apply here

See if you qualify for the 40,000 points bonus +

You will receive 40,000 American Express Membership Rewards points as a sign-up bonus on the American Express Business Platinum card if you spend £6,000 within 90 days.

Membership Rewards points are hugely flexible.  You can transfer them into Avios, Virgin Flying Club or other airlines (at 1:1) or into various hotels schemes, into Club Eurostar or use them for shopping vouchers.

To qualify for the bonus, you must NOT, currently or in the previous 13 months, have held any other American Express card which earns Membership Rewards points.  This includes Business or personal Gold, Business or personal Platinum and the personal American Express Rewards credit card.

You are OK if you had a complimentary card on someone else’s American Express account.

You are OK if the only American Express card you have had in the previous 13 months was a British Airways, Marriott Bonvoy, Nectar, Platinum Cashback or Harrods American Express card.

For clarity, you can still apply for the American Express Business Platinum card even if you do not qualify for the bonus.  You would still benefit from all of the other card features including the £200 of annual Amex Travel credit.

Learn more about the card benefits +

American Express Business Platinum comes with an unrivalled list of benefits for the keen traveller.

Your personal travel patterns will determine which of these is the most valuable.  The key benefits are:

£200 of Amex Travel credit per membership year

Full comprehensive travel insurance for you, your family and the family of up to five complimentary cardholders, subject to enrolment

Two Priority Pass cards, each of which allows the holder and a guest unlimited free access to 1,400 airport lounges

Elite status in four major hotel loyalty schemes: Marriott Bonvoy (Gold), Hilton Honors (Gold), Radisson Rewards (Premium), MeliaRewards (Gold)

You need a minimum personal income of £35,000 to apply for the card.

£150 of Dell statement credit per year – you receive £75 credit on Dell purchases betweeen January and June and £75 credit on purchases between July and December

Digital subscription to The Times and The Sunday Times, worth over £300

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

Bonus: 30,000 Avios

Read our full review

Sign-up bonus and earn rate:

• Get 30,000 Avios when you spend £5,000 within 90 days
• Earn 1.5 Avios per £1 spent
• Receive 10,000 bonus Avios for every £20,000 you spend each year, up to £60,000

Other information:

• Get 1 bonus On Business point per £1 spent on BA flights
• Annual fee: £250

Representative 108.4% APR variable based on an assumed £1,200 credit limit and £250 annual fee. Interest rate on purchases 28.5% APR variable.

Apply here

See if you qualify for the 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus +

You will qualify for the bonus as long as you have not held an American Express Business card, including Accelerating Business, Business Gold and Business Platinum, in the previous 12 months.

There are no restrictions if you only have personal American Express cards at the moment, including the personal British Airways cards.

You need to spend £5,000 in 90 days to earn the bonus.

Learn more about the card benefits +

The card comes with the typical American Express credit card benefits:

Up to 56 days to pay

Up to 20 complimentary cards for your employees

Travel inconvenience cover (with higher payouts if you or your baggage is delayed on a British Airways flight)

Travel accident protection

Purchase protection

Refund protection

(Want to earn more miles and points from credit cards?  Click here to visit our dedicated airline and hotel travel credit cards page or use the ‘Credit Cards’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.)

Disclaimer: Head for Points is a journalistic website. Nothing here should be construed as financial advice, and it is your own responsibility to ensure that any product is right for your circumstances. Recommendations are based primarily on the ability to earn miles and points. The site discusses products offered by lenders but is not a lender itself. Robert Burgess, trading as Head for Points, is regulated and authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority to act as an independent credit broker.

This would convert into 100,000 Avios (!) or lots of other great travel rewards. Even better, you qualify for the bonus even if you have a British Airways American Express card as long as you meet the other criteria.

Our introductory article on the ‘100,000 bonus Membership Rewards points’ offer is here. Remember that you can get a pro-rata refund on the annual fee until at least 29th February 2024, and it may be available for longer.

We have also looked at:

• ‘Are the four free American Express Platinum hotel status cards worth having?‘

• ‘Why American Express Platinum gets you into more lounges than you think‘

• ‘Why Fine Hotels & Resorts is one of the best Amex Platinum benefits‘

Today I want to look at how you can keep your 100,000 Membership Rewards points bonus intact even if you choose to cancel The Platinum Card.

You can apply for The Platinum Card here. The 100,000 points offer ends on 9th January 2024.

The Platinum Card comes with a lot of impressive benefits, as well as (for a limited period):

• 75,000 Membership Rewards points when you spend £10,000 within six months

• 25,000 Membership Rewards points if you keep the card for 15 months and make a single purchase in month 15

The card benefits include:

• travel insurance for you and your family, plus your supplementary cardholder and their family

• car hire insurance

• 2 x Priority Pass airport lounge access cards, each of which allows a free guest on each visit (so a family of four is covered)

• mid-tier status in Hilton Honors (Gold), Marriott Bonvoy (Gold), Radisson Rewards (Premium) and MeliaRewards (Gold)

• £100 per year of Harvey Nichols credit, valid instore or online

• £150 per year to spend in 150+ UK restaurants

• £150 per year to spend in 1,400+ international restaurants

• Eurostar lounge access

…… and lots of other bits and bobs.

The representative APR is 704.6% variable, including the annual fee.  The representative APR on purchases is 31.0% variable.

But there’s a snag …..

Paying almost £55 per month for these benefits works out well for many readers.  However, after your first year with the huge bonus, you may find that you cannot justify the fee and decide to cancel when your renewal comes up.

The only risk is losing your Membership Rewards points

The only short-term downside of cancelling your American Express Platinum card is that you are required to empty out your Membership Rewards points account.

Because Amex points can be transferred to many different airline and hotel partners, they are more valuable than airline or hotel points.  You shouldn’t convert them until you need them. The flexibility is worth having.

If you are forced to transfer them because you close your card down, you may regret it later.  American Express isn’t going bankrupt or devaluing its points any time soon.  The safest place for your points, and the place that gives you the most flexibility in the future, is with American Express.

There is a solution that:

• lets you keep your Membership Rewards points account open, and

• allows you to stop paying an annual fee for either the Gold or Platinum card

We rarely write about it on HfP so I thought I would run through it again today.  This card is the answer:

You can apply for the little-known American Express Rewards Credit Card.  Full details are here.

This card has NO ANNUAL FEE and lets you collect Membership Rewards points. If you apply for this card before you cancel The Platinum Card, it will allow you to keep your 75,000+ Membership Rewards points at the end of your first year with no pressure to transfer them.

For simplicity, I will occasionally refer to this card as ARCC as ‘American Express Rewards Credit Card’ is a bit of a mouthful.

What is the American Express Rewards Credit Card?

ARCC is a standard Amex-branded credit card.  It has no annual fee and no substantial benefits, except for the ability to collect Membership Rewards points at 1 point per £1 spent.

The representative APR is 31.0% variable.

ARCC has a 10,000 Membership Rewards points bonus.  You need to spend £2,000 within three months to qualify.

However, it is unlikely that many (any?!) Head for Points readers will qualify for the bonus because you cannot have held any personal American Express card in the previous 24 months.  That’s not why you’re applying though.

Once your American Express Rewards Credit Card is active, you can cancel your Platinum card in the knowledge that your Membership Rewards points balance is safe.

You will be saving roughly £55 per month on your Platinum card.  If you find that your travelling starts to pick up, you can re-apply for The Platinum Card and start getting all the insurance, lounge, dining, Harvey Nichols and status benefits again.

You can apply for the free American Express Rewards Credit Card here.

If you want to learn more about the 100,000 points bonus on The Platinum Card, our core article on the deal is here. You can apply for The Platinum Card here.

PS. If you are thinking of cancelling your Platinum card before the end of pro-rata refunds (guaranteed not to happen before 29th February and could be later), the timing is now excellent.

On 1st January each year, your £300 of annual dining credit and your £50 per half-year of Harvey Nichols credit will reset. Your Harvey Nichols credit also resets for H2 on 1st July. If you apply now you may be able to claim some or all of these benefits before 31st December 2023 and again soon after 1st January 2024.

Disclaimer: Head for Points is a journalistic website. Nothing here should be construed as financial advice, and it is your own responsibility to ensure that any product is right for your circumstances. Recommendations are based primarily on the ability to earn miles and points. The site discusses products offered by lenders but is not a lender itself. Robert Burgess, trading as Head for Points, is regulated and authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority to act as an independent credit broker.

Up to this point, the company had taken a more holistic view. It was interested in household income, and interested in the gap between income and expenditure. There were no stated minimums, which made sense in a world where someone on a low salary living at home has more disposable cash than a couple on average incomes with a mortgage and children.

For whatever reason, potentially linked to the new FCA ‘customer duty’ rules, this strategy was dropped in favour of a cruder minimum income one.

What are the UK American Express salary limits?

There are now two salary limits in place.

• the ‘high fee’ cards (British Airways Premium Plus, The Platinum Card) have a mininum income requirement of £35,000

• the remaining cards (in our universe these are Preferred Rewards Gold, Nectar, Marriott Bonvoy, free British Airways card, American Express Rewards Credit Card) have a minimum income requirement of £20,000

When it comes to getting bonuses on multiple cards, you MUST have a £35,000 income. This is because only the ‘high fee’ cards unlock the ability to earn multiple sign-up bonuses:

• you can get the bonus on The Platinum Card as long as you haven’t had a Membership Rewards card (Gold, Platinum, Amex Rewards Credit Card) in the last 24 months – you are totally OK if you’ve only had a British Airways, Marriott or Nectar card

• you can get the bonus on British Airways Premium Plus (currently 25,000 Avios) as long as you haven’t had a British Airways American Express in the last 24 months – you are totally OK if you’ve only had a Gold, Platinum, Marriott, Nectar or American Express Rewards Credit Card

Putting these rules together, someone who earns £35,000+ and hasn’t had any American Express cards for 24 months could get THREE bonuses back to back:

• Card 1 – Marriott or Nectar
• Card 2 – British Airways Premium Plus or The Platinum Card
• Card 3 – whichever of the Card 2 list is left

If you look at the rules above you’ll see that this works out.

But what if you earn under £35,000?

A reader recently asked me for American Express card suggestions for anyone earning between £20,000 and £35,000 per year. After all, the average UK salary falls squarely in the middle of this range.

Your options are limited, I’m afraid.

You can only apply for the following travel rewards cards, and you will only get a bonus on the first one you get (assuming you haven’t had an American Express card for 24 months):

• American Express Preferred Rewards Gold (free in year 1, £195 thereafter)
• Marriott Bonvoy American Express (£95 per year)
• Nectar American Express (free in year 1, £30 thereafter)
• free British Airways American Express (free)
• American Express Rewards Credit Card (free)

There isn’t a lot to play with here.

However, there is one thing you can do.

Separate out the card you want a bonus on from the card you want to keep long term. These do not need to be the same card.

You then:

• apply for the card which has the most attractive bonus

• do the necessary spending to earn the bonus

• cancel the card and apply for the one you actually want to keep long term (but you won’t get a bonus on it)

Which card has the most attractive bonus?

It is usually Preferred Rewards Gold, reviewed here and apply here. You get 20,000 Membership Rewards points which, if transferred to airline miles (eg into 20,000 Avios), are arguably worth £200.

Even better, Preferred Rewards Gold is free for year 1 and comes with four airport lounge passes and 24 x £5 Deliveroo credits.

The value is debatable after year 1, but for the free first year you’re laughing, I think.

Of the others:

• the Marriott Bonvoy card has a bonus of 20,000 Marriott Bonvoy points (which we value at £100) but you have to pay a £95 annual fee

• the Nectar card has a bonus of 20,000 Nectar points, which are worth £100 to spend in-store or 12,500 Avios if converted. We’d value the Avios at £125 and the card has no fee in year 1.

• the free British Airways card has a bonus of 5,000 Avios, which is the weakest of the lot, although the card is free for life

• the American Express Rewards Credit Card has a bonus of 10,000 Membership Rewards points which convert to 10,000 Avios or other miles (which we value at £100) and is free for life

None of these cards has a bonus which beats Preferred Rewards Gold, in my view.

What should be your long term card?

This may not be the answer you are expecting.

The Marriott, Nectar and Preferred Rewards Gold cards carry annual fees from year 2 (the Marriott Bonvoy card has a fee from year 1). If you are earning under £35,000 I don’t think you will be spending enough on your card to justify the fee versus what you will get back.

This leaves two free options – the free British Airways card and the American Express Rewards Credit Card.

If you earn under £35,000 then you are unlikely to be spending £12,000 per year on the free British Airways American Express card. This means that you won’t trigger the annual 2-4-1 companion voucher, which in any event is only valid in Economy. The only value the card has for you is that it earns 1 Avios per £1 spent. You don’t even get an extra bonus for spending at ba.com.

You are better off with the American Express Rewards Credit Card. This is because you earn 1 Membership Rewards points per £1, which converts to 1 Avios. However, you also have the option to convert them to many other travel rewards schemes (airlines, hotels, Eurostar) or indeed for High Street gift cards or statement credit.

In summary ….

If you earn between £20,000 and £35,000 and asked me for advice on the best way to start with American Express, I would say:

• get American Express Preferred Rewards Gold, especially given the 20,000 Membership Rewards points bonus currently running (our full review is here, apply here)

• keep it for a year to maximise the 24 x £5 Deliveroo credits and the four free airport lounge passes

• move to the ‘free for life’ American Express Rewards Credit Card, earning 1 Membership Rewards point per £1 on your spending

However, someone who believes that their income will increase and exceed £35,000 in the next couple of years may want an alternative plan.

You could get either the Marriott Bonvoy or Nectar card initially, leaving yourself able to apply for BOTH The Platinum Card and British Airways Premium Plus – and get both bonuses – once you hit the £35,000 salary threshold.

Other reading:

This article looks at the best way to use American Express Membership Rewards points.

This article looks at the two American Express cashback credit cards which I haven’t considered here (as this is a travel rewards website) but which are also competitive for a long term card.

Interest rate information for the cards discussed above:

All of these cards carry high interest rates. You should only apply if you are certain that you will clear your balance each month and avoid any interest charges.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Bonus: 20,000 points

Read our full review

Sign-up bonus and earn rate:

• Get 20,000 Membership Rewards points when you spend £3,000 within 90 days
• Earn 1 Membership Rewards point per £1 spent
• Get up to 12,500 bonus points each year based on your total spending
• Earn double points on all airline and overseas spend
• Points transfer at 1:1 into Avios, Virgin Points and other airline and hotel schemes

Other information:

• Amex Gold is our recommended ‘first card’ for a miles and points beginner
• Get four free airport lounge passes when you sign up, and a further four each year
• After your four free passes, you can visit further lounges for a small fee
• You receive £120 of Deliveroo credit each year (24 x £5 credits)
• Annual fee: Free for the first year, £195 from Year 2

Representative 88.8% APR variable.  Annual fee applies after the first year.

Apply here

See if you qualify for the 20,000 points sign-up bonus +

You will receive 20,000 American Express Membership Rewards points as a sign-up bonus on the American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card if you spend £3,000 within 90 days of signing up.

Membership Rewards points are hugely flexible, which is why we recommend this as the best choice for your first miles and points card.  You can transfer them into Avios, Virgin Flying Club or other airlines (at 1:1) or into various hotels schemes, into Club Eurostar or use them for shopping vouchers.

To qualify for the bonus, you must NOT, currently or in the previous 24 months, have held any other personal American Express card.

You are OK if you had a supplementary card on someone else’s American Express account.

You are OK if, currently or in the previous 24 months, you have held a Business American Express card.

For clarity, you can still apply for the American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card even if you do not qualify for the bonus.  You would still benefit from the four free airport lounge passes and the ‘no fee in Year 1’ offer.

Learn more about the card benefits +

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold comes with four free airport lounge passes.  These allow either you and up to three friends, or yourself four times, to visit any of the 1,400 lounges in the Priority Pass network.  You make additional lounge visits for £24 per person.  You receive an additional four free passes each year.

You earn double Membership Rewards points on all airline spend (made directly on an airline website) and all spend made outside the UK.

You will receive up to 12,500 bonus Membership Rewards points each year, based on how much you spend.

You receive £120 of Deliveroo credit each year.  Amex will repay you £5 for the first two Deliveroo orders charged to your Gold card each month.

Other benefits include a 10% discount on Hertz car rentals, Avis Preferred Plus car rental status and special deals at 350 selected hotels worldwide, where Preferred Rewards Gold cardholders receive a $75 in-hotel credit per stay.

You need a minimum personal income of £20,000 to apply for the card.

The Platinum Card from American Express

Bonus: 40,000 points

Read our full review

Sign-up bonus and earn rate:

• Get 40,000 Membership Rewards points when you spend £6,000 within three months
• Earn 1 Membership Rewards point per £1 spent
• Points transfer at 1:1 into Avios, Virgin Points and other airline and hotel schemes

Other information:

• Two Priority Pass cards, each allowing two people into 1,400 airport lounges
• Elite status in four major hotel loyalty programmes
• Comprehensive travel insurance
• £300 per year of restaurant credit
• £100 per year to spend at Harvey Nichols
• Annual fee: £650

Representative 704.6% APR variable based on an assumed £1,200 credit limit and £650 annual fee. Interest rate on purchases 31.0% APR variable.

Apply here

See if you qualify for the 40,000 points sign-up bonus +

You will receive 40,000 American Express Membership Rewards points as a sign-up bonus on The Platinum Card if you spend £6,000 within three months of signing up.

Membership Rewards points are hugely flexible.  You can transfer them into Avios, Virgin Flying Club or other airlines (at 1:1) or into various hotels schemes, into Club Eurostar or use them for shopping vouchers.

This is the ONLY personal American Express card where you still qualify for the bonus if you already hold a British Airways American Express card.

To qualify for the bonus, you must NOT, currently or in the previous 24 months, have held any other personal American Express card which earns Membership Rewards points.  This includes The Platinum Card and Preferred Rewards Gold.

You are OK if you had a supplementary card on someone else’s American Express account.

You are OK if, currently or in the previous 24 months, you have held any other American Express card, including the British Airways, Marriott and Nectar cards.

For clarity, you can still apply for The Platinum Card even if you do not qualify for the bonus.  You would still benefit from the long list of other benefits.

Learn more about the card benefits +

The Platinum Card from American Express comes with an unrivalled list of benefits for the keen traveller.

Your personal travel patterns will determine which of these is the most valuable.  The key benefits are:

Full comprehensive travel insurance for you, your family and the family of your supplementary cardholder, subject to enrolment

Two Priority Pass cards, each of which allows the holder and a guest unlimited free access to 1,400 airport lounges

Elite status in four major hotel loyalty schemes: Marriott Bonvoy (Gold), Hilton Honors (Gold), Radisson Rewards (Premium), MeliaRewards (Gold)

Access to Eurostar lounges, irrespective of travel class

£150 per year to spend in over 160 UK restaurants

£150 per year to spend in over 1,200 international restaurants

£100 per year to spend at Harvey Nichols, instore or online (no minimum spend required)

£300 per year of dining credit – £150 to be spent at 150+ UK restaurants and £150 to be spent at 1,200+ restaurants outside the UK

You need a minimum personal income of £35,000 to apply for the card.

American Express Rewards

Bonus: 10,000 points

Read our full review

Sign-up bonus and earn rate:

• Get 10,000 Membership Rewards points when you spend £2,000 within 90 days
• Earn 1 Membership Rewards point per £1 spent
• Points transfer at 1:1 into Avios, Virgin Points and other airline and hotel schemes

Other information:

• Your best choice if you want a ‘free for life’ card which earns Membership Rewards points
• A good choice if you want to close a Gold or Platinum card but keep your points intact
• Annual fee: Free

Representative 31.0% APR variable

Apply here

See if you qualify for the 10,000 points sign-up bonus +

You will receive 10,000 American Express Membership Rewards points as a sign-up bonus on the American Express Rewards card if you spend £2,000 within 90 days of signing up.

Membership Rewards points are hugely flexible. You can transfer them into Avios, Virgin Flying Club or other airlines (at 1:1) or into various hotels schemes, into Club Eurostar or use them for shopping vouchers.

To qualify for the bonus, you must NOT, currently or in the previous 24 months, have held any other personal American Express card.

You are OK if you had a supplementary card on someone else’s American Express account.

You are OK if, currently or in the previous 24 months, you have held a Business American Express card.

For clarity, you can still apply for the American Express Rewards card even if you do not qualify for the bonus.  You may want to do this if you are thinking of swapping your Preferred Rewards Gold or Platinum card for a free alternative, and would prefer to keep your existing Membership Rewards points balance alive.

Learn more about the card benefits +

American Express Rewards is the only ‘free for life’ American Express card which lets you collect Membership Rewards points.

We do NOT recommend this card if you would also qualify for the sign-up bonus on American Express Preferred Rewards Gold.  The Gold card is free for the first year, comes with four free airport lounge passes and £120 of Deliveroo credit and has a higher sign-up bonus of 20,000 points.

The best reason to get American Express Rewards is if you are coming to the end of your free first year with American Express Preferred Rewards Gold, or no longer want to pay the fee on The Platinum Card, but want to keep your Membership Rewards points intact.

You need a minimum personal income of £20,000 to apply for the card.

British Airways American Express

Bonus: 5,000 Avios

Read our full review

Sign-up bonus and earn rate:

• Get 5,000 Avios when you spend £1,000 within 90 days
• Earn 1 Avios per £1 spent

Other information:

• Receive a companion voucher, letting you book two flights for the Avios of one, when you spend £12,000 in a card year
• The companion voucher is only valid on Economy flights
• It can be used on British Airways, Iberia and Aer Lingus
• Annual fee: Free

Representative 31.0% APR variable

Apply here

See if you qualify for the 5,000 Avios sign-up bonus +

You will receive 5,000 Avios as a sign-up bonus on the free British Airways American Express card if you spend £1,000 within 90 days of signing up.

To qualify for the bonus, you must NOT, currently or in the previous 24 months, have held any other personal American Express card.

You are OK if you had a supplementary card on someone else’s British Airways American Express account.

You are OK if, currently or in the previous 24 months, you have held a Business American Express card.

For clarity, you can still apply for the British Airways American Express card even if you do not qualify for the bonus.  You would still benefit from the companion voucher and the other card benefits.

Learn more about the card benefits +

When you spend £12,000 on the British Airways American Express card, you receive a companion voucher entitling you to book two Avios redemption flights for the miles of one.  This voucher is valid for one year.  (Full taxes and charges need to be paid on both tickets.)

The voucher on the free British Airways American Express card can only be used on Economy flights.

The voucher can be used for Avios bookings on British Airways, Iberia and Aer Lingus.

You receive your voucher within a few days of reaching the spending target.  You need to fly the outbound leg of your 2-4-1 flight before the expiry date of the voucher.

If you want more flexibility, the voucher issued with the British Airways Premium Plus American Express card is valid for two years, only requires £10,000 of annual card spend and is valid in ALL cabins including Business and First.  The Premium Plus card also has a higher earning rate of 1.5 Avios per £1 on general spend and 3 Avios per £1 on spend with British Airways and BA Holidays.

You need a minimum personal income of £20,000 to apply for the card.

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

Bonus: 25,000 Avios

Read our full review

Sign-up bonus and earn rate:

• Get 25,000 Avios when you spend £3,000 within 90 days
• Earn 1.5 Avios per £1 spent
• Earn 3 Avios per £1 spent with British Airways and BA Holidays

Other information:

• Receive a companion voucher, letting you book two flights for the Avios of one, when you spend £10,000 in a card year
• A solo traveller can use it for a 50% discount on the Avios for one ticket
• The voucher is valid in any cabin
• It can be used on British Airways, Iberia and Aer Lingus
• Annual fee: £250

Representative 113.1% APR variable based on an assumed £1,200 credit limit and £250 annual fee. Interest rate on purchases 31.0% APR variable.

Apply here

See if you qualify for the 25,000 Avios sign-up bonus +

You will receive 25,000 Avios as a sign-up bonus on the British Airways American Express Premium Plus card if you spend £3,000 within 90 days of signing up.

To qualify for the bonus, you must not have held the British Airways Premium Plus or the free British Airways American Express cards in the previous 24 months.

You are OK if you had a supplementary card on someone else’s British Airways American Express account.

You are OK if, currently or in the previous 24 months, you have held any other American Express card.

For clarity, you can still apply for the British Airways Premium Plus card even if you do not qualify for the bonus.  You would still benefit from the companion voucher and all of the other card benefits.

Learn more about the card benefits +

When you spend £10,000 on the British Airways American Express Premium Plus card, you receive a companion voucher entitling you to book two Avios redemption flights for the miles of one.

Alternatively, a solo traveller can use the voucher for a 50% reduction on the Avios required for one ticket,

This voucher is valid for two years.  Full taxes and charges need to be paid on both tickets.

This voucher is the most valuable perk available in the UK airline and hotel credit card sector in my view. It could save you 150,000 or more Avios when used for a long-haul redemption in a premium cabin.

The voucher with the Premium Plus card is far more powerful than the voucher given with the free British Airways American Express card.  You only need to spend £10,000, instead of £20,000, in a card year to receive it.  More importantly, the Premium Plus voucher is valid for two years and is valid in ALL cabins.  The voucher on the free British Airways American Express card is only valid for one year and can only be used for Economy flights.

You receive your voucher within a few days of reaching the spending target.  You need to fly the outbound leg of your 2-4-1 flight before the expiry date of the voucher.

The voucher can be used for flights on British Airways, Iberia and Aer Lingus.

You need a minimum personal income of £35,000 to apply for the card.

Marriott Bonvoy American Express

Bonus: 20,000 points

Read our full review

Sign-up bonus and earn rate:

• Get 20,000 Marriott Bonvoy points when you spend £3,000 within 90 days
• Earn 2 Marriott Bonvoy points per £1 spent
• Earn 6 points per £1 spent at Marriott hotels
• Points convert at 3:1 into Avios or other airline miles

Other information:

• 15 elite night credits per year to help you towards higher status
• Free night, up to 25,000 points, when you spend £25,000 per year.
• Upgrade to Gold Elite status when you spend £15,000 in a card year
• Annual fee: £95

Representative 54.8% APR variable based on an assumed £1,200 credit limit and £95 annual fee. Interest rate on purchases 31.0% APR variable.

Apply here

See if you qualify for the 20,000 points sign-up bonus: +

You will receive 20,000 points as a sign-up bonus on the Marriott Bonvoy American Express card if you spend £3,000 within 90 days of signing up.

To qualify for the bonus, you must NOT, currently or in the previous 24 months, have held any other personal American Express card.

You are OK if you had a supplementary card on someone else’s American Express account.

You are OK if, currently or in the previous 24 months, you have held a Business American Express card.

For clarity, you can still apply for the Marriott Bonvoy American Express card even if you do not qualify for the bonus.  You would still benefit from the 15 elite night credits per year, the free night (up to 25,000 points) for spending £25,000 and Gold Elite status for spending £15,000.

Learn more about the card benefits +

You will receive 15 elite night credits per year in Marriott Bonvoy.  The first batch will arrive within 60 days on applying and then in Spring in each subsequent year.

15 elite nights will automatically get you Silver Elite status in Marriott Bonvoy and put you nearer to Gold Elite and higher tiers.

If you spend £15,000 per card year, you will be upgraded to Gold Elite status in Marriott Bonvoy.

If you spend £25,000 per card year, you will receive a free night voucher, valid at any hotel where reward nights cost up to 25,000 points.

You need a minimum personal income of £20,000 to apply for the card.

Nectar American Express

Bonus: 20,000 points

Read our full review

Sign-up bonus and earn rate:

• Get 20,000 Nectar points when you spend £2,000 within 90 days
• Earn 2 Nectar points per £1 spent
• Points transfer at 400 : 250 into Avios
• Points are worth 0.5p each when spent at Sainsbury’s, Argos or eBay

Other information:

• You can convert Nectar points into Avios, and vice versa
• Annual fee: Free for the first year, £30 from Year 2

Representative 37.8% APR variable.  Annual fee applies after the first year.

Apply here

See if you qualify for the 20,000 points sign-up bonus +

You will receive 20,000 Nectar points as a sign-up bonus on the Nectar American Express credit card if you spend £2,000 within 90 days of signing up.

Nectar points are worth 0.5p each if spent in Sainsbury’s, Argos or eBay.  They can also be converted to Avios at the rate of 400 : 250.  1 Nectar point gets you 0.625 Avios.

To qualify for the bonus, you must NOT, currently or in the previous 24 months, have held any other personal American Express card.

You are OK if you had a supplementary card on someone else’s American Express account.

You are OK if, currently or in the previous 24 months, you have held a Business American Express card.

For clarity, you can still apply for the Nectar American Express card even if you do not qualify for the bonus.  You would still benefit from the ‘no fee in Year 1’ offer.

Learn more about the card benefits +

The Nectar American Express credit card comes lets you earn 2 Nectar points for every £1 you spend.  This is on top of any Nectar points you would usually earn at Sainsbury’s and other Nectar partners.

Converted to Avios, you would be earning 1.25 Avios per £1.  This makes the card better value than the free British Airways American Express credit card for your first year, as the Nectar American Express is ‘fee free’ for the first 12 months.  There is a £30 annual fee from Year 2.

The sign-up bonus of 20,000 Nectar points is worth £100 to spend in Sainsbury’s, Argos or eBay.

20,000 Nectar points can also be converted into 12,500 Avios.

You need a minimum personal income of £20,000 to apply for the card.

Disclaimer: Head for Points is a journalistic website. Nothing here should be construed as financial advice, and it is your own responsibility to ensure that any product is right for your circumstances. Recommendations are based primarily on the ability to earn miles and points. The site discusses products offered by lenders but is not a lender itself. Robert Burgess, trading as Head for Points, is regulated and authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority to act as an independent credit broker.

I have written numerous articles before about using American Express Membership Rewards points and a few pieces on how I value airline miles and hotel points.

I have pulled together both of these strands in this article on how to make the best use of your Amex Membership Rewards points.  It does NOT cover every Membership Rewards redemption but it does cover the bulk of the pseudo-cash, cash and travel options.

Membership Rewards sensibly chose to discontinue ‘physical’ redemptions a few years ago.  You can no longer redeem your points for a toaster.  This is good news because the toaster was, unsurprisingly, poor value for your points.  If you still want a free toaster, redeem your points for an Amazon gift card.

The Amex Membership Rewards website is here if you want to look for yourself at what is available.

How can you earn Membership Rewards points?

The three main ways to earn Membership Rewards points in the UK from a personal American Express card are:

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

American Express Rewards

The only ‘free for life’ Amex card which earns Membership Rewards Read our full review

The two most common business payment cards are:

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points bonus 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

The complex rules on whether you qualify for an American Express sign-up bonus are explained in my article here. 

Fundamentally, it is fairly easy to qualify for the bonus on Business Gold and Business Platinum (you cannot have held any Membership Rewards card for 13 months) and personal Platinum (you cannot have held a personal Green, Gold or Platinum card for 24 months). 

It is harder to qualify for the bonus on personal Preferred Rewards Gold or the American Express Rewards Credit Card (you cannot have held ANY personal Amex card for 24 months).

How I value Amex Membership Rewards points:

0.75p – 1.5p per point (my target)

Airline miles.  My last piece on valuing Avios points is here and Amex points transfer into Avios at 1:1.  This is why the sign-up bonuses, such as 20,000 points for taking out the free (in Year 1) Americn Express Preferred Rewards Gold, are so valuable.

It is impossible to tie down a tighter range because of the number of different airline partners and the various ways (upgrade, long-haul, short-haul, economy, premium) you can redeem.  Membership Rewards points convert at 1:1 to Avios, Virgin Atlantic, Emirates, Etihad, Cathay Pacific, Delta, Finnair, Flying Blue, Qantas and SAS. The transfer rate to Singapore Airlines is 3:2.

My personal spreadsheet of the last 8.5m Avios I have redeemed shows that I got an average value of 1.2p.  This is based on what I would personally have been prepared to pay for the flights I took, however, which may be far different from what you would have been prepared to pay.  My best redemptions far exceeded this.

0.75p per point (my target)

Marriott Bonvoy hotel transfers.  Amex points convert at 2:3 into the Marriott Bonvoy programme.

This article explains why we value Marriott Bonvoy points at 0.5p which has held firm despite the move to nearer revenue-based reward pricing.

0.5p per Marriott Bonvoy point means, at a 2:3 exchange rate from Membership Rewards, you should be getting 0.75p per Membership Rewards point.  You now have a whopping 30 hotel brands to redeem at, including Le Meridien, Sheraton, Westin, W, Marriott, Autograph, Design Hotels, The Luxury Collection, The Ritz-Carlton, St Regis etc etc.

I have had some exceptionally good redemptions in recent years which have got me far more than 0.5p per Bonvoy point as the valuation article above shows.

0.66p per point (guaranteed)

In 2021, the supermarket loyalty scheme Nectar become a partner with British Airways Avios points. You can convert 50,000 Avios per month to Nectar, at a rate of 300 : 400.

Because a Nectar point has a fixed value of 0.5p when spent at Sainsbury’s, eBay or Argos, it means that 1 Avios can be turned into 1.33 Nectar points worth 0.66p.

As long as you shop at Sainsbury’s, eBay or Argos, you can get 0.66p per Membership Rewards point, guaranteed.

To do this, you convert your American Express points to Avios and then transfer them to Nectar. This article explains how to link your accounts.

Before I go on ….

You are guaranteed 0.66p per Membership Rewards point if you convert American Express points to Avios to Nectar.

All of the options below earn you less than 0.66p per point. You need to have a good reason to use any of the options below instead of Nectar.

0.66p per point (my target)

Hilton Honors hotel transfers.  Hilton has moved closer to a revenue-based redemption model in recent years, although you can get still outsized value at times.  Over time I have come to believe that 0.33p per point is a fair valuation for a Hilton Honors point.  The conversion rate is 1:2 to Hilton which is how I get to 0.66p per Amex point.  Hilton brands include Conrad, Waldorf Astoria and Hampton.

You can beat 0.33p per point if you are strategic in how and when you redeem, so there are reasons why you may want to transfer to Hilton instead of cashing out via Nectar.

0.55p per point (my target)

Club Eurostar points.  Following the 2023 devaluation, I value a Club Eurostar point at 7p to 10p. The 15:1 transfer rate into Club Eurostar means you are getting 0.55p per point if you take a midpoint of 8.5p.

You should get slightly more than 0.55p if redeeming in Standard class and slightly less if redeeming in Standard Premier or upgrading from Standard to Standard Premier.

0.5p per point (guaranteed)

Retailer gift cards – Amazon, Harrods, Hotels.com, Marks & Spencer, Selfridges, Waterstones etc.  20,000 Amex points will get you a £100 shopping voucher, for example.

0.5p per point (guaranteed)

The value of a Nectar point if you don’t convert via Avios, given that you can redeem Amex points directly for Nectar points at a 1:1 ratio.  It is pointless to do this, however, given that you get 30% more value by transferring American Express to Avios to Nectar as I explained above.

0.45p per point (my target)

Radisson Rewards hotel transfers. Radisson Rewards in the UK covers Radisson Blu, Radisson RED, Radisson Edwardian, Park Inn and Park Plaza.

Until an October 2022 devaluation, Radisson Rewards points were a great use of American Express Membership points. Now they are not.

The average value has dropped from around 0.33p per Radisson Rewards point to around 0.15p as I show here. The conversion rate is 1 American Express Membership Rewards point to 3 Radisson Rewards points.

This means that you are getting around 0.45p per American Express point. You can’t do much better than this because Radisson Rewards pricing is now ‘dynamic’, with the points cost increasing if the cash price increases.

0.45p per point (guaranteed)

Linking your Amex account to amazon.co.uk and paying for your purchases directly with points (more in this article).  This is a slightly silly option, however, as you can also redeem for Amazon gift cards and get 0.5p per point.

0.45p per point (guaranteed)

Redeeming for American Express statement credit. The simplest and least worthwhile way of using your Membership Rewards points.

I hope this article gives you some ideas for using your American Express Membership Rewards points for maximum value.

Learn more about the credit cards mentioned above

Here is the legally required interest rate information on the credit cards mentioned above, together with links to our detailed reviews:

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Bonus: 20,000 points

Read our full review

Sign-up bonus and earn rate:

• Get 20,000 Membership Rewards points when you spend £3,000 within 90 days
• Earn 1 Membership Rewards point per £1 spent
• Get up to 12,500 bonus points each year based on your total spending
• Earn double points on all airline and overseas spend
• Points transfer at 1:1 into Avios, Virgin Points and other airline and hotel schemes

Other information:

• Amex Gold is our recommended ‘first card’ for a miles and points beginner
• Get four free airport lounge passes when you sign up, and a further four each year
• After your four free passes, you can visit further lounges for a small fee
• You receive £120 of Deliveroo credit each year (24 x £5 credits)
• Annual fee: Free for the first year, £195 from Year 2

Representative 88.8% APR variable.  Annual fee applies after the first year.

Apply here

See if you qualify for the 20,000 points sign-up bonus +

You will receive 20,000 American Express Membership Rewards points as a sign-up bonus on the American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card if you spend £3,000 within 90 days of signing up.

Membership Rewards points are hugely flexible, which is why we recommend this as the best choice for your first miles and points card.  You can transfer them into Avios, Virgin Flying Club or other airlines (at 1:1) or into various hotels schemes, into Club Eurostar or use them for shopping vouchers.

To qualify for the bonus, you must NOT, currently or in the previous 24 months, have held any other personal American Express card.

You are OK if you had a supplementary card on someone else’s American Express account.

You are OK if, currently or in the previous 24 months, you have held a Business American Express card.

For clarity, you can still apply for the American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card even if you do not qualify for the bonus.  You would still benefit from the four free airport lounge passes and the ‘no fee in Year 1’ offer.

Learn more about the card benefits +

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold comes with four free airport lounge passes.  These allow either you and up to three friends, or yourself four times, to visit any of the 1,400 lounges in the Priority Pass network.  You make additional lounge visits for £24 per person.  You receive an additional four free passes each year.

You earn double Membership Rewards points on all airline spend (made directly on an airline website) and all spend made outside the UK.

You will receive up to 12,500 bonus Membership Rewards points each year, based on how much you spend.

You receive £120 of Deliveroo credit each year.  Amex will repay you £5 for the first two Deliveroo orders charged to your Gold card each month.

Other benefits include a 10% discount on Hertz car rentals, Avis Preferred Plus car rental status and special deals at 350 selected hotels worldwide, where Preferred Rewards Gold cardholders receive a $75 in-hotel credit per stay.

You need a minimum personal income of £20,000 to apply for the card.

The Platinum Card from American Express

Bonus: 40,000 points

Read our full review

Sign-up bonus and earn rate:

• Get 40,000 Membership Rewards points when you spend £6,000 within three months
• Earn 1 Membership Rewards point per £1 spent
• Points transfer at 1:1 into Avios, Virgin Points and other airline and hotel schemes

Other information:

• Two Priority Pass cards, each allowing two people into 1,400 airport lounges
• Elite status in four major hotel loyalty programmes
• Comprehensive travel insurance
• £300 per year of restaurant credit
• £100 per year to spend at Harvey Nichols
• Annual fee: £650

Representative 704.6% APR variable based on an assumed £1,200 credit limit and £650 annual fee. Interest rate on purchases 31.0% APR variable.

Apply here

See if you qualify for the 40,000 points sign-up bonus +

You will receive 40,000 American Express Membership Rewards points as a sign-up bonus on The Platinum Card if you spend £6,000 within three months of signing up.

Membership Rewards points are hugely flexible.  You can transfer them into Avios, Virgin Flying Club or other airlines (at 1:1) or into various hotels schemes, into Club Eurostar or use them for shopping vouchers.

This is the ONLY personal American Express card where you still qualify for the bonus if you already hold a British Airways American Express card.

To qualify for the bonus, you must NOT, currently or in the previous 24 months, have held any other personal American Express card which earns Membership Rewards points.  This includes The Platinum Card and Preferred Rewards Gold.

You are OK if you had a supplementary card on someone else’s American Express account.

You are OK if, currently or in the previous 24 months, you have held any other American Express card, including the British Airways, Marriott and Nectar cards.

For clarity, you can still apply for The Platinum Card even if you do not qualify for the bonus.  You would still benefit from the long list of other benefits.

Learn more about the card benefits +

The Platinum Card from American Express comes with an unrivalled list of benefits for the keen traveller.

Your personal travel patterns will determine which of these is the most valuable.  The key benefits are:

Full comprehensive travel insurance for you, your family and the family of your supplementary cardholder, subject to enrolment

Two Priority Pass cards, each of which allows the holder and a guest unlimited free access to 1,400 airport lounges

Elite status in four major hotel loyalty schemes: Marriott Bonvoy (Gold), Hilton Honors (Gold), Radisson Rewards (Premium), MeliaRewards (Gold)

Access to Eurostar lounges, irrespective of travel class

£150 per year to spend in over 160 UK restaurants

£150 per year to spend in over 1,200 international restaurants

£100 per year to spend at Harvey Nichols, instore or online (no minimum spend required)

£300 per year of dining credit – £150 to be spent at 150+ UK restaurants and £150 to be spent at 1,200+ restaurants outside the UK

You need a minimum personal income of £35,000 to apply for the card.

American Express Rewards

Bonus: 10,000 points

Read our full review

Sign-up bonus and earn rate:

• Get 10,000 Membership Rewards points when you spend £2,000 within 90 days
• Earn 1 Membership Rewards point per £1 spent
• Points transfer at 1:1 into Avios, Virgin Points and other airline and hotel schemes

Other information:

• Your best choice if you want a ‘free for life’ card which earns Membership Rewards points
• A good choice if you want to close a Gold or Platinum card but keep your points intact
• Annual fee: Free

Representative 31.0% APR variable

Apply here

See if you qualify for the 10,000 points sign-up bonus +

You will receive 10,000 American Express Membership Rewards points as a sign-up bonus on the American Express Rewards card if you spend £2,000 within 90 days of signing up.

Membership Rewards points are hugely flexible. You can transfer them into Avios, Virgin Flying Club or other airlines (at 1:1) or into various hotels schemes, into Club Eurostar or use them for shopping vouchers.

To qualify for the bonus, you must NOT, currently or in the previous 24 months, have held any other personal American Express card.

You are OK if you had a supplementary card on someone else’s American Express account.

You are OK if, currently or in the previous 24 months, you have held a Business American Express card.

For clarity, you can still apply for the American Express Rewards card even if you do not qualify for the bonus.  You may want to do this if you are thinking of swapping your Preferred Rewards Gold or Platinum card for a free alternative, and would prefer to keep your existing Membership Rewards points balance alive.

Learn more about the card benefits +

American Express Rewards is the only ‘free for life’ American Express card which lets you collect Membership Rewards points.

We do NOT recommend this card if you would also qualify for the sign-up bonus on American Express Preferred Rewards Gold.  The Gold card is free for the first year, comes with four free airport lounge passes and £120 of Deliveroo credit and has a higher sign-up bonus of 20,000 points.

The best reason to get American Express Rewards is if you are coming to the end of your free first year with American Express Preferred Rewards Gold, or no longer want to pay the fee on The Platinum Card, but want to keep your Membership Rewards points intact.

You need a minimum personal income of £20,000 to apply for the card.

American Express Business Gold

Bonus: 20,000 Membership Rewards points

Read our full review

Sign-up bonus and earn rate:

• Get 20,000 Membership Rewards points when you spend £3,000 within 90 days
• Earn 10,000 additional bonus points whenever you spend £20,000 in a quarter
• Earn 1 Membership Rewards point per £1 spent

Other information:

• Annual fee: Free for the first year, £195 from Year 2
• Points transfer at 1:1 into Avios, Virgin Points and other airline schemes
• Get £100 per year to spend at Dell

This is a charge card, not a credit card. You must clear your balance in full each month.  Annual fee £195 from Year 2, free in Year 1.

Apply here

See if you qualify for the 20,000 points sign-up bonus +

You will receive 20,000 American Express Membership Rewards points as a sign-up bonus on the American Express Business Gold card if you spend £3,000 within 90 days.

Membership Rewards points are hugely flexible.  You can transfer them into Avios, Virgin Flying Club or other airlines (at 1:1) or into various hotels schemes, into Club Eurostar or use them for shopping vouchers.

To qualify for the bonus, you must NOT, currently or in the previous 13 months, have held any other American Express card which earns Membership Rewards points.  This includes Business or personal Gold, Business or personal Platinum and the personal American Express Rewards credit card.

You are OK if you had a complimentary card on someone else’s American Express account.

You are OK if the only American Express card you have had in the previous 13 months was a British Airways, Marriott Bonvoy, Nectar, Platinum Cashback or Harrods American Express card.

For clarity, you can still apply for the American Express Business Gold card even if you do not qualify for the bonus.  You would still benefit from the ‘no fee in Year 1’ offer.

Learn more about the card benefits +

You receive £100 of Dell statement credit per calendar year.  This is made available in two parts.  You receive a £50 credit on Dell purchases made between January and June and a £50 credit on Dell purchases made between July and December.  There is no minimum spend requirement.

You can apply for complimentary Amex business cards for your employees.

You will receive one consolidated statement showing the spend on your card and all of the complimentary cards.  All of the Membership Rewards points earned on the complimentary cards will flow into your personal account.

Depending on when in your monthly cycle you make a payment, you will effectively receive up to 54 days free credit on your spending.

American Express statements provide more underlying transaction detail for flights and certain other transactions than Visa or Mastercard statements, making it easier to reconcile transactions.

You need a minimum personal income of £20,000 to apply for the card.

American Express Business Platinum

Bonus: 40,000 Membership Rewards points

Read our full review

Sign-up bonus and earn rate:

• Get 40,000 Membership Rewards points when you spend £6,000 within 90 days
• Earn 1 Membership Rewards point per £1 spent
• Earn 10,000 bonus points in every month you spend £10,000+
• Points transfer at 1:1 into Avios, Virgin Points and other airline schemes

Other information:

• Get £200 per year to spend at Amex Travel
• Two Priority Pass cards, each allowing two people into 1,400 airport lounges
• Elite status in four major hotel loyalty programmes
• Get £150 per year to spend at Dell
• Get £300 per year to spend at job ads site Indeed
• Comprehensive travel insurance
• Annual fee: £650

This is a charge card, not a credit card. You must clear your balance in full each month.  Annual fee £650.

Apply here

See if you qualify for the 40,000 points bonus +

You will receive 40,000 American Express Membership Rewards points as a sign-up bonus on the American Express Business Platinum card if you spend £6,000 within 90 days.

Membership Rewards points are hugely flexible.  You can transfer them into Avios, Virgin Flying Club or other airlines (at 1:1) or into various hotels schemes, into Club Eurostar or use them for shopping vouchers.

To qualify for the bonus, you must NOT, currently or in the previous 13 months, have held any other American Express card which earns Membership Rewards points.  This includes Business or personal Gold, Business or personal Platinum and the personal American Express Rewards credit card.

You are OK if you had a complimentary card on someone else’s American Express account.

You are OK if the only American Express card you have had in the previous 13 months was a British Airways, Marriott Bonvoy, Nectar, Platinum Cashback or Harrods American Express card.

For clarity, you can still apply for the American Express Business Platinum card even if you do not qualify for the bonus.  You would still benefit from all of the other card features including the £200 of annual Amex Travel credit.

Learn more about the card benefits +

American Express Business Platinum comes with an unrivalled list of benefits for the keen traveller.

Your personal travel patterns will determine which of these is the most valuable.  The key benefits are:

£200 of Amex Travel credit per membership year

Full comprehensive travel insurance for you, your family and the family of up to five complimentary cardholders, subject to enrolment

Two Priority Pass cards, each of which allows the holder and a guest unlimited free access to 1,400 airport lounges

Elite status in four major hotel loyalty schemes: Marriott Bonvoy (Gold), Hilton Honors (Gold), Radisson Rewards (Premium), MeliaRewards (Gold)

You need a minimum personal income of £35,000 to apply for the card.

£150 of Dell statement credit per year – you receive £75 credit on Dell purchases betweeen January and June and £75 credit on purchases between July and December

Digital subscription to The Times and The Sunday Times, worth over £300

Want to earn more points from credit cards? – January 2024 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 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 Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

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.

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard

15,000 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:

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

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

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points bonus 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 Business Rewards Visa

Get a 10,000 points bonus plus an extra 500 points for our readers Read our full review

For a non-American Express option, we also recommend the Barclaycard Select Cashback card for sole traders and small businesses. It is FREE and you receive 1% cashback on your spending.

Barclaycard Select Cashback credit card

2% cashback on all your business spend for 3 months (1% thereafter) and no annual fee Read our full review

You can read the This Is Money article here but I turned the key points into a HfP article at the time and thought it was worth updating today given the recent improvements to the card benefits.

What are the benefits of signing up for Amex Gold?

The package you get for the first year of holding this card is excellent.  You can’t deny that.  Among the benefits are:

• You don’t pay a fee for your first year

• You receive 20,000 American Express Membership Rewards points after you spend £3,000 in your first three months.  These convert into 20,000 Avios, 20,000 Virgin / Emirates / Etihad / Flying Blue etc miles, 40,000 Hilton Honors points, 30,000 Marriott Bonvoy points, 90,000 Radisson Rewards points …. or many other things

• You get four free passes to get into selected airport lounges – the directory is here 

• You get £120 per year of Deliveroo credit (2 x £5 credits can be used each month)

Full details of the card, and the application form, are on the American Express website here.

In order to qualify for the sign up bonus, you cannot have held any personal American Express cards in the past 24 months.

The representative APR is 88.8% variable, including the annual fee.  The representative APR on purchases, and in the first year which has no fee, is 31.0% variable.

What happens after Year 1?

After the first year, you need to make a decision about whether to keep the card or not.

Many people baulk at the idea of paying the £19t fee, especially if they are not used to paying fees for credit or charge cards.  Whilst the easy answer to those readers who contact me would be ‘cancel’, it is worth looking objectively at the ongoing package – especially if you are not the sort of person who likes to churn his or her card portfolio regularly.

Good reasons to keep Amex Gold beyond Year 1

Reason 1:  the annual bonus of up to 12,500 Membership Rewards points

You can earn up to 12,500 bonus Membership Rewards points each year based on your spending.

You receive 2,500 points for hitting £5,000 on spend and a further 2,500 points for every additional £5,000. The maximum bonus you can earn is 12,500 points.

This means, assuming you spent an exact multiple of £5,000, your earning rate on the card 1.5 Membership Rewards points per £1. This is made up of the 1 point per £1 you get for your spending plus an average of 0.5 points per £1 as a bonus.

This is an impressive earning rate – in fact, it is equal to the best earning rate of ANY travel rewards credit card.

Reason 2:  four more free Priority Pass airport lounge passes

You receive another four airport lounge passes when you renew.  These are worth at least £100.

Reason 3: if you are making good use of the Deliveroo credits

When American Express added the £120 of annual Deliveroo credits as a card benefit in 2021, it hugely changed the economics of the card for many people.

Not everyone lives in a Deliveroo area, or uses it if they do. If it is available where you live and you use it, the £120 of annual credit basically covers the annual fee in one go. Remember that Deliveroo isn’t just food delivery these days – you can also order groceries via the app. You don’t even need to do delivery – many outlets now allow ‘pick up’ orders which save the delivery fee.

Reason 4:  you don’t need to empty your Membership Rewards points account

You keep your Membership Rewards points alive.  If you cancel your Amex Gold, you will need to transfer your Membership Rewards points out.  This gets rid of the main benefit of Membership Rewards points – flexibility.

Keeping your Gold card means you can keep your Membership Rewards points account open and so keep all of your options for the points open.  (One option to get around this is to open a FREE Amex Rewards Credit Card instead – I explain how to save your Membership Rewards points in this article.)

Reason 5:  you retain access to the Amex Gold hotel programme

You retain access to the other, often forgotten, Amex Gold benefits.  The most interesting is ‘The Hotel Collection’ programme – details here.

‘The Hotel Collection’ gives you an upgrade and up to $100 equivalent credit when booking a 2+ night stay at participating upscale hotels.  Chains taking part include Radisson Blu, Omni, Kimpton, Hilton, Sofitel and many more.  There is also a 10% Amex Gold Hertz discount, although I admit this can probably be matched by other deals you can access.

Reason 6:  if you have no other Amex, you retain access to Amex’s valuable cashback deals

If Preferred Rewards Gold is your only American Express card, you retain access to the wide range of Amex cashback deals which are permanently available.  Even if you do have other Amex cards, you can double up on deals which interest you if you have multiple cards available.

There are other smaller benefits too:

• You retain access to the refer-a-friend programme which earns you up to 90,000 Membership Rewards points each year for referring friends and family.  You will receive the referral bonus even if the person you refer does not qualify for a sign-up bonus.

• If you spend a lot on flights, the ‘double points on all airline spend’ benefit will add up.  You don’t need to book via Amex Travel to get this, it is automatic for spending on all airlines. Whilst I charge all of my British Airways flights to my British Airways Premium Plus American Express to earn 3 Avios per £1, all of our other family flights go on my wife’s Amex Gold.

• You receive double points on all foreign spend. This is not a great deal on personal spending due to the 3% fee on FX spend which is added by Amex. You can avoid this fee by getting a card which doesn’t charge FX fees. If your FX spend is repaid by your employer, however, this benefit is attractive.

There are other ways of accessing some of the benefits above, of course.  The Amex Rewards Credit Card ……

American Express Rewards

Bonus: 10,000 points

Read our full review

Sign-up bonus and earn rate:

• Get 10,000 Membership Rewards points when you spend £2,000 within 90 days
• Earn 1 Membership Rewards point per £1 spent
• Points transfer at 1:1 into Avios, Virgin Points and other airline and hotel schemes

Other information:

• Your best choice if you want a ‘free for life’ card which earns Membership Rewards points
• A good choice if you want to close a Gold or Platinum card but keep your points intact
• Annual fee: Free

Representative 31.0% APR variable

Apply here

See if you qualify for the 10,000 points sign-up bonus +

You will receive 10,000 American Express Membership Rewards points as a sign-up bonus on the American Express Rewards card if you spend £2,000 within 90 days of signing up.

Membership Rewards points are hugely flexible. You can transfer them into Avios, Virgin Flying Club or other airlines (at 1:1) or into various hotels schemes, into Club Eurostar or use them for shopping vouchers.

To qualify for the bonus, you must NOT, currently or in the previous 24 months, have held any other personal American Express card.

You are OK if you had a supplementary card on someone else’s American Express account.

You are OK if, currently or in the previous 24 months, you have held a Business American Express card.

For clarity, you can still apply for the American Express Rewards card even if you do not qualify for the bonus.  You may want to do this if you are thinking of swapping your Preferred Rewards Gold or Platinum card for a free alternative, and would prefer to keep your existing Membership Rewards points balance alive.

Learn more about the card benefits +

American Express Rewards is the only ‘free for life’ American Express card which lets you collect Membership Rewards points.

We do NOT recommend this card if you would also qualify for the sign-up bonus on American Express Preferred Rewards Gold.  The Gold card is free for the first year, comes with four free airport lounge passes and £120 of Deliveroo credit and has a higher sign-up bonus of 20,000 points.

The best reason to get American Express Rewards is if you are coming to the end of your free first year with American Express Preferred Rewards Gold, or no longer want to pay the fee on The Platinum Card, but want to keep your Membership Rewards points intact.

You need a minimum personal income of £20,000 to apply for the card.

…….. will keep your Membership Rewards points alive. 

I accept that, if are not triggering a decent chunk of the 12,500 annual bonus Membership Rewards points, the maths on keeping Amex Gold isn’t great. Unless you can use the full £120 of Deliveroo credit each year, you’d be relying on getting £195 of value from ‘The Hotel Collection’ programme, the airport lounge passes and getting double points on your flight spending.

If you earning between 2,500 and 12,500 bonus Membership Rewards points from your spending, however, the fee begins to look like it is worth paying.

You can apply for American Express Preferred Rewards Gold here.

Disclaimer: Head for Points is a journalistic website. Nothing here should be construed as financial advice, and it is your own responsibility to ensure that any product is right for your circumstances. Recommendations are based primarily on the ability to earn miles and points. The site discusses products offered by lenders but is not a lender itself. Robert Burgess, trading as Head for Points, is regulated and authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority to act as an independent credit broker.

You may be thinking of cancelling your American Express Preferred Rewards Gold or The Platinum Card before the pro-rata fee refund option ends on 1st October.

One downside of this is that you are required to empty out your Membership Rewards points account. If you don’t, your points will be lost if you have no other Membership Rewards cards.

However ….. is there a free way to keep your Membership Rewards points alive when cancelling an American Express Gold or Platinum card?

Yes.  (OK, you probably guessed I was going to say that!)

You shouldn’t transfer Membership Rewards points until you are about to book a flight or hotel

Having to close your Membership Rewards points account can lead to a dilemma over when to cancel your Preferred Rewards Gold or Platinum card.  

You will be paying £160 per year after the free first year to keep an American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card active and £575 for The Platinum Card.  However, this allows you to keep your Membership Rewards points where they are.  If you are forced to transfer them because you close the account, you may regret it later.

Because American Express Membership Rewards points can be transferred to many different airline and hotel partners, they are more valuable than airline or hotel points.  You shouldn’t convert them until you need them.

Can you keep your Membership Rewards points when cancelling an American Express card?

There is a solution that:

• lets you keep your Membership Rewards points account open, and

• allows you to cancel your Gold or Platinum card this week before pro-rata fee refunds end on 1st October

This card is the answer:

You can apply for the little-known American Express Rewards Credit Card.  Full details are on the American Express website here.

This card has NO ANNUAL FEE and lets you collect Membership Rewards points.

For simplicity, I will occasionally refer to this card as ARCC as ‘American Express Rewards Credit Card’ is a  bit of a mouthful.

What is the American Express Rewards Credit Card?

ARCC is a standard Amex-branded credit card.

The representative APR is 31.0% variable.

It has no annual fee and no substantial benefits, except for the ability to collect Membership Rewards points at 1 point per £1 spent.

It is unlikely that many Head for Points readers will qualify for the 10,000 points sign-up bonus because you cannot have held any Membership Rewards cards in the previous 24 months.  That will exclude anyone who has, or has recently had, a Gold or Platinum Amex card.

Don’t worry about that.  You may still want to get this card even though you won’t get a bonus.

Get the ARCC card if you are planning to cancel Amex Gold or Platinum this week

If you have an Amex Gold or Platinum card and want to cancel this week whilst you can still get a pro-rata fee refund, but do not want to cash in your Membership Rewards points, this card is your answer.

Apply for the Amex Rewards Credit Card.  Once you are accepted, you can cancel your Preferred Rewards Gold card or The Platinum Card safe in the knowledge that your Membership Rewards points are safe.

(You get a window between cancelling your Membership Rewards cards and losing your points, so don’t worry about not receiving your new ARCC card before the 1st October cancellation deadline. As long as you’ve been accepted you’ll be fine, as long as you make sure your ARCC card is linked to your existing Membership Rewards account and not a brand new one.)

The only ‘snag’ is that you will not have reset the 24 month clock on being able to reapply for a new Gold or Platinum card and receive another sign-up bonus.  In order to do that you need to close down your Membership Rewards account entirely.

For a lot of people, though, being able to keep your existing Membership Rewards balance alive will be more important.

You can apply for the FREE American Express Rewards Credit Card here.

Disclaimer: Head for Points is a journalistic website. Nothing here should be construed as financial advice, and it is your own responsibility to ensure that any product is right for your circumstances. Recommendations are based primarily on the ability to earn miles and points. The site discusses products offered by lenders but is not a lender itself. Robert Burgess, trading as Head for Points, is regulated and authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority to act as an independent credit broker.

Want to earn more points from credit cards? – January 2024 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 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 Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

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.

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard

15,000 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:

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

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

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points bonus 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 Business Rewards Visa

Get a 10,000 points bonus plus an extra 500 points for our readers Read our full review

For a non-American Express option, we also recommend the Barclaycard Select Cashback card for sole traders and small businesses. It is FREE and you receive 1% cashback on your spending.

Barclaycard Select Cashback credit card

2% cashback on all your business spend for 3 months (1% thereafter) and no annual fee Read our full review

The plan was to take a more holistic view of your finances. A single person living at home on a £25,000 salary has a totally different disposable income profile to someone who is married with two kids and a mortgage taking home £35,000.  Setting a strict cut-off level was seen as a blunt instrument.

For whatever reason, potentially linked to new FCA customer duty regulations, American Express has decided that this structure was no longer workable.

Minimum income requirements have now returned.

That said, they are not exactly tough. Someone on minimum wage doing 40 hours per week will still qualify for most cards. The real losers are the retired and non-working partners, as the requirement is based on your personal income. High savings or a high household income are no longer enough.

These are the new PERSONAL income requirements.

• Preferred Rewards Gold – £20,000

• British Airways (free card) – £20,000

• Platinum Cashback – £20,000

• Platinum Cashback Everyday – £20,000

• Nectar – £20,000

• Marriott Bonvoy – £20,000

• American Express Rewards – £20,000

• Business Gold – £20,000 (personal income, not company)

• The Platinum Card – £35,000

• British Airways Premium Plus – £35,000

• Business Platinum – £35,000 (personal income, not company)

It’s worth comparing these numbers to the 2016 levels, remembering that we’ve probably seen 25%+ wage inflation since then.

The Platinum Card was £40,000 in 2016 but is now £35,000. The Marriott Bonvoy American Express was £30,000 in 2016 but is now £20,000.

The only big jump is the British Airways Premium Plus card, which was available on a £20,000 income in 2016 but now requires £35,000.

The other personal cards were £20,000 in 2016 and remain at £20,000 now, so the income requirement is far lower in real terms.

For HfP readers, these limits are unlikely to make much difference to those in work but are likely to hit the retired or those applying on behalf on non-full time working partners or their student children.

Want to earn more points from credit cards? – January 2024 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 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 Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

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.

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard

15,000 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:

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

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

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points bonus 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 Business Rewards Visa

Get a 10,000 points bonus plus an extra 500 points for our readers Read our full review

For a non-American Express option, we also recommend the Barclaycard Select Cashback card for sole traders and small businesses. It is FREE and you receive 1% cashback on your spending.

Barclaycard Select Cashback credit card

2% cashback on all your business spend for 3 months (1% thereafter) and no annual fee Read our full review

You can see the details on the Wimbledon website here.

Because of the modest capacity inside, Amex keeps publicity about its lounge low key.

If you are wondering what it’s like, here are some photos from 2022 taken by reader Alex. Hopefully it will be sunnier this year!

Visit the American Express Wimbledon Cardmember Lounge

The American Express lounge is located in the Southern Village by Court 3.

Any American Express cardholder can enter the lounge, irrespective of the country where their card was issued.

Each cardholder can take up to two guests into the lounge.

If nothing has changed since last year, the lounge will not have any toilets. You have to leave the lounge and rejoin the queue to get back in, which is clearly not ideal.

You get a great view over the outside courts (rain permitting):

Here is a PR shot for 2023:

…. and an interior shot from 2022:

Whilst the lounge has a bar and serves snacks, these are not free. You get a 10% discount on your food and drink when you pay with an Amex card.

For 2023 there will a Ralph Lauren merchandise boutique inside the lounge. You can also pick up some free Amex goodies such as a radio to listen to match commentary. In previous years you have also been able to pick up water spray and branded fans.

An exclusive £20 cashback offer

There’s also a special cashback offer for purchases on site.  If you spend £120 or more in the grounds during the tournament on your card you’ll get £20 back.  You can only get the cashback once per card.

Registration is required. You should see this offer in the Amex app or on your online statement page.

Conclusion

Amex spends a lot of money on its Wimbledon lounge but it never fully delivers, in my view.

It’s a shame that food and drink is not free, but then it would only encourage more people to visit and to stay longer so it may end up being self defeating. I would have been tempted to offer fast track entry to Platinum cardholders, or at least a free drink voucher – some cardholders are more valuable than others at the end of the day.

That said, if it is crowded in the grounds – which it usually is – then, as long as nothing has changed this year, it is a decent spot to get out of the sun / rain and watch the play on the outside courts from the balcony.

Want to earn more points from credit cards? – January 2024 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 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 Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

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.

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard

15,000 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:

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

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

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points bonus 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 Business Rewards Visa

Get a 10,000 points bonus plus an extra 500 points for our readers Read our full review

For a non-American Express option, we also recommend the Barclaycard Select Cashback card for sole traders and small businesses. It is FREE and you receive 1% cashback on your spending.

Barclaycard Select Cashback credit card

2% cashback on all your business spend for 3 months (1% thereafter) and no annual fee Read our full review

In this article I want to look at your options for earning Avios points from a UK credit card, and explain my preferred choices.

There are nine UK credit cards which earn Avios points at a rate of at least 1 Avios per £1 spent so it isn’t an easy choice.

All of these cards add a 3% foreign exchange fee, so you might want to get a separate free credit card to use abroad.   

Unfortunately there are no travel rewards cards without a foreign exchange fee.  One option is to get a free card from Currensea. Currensea is a simple but clever idea. You pay abroad with your Currensea Mastercard debit card. Currensea translates the cost to Sterling with just a 0.5% fee (83% less than the usual rate) and withdraws the money from your bank account. You can find out more by clicking here. Currensea is free so there is no risk in giving it a try.

What are my options for an Avios credit card?

This is what you have to choose from, ranked in order of sign-up bonus, followed by my preferred picks.

I will discuss the best choices at the bottom of the list.

HSBC Premier World Elite Mastercard

Bonus: 80,000 points

Read our full review • Apply here

Sign-up bonus and earn rate:

• Get 80,000 HSBC points, paid over two years
• Earns 2 HSBC points per £1 spent
• Points convert at 2:1 into Avios or nine other programmes

Other information:

• Only available to HSBC Premier account holders
• Receive free airport lounge access with LoungeKey
• Annual fee: £195

Representative 59.3% APR variable based on an assumed £1,200 credit limit and £195 annual fee. Interest rate on purchases 18.9% APR variable.

Apply here

See if you qualify for the 80,000 points sign-up bonus +

The sign-up bonus on the HSBC Premier World Elite Mastercard is 80,000 points.

This is paid in two parts.  You receive 40,000 HSBC points (worth 20,000 Avios or other airline miles or hotel points) for spending £2,000 within three months and a further 40,000 HSBC points (=20,000 points) for spending £12,000 within twelve months.

The annual fee is £195 and you need to pay the fee for the second year in order to receive the second half of the bonus.

There is no restriction on receiving the bonus if you have previously held the card, as long as you cancelled it over six months ago, or are upgrading from the free HSBC Premier Mastercard.

Learn more about the card benefits +

The points earned with the HSBC Premier World Elite Mastercard can be transferred to 10 airline and hotel loyalty schemes – Asia Miles, British Airways Executive Club / Avios, Emirates Skywards, Etihad Guest, Finnair Plus, Flying Blue (Air France KLM), Qantas Frequent Flyer, Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer, TAP Miles&Go and Wyndham Rewards.

They can also be redeemed for other items including retailer gift cards.

Cardholders can access any airport lounge in the LoungeKey network for free.  No guest are allowed, but you can get your partner a supplementary credit card on your account for an annual fee of £60.  Children would be charged at £20 per visit.

You need to be a HSBC Premier current account holder to apply for this card.  HSBC Premier comes with a range of additional benefits including comprehensive travel insurance.

The Platinum Card from American Express

Bonus: 40,000 points

Read our full review • Apply here

Sign-up bonus and earn rate:

• Get 40,000 Membership Rewards points when you spend £6,000 within three months
• Earn 1 Membership Rewards point per £1 spent
• Points transfer at 1:1 into Avios, Virgin Points and other airline and hotel schemes

Other information:

• Two Priority Pass cards, each allowing two people into 1,400 airport lounges
• Elite status in four major hotel loyalty programmes
• Comprehensive travel insurance
• £300 per year of restaurant credit
• £100 per year to spend at Harvey Nichols
• Annual fee: £650

Representative 704.6% APR variable based on an assumed £1,200 credit limit and £650 annual fee. Interest rate on purchases 31.0% APR variable.

Apply here

See if you qualify for the 40,000 points sign-up bonus +

You will receive 40,000 American Express Membership Rewards points as a sign-up bonus on The Platinum Card if you spend £6,000 within three months of signing up.

Membership Rewards points are hugely flexible.  You can transfer them into Avios, Virgin Flying Club or other airlines (at 1:1) or into various hotels schemes, into Club Eurostar or use them for shopping vouchers.

This is the ONLY personal American Express card where you still qualify for the bonus if you already hold a British Airways American Express card.

To qualify for the bonus, you must NOT, currently or in the previous 24 months, have held any other personal American Express card which earns Membership Rewards points.  This includes The Platinum Card and Preferred Rewards Gold.

You are OK if you had a supplementary card on someone else’s American Express account.

You are OK if, currently or in the previous 24 months, you have held any other American Express card, including the British Airways, Marriott and Nectar cards.

For clarity, you can still apply for The Platinum Card even if you do not qualify for the bonus.  You would still benefit from the long list of other benefits.

Learn more about the card benefits +

The Platinum Card from American Express comes with an unrivalled list of benefits for the keen traveller.

Your personal travel patterns will determine which of these is the most valuable.  The key benefits are:

Full comprehensive travel insurance for you, your family and the family of your supplementary cardholder, subject to enrolment

Two Priority Pass cards, each of which allows the holder and a guest unlimited free access to 1,400 airport lounges

Elite status in four major hotel loyalty schemes: Marriott Bonvoy (Gold), Hilton Honors (Gold), Radisson Rewards (Premium), MeliaRewards (Gold)

Access to Eurostar lounges, irrespective of travel class

£150 per year to spend in over 160 UK restaurants

£150 per year to spend in over 1,200 international restaurants

£100 per year to spend at Harvey Nichols, instore or online (no minimum spend required)

£300 per year of dining credit – £150 to be spent at 150+ UK restaurants and £150 to be spent at 1,200+ restaurants outside the UK

You need a minimum personal income of £35,000 to apply for the card.

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Bonus: 25,000 Avios

Read our full review • Apply here

Sign-up bonus and earn rate:

• Get 25,000 Avios when you spend £3,000 within 90 days
• Earn 1.5 Avios per £1 spent

Other information:

• Receive an Avios upgrade voucher when you spend £10,000 in a card year
• Upgrade a return BA flight for one person or two one-way flights for a couple
• Annual fee: £240, charged at £20 per month

Representative 80.1% APR variable based on an assumed £1,200 credit limit and £20 monthly fee.  Interest rate on purchases 29.9% APR variable.

Apply here

See if you qualify for the 25,000 Avios sign-up bonus +

You will receive 25,000 Avios as a sign-up bonus on the Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard credit card if you spend £3,000 within 90 days of signing up.

To qualify for the bonus, you must NOT, currently or in the previous six months, have held any other Barclaycard credit card.

You are OK if you had a supplementary card on someone else’s Barclaycard account.

You are OK if, currently or in the previous six months, you have had a British Airways American Express credit card.

For clarity, you can still apply for the Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard even if you do not qualify for the bonus.  You would still benefit from the upgrade voucher and the other card benefits.

Learn more about the card benefits +

When you spend £10,000 on the Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard, you receive a voucher entitling you to:

• book a return Avios flight for one person, paying the Avios of the next lowest cabin (ie book Club World but only pay the World Traveller Plus Avios requirement)
• book a one-way Avios flight, or one leg of a return flight, for two people, paying the Avios of the next lowest cabin

The voucher is valid for two years.  Full taxes and charges need to be paid on both tickets, based on the cabin you fly.

The voucher cannot be used to fly in First Class.

The voucher can be used for anyone, as long as the booking is made from the Avios account of the cardholder.

You receive your voucher within five days of reaching the spending target.

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

Bonus: 25,000 Avios

Read our full review • Apply here

Sign-up bonus and earn rate:

• Get 25,000 Avios when you spend £3,000 within 90 days
• Earn 1.5 Avios per £1 spent
• Earn 3 Avios per £1 spent with British Airways and BA Holidays

Other information:

• Receive a companion voucher, letting you book two flights for the Avios of one, when you spend £10,000 in a card year
• A solo traveller can use it for a 50% discount on the Avios for one ticket
• The voucher is valid in any cabin
• It can be used on British Airways, Iberia and Aer Lingus
• Annual fee: £250

Representative 113.1% APR variable based on an assumed £1,200 credit limit and £250 annual fee. Interest rate on purchases 31.0% APR variable.

Apply here

See if you qualify for the 25,000 Avios sign-up bonus +

You will receive 25,000 Avios as a sign-up bonus on the British Airways American Express Premium Plus card if you spend £3,000 within 90 days of signing up.

To qualify for the bonus, you must not have held the British Airways Premium Plus or the free British Airways American Express cards in the previous 24 months.

You are OK if you had a supplementary card on someone else’s British Airways American Express account.

You are OK if, currently or in the previous 24 months, you have held any other American Express card.

For clarity, you can still apply for the British Airways Premium Plus card even if you do not qualify for the bonus.  You would still benefit from the companion voucher and all of the other card benefits.

Learn more about the card benefits +

When you spend £10,000 on the British Airways American Express Premium Plus card, you receive a companion voucher entitling you to book two Avios redemption flights for the miles of one.

Alternatively, a solo traveller can use the voucher for a 50% reduction on the Avios required for one ticket,

This voucher is valid for two years.  Full taxes and charges need to be paid on both tickets.

This voucher is the most valuable perk available in the UK airline and hotel credit card sector in my view. It could save you 150,000 or more Avios when used for a long-haul redemption in a premium cabin.

The voucher with the Premium Plus card is far more powerful than the voucher given with the free British Airways American Express card.  You only need to spend £10,000, instead of £20,000, in a card year to receive it.  More importantly, the Premium Plus voucher is valid for two years and is valid in ALL cabins.  The voucher on the free British Airways American Express card is only valid for one year and can only be used for Economy flights.

You receive your voucher within a few days of reaching the spending target.  You need to fly the outbound leg of your 2-4-1 flight before the expiry date of the voucher.

The voucher can be used for flights on British Airways, Iberia and Aer Lingus.

You need a minimum personal income of £35,000 to apply for the card.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Bonus: 20,000 points

Read our full review • Apply here

Sign-up bonus and earn rate:

• Get 20,000 Membership Rewards points when you spend £3,000 within 90 days
• Earn 1 Membership Rewards point per £1 spent
• Get up to 12,500 bonus points each year based on your total spending
• Earn double points on all airline and overseas spend
• Points transfer at 1:1 into Avios, Virgin Points and other airline and hotel schemes

Other information:

• Amex Gold is our recommended ‘first card’ for a miles and points beginner
• Get four free airport lounge passes when you sign up, and a further four each year
• After your four free passes, you can visit further lounges for a small fee
• You receive £120 of Deliveroo credit each year (24 x £5 credits)
• Annual fee: Free for the first year, £195 from Year 2

Representative 88.8% APR variable.  Annual fee applies after the first year.

Apply here

See if you qualify for the 20,000 points sign-up bonus +

You will receive 20,000 American Express Membership Rewards points as a sign-up bonus on the American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card if you spend £3,000 within 90 days of signing up.

Membership Rewards points are hugely flexible, which is why we recommend this as the best choice for your first miles and points card.  You can transfer them into Avios, Virgin Flying Club or other airlines (at 1:1) or into various hotels schemes, into Club Eurostar or use them for shopping vouchers.

To qualify for the bonus, you must NOT, currently or in the previous 24 months, have held any other personal American Express card.

You are OK if you had a supplementary card on someone else’s American Express account.

You are OK if, currently or in the previous 24 months, you have held a Business American Express card.

For clarity, you can still apply for the American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card even if you do not qualify for the bonus.  You would still benefit from the four free airport lounge passes and the ‘no fee in Year 1’ offer.

Learn more about the card benefits +

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold comes with four free airport lounge passes.  These allow either you and up to three friends, or yourself four times, to visit any of the 1,400 lounges in the Priority Pass network.  You make additional lounge visits for £24 per person.  You receive an additional four free passes each year.

You earn double Membership Rewards points on all airline spend (made directly on an airline website) and all spend made outside the UK.

You will receive up to 12,500 bonus Membership Rewards points each year, based on how much you spend.

You receive £120 of Deliveroo credit each year.  Amex will repay you £5 for the first two Deliveroo orders charged to your Gold card each month.

Other benefits include a 10% discount on Hertz car rentals, Avis Preferred Plus car rental status and special deals at 350 selected hotels worldwide, where Preferred Rewards Gold cardholders receive a $75 in-hotel credit per stay.

You need a minimum personal income of £20,000 to apply for the card.

Nectar American Express

Bonus: 20,000 points

Read our full review • Apply here

Sign-up bonus and earn rate:

• Get 20,000 Nectar points when you spend £2,000 within 90 days
• Earn 2 Nectar points per £1 spent
• Points transfer at 400 : 250 into Avios
• Points are worth 0.5p each when spent at Sainsbury’s, Argos or eBay

Other information:

• You can convert Nectar points into Avios, and vice versa
• Annual fee: Free for the first year, £30 from Year 2

Representative 37.8% APR variable.  Annual fee applies after the first year.

Apply here

See if you qualify for the 20,000 points sign-up bonus +

You will receive 20,000 Nectar points as a sign-up bonus on the Nectar American Express credit card if you spend £2,000 within 90 days of signing up.

Nectar points are worth 0.5p each if spent in Sainsbury’s, Argos or eBay.  They can also be converted to Avios at the rate of 400 : 250.  1 Nectar point gets you 0.625 Avios.

To qualify for the bonus, you must NOT, currently or in the previous 24 months, have held any other personal American Express card.

You are OK if you had a supplementary card on someone else’s American Express account.

You are OK if, currently or in the previous 24 months, you have held a Business American Express card.

For clarity, you can still apply for the Nectar American Express card even if you do not qualify for the bonus.  You would still benefit from the ‘no fee in Year 1’ offer.

Learn more about the card benefits +

The Nectar American Express credit card comes lets you earn 2 Nectar points for every £1 you spend.  This is on top of any Nectar points you would usually earn at Sainsbury’s and other Nectar partners.

Converted to Avios, you would be earning 1.25 Avios per £1.  This makes the card better value than the free British Airways American Express credit card for your first year, as the Nectar American Express is ‘fee free’ for the first 12 months.  There is a £30 annual fee from Year 2.

The sign-up bonus of 20,000 Nectar points is worth £100 to spend in Sainsbury’s, Argos or eBay.

20,000 Nectar points can also be converted into 12,500 Avios.

You need a minimum personal income of £20,000 to apply for the card.

American Express Rewards

Bonus: 10,000 points

Read our full review • Apply here

Sign-up bonus and earn rate:

• Get 10,000 Membership Rewards points when you spend £2,000 within 90 days
• Earn 1 Membership Rewards point per £1 spent
• Points transfer at 1:1 into Avios, Virgin Points and other airline and hotel schemes

Other information:

• Your best choice if you want a ‘free for life’ card which earns Membership Rewards points
• A good choice if you want to close a Gold or Platinum card but keep your points intact
• Annual fee: Free

Representative 31.0% APR variable

Apply here

See if you qualify for the 10,000 points sign-up bonus +

You will receive 10,000 American Express Membership Rewards points as a sign-up bonus on the American Express Rewards card if you spend £2,000 within 90 days of signing up.

Membership Rewards points are hugely flexible. You can transfer them into Avios, Virgin Flying Club or other airlines (at 1:1) or into various hotels schemes, into Club Eurostar or use them for shopping vouchers.

To qualify for the bonus, you must NOT, currently or in the previous 24 months, have held any other personal American Express card.

You are OK if you had a supplementary card on someone else’s American Express account.

You are OK if, currently or in the previous 24 months, you have held a Business American Express card.

For clarity, you can still apply for the American Express Rewards card even if you do not qualify for the bonus.  You may want to do this if you are thinking of swapping your Preferred Rewards Gold or Platinum card for a free alternative, and would prefer to keep your existing Membership Rewards points balance alive.

Learn more about the card benefits +

American Express Rewards is the only ‘free for life’ American Express card which lets you collect Membership Rewards points.

We do NOT recommend this card if you would also qualify for the sign-up bonus on American Express Preferred Rewards Gold.  The Gold card is free for the first year, comes with four free airport lounge passes and £120 of Deliveroo credit and has a higher sign-up bonus of 20,000 points.

The best reason to get American Express Rewards is if you are coming to the end of your free first year with American Express Preferred Rewards Gold, or no longer want to pay the fee on The Platinum Card, but want to keep your Membership Rewards points intact.

You need a minimum personal income of £20,000 to apply for the card.

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

Bonus: 5,000 Avios

Read our full review • Apply here

Sign-up bonus and earn rate:

• Get 5,000 Avios when you spend £1,000 within 90 days
• Earn 1 Avios per £1 spent

Other information:

• Receive an Avios upgrade voucher when you spend £20,000 in a card year
• Upgrade a return BA flight for one person or two one-way flights for a couple
• Annual fee: Free

Representative 29.9% APR variable

Apply here

See if you qualify for the 5,000 Avios sign-up bonus +

You will receive 5,000 Avios as a sign-up bonus on the free Barclaycard Avios Mastercard credit card if you spend £1,000 within 90 days of signing up.

To qualify for the bonus, you must NOT, currently or in the previous six months, have held any other Barclaycard credit card.

You are OK if you had a supplementary card on someone else’s Barclaycard account.

You are OK if, currently or in the previous six months, you have had a British Airways American Express credit card.

For clarity, you can still apply for the Barclaycard Avios Mastercard even if you do not qualify for the bonus.  You would still benefit from the upgrade voucher and the other card benefits.

Learn more about the card benefits +

When you spend £20,000 on the Barclaycard Avios Mastercard, you receive a voucher entitling you to:

• book a return Avios flight for one person, paying the Avios of the next lowest cabin (ie book Club World but only pay the World Traveller Plus Avios requirement)
• book a one-way Avios flight, or one leg of a return flight, for two people, paying the Avios of the next lowest cabin

The voucher is valid for two years.  Full taxes and charges need to be paid on both tickets, based on the cabin you fly.

The voucher can be used for anyone, as long as the booking is made from the Avios account of the cardholder.

The voucher cannot be used to fly in First Class.

You receive your voucher within five days of reaching the spending target.

British Airways American Express

Bonus: 5,000 Avios

Read our full review • Apply here

Sign-up bonus and earn rate:

• Get 5,000 Avios when you spend £1,000 within 90 days
• Earn 1 Avios per £1 spent

Other information:

• Receive a companion voucher, letting you book two flights for the Avios of one, when you spend £12,000 in a card year
• The companion voucher is only valid on Economy flights
• It can be used on British Airways, Iberia and Aer Lingus
• Annual fee: Free

Representative 31.0% APR variable

Apply here

See if you qualify for the 5,000 Avios sign-up bonus +

You will receive 5,000 Avios as a sign-up bonus on the free British Airways American Express card if you spend £1,000 within 90 days of signing up.

To qualify for the bonus, you must NOT, currently or in the previous 24 months, have held any other personal American Express card.

You are OK if you had a supplementary card on someone else’s British Airways American Express account.

You are OK if, currently or in the previous 24 months, you have held a Business American Express card.

For clarity, you can still apply for the British Airways American Express card even if you do not qualify for the bonus.  You would still benefit from the companion voucher and the other card benefits.

Learn more about the card benefits +

When you spend £12,000 on the British Airways American Express card, you receive a companion voucher entitling you to book two Avios redemption flights for the miles of one.  This voucher is valid for one year.  (Full taxes and charges need to be paid on both tickets.)

The voucher on the free British Airways American Express card can only be used on Economy flights.

The voucher can be used for Avios bookings on British Airways, Iberia and Aer Lingus.

You receive your voucher within a few days of reaching the spending target.  You need to fly the outbound leg of your 2-4-1 flight before the expiry date of the voucher.

If you want more flexibility, the voucher issued with the British Airways Premium Plus American Express card is valid for two years, only requires £10,000 of annual card spend and is valid in ALL cabins including Business and First.  The Premium Plus card also has a higher earning rate of 1.5 Avios per £1 on general spend and 3 Avios per £1 on spend with British Airways and BA Holidays.

You need a minimum personal income of £20,000 to apply for the card.

Frankly, it would be madness to try to do a comparison chart so instead I want to pick out the key reason for getting each of the cards – if there is one ….

Cards with a specific ‘best in class’ reason to get them:

If you are looking for your first Avios credit card, I recommend one of these four:

British Airways Premium Plus American Express

The No 1 attraction is the 2-4-1 voucher that you receive for spending £10,000 each year. This is valid on Avios redemptions in ALL classes and saves you, for eg, 200,000 Avios on two Club World peak day tickets to San Francisco. A solo traveller receives a 50% discount on the Avios neeed for a redemption. Coupled with a high earnings rate, all serious Avios collectors should have one of these.  This is the best Avios card if you know you will qualify for, and use, the 2-4-1 voucher each year. Apply here.

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

The key attraction here is an Avios upgrade voucher for spending £10,000 per year. This lets you book 1 x return flight or 2 x one-way Avios flights for the cost of the next cheapest cabin. This card is particularly attractive to solo travellers. Apply here.

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

The free Barclaycard has a lower Avios earning rate and a far lower sign-up bonus. For many people, however, it will be the perfect product to use alongside a British Airways Premium Plus American Express. That said, I strongly recommend getting the Plus version for the 25,000 Avios bonus and downgrading later. Apply here.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

This card offers the most generous sign-up bonus for a free card.  You receive 20,000 Amex points for signing up (=20,000 Avios) and there is no fee for Year 1 (£195 thereafter). You also receive four free Priority Pass airport lounge passes, valid at 1,300 lounges globally, and £120 of annual Deliveroo credit among other benefits.  This is the best Amex card for beginners to the miles and points hobby. You will still qualify for the bonus on the British Airways Premium Plus American Express if you choose to trade up later. Apply here.

Avios credit cards that work for a niche market:

These cards are less popular with Avios collectors but there are reasons why you may choose them:

The Platinum Card from American Express

You should seriously consider applying for this card. For the first year, you can easily justify the £650 fee due to the sign-up bonus and other benefits. These include the 40,000 sign-up bonus which converts to 40,000 Avios, the Priority Pass for airline lounge access, Eurostar lounge access and the Marriott Bonvoy Gold Elite, Hilton Honors Gold, MeliaRewards Gold and Radisson Rewards Premium cards.  Many people find that they end up keeping the card despite their initial intentions because of the value of the travel insurance, lounge access and other perks, such as £300 per year of restaurant credit (yes, £300, although terms apply) and £100 per year of Harvey Nichols credit. Apply here.

American Express Rewards Credit Card

As I explain in this article about the American Express Rewards Credit Card benefits, the ARCC card is an excellent option if you already have a Gold or Platinum American Express card and want to cancel it to avoid the annual fee.  Getting a free ARCC card will keep your Membership Rewards points alive and allow you to delay transferring them to an airline or hotel partner. Apply here.

Cards which are not ‘best in class’ in terms of benefits:

British Airways American Express

There is little point getting this card now that the free Barclaycard Avios Mastercard is available. The paid British Airways Premium Plus American Express has a far better annual spend voucher, whilst the Barclaycard earns the same 1 Avios per £1 and benefits from being accepted in more places than an Amex. Apply here.

Nectar American Express

This is basically a half-way house between the two British Airways American Express cards. The free British Airways American Express card earns 1 Avios per £1. The £250 British Airways Premium Plus Amex earns 1.5 Avios per £1. The Nectar Amex has a £25 annual fee and earns 1.25 Avios per £1 if you convert the Nectar points. The snag is that there is no option to earn a 2-4-1 voucher on the Nectar American Express card and this is the most valuable feature of the British Airways cards.

HSBC Premier World Elite Mastercard

There is a lot to like about this card, especially the airport lounge access benefit. However, looked at purely for its ability to earn Avios, the new Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard now outguns it with a 50% higher earning rate of 1.5 Avios per £1.

Don’t forget that our directory of all UK airline and hotel credit cards can be found here.

PS. Do you run a small business?

If you are a sole trader or run a small business, you may also want to check out these cards, all of which earn Avios or points which convert to Avios:

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points bonus 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

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

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

Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa

Get a 10,000 points bonus plus an extra 500 points for our readers Read our full review

Disclaimer: Head for Points is a journalistic website. Nothing here should be construed as financial advice, and it is your own responsibility to ensure that any product is right for your circumstances. Recommendations are based primarily on the ability to earn miles and points. The site discusses products offered by lenders but is not a lender itself. Robert Burgess, trading as Head for Points, is regulated and authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority to act as an independent credit broker.

One of the downsides of cancelling American Express Preferred Rewards Gold or The Platinum Card is that you are required to empty out your Membership Rewards points account. If you don’t, your points will be lost.

However ….. is there a free way to keep your Membership Rewards points alive when cancelling an American Express Gold or Platinum card?

Yes.  (OK, you probably guessed I was going to say that!)

You shouldn’t transfer Membership Rewards points until you are about to book

Having to close your Membership Rewards points account can lead to a dilemma over when to cancel your Preferred Rewards Gold or Platinum card.  

You will be paying £13.33 per month after the free first year to keep an American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card active and £48 for The Platinum Card.  However, this allows you to keep your Membership Rewards points where they are.  If you are forced to transfer them because you close the account, you may regret it later.

Because American Express Membership Rewards points can be transferred to many different airline and hotel partners, they are more valuable than airline or hotel points.  You shouldn’t convert them until you need them.

Can you keep your Membership Rewards points when cancelling an American Express card?

There is a solution that:

• lets you keep your Membership Rewards points account open, and

• allows you to stop paying an annual fee for either the Gold or Platinum credit cards

This card is the answer:

You can apply for the little-known American Express Rewards Credit Card.  Full details are on the American Express website here.

This card has NO ANNUAL FEE and lets you collect Membership Rewards points.

For simplicity, I will occasionally refer to this card as ARCC as ‘American Express Rewards Credit Card’ is a  bit of a mouthful.

What is the American Express Rewards Credit Card?

ARCC is a standard Amex-branded credit card.  Here are the headline details and legally required interest rate information:

American Express Rewards

Bonus: 10,000 points

Read our full review

Sign-up bonus and earn rate:

• Get 10,000 Membership Rewards points when you spend £2,000 within 90 days
• Earn 1 Membership Rewards point per £1 spent
• Points transfer at 1:1 into Avios, Virgin Points and other airline and hotel schemes

Other information:

• Your best choice if you want a ‘free for life’ card which earns Membership Rewards points
• A good choice if you want to close a Gold or Platinum card but keep your points intact
• Annual fee: Free

Representative 31.0% APR variable

Apply here

See if you qualify for the 10,000 points sign-up bonus +

You will receive 10,000 American Express Membership Rewards points as a sign-up bonus on the American Express Rewards card if you spend £2,000 within 90 days of signing up.

Membership Rewards points are hugely flexible. You can transfer them into Avios, Virgin Flying Club or other airlines (at 1:1) or into various hotels schemes, into Club Eurostar or use them for shopping vouchers.

To qualify for the bonus, you must NOT, currently or in the previous 24 months, have held any other personal American Express card.

You are OK if you had a supplementary card on someone else’s American Express account.

You are OK if, currently or in the previous 24 months, you have held a Business American Express card.

For clarity, you can still apply for the American Express Rewards card even if you do not qualify for the bonus.  You may want to do this if you are thinking of swapping your Preferred Rewards Gold or Platinum card for a free alternative, and would prefer to keep your existing Membership Rewards points balance alive.

Learn more about the card benefits +

American Express Rewards is the only ‘free for life’ American Express card which lets you collect Membership Rewards points.

We do NOT recommend this card if you would also qualify for the sign-up bonus on American Express Preferred Rewards Gold.  The Gold card is free for the first year, comes with four free airport lounge passes and £120 of Deliveroo credit and has a higher sign-up bonus of 20,000 points.

The best reason to get American Express Rewards is if you are coming to the end of your free first year with American Express Preferred Rewards Gold, or no longer want to pay the fee on The Platinum Card, but want to keep your Membership Rewards points intact.

You need a minimum personal income of £20,000 to apply for the card.

It has no annual fee and no substantial benefits, except for the ability to collect Membership Rewards points at 1 point per £1 spent.

It is unlikely that many Head for Points readers will qualify for the 10,000 points sign-up bonus because you cannot have held any Membership Rewards cards in the previous 24 months.  That will exclude anyone who has, or has recently had, a Gold or Platinum Amex card.

Don’t worry about that.  You may still want to get this card even though you won’t get a bonus.

Get the ARCC card if you are planning to cancel Amex Gold or Platinum

If you currently have an Amex Green, Gold or Platinum card and want to cancel it but do not want to cash in your Membership Rewards points, this card is your answer.

Apply for the Amex Rewards Credit Card.  Once it is active, you can cancel your Preferred Rewards Gold card or The Platinum Card safe in the knowledge that your Membership Rewards points are safe.

The only ‘snag’ is that you will not have reset the 24 month clock on being able to reapply for a new Gold or Platinum card and receive another sign-up bonus.  In order to do that you need to close down your Membership Rewards account entirely.

For a lot of people, though, being able to keep your existing Membership Rewards balance alive will be more important.

You can apply for the FREE American Express Rewards Credit Card here.

(Want to earn more miles and points from credit cards?  Click here to visit our dedicated airline and hotel travel credit cards page or use the ‘Credit Cards’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.)

Disclaimer: Head for Points is a journalistic website. Nothing here should be construed as financial advice, and it is your own responsibility to ensure that any product is right for your circumstances. Recommendations are based primarily on the ability to earn miles and points. The site discusses products offered by lenders but is not a lender itself. Robert Burgess, trading as Head for Points, is regulated and authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority to act as an independent credit broker.

Want to earn more points from credit cards? – January 2024 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 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 Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

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.

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard

15,000 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:

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

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

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points bonus 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 Business Rewards Visa

Get a 10,000 points bonus plus an extra 500 points for our readers Read our full review

For a non-American Express option, we also recommend the Barclaycard Select Cashback card for sole traders and small businesses. It is FREE and you receive 1% cashback on your spending.

Barclaycard Select Cashback credit card

2% cashback on all your business spend for 3 months (1% thereafter) and no annual fee Read our full review

This would convert into 60,000 Avios or lots of other great travel rewards. The £200 of Amex Travel credit will also come in handy. Even better, you qualify for the bonus even if you have a British Airways American Express card as long as you meet the other criteria.

Our introductory article on the ‘60,000 Membership Rewards points plus £200’ offer is here.

We have also looked at:

• ‘Are the four free American Express Platinum hotel status cards worth having?‘

• ‘Why American Express Platinum gets you into more lounges than you think‘

• ‘Why Fine Hotels & Resorts is one of the best Amex Platinum benefits‘

Today I want to look at how you can keep your 60,000 Membership Rewards points bonus intact even if you choose to cancel The Platinum Card.

You can apply for The Platinum Card here. The 60,000 points offer ends on 13th June.

The Platinum Card comes with a lot of impressive benefits, as well as (for a limited period), 60,000 Membership Rewards points and £200 to spend at American Express Travel in return for spending £6,000 in six months.

The benefits include:

• travel insurance for you and your family, plus your supplementary cardholder and their family

• car hire insurance

• 2 x Priority Pass airport lounge access cards, each of which allows a free guest on each visit (so a family of four is covered)

• mid-tier status in Hilton Honors (Gold), Marriott Bonvoy (Gold), Radisson Rewards (Premium) and MeliaRewards (Gold)

• £100 per year of Harvey Nichols credit, valid instore or online

• £150 per year to spend in 150+ UK restaurants

• £150 per year to spend in 1,400+ international restaurants

• Eurostar lounge access

…… and lots of other bits and bobs.

But there’s a snag …..

Paying almost £50 per month for these benefits works out well for many readers.  However, after your first year with the huge bonus, you may find that you cannot justify the fee and decide to cancel before your renewal comes up.

The only risk is losing your Membership Rewards points

The only short-term downside of cancelling your American Express Platinum charge card is that you are required to empty out your Membership Rewards points account.

Because Amex points can be transferred to many different airline and hotel partners, they are more valuable than airline or hotel points.  You shouldn’t convert them until you need them. The flexibility is worth having.

If you are forced to transfer them because you close your card down, you may regret it later.  American Express isn’t going bankrupt or devaluing its points any time soon.  The safest place for your points, and the place that gives you the most flexibility in the future, is with American Express.

There is a solution that:

• lets you keep your Membership Rewards points account open, and

• allows you to stop paying an annual fee for either the Gold or Platinum card

We very rarely write about it on HfP so I thought I would run through it again today.  This card is the answer:

You can apply for the little-known American Express Rewards Credit Card.  Full details are here.

This card has NO ANNUAL FEE and lets you collect Membership Rewards points. If you apply for this card before you cancel The Platinum Card, it will allow you to keep your 60,000+ Membership Rewards points with no pressure to transfer them.

For simplicity, I will occasionally refer to this card as ARCC as ‘American Express Rewards Credit Card’ is a bit of a mouthful.

What is the American Express Rewards Credit Card?

ARCC is a standard Amex-branded credit card.  It has no annual fee and no substantial benefits, except for the ability to collect Membership Rewards points at 1 point per £1 spent.

The representative APR is 31.0% variable.

ARCC has a 10,000 Membership Rewards points bonus.  You need to spend £2,000 within three months to qualify.

However, it is unlikely that many (any?!) Head for Points readers will qualify for the bonus because you cannot have held any personal American Express card in the previous 24 months.  That’s not why you’re applying though.

Once your American Express Rewards Credit Card is active, you can cancel your Platinum card in the knowledge that your Membership Rewards points balance is safe.

You will be saving roughly £50 per month on your Platinum card.  If you find that your travelling starts to pick up, you can re-apply for The Platinum Card and start getting all the insurance, lounge, dining, Harvey Nichols and status benefits again.

You can apply for the free American Express Rewards Credit Card here.

If you want to learn more about the 60,000 points and £200 travel credit bonus on The Platinum Card, our core article on the deal is here. You can apply for The Platinum Card here.

PS. If you are thinking of cancelling your Platinum card, get the timing right. On 1st January each year, for example, your £300 of annual dining credit and your £50 per half-year of Harvey Nichols credit will reset. Your Harvey Nichols credit also resets for H2 on 1st July. You should also consider when you will need the travel insurance and airport lounge access.

Disclaimer: Head for Points is a journalistic website. Nothing here should be construed as financial advice, and it is your own responsibility to ensure that any product is right for your circumstances. Recommendations are based primarily on the ability to earn miles and points. The site discusses products offered by lenders but is not a lender itself. Robert Burgess, trading as Head for Points, is regulated and authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority to act as an independent credit broker.

It is part of our series of articles looking at the major UK loyalty credit cards and discussing whether or not they are worth applying for. These articles are linked to the relevant sections of the ‘Credit Cards‘ area in the menu bar. Our other UK airline and hotel credit card reviews can be found here.

Key link:  American Express Rewards credit card application page

Key facts: No annual fee

The representative APR is 31.0% variable.

Reward credit cards generally have high interest rates and are not suitable for anyone who does not pay off their full balance each month. If you do not clear your balance, you should look for a non-rewards credit card with a low interest rate.

This article was updated on 1st January 2024, and all of the information is correct as of that date. Ignore the original publication date shown.

About the Amex Rewards credit card

The American Express Rewards credit card is free – not just free in the first year, but permanently free.

You earn Membership Rewards points on your spending.

This is an excellent card for anyone who currently has an Amex Gold or The Platinum Card and is thinking of cancelling it due to the annual fee. Whilst you wouldn’t qualify for a sign-up bonus, getting a free American Express Rewards credit card would keep your Membership Rewards points balance active.

If you don’t do this, you would need to spend or transfer all of your Membership Rewards points before closing your Preferred Rewards Gold or Platinum card.

What is the Amex Rewards sign-up bonus?

American Express Rewards offers a sign-up bonus of 10,000 Membership Rewards points when you spend £2,000 within three months.

Membership Rewards points can be converted 1 to 1 into Avios.  Click here for our article on what other reward programmes are Membership Rewards transfer partners.

This means that you can receive 10,000 Avios points for free by applying, spending enough to trigger the sign-up bonus and then transferring the points to British Airways.

What are the rules for qualifying for the sign-up bonus?

The bonus is only available to customers who have not held a personal American Express card in the previous 24 months.

You WILL receive the sign-up bonus if you have a Corporate or Business American Express card via your job and you receive Membership Rewards points from it.  Amex is only looking at any personal cards you own or have recently owned.

You will definitely receive the bonus if you are only a supplementary cardholder on someone else’s American Express card. As far as Amex is concerned, that card belongs to the primarily cardholder and does not make you an ‘existing cardholder’.

If you do not qualify for the bonus, you can still apply for the card.

Any other benefits?

No.

What is the Amex Rewards credit card annual fee?

There is no fee for the American Express Rewards credit card.

What do I earn per £1 spent on the card?

You receive 1 Membership Rewards point per £1 spent on the card.

Unlike American Express Preferred Rewards Gold, there is no bonus for foreign spend or airline spend.

What is a Membership Rewards point worth?

Anything from ‘quite a bit’ to ‘a lot’ is the answer.  I wrote this lengthy article on what American Express Membership Rewards points are worth.

Realistically, Membership Rewards points are worth at least 0.66p. This is because you can convert 1 point into 1.33 Nectar points via the Avios partnership. 1.33 Nectar points are worth 0.66p when spent at Sainsbury’s, Argos or eBay.

I value airline miles at 0.75p – 1p each (this is conservative) so that is your valuation if you transfer to an airline programme.

Some of the hotel programmes also offer good value. You can choose from Hilton Honors, Marriott Bonvoy and Radisson Rewards.

You can take a look at the full list of Membership Rewards options here.

Is Amex Rewards a good card to use when travelling?

As Amex adds a 3% foreign exchange fee, you might want to get a separate free credit card to use abroad.

Unfortunately there are no credit cards with 0% foreign exchange fees worldwide which earn airline or hotel points. (The Virgin Atlantic credit cards have 0% FX fees in the Eurozone.)  One option is to get a free card from Currensea. Currensea is a simple but clever idea. You pay abroad with your Currensea Mastercard debit card. Currensea translates the cost to Sterling with just a 0.5% fee (83% less than Amex charges) and withdraws the money from your bank account. You can find out more about Currensea by clicking here. Currensea is free so there is no risk in giving it a try.

Other points to note

You can apply for the card with a minimum personal income of just £20,000.

Conclusion

The American Express Rewards credit card is, in itself, a decent deal.

However, for one year, it would make more sense to take out the American Express Preferred Rewards Gold credit card:

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

This has a far bigger sign-up bonus of 20,000 Membership Rewards points which is the most generous incentive available on a free UK charge or credit card.  You also receive four FREE airport lounge passes.  When your free year is up, you could switch to an American Express Rewards credit card.

For day to day spending on a free card, 1 point per £1 is a good return – although Amex Gold beats it due to double points on foreign and airline spend, and the annual spend bonus of up to 12,500 points.

The best reason for getting the Amex Rewards credit card is to protect your Membership Rewards points if you are planning to cancel an Amex Gold or Amex Platinum card.

The application form for the free American Express Rewards credit card can be found here.

(Want to earn more miles and points from credit cards?  Click here to visit our dedicated airline and hotel travel credit cards page or use the ‘Credit Cards’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.)

Disclaimer: Head for Points is a journalistic website. Nothing here should be construed as financial advice, and it is your own responsibility to ensure that any product is right for your circumstances. Recommendations are based primarily on the ability to earn miles and points. The site discusses products offered by lenders but is not a lender itself. Robert Burgess, trading as Head for Points, is regulated and authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority to act as an independent credit broker.

Today, I want to look at the top 10 card benefits you get if you apply for an American Express Rewards Credit Card.

Here is the legal information we need to tell you:

American Express Rewards

Bonus: 10,000 points

Read our full review

Sign-up bonus and earn rate:

• Get 10,000 Membership Rewards points when you spend £2,000 within 90 days
• Earn 1 Membership Rewards point per £1 spent
• Points transfer at 1:1 into Avios, Virgin Points and other airline and hotel schemes

Other information:

• Your best choice if you want a ‘free for life’ card which earns Membership Rewards points
• A good choice if you want to close a Gold or Platinum card but keep your points intact
• Annual fee: Free

Representative 31.0% APR variable

Apply here

See if you qualify for the 10,000 points sign-up bonus +

You will receive 10,000 American Express Membership Rewards points as a sign-up bonus on the American Express Rewards card if you spend £2,000 within 90 days of signing up.

Membership Rewards points are hugely flexible. You can transfer them into Avios, Virgin Flying Club or other airlines (at 1:1) or into various hotels schemes, into Club Eurostar or use them for shopping vouchers.

To qualify for the bonus, you must NOT, currently or in the previous 24 months, have held any other personal American Express card.

You are OK if you had a supplementary card on someone else’s American Express account.

You are OK if, currently or in the previous 24 months, you have held a Business American Express card.

For clarity, you can still apply for the American Express Rewards card even if you do not qualify for the bonus.  You may want to do this if you are thinking of swapping your Preferred Rewards Gold or Platinum card for a free alternative, and would prefer to keep your existing Membership Rewards points balance alive.

Learn more about the card benefits +

American Express Rewards is the only ‘free for life’ American Express card which lets you collect Membership Rewards points.

We do NOT recommend this card if you would also qualify for the sign-up bonus on American Express Preferred Rewards Gold.  The Gold card is free for the first year, comes with four free airport lounge passes and £120 of Deliveroo credit and has a higher sign-up bonus of 20,000 points.

The best reason to get American Express Rewards is if you are coming to the end of your free first year with American Express Preferred Rewards Gold, or no longer want to pay the fee on The Platinum Card, but want to keep your Membership Rewards points intact.

You need a minimum personal income of £20,000 to apply for the card.

The top 10 benefits of the Amex Rewards Credit Card:

1. You can receive 10,000 Membership Rewards points for signing up

The Amex Rewards Credit Card comes with a generous bonus of 10,000 American Express Membership Rewards points.

(If the information box above shows a higher bonus, you will receive this. The box is automatically updated with the best deal available on the date you are reading this.)

You qualify for the bonus as long as you haven’t had a personal American Express card in your name (supplementary cards do not count) in the previous 24 months.

You need to spend £2,000 in your first three months to receive the bonus points.

2. Those 10,000 Membership Rewards points convert into Avios at 1:1 – or into MANY other airline or hotel schemes

Membership Rewards are HUGELY flexible because you can convert them into lots of different things.  You aren’t stuck with Avios, Virgin Points or whatever.  You can keep them with Amex for as long as you want and only convert them when you need them.

Click here to see what other reward programmes are Membership Rewards transfer partners.

3. You receive one Membership Rewards point for every £1 you spend on the card

There are a few exceptions (cash withdrawals do not earn points) but in reality virtually every £1 you spend will earn another point.

4. The Amex Rewards Credit Card is FREE FOR LIFE

This is the only American Express card which earns Membership Rewards points and which is free for life. 

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold, for example, is only free in Year 1 – although the benefits are huge and it is arguably worth getting it for the free first year and then swapping it for the Amex Rewards Credit Card.  American Express Platinum charges an annual fee immediately.

5. Your points have more value because you are keeping your options open

If you get an airline or hotel specific credit card, such as the British Airways American Express, your points are stuck in that particular scheme.  With Membership Rewards points, you can keep your options open – Amex looks after your points until you decide where to send them.

With no annual fee ever, you won’t ever be under pressure to move your points in order to cancel your card.

6. You get Amex’s unique ‘Refund Protection’ guarantee

If you buy something from a UK retailer and the retailer refuses to refund you if you wish to return it, American Express will pay you back up to a maximum of £200.

7. Your purchases benefit from Amex’s ‘Purchase Protection’ guarantee

If you buy something with your Amex Rewards Credit Card and it is stolen or damaged within 90 days, American Express will replace or repair it, or refund you up to £2,500 per eligible item.

8. There is a low minimum income requirement

You can apply for the card with a minimum personal income of just £20,000.

9. American Express runs regular generous cashback offers

Once your account is up and running, you will receive generous cashback deals from American Express.  These are typically on the lines of ‘Get a £10 statement credit when you spend £50 at Tesco’.

It is relatively easy to save over £100 per year with these offers.

10. American Express has excellent customer service including a UK call centre and a well-designed app

The core business of American Express is credit cards, and they know how to run them properly.

Conclusion

The American Express Rewards Credit Card has a lot to offer.  It is the only Membership Rewards card which is free for life, and you will potentially get 1% back on your spending if you use your Membership Rewards points wisely.

You can sign up for the Amex Rewards Credit Card, or find out more information, on the official website here.

American Express Rewards

Bonus: 10,000 points

Read our full review

Sign-up bonus and earn rate:

• Get 10,000 Membership Rewards points when you spend £2,000 within 90 days
• Earn 1 Membership Rewards point per £1 spent
• Points transfer at 1:1 into Avios, Virgin Points and other airline and hotel schemes

Other information:

• Your best choice if you want a ‘free for life’ card which earns Membership Rewards points
• A good choice if you want to close a Gold or Platinum card but keep your points intact
• Annual fee: Free

Representative 31.0% APR variable

Apply here

See if you qualify for the 10,000 points sign-up bonus +

You will receive 10,000 American Express Membership Rewards points as a sign-up bonus on the American Express Rewards card if you spend £2,000 within 90 days of signing up.

Membership Rewards points are hugely flexible. You can transfer them into Avios, Virgin Flying Club or other airlines (at 1:1) or into various hotels schemes, into Club Eurostar or use them for shopping vouchers.

To qualify for the bonus, you must NOT, currently or in the previous 24 months, have held any other personal American Express card.

You are OK if you had a supplementary card on someone else’s American Express account.

You are OK if, currently or in the previous 24 months, you have held a Business American Express card.

For clarity, you can still apply for the American Express Rewards card even if you do not qualify for the bonus.  You may want to do this if you are thinking of swapping your Preferred Rewards Gold or Platinum card for a free alternative, and would prefer to keep your existing Membership Rewards points balance alive.

Learn more about the card benefits +

American Express Rewards is the only ‘free for life’ American Express card which lets you collect Membership Rewards points.

We do NOT recommend this card if you would also qualify for the sign-up bonus on American Express Preferred Rewards Gold.  The Gold card is free for the first year, comes with four free airport lounge passes and £120 of Deliveroo credit and has a higher sign-up bonus of 20,000 points.

The best reason to get American Express Rewards is if you are coming to the end of your free first year with American Express Preferred Rewards Gold, or no longer want to pay the fee on The Platinum Card, but want to keep your Membership Rewards points intact.

You need a minimum personal income of £20,000 to apply for the card.

Disclaimer: Head for Points is a journalistic website. Nothing here should be construed as financial advice, and it is your own responsibility to ensure that any product is right for your circumstances. Recommendations are based primarily on the ability to earn miles and points. The site discusses products offered by lenders but is not a lender itself. Robert Burgess, trading as Head for Points, is regulated and authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority to act as an independent credit broker.

If you are planning your credit card strategy for 2023, this article will help you decide which cards you can still go for.

It runs through the checklist of which UK American Express bonuses you can get based on the cards you have. This way I have written it below is, I think, the simplest way of looking at it.  It’s still not THAT simple however ….

This article was updated on 1st January 2024, and all of the information is correct as of that date. Ignore the original publication date shown.

Your American Express sign-up bonus decision tree

This is the decision tree you need to follow:

QUESTION:

Have you had ANY personal American Express card in the previous 24 months?

If ‘no’:

You can apply for any personal American Express card and receive the full advertised bonus. 

This article outlines my recommended American Express application strategy to maximise your bonuses. A couple can earn 186,875 Avios relatively easily over the course of a year.

If ‘yes’:

You CANNOT get a sign-up bonus on the following cards:

• Platinum Cashback
• Platinum Cashback Everyday
• British Airways American Express (free card)
• Preferred Rewards Gold
• Marriott Bonvoy
• Nectar
• American Express Rewards

You MAY still qualify for a bonus NOW on:

• The Platinum Card (30,000 Membership Rewards points)
• British Airways Premium Plus (25,000 Avios)
• American Express Business Gold (20,000 Membership Rewards points)
• American Express Business Platinum (40,000 Membership Rewards points)
• British Airways American Express Accelerating Business (30,000 Avios, not currently accepting new applications as of 11/23)

Keep reading to see if you do actually qualify for the cards I just mentioned.

The 2023 Amex sign-up bonus rules by card type

I’m assuming here that you answered ‘Yes’ to the question above, and that you have had a personal American Express card in the previous 24 months.

We now need to drill down more closely into which cards you have or had. Basically,  “if you have THIS card, you MIGHT still qualify for a bonus on THAT card ……”

Remember that supplementary cards do NOT count as having ‘had’ a card.  If you are a supplementary on your partner’s Amex Gold, for example, you can still apply in your own name and get a sign-up bonus as long as you meet the other criteria.

If you currently have the free British Airways or British Airways Premium Plus Amex credit card:

You would need to cancel and wait 24 months before you can get a bonus on Platinum Cashback, Platinum Cashback Everyday, British Airways, British Airways Premium Plus, Preferred Rewards Gold, Marriott Bonvoy, Nectar, American Express Rewards

You can get a bonus NOW on The Platinum Card IF you have not held a Preferred Rewards Gold, The Platinum Card, Green or American Express Rewards card in the previous 24 months

You can get a bonus NOW on American Express Business Gold or American Express Business Platinum IF you have not held a Preferred Rewards Gold, The Platinum Card, Green, American Express Rewards, American Express Business Gold or American Express Business Platinum card in the previous 13 months and meet the qualifying criteria for having a small business

You can get a bonus NOW on British Airways American Express Accelerating Business IF you have not held a American Express Business Gold, American Express Business Platinum card or British Airways American Express Accelerating Business card in the previous 12 months and meet the qualifying criteria for having a small business. However, this card is not currently accepting new applications whilst the BA On Business programme remains suspended.

If you currently have Preferred Rewards Gold, The Platinum Card, Green or American Express Rewards credit card:

You would need to cancel and wait 24 months before you can get a bonus on Platinum Cashback, Platinum Cashback Everyday, British Airways American Express, Preferred Rewards Gold, The Platinum Card, Green, Marriott Bonvoy, Nectar, American Express Rewards

You can get a bonus NOW on British Airways Premium Plus IF you have not held a British Airways or British Airways Premium Plus card in the previous 24 months

You would need to cancel and wait 13 months before you can get a bonus on American Express Business Gold or American Express Business Platinum, assuming you meet the qualifying criteria for having a small business

You can get a bonus NOW on British Airways American Express Accelerating Business IF you have not held a American Express Business Gold, American Express Business Platinum card or British Airways American Express Accelerating Business card in the previous 12 months and meet the qualifying criteria for having a small business. However, this card is not currently accepting new applications whilst the BA On Business programme remains suspended

If you currently have a Nectar or Marriott Bonvoy American Express credit card:

You would need to cancel and wait 24 months before you can get a bonus on Platinum Cashback, Platinum Cashback Everyday, British Airways American Express (free version), Preferred Rewards Gold, Marriott Bonvoy, Nectar, American Express Rewards

You can get a bonus NOW on The Platinum Card IF you have not held a Preferred Rewards Gold, The Platinum Card, Green or American Express Rewards card in the previous 24 months

You can get a bonus NOW on British Airways Premium Plus IF you have not held a British Airways or British Airways Premium Plus card in the previous 24 months

You can get a bonus NOW on American Express Business Gold or American Express Business Platinum IF you have not held a Preferred Rewards Gold, The Platinum Card, Green, American Express Rewards, American Express Business Gold or American Express Business Platinum card in the previous 13 months and meet the qualifying criteria for having a small business

You can get a bonus NOW on British Airways American Express Accelerating Business IF you have not held a American Express Business Gold, American Express Business Platinum card or British Airways American Express Accelerating Business card in the previous 12 months and meet the qualifying criteria for having a small business. However, this card is not currently accepting new applications whilst the BA On Business programme remains suspended.

If you currently have a Platinum Cashback or Platinum Cashback Everyday Amex card:

You would need to cancel and wait 24 months before you can get a bonus on Platinum Cashback, Platinum Cashback Everyday, British Airways American Express, Preferred Rewards Gold, Green, Marriott Bonvoy, Nectar, American Express Rewards

You can get a bonus NOW on The Platinum Card IF you have not held a Preferred Rewards Gold, The Platinum Card, Green or American Express Rewards card in the previous 24 months

You can get a bonus NOW on British Airways Premium Plus IF you have not held a British Airways or British Airways Premium Plus card in the previous 24 months

You can get a bonus NOW on American Express Business Gold or American Express Business Platinum IF you have not held a Preferred Rewards Gold, The Platinum Card, Green, American Express Rewards, American Express Business Gold or American Express Business Platinum card in the previous 13 months and meet the qualifying criteria for having a small business

You can get a bonus NOW on British Airways American Express Accelerating Business IF you have not held a American Express Business Gold, American Express Business Platinum card or British Airways American Express Accelerating Business card in the previous 12 months and meet the qualifying criteria for having a small business. However, this card is not currently accepting new applications whilst the BA On Business programme remains suspended.

If you currently have a Business Platinum or Business Gold American Express card:

You would need to cancel and wait 13 months before you can get a bonus on American Express Business Platinum or American Express Business Gold

You would need to cancel and wait 12 months before you can get a bonus on British Airways Accelerating Business

You can get a bonus NOW on ANY personal American Express card IF you have not held a personal American Express card in the previous 24 months.

For clarity … the bonus rules on the personal Amex cards only look at what other personal Amex products you have had in the past 24 months.  Any small business Amex cards you have are not taken into account.

And if you’re starting from scratch ….

If you have not had ANY personal American Express cards in the last 24 months, the best route to optimise the number of sign-up bonuses you can get is:

• start with either a Marriott Bonvoy, Nectar or one of the (less generous) Amex cashback cards

• follow up with either The Platinum Card or British Airways Premium Plus

• follow up with either The Platinum Card or British Airways Premium Plus (depending on which one you didn’t get in stage two)

If you look at the rules above, you’ll see that you can still get three bonuses in a short space of time as long as you do it this way.

If you have any sort of small business, you can also run the Business Gold, Business Platinum or British Airways Accelerating Business alongside your personal cards.

And remember ….

The discussion in this article is only about sign-up bonuses.  Subject to credit etc, American Express is still happy to accept you for any of these cards at any time – you just won’t necessarily get a bonus.

This is particularly important in relation to Preferred Rewards Gold where repeat cardholders DO still get another ‘first year free’ and DO still get another set of four airport lounge passes and £120 of Deliveroo credit.  You still get these, even if you don’t qualify for a sign-up bous.

NOTE:  If you hold, or have held in the past 24 months, a personal American Express card which is not discussed in this article, such as The Centurion Card or a card which is not currently available to new applicants, please do additional checks as to your eligibility for a new bonus.

Confused?

If you are still not sure about your eligibility for a bonus after reading the article above, please ask in our forum.

Reference information

Here are links to our reviews on each of the cards, a link to the application website and the legally required interest rate information.  

Let me stress again – the bonus rules do NOT stop you applying for any of the cards.  They simply influence whether or not you will qualify for a sign-up bonus.

The Platinum Card from American Express

Bonus: 40,000 points

Read our full review

Sign-up bonus and earn rate:

• Get 40,000 Membership Rewards points when you spend £6,000 within three months
• Earn 1 Membership Rewards point per £1 spent
• Points transfer at 1:1 into Avios, Virgin Points and other airline and hotel schemes

Other information:

• Two Priority Pass cards, each allowing two people into 1,400 airport lounges
• Elite status in four major hotel loyalty programmes
• Comprehensive travel insurance
• £300 per year of restaurant credit
• £100 per year to spend at Harvey Nichols
• Annual fee: £650

Representative 704.6% APR variable based on an assumed £1,200 credit limit and £650 annual fee. Interest rate on purchases 31.0% APR variable.

Apply here

See if you qualify for the 40,000 points sign-up bonus +

You will receive 40,000 American Express Membership Rewards points as a sign-up bonus on The Platinum Card if you spend £6,000 within three months of signing up.

Membership Rewards points are hugely flexible.  You can transfer them into Avios, Virgin Flying Club or other airlines (at 1:1) or into various hotels schemes, into Club Eurostar or use them for shopping vouchers.

This is the ONLY personal American Express card where you still qualify for the bonus if you already hold a British Airways American Express card.

To qualify for the bonus, you must NOT, currently or in the previous 24 months, have held any other personal American Express card which earns Membership Rewards points.  This includes The Platinum Card and Preferred Rewards Gold.

You are OK if you had a supplementary card on someone else’s American Express account.

You are OK if, currently or in the previous 24 months, you have held any other American Express card, including the British Airways, Marriott and Nectar cards.

For clarity, you can still apply for The Platinum Card even if you do not qualify for the bonus.  You would still benefit from the long list of other benefits.

Learn more about the card benefits +

The Platinum Card from American Express comes with an unrivalled list of benefits for the keen traveller.

Your personal travel patterns will determine which of these is the most valuable.  The key benefits are:

Full comprehensive travel insurance for you, your family and the family of your supplementary cardholder, subject to enrolment

Two Priority Pass cards, each of which allows the holder and a guest unlimited free access to 1,400 airport lounges

Elite status in four major hotel loyalty schemes: Marriott Bonvoy (Gold), Hilton Honors (Gold), Radisson Rewards (Premium), MeliaRewards (Gold)

Access to Eurostar lounges, irrespective of travel class

£150 per year to spend in over 160 UK restaurants

£150 per year to spend in over 1,200 international restaurants

£100 per year to spend at Harvey Nichols, instore or online (no minimum spend required)

£300 per year of dining credit – £150 to be spent at 150+ UK restaurants and £150 to be spent at 1,200+ restaurants outside the UK

You need a minimum personal income of £35,000 to apply for the card.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Bonus: 20,000 points

Read our full review

Sign-up bonus and earn rate:

• Get 20,000 Membership Rewards points when you spend £3,000 within 90 days
• Earn 1 Membership Rewards point per £1 spent
• Get up to 12,500 bonus points each year based on your total spending
• Earn double points on all airline and overseas spend
• Points transfer at 1:1 into Avios, Virgin Points and other airline and hotel schemes

Other information:

• Amex Gold is our recommended ‘first card’ for a miles and points beginner
• Get four free airport lounge passes when you sign up, and a further four each year
• After your four free passes, you can visit further lounges for a small fee
• You receive £120 of Deliveroo credit each year (24 x £5 credits)
• Annual fee: Free for the first year, £195 from Year 2

Representative 88.8% APR variable.  Annual fee applies after the first year.

Apply here

See if you qualify for the 20,000 points sign-up bonus +

You will receive 20,000 American Express Membership Rewards points as a sign-up bonus on the American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card if you spend £3,000 within 90 days of signing up.

Membership Rewards points are hugely flexible, which is why we recommend this as the best choice for your first miles and points card.  You can transfer them into Avios, Virgin Flying Club or other airlines (at 1:1) or into various hotels schemes, into Club Eurostar or use them for shopping vouchers.

To qualify for the bonus, you must NOT, currently or in the previous 24 months, have held any other personal American Express card.

You are OK if you had a supplementary card on someone else’s American Express account.

You are OK if, currently or in the previous 24 months, you have held a Business American Express card.

For clarity, you can still apply for the American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card even if you do not qualify for the bonus.  You would still benefit from the four free airport lounge passes and the ‘no fee in Year 1’ offer.

Learn more about the card benefits +

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold comes with four free airport lounge passes.  These allow either you and up to three friends, or yourself four times, to visit any of the 1,400 lounges in the Priority Pass network.  You make additional lounge visits for £24 per person.  You receive an additional four free passes each year.

You earn double Membership Rewards points on all airline spend (made directly on an airline website) and all spend made outside the UK.

You will receive up to 12,500 bonus Membership Rewards points each year, based on how much you spend.

You receive £120 of Deliveroo credit each year.  Amex will repay you £5 for the first two Deliveroo orders charged to your Gold card each month.

Other benefits include a 10% discount on Hertz car rentals, Avis Preferred Plus car rental status and special deals at 350 selected hotels worldwide, where Preferred Rewards Gold cardholders receive a $75 in-hotel credit per stay.

You need a minimum personal income of £20,000 to apply for the card.

American Express Rewards

Bonus: 10,000 points

Read our full review

Sign-up bonus and earn rate:

• Get 10,000 Membership Rewards points when you spend £2,000 within 90 days
• Earn 1 Membership Rewards point per £1 spent
• Points transfer at 1:1 into Avios, Virgin Points and other airline and hotel schemes

Other information:

• Your best choice if you want a ‘free for life’ card which earns Membership Rewards points
• A good choice if you want to close a Gold or Platinum card but keep your points intact
• Annual fee: Free

Representative 31.0% APR variable

Apply here

See if you qualify for the 10,000 points sign-up bonus +

You will receive 10,000 American Express Membership Rewards points as a sign-up bonus on the American Express Rewards card if you spend £2,000 within 90 days of signing up.

Membership Rewards points are hugely flexible. You can transfer them into Avios, Virgin Flying Club or other airlines (at 1:1) or into various hotels schemes, into Club Eurostar or use them for shopping vouchers.

To qualify for the bonus, you must NOT, currently or in the previous 24 months, have held any other personal American Express card.

You are OK if you had a supplementary card on someone else’s American Express account.

You are OK if, currently or in the previous 24 months, you have held a Business American Express card.

For clarity, you can still apply for the American Express Rewards card even if you do not qualify for the bonus.  You may want to do this if you are thinking of swapping your Preferred Rewards Gold or Platinum card for a free alternative, and would prefer to keep your existing Membership Rewards points balance alive.

Learn more about the card benefits +

American Express Rewards is the only ‘free for life’ American Express card which lets you collect Membership Rewards points.

We do NOT recommend this card if you would also qualify for the sign-up bonus on American Express Preferred Rewards Gold.  The Gold card is free for the first year, comes with four free airport lounge passes and £120 of Deliveroo credit and has a higher sign-up bonus of 20,000 points.

The best reason to get American Express Rewards is if you are coming to the end of your free first year with American Express Preferred Rewards Gold, or no longer want to pay the fee on The Platinum Card, but want to keep your Membership Rewards points intact.

You need a minimum personal income of £20,000 to apply for the card.

British Airways American Express

Bonus: 5,000 Avios

Read our full review

Sign-up bonus and earn rate:

• Get 5,000 Avios when you spend £1,000 within 90 days
• Earn 1 Avios per £1 spent

Other information:

• Receive a companion voucher, letting you book two flights for the Avios of one, when you spend £12,000 in a card year
• The companion voucher is only valid on Economy flights
• It can be used on British Airways, Iberia and Aer Lingus
• Annual fee: Free

Representative 31.0% APR variable

Apply here

See if you qualify for the 5,000 Avios sign-up bonus +

You will receive 5,000 Avios as a sign-up bonus on the free British Airways American Express card if you spend £1,000 within 90 days of signing up.

To qualify for the bonus, you must NOT, currently or in the previous 24 months, have held any other personal American Express card.

You are OK if you had a supplementary card on someone else’s British Airways American Express account.

You are OK if, currently or in the previous 24 months, you have held a Business American Express card.

For clarity, you can still apply for the British Airways American Express card even if you do not qualify for the bonus.  You would still benefit from the companion voucher and the other card benefits.

Learn more about the card benefits +

When you spend £12,000 on the British Airways American Express card, you receive a companion voucher entitling you to book two Avios redemption flights for the miles of one.  This voucher is valid for one year.  (Full taxes and charges need to be paid on both tickets.)

The voucher on the free British Airways American Express card can only be used on Economy flights.

The voucher can be used for Avios bookings on British Airways, Iberia and Aer Lingus.

You receive your voucher within a few days of reaching the spending target.  You need to fly the outbound leg of your 2-4-1 flight before the expiry date of the voucher.

If you want more flexibility, the voucher issued with the British Airways Premium Plus American Express card is valid for two years, only requires £10,000 of annual card spend and is valid in ALL cabins including Business and First.  The Premium Plus card also has a higher earning rate of 1.5 Avios per £1 on general spend and 3 Avios per £1 on spend with British Airways and BA Holidays.

You need a minimum personal income of £20,000 to apply for the card.

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

Bonus: 25,000 Avios

Read our full review

Sign-up bonus and earn rate:

• Get 25,000 Avios when you spend £3,000 within 90 days
• Earn 1.5 Avios per £1 spent
• Earn 3 Avios per £1 spent with British Airways and BA Holidays

Other information:

• Receive a companion voucher, letting you book two flights for the Avios of one, when you spend £10,000 in a card year
• A solo traveller can use it for a 50% discount on the Avios for one ticket
• The voucher is valid in any cabin
• It can be used on British Airways, Iberia and Aer Lingus
• Annual fee: £250

Representative 113.1% APR variable based on an assumed £1,200 credit limit and £250 annual fee. Interest rate on purchases 31.0% APR variable.

Apply here

See if you qualify for the 25,000 Avios sign-up bonus +

You will receive 25,000 Avios as a sign-up bonus on the British Airways American Express Premium Plus card if you spend £3,000 within 90 days of signing up.

To qualify for the bonus, you must not have held the British Airways Premium Plus or the free British Airways American Express cards in the previous 24 months.

You are OK if you had a supplementary card on someone else’s British Airways American Express account.

You are OK if, currently or in the previous 24 months, you have held any other American Express card.

For clarity, you can still apply for the British Airways Premium Plus card even if you do not qualify for the bonus.  You would still benefit from the companion voucher and all of the other card benefits.

Learn more about the card benefits +

When you spend £10,000 on the British Airways American Express Premium Plus card, you receive a companion voucher entitling you to book two Avios redemption flights for the miles of one.

Alternatively, a solo traveller can use the voucher for a 50% reduction on the Avios required for one ticket,

This voucher is valid for two years.  Full taxes and charges need to be paid on both tickets.

This voucher is the most valuable perk available in the UK airline and hotel credit card sector in my view. It could save you 150,000 or more Avios when used for a long-haul redemption in a premium cabin.

The voucher with the Premium Plus card is far more powerful than the voucher given with the free British Airways American Express card.  You only need to spend £10,000, instead of £20,000, in a card year to receive it.  More importantly, the Premium Plus voucher is valid for two years and is valid in ALL cabins.  The voucher on the free British Airways American Express card is only valid for one year and can only be used for Economy flights.

You receive your voucher within a few days of reaching the spending target.  You need to fly the outbound leg of your 2-4-1 flight before the expiry date of the voucher.

The voucher can be used for flights on British Airways, Iberia and Aer Lingus.

You need a minimum personal income of £35,000 to apply for the card.

Nectar American Express

Bonus: 20,000 points

Read our full review

Sign-up bonus and earn rate:

• Get 20,000 Nectar points when you spend £2,000 within 90 days
• Earn 2 Nectar points per £1 spent
• Points transfer at 400 : 250 into Avios
• Points are worth 0.5p each when spent at Sainsbury’s, Argos or eBay

Other information:

• You can convert Nectar points into Avios, and vice versa
• Annual fee: Free for the first year, £30 from Year 2

Representative 37.8% APR variable.  Annual fee applies after the first year.

Apply here

See if you qualify for the 20,000 points sign-up bonus +

You will receive 20,000 Nectar points as a sign-up bonus on the Nectar American Express credit card if you spend £2,000 within 90 days of signing up.

Nectar points are worth 0.5p each if spent in Sainsbury’s, Argos or eBay.  They can also be converted to Avios at the rate of 400 : 250.  1 Nectar point gets you 0.625 Avios.

To qualify for the bonus, you must NOT, currently or in the previous 24 months, have held any other personal American Express card.

You are OK if you had a supplementary card on someone else’s American Express account.

You are OK if, currently or in the previous 24 months, you have held a Business American Express card.

For clarity, you can still apply for the Nectar American Express card even if you do not qualify for the bonus.  You would still benefit from the ‘no fee in Year 1’ offer.

Learn more about the card benefits +

The Nectar American Express credit card comes lets you earn 2 Nectar points for every £1 you spend.  This is on top of any Nectar points you would usually earn at Sainsbury’s and other Nectar partners.

Converted to Avios, you would be earning 1.25 Avios per £1.  This makes the card better value than the free British Airways American Express credit card for your first year, as the Nectar American Express is ‘fee free’ for the first 12 months.  There is a £30 annual fee from Year 2.

The sign-up bonus of 20,000 Nectar points is worth £100 to spend in Sainsbury’s, Argos or eBay.

20,000 Nectar points can also be converted into 12,500 Avios.

You need a minimum personal income of £20,000 to apply for the card.

American Express Platinum Cashback

Bonus: 5% cashback (to £125) for three months

Read our full review

Sign-up bonus and earn rate:

• Get 5% cashback on your spending for 90 days (£125 cap)
• Spend £0 to £10,000 per year and receive 0.75% cashback going forward
• Spend over £10,000 per year and receive 1.25% cashback going forward

Other information:

• Cashback paid in a lump sum after 12 months
• Annual fee: £25

Representative 36.7% APR variable based on an assumed £1,200 credit limit and £25 annual fee. Interest rate on purchases 31.0% APR variable.

Apply here

See if you qualify for the 5% cashback sign-up bonus +

You will receive 5% cashback on purchases on the American Express Platinum Cashback card within 90 days of signing up.  This is capped at £125.

To qualify for the bonus, you must NOT, currently or in the previous 24 months, have held any other personal American Express card.

You are OK if you had a supplementary card on someone else’s American Express account.

You are OK if, currently or in the previous 24 months, you have held a Business American Express card.

For clarity, you can still apply for the American Express Platinum Cashback card even if you do not qualify for the bonus.  You will receive the standard rate of cashback on your spending.

Learn more about the card benefits +

American Express Platinum Cashback is the most generous cashback credit card in the UK.

After the first three months, during which the special bonus rate applies:

• Spend £0 to £10,000 and receive 0.75% cashback on purchases
• Spend over £10,000 and receive 1.25% cashback on purchases

Cashback is paid in a lump sum at the end of each 12 month period.  If you close the card mid-year you will lose any accumulated cashback.

As our review shows, this card is better value if you will spend over £10,000 per year.  If you will spend under £10,000 per year, you should apply for the free American Express Platinum Cashback Everyday credit card instead.  The cashback rate is lower but this is offset by the lack of any annual fee.

You need a minimum personal income of £20,000 to apply for the card.

American Express Platinum Cashback Everyday

Bonus: 5% cashback (to £100) for three months

Read our full review

Sign-up bonus and earn rate:

• Get 5% cashback on your spending for 90 days (£100 cap)
• Spend £0 to £10,000 per year and receive 0.5% cashback going forward
• Spend over £10,000 per year and receive 1% cashback going forward

Other information:

• Cashback paid in a lump sum after 12 months
• Minimum spend of £3,000 per year required to receive cashback
• Annual fee: Free

Representative 31.0% APR variable

Apply here

See if you qualify for the 5% cashback sign-up bonus +

You will receive 5% cashback on purchases on the American Express Platinum Cashback Everyday card within 90 days of signing up.  This is capped at £100.

To qualify for the bonus, you must NOT, currently or in the previous 24 months, have held any other personal American Express card.

You are OK if you had a supplementary card on someone else’s American Express account.

You are OK if, currently or in the previous 24 months, you have held a Business American Express card.

For clarity, you can still apply for the American Express Platinum Cashback Everyday card even if you do not qualify for the bonus.  You will receive the standard rate of cashback on your spending.

Learn more about the card benefits +

American Express Platinum Cashback Everyday is the most generous free cashback credit card in the UK.

After the first three months, during which the special bonus rate applies:

• Spend £0 to £10,000 and receive 0.5% cashback on purchases
• Spend over £10,000 and receive 1% cashback on purchases

You must spend at least £3,000 per year to receive cashback.

Cashback is paid in a lump sum at the end of each 12 month period.  If you close the card mid-year you will lose any accumulated cashback.

As our review shows, this card is better value if you will spend less than £10,000 per year.  If you will spend over £10,000 per year, you should apply for the £25 American Express Platinum Cashback credit card instead.  The cashback rate is higher and you are better off even after paying the annual fee.

You need a minimum personal income of £20,000 to apply for the card.

Marriott Bonvoy American Express

Bonus: 20,000 points

Read our full review

Sign-up bonus and earn rate:

• Get 20,000 Marriott Bonvoy points when you spend £3,000 within 90 days
• Earn 2 Marriott Bonvoy points per £1 spent
• Earn 6 points per £1 spent at Marriott hotels
• Points convert at 3:1 into Avios or other airline miles

Other information:

• 15 elite night credits per year to help you towards higher status
• Free night, up to 25,000 points, when you spend £25,000 per year.
• Upgrade to Gold Elite status when you spend £15,000 in a card year
• Annual fee: £95

Representative 54.8% APR variable based on an assumed £1,200 credit limit and £95 annual fee. Interest rate on purchases 31.0% APR variable.

Apply here

See if you qualify for the 20,000 points sign-up bonus: +

You will receive 20,000 points as a sign-up bonus on the Marriott Bonvoy American Express card if you spend £3,000 within 90 days of signing up.

To qualify for the bonus, you must NOT, currently or in the previous 24 months, have held any other personal American Express card.

You are OK if you had a supplementary card on someone else’s American Express account.

You are OK if, currently or in the previous 24 months, you have held a Business American Express card.

For clarity, you can still apply for the Marriott Bonvoy American Express card even if you do not qualify for the bonus.  You would still benefit from the 15 elite night credits per year, the free night (up to 25,000 points) for spending £25,000 and Gold Elite status for spending £15,000.

Learn more about the card benefits +

You will receive 15 elite night credits per year in Marriott Bonvoy.  The first batch will arrive within 60 days on applying and then in Spring in each subsequent year.

15 elite nights will automatically get you Silver Elite status in Marriott Bonvoy and put you nearer to Gold Elite and higher tiers.

If you spend £15,000 per card year, you will be upgraded to Gold Elite status in Marriott Bonvoy.

If you spend £25,000 per card year, you will receive a free night voucher, valid at any hotel where reward nights cost up to 25,000 points.

You need a minimum personal income of £20,000 to apply for the card.

American Express Business Gold

Bonus: 20,000 Membership Rewards points

Read our full review

Sign-up bonus and earn rate:

• Get 20,000 Membership Rewards points when you spend £3,000 within 90 days
• Earn 10,000 additional bonus points whenever you spend £20,000 in a quarter
• Earn 1 Membership Rewards point per £1 spent

Other information:

• Annual fee: Free for the first year, £195 from Year 2
• Points transfer at 1:1 into Avios, Virgin Points and other airline schemes
• Get £100 per year to spend at Dell

This is a charge card, not a credit card. You must clear your balance in full each month.  Annual fee £195 from Year 2, free in Year 1.

Apply here

See if you qualify for the 20,000 points sign-up bonus +

You will receive 20,000 American Express Membership Rewards points as a sign-up bonus on the American Express Business Gold card if you spend £3,000 within 90 days.

Membership Rewards points are hugely flexible.  You can transfer them into Avios, Virgin Flying Club or other airlines (at 1:1) or into various hotels schemes, into Club Eurostar or use them for shopping vouchers.

To qualify for the bonus, you must NOT, currently or in the previous 13 months, have held any other American Express card which earns Membership Rewards points.  This includes Business or personal Gold, Business or personal Platinum and the personal American Express Rewards credit card.

You are OK if you had a complimentary card on someone else’s American Express account.

You are OK if the only American Express card you have had in the previous 13 months was a British Airways, Marriott Bonvoy, Nectar, Platinum Cashback or Harrods American Express card.

For clarity, you can still apply for the American Express Business Gold card even if you do not qualify for the bonus.  You would still benefit from the ‘no fee in Year 1’ offer.

Learn more about the card benefits +

You receive £100 of Dell statement credit per calendar year.  This is made available in two parts.  You receive a £50 credit on Dell purchases made between January and June and a £50 credit on Dell purchases made between July and December.  There is no minimum spend requirement.

You can apply for complimentary Amex business cards for your employees.

You will receive one consolidated statement showing the spend on your card and all of the complimentary cards.  All of the Membership Rewards points earned on the complimentary cards will flow into your personal account.

Depending on when in your monthly cycle you make a payment, you will effectively receive up to 54 days free credit on your spending.

American Express statements provide more underlying transaction detail for flights and certain other transactions than Visa or Mastercard statements, making it easier to reconcile transactions.

You need a minimum personal income of £20,000 to apply for the card.

American Express Business Platinum

Bonus: 40,000 Membership Rewards points

Read our full review

Sign-up bonus and earn rate:

• Get 40,000 Membership Rewards points when you spend £6,000 within 90 days
• Earn 1 Membership Rewards point per £1 spent
• Earn 10,000 bonus points in every month you spend £10,000+
• Points transfer at 1:1 into Avios, Virgin Points and other airline schemes

Other information:

• Get £200 per year to spend at Amex Travel
• Two Priority Pass cards, each allowing two people into 1,400 airport lounges
• Elite status in four major hotel loyalty programmes
• Get £150 per year to spend at Dell
• Get £300 per year to spend at job ads site Indeed
• Comprehensive travel insurance
• Annual fee: £650

This is a charge card, not a credit card. You must clear your balance in full each month.  Annual fee £650.

Apply here

See if you qualify for the 40,000 points bonus +

You will receive 40,000 American Express Membership Rewards points as a sign-up bonus on the American Express Business Platinum card if you spend £6,000 within 90 days.

Membership Rewards points are hugely flexible.  You can transfer them into Avios, Virgin Flying Club or other airlines (at 1:1) or into various hotels schemes, into Club Eurostar or use them for shopping vouchers.

To qualify for the bonus, you must NOT, currently or in the previous 13 months, have held any other American Express card which earns Membership Rewards points.  This includes Business or personal Gold, Business or personal Platinum and the personal American Express Rewards credit card.

You are OK if you had a complimentary card on someone else’s American Express account.

You are OK if the only American Express card you have had in the previous 13 months was a British Airways, Marriott Bonvoy, Nectar, Platinum Cashback or Harrods American Express card.

For clarity, you can still apply for the American Express Business Platinum card even if you do not qualify for the bonus.  You would still benefit from all of the other card features including the £200 of annual Amex Travel credit.

Learn more about the card benefits +

American Express Business Platinum comes with an unrivalled list of benefits for the keen traveller.

Your personal travel patterns will determine which of these is the most valuable.  The key benefits are:

£200 of Amex Travel credit per membership year

Full comprehensive travel insurance for you, your family and the family of up to five complimentary cardholders, subject to enrolment

Two Priority Pass cards, each of which allows the holder and a guest unlimited free access to 1,400 airport lounges

Elite status in four major hotel loyalty schemes: Marriott Bonvoy (Gold), Hilton Honors (Gold), Radisson Rewards (Premium), MeliaRewards (Gold)

You need a minimum personal income of £35,000 to apply for the card.

£150 of Dell statement credit per year – you receive £75 credit on Dell purchases betweeen January and June and £75 credit on purchases between July and December

Digital subscription to The Times and The Sunday Times, worth over £300

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

Bonus: 30,000 Avios

Read our full review

Sign-up bonus and earn rate:

• Get 30,000 Avios when you spend £5,000 within 90 days
• Earn 1.5 Avios per £1 spent
• Receive 10,000 bonus Avios for every £20,000 you spend each year, up to £60,000

Other information:

• Get 1 bonus On Business point per £1 spent on BA flights
• Annual fee: £250

Representative 108.4% APR variable based on an assumed £1,200 credit limit and £250 annual fee. Interest rate on purchases 28.5% APR variable.

Apply here

See if you qualify for the 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus +

You will qualify for the bonus as long as you have not held an American Express Business card, including Accelerating Business, Business Gold and Business Platinum, in the previous 12 months.

There are no restrictions if you only have personal American Express cards at the moment, including the personal British Airways cards.

You need to spend £5,000 in 90 days to earn the bonus.

Learn more about the card benefits +

The card comes with the typical American Express credit card benefits:

Up to 56 days to pay

Up to 20 complimentary cards for your employees

Travel inconvenience cover (with higher payouts if you or your baggage is delayed on a British Airways flight)

Travel accident protection

Purchase protection

Refund protection

(Want to earn more miles and points from credit cards?  Click here to visit our dedicated airline and hotel travel credit cards page or use the ‘Credit Cards’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.)

Disclaimer: Head for Points is a journalistic website. Nothing here should be construed as financial advice, and it is your own responsibility to ensure that any product is right for your circumstances. Recommendations are based primarily on the ability to earn miles and points. The site discusses products offered by lenders but is not a lender itself. Robert Burgess, trading as Head for Points, is regulated and authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority to act as an independent credit broker.

I have written numerous articles before about using American Express Membership Rewards points and a few pieces on how I value airline miles and hotel points.

I have pulled together both of these strands in this article on how to make the best use of your Amex Membership Rewards points.  It does NOT cover every Membership Rewards redemption but it does cover the bulk of the pseudo-cash, cash and travel options.

Membership Rewards sensibly chose to discontinue ‘physical’ redemptions a few years ago.  You can no longer redeem your points for a toaster.  This is good news because the toaster was, unsurprisingly, poor value for your points.  If you still want a free toaster, redeem your points for an Amazon gift card.

The Amex Membership Rewards website is here if you want to look for yourself at what is available.

This article was updated on 1st January 2024, and all of the information is correct as of that date. Ignore the original publication date shown.

How can you earn Membership Rewards points?

The three main ways to earn Membership Rewards points in the UK from a personal American Express card are:

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

American Express Rewards

The only ‘free for life’ Amex card which earns Membership Rewards Read our full review

The two most common business payment cards are:

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points bonus 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

The complex rules on whether you qualify for an American Express sign-up bonus are explained in my article here. 

Fundamentally, it is fairly easy to qualify for the bonus on Business Gold and Business Platinum (you cannot have held any Membership Rewards card for 13 months) and personal Platinum (you cannot have held a personal Green, Gold or Platinum card for 24 months). 

It is harder to qualify for the bonus on personal Preferred Rewards Gold or the American Express Rewards Credit Card (you cannot have held ANY personal Amex card for 24 months).

How I value Amex Membership Rewards points:

0.75p – 1.5p per point (my target)

Airline miles.  My last piece on valuing Avios points is here and Amex points transfer into Avios at 1:1.  This is why the sign-up bonuses, such as 20,000 points for taking out the free (in Year 1) Americn Express Preferred Rewards Gold, are so valuable.

It is impossible to tie down a tighter range because of the number of different airline partners and the various ways (upgrade, long-haul, short-haul, economy, premium) you can redeem.  Membership Rewards points convert at 1:1 to Avios, Virgin Atlantic, Emirates, Etihad, Cathay Pacific, Delta, Finnair, Flying Blue, Qantas and SAS. The transfer rate to Singapore Airlines is 3:2.

My personal spreadsheet of the last 8.5m Avios I have redeemed shows that I got an average value of 1.2p.  This is based on what I would personally have been prepared to pay for the flights I took, however, which may be far different from what you would have been prepared to pay.  My best redemptions far exceeded this.

0.8p per point (my target)

Club Eurostar points.  I value a Club Eurostar point at 12p as the linked article explains.  The 15:1 transfer rate into Club Eurostar means you are getting 0.8p per point.  Remember that Club Eurostar offers guaranteed availability – if there is a seat for cash, you can book it for points – which means that you are more likely to be redeeming onto peak trains which are peak priced for cash.

0.75p per point (my target)

Marriott Bonvoy hotel transfers.  Amex points convert at 2:3 into the Marriott Bonvoy programme.  It is currently fairly easy to get 0.5p per Marriott Bonvoy point although this may change in 2022 as redemption pricing moves to a revenue-based model.

This article explains why we value Marriott Bonvoy points at 0.5p.

0.5p per Marriott Bonvoy point means, at a 2:3 exchange rate from Membership Rewards, you should be getting 0.75p per Membership Rewards point.  You now have a whopping 30 hotel brands inside the new combined Marriott / Starwood business to redeem at, including Le Meridien, Sheraton, Westin, W, Marriott, Autograph, Design Hotels, The Luxury Collection, The Ritz-Carlton, St Regis etc etc.

I have had some exceptionally good redemptions in recent years which have got me far more than 0.5p per Bonvoy point.  These include St Regis New York for 60,000 Bonvoy points (40,000 Amex points) when cash rates were $1,100 + tax, and the new The Langley country house hotel for just 35,000 points (23,300 Amex points). Both of these hotels now cost more in points, unfortunately.

0.66p per point (guaranteed)

In early 2021, the supermarket loyalty scheme Nectar become a partner with British Airways Avios points. You can convert 50,000 Avios per month to Nectar, at a rate of 300 : 400.

Because a Nectar point has a fixed value of 0.5p when spent at Sainsbury’s, eBay or Argos, it means that 1 Avios can be turned into 1.33 Nectar points worth 0.66p.

As long as you shop at Sainsbury’s, eBay or Argos, you can get 0.66p per Membership Rewards point, guaranteed.

To do this, you convert your American Express points to Avios and then transfer them to Nectar.

Before I go on ….

You are guaranteed 0.66p per Membership Rewards point if you convert American Express points to Avios to Nectar.

All of the options below earn you less than 0.66p per point. You need to have a good reason to use any of the options below instead of Nectar.

0.66p per point (my target)

Hilton Honors hotel transfers.  Hilton has moved closer to a revenue-based redemption model in recent years, although you can get still outsized value at times.  Over time I have come to believe that 0.33p per point is a fair valuation for a Hilton Honors point.  The conversion rate is 1:2 to Hilton which is how I get to 0.66p per Amex point.  Hilton brands include Conrad, Waldorf Astoria and Hampton.

0.6p per point (my target)

Radisson Rewards hotel transfers. Radisson Rewards in the UK covers Radisson Blu, Radisson RED, Radisson Edwardian, Park Inn and Park Plaza.

Until an October 2022 devaluation, Radisson Rewards points were a great use of American Express Membership points. Now they are not.

The average value has dropped from around 0.33p per Radisson Rewards point to around 0.2p. The conversion rate is 1 American Express Membership Rewards point to 3 Radisson Rewards points.

This means that you are getting around 0.6p per American Express point. You can’t do much better than this because Radisson Rewards pricing is now ‘dynamic’, with the points cost increasing if the cash price increases.

0.5p per point (guaranteed)

Retailer gift cards – Amazon, Currys, Harrods, iTunes, Marks & Spencer, Selfridges, Waterstones etc.  20,000 Amex points will get you a £100 shopping voucher, for example.

0.5p per point (guaranteed)

The value of a Nectar point, given that you can redeem Amex points for Nectar points at a 1:1 ratio.  It is pointless to do this, however, given that you get 30% more value by transferring American Express to Avios to Nectar as I explained above.

0.45p per point (guaranteed)

Linking your Amex account to amazon.co.uk and paying for your purchases directly with points (more in this article).  This is a slightly silly option, however, as you can also redeem for Amazon gift cards and get 0.5p per point.

0.45p per point (guaranteed)

Redeeming for American Express statement credit.

I hope this gives you some ideas for using your points for maximum value.

Learn more about the credit cards mentioned above

Here is the legally required interest rate information on the credit cards mentioned above, together with links to our detailed reviews:

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Bonus: 20,000 points

Read our full review

Sign-up bonus and earn rate:

• Get 20,000 Membership Rewards points when you spend £3,000 within 90 days
• Earn 1 Membership Rewards point per £1 spent
• Get up to 12,500 bonus points each year based on your total spending
• Earn double points on all airline and overseas spend
• Points transfer at 1:1 into Avios, Virgin Points and other airline and hotel schemes

Other information:

• Amex Gold is our recommended ‘first card’ for a miles and points beginner
• Get four free airport lounge passes when you sign up, and a further four each year
• After your four free passes, you can visit further lounges for a small fee
• You receive £120 of Deliveroo credit each year (24 x £5 credits)
• Annual fee: Free for the first year, £195 from Year 2

Representative 88.8% APR variable.  Annual fee applies after the first year.

Apply here

See if you qualify for the 20,000 points sign-up bonus +

You will receive 20,000 American Express Membership Rewards points as a sign-up bonus on the American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card if you spend £3,000 within 90 days of signing up.

Membership Rewards points are hugely flexible, which is why we recommend this as the best choice for your first miles and points card.  You can transfer them into Avios, Virgin Flying Club or other airlines (at 1:1) or into various hotels schemes, into Club Eurostar or use them for shopping vouchers.

To qualify for the bonus, you must NOT, currently or in the previous 24 months, have held any other personal American Express card.

You are OK if you had a supplementary card on someone else’s American Express account.

You are OK if, currently or in the previous 24 months, you have held a Business American Express card.

For clarity, you can still apply for the American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card even if you do not qualify for the bonus.  You would still benefit from the four free airport lounge passes and the ‘no fee in Year 1’ offer.

Learn more about the card benefits +

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold comes with four free airport lounge passes.  These allow either you and up to three friends, or yourself four times, to visit any of the 1,400 lounges in the Priority Pass network.  You make additional lounge visits for £24 per person.  You receive an additional four free passes each year.

You earn double Membership Rewards points on all airline spend (made directly on an airline website) and all spend made outside the UK.

You will receive up to 12,500 bonus Membership Rewards points each year, based on how much you spend.

You receive £120 of Deliveroo credit each year.  Amex will repay you £5 for the first two Deliveroo orders charged to your Gold card each month.

Other benefits include a 10% discount on Hertz car rentals, Avis Preferred Plus car rental status and special deals at 350 selected hotels worldwide, where Preferred Rewards Gold cardholders receive a $75 in-hotel credit per stay.

You need a minimum personal income of £20,000 to apply for the card.

The Platinum Card from American Express

Bonus: 40,000 points

Read our full review

Sign-up bonus and earn rate:

• Get 40,000 Membership Rewards points when you spend £6,000 within three months
• Earn 1 Membership Rewards point per £1 spent
• Points transfer at 1:1 into Avios, Virgin Points and other airline and hotel schemes

Other information:

• Two Priority Pass cards, each allowing two people into 1,400 airport lounges
• Elite status in four major hotel loyalty programmes
• Comprehensive travel insurance
• £300 per year of restaurant credit
• £100 per year to spend at Harvey Nichols
• Annual fee: £650

Representative 704.6% APR variable based on an assumed £1,200 credit limit and £650 annual fee. Interest rate on purchases 31.0% APR variable.

Apply here

See if you qualify for the 40,000 points sign-up bonus +

You will receive 40,000 American Express Membership Rewards points as a sign-up bonus on The Platinum Card if you spend £6,000 within three months of signing up.

Membership Rewards points are hugely flexible.  You can transfer them into Avios, Virgin Flying Club or other airlines (at 1:1) or into various hotels schemes, into Club Eurostar or use them for shopping vouchers.

This is the ONLY personal American Express card where you still qualify for the bonus if you already hold a British Airways American Express card.

To qualify for the bonus, you must NOT, currently or in the previous 24 months, have held any other personal American Express card which earns Membership Rewards points.  This includes The Platinum Card and Preferred Rewards Gold.

You are OK if you had a supplementary card on someone else’s American Express account.

You are OK if, currently or in the previous 24 months, you have held any other American Express card, including the British Airways, Marriott and Nectar cards.

For clarity, you can still apply for The Platinum Card even if you do not qualify for the bonus.  You would still benefit from the long list of other benefits.

Learn more about the card benefits +

The Platinum Card from American Express comes with an unrivalled list of benefits for the keen traveller.

Your personal travel patterns will determine which of these is the most valuable.  The key benefits are:

Full comprehensive travel insurance for you, your family and the family of your supplementary cardholder, subject to enrolment

Two Priority Pass cards, each of which allows the holder and a guest unlimited free access to 1,400 airport lounges

Elite status in four major hotel loyalty schemes: Marriott Bonvoy (Gold), Hilton Honors (Gold), Radisson Rewards (Premium), MeliaRewards (Gold)

Access to Eurostar lounges, irrespective of travel class

£150 per year to spend in over 160 UK restaurants

£150 per year to spend in over 1,200 international restaurants

£100 per year to spend at Harvey Nichols, instore or online (no minimum spend required)

£300 per year of dining credit – £150 to be spent at 150+ UK restaurants and £150 to be spent at 1,200+ restaurants outside the UK

You need a minimum personal income of £35,000 to apply for the card.

American Express Rewards

Bonus: 10,000 points

Read our full review

Sign-up bonus and earn rate:

• Get 10,000 Membership Rewards points when you spend £2,000 within 90 days
• Earn 1 Membership Rewards point per £1 spent
• Points transfer at 1:1 into Avios, Virgin Points and other airline and hotel schemes

Other information:

• Your best choice if you want a ‘free for life’ card which earns Membership Rewards points
• A good choice if you want to close a Gold or Platinum card but keep your points intact
• Annual fee: Free

Representative 31.0% APR variable

Apply here

See if you qualify for the 10,000 points sign-up bonus +

You will receive 10,000 American Express Membership Rewards points as a sign-up bonus on the American Express Rewards card if you spend £2,000 within 90 days of signing up.

Membership Rewards points are hugely flexible. You can transfer them into Avios, Virgin Flying Club or other airlines (at 1:1) or into various hotels schemes, into Club Eurostar or use them for shopping vouchers.

To qualify for the bonus, you must NOT, currently or in the previous 24 months, have held any other personal American Express card.

You are OK if you had a supplementary card on someone else’s American Express account.

You are OK if, currently or in the previous 24 months, you have held a Business American Express card.

For clarity, you can still apply for the American Express Rewards card even if you do not qualify for the bonus.  You may want to do this if you are thinking of swapping your Preferred Rewards Gold or Platinum card for a free alternative, and would prefer to keep your existing Membership Rewards points balance alive.

Learn more about the card benefits +

American Express Rewards is the only ‘free for life’ American Express card which lets you collect Membership Rewards points.

We do NOT recommend this card if you would also qualify for the sign-up bonus on American Express Preferred Rewards Gold.  The Gold card is free for the first year, comes with four free airport lounge passes and £120 of Deliveroo credit and has a higher sign-up bonus of 20,000 points.

The best reason to get American Express Rewards is if you are coming to the end of your free first year with American Express Preferred Rewards Gold, or no longer want to pay the fee on The Platinum Card, but want to keep your Membership Rewards points intact.

You need a minimum personal income of £20,000 to apply for the card.

American Express Business Gold

Bonus: 20,000 Membership Rewards points

Read our full review

Sign-up bonus and earn rate:

• Get 20,000 Membership Rewards points when you spend £3,000 within 90 days
• Earn 10,000 additional bonus points whenever you spend £20,000 in a quarter
• Earn 1 Membership Rewards point per £1 spent

Other information:

• Annual fee: Free for the first year, £195 from Year 2
• Points transfer at 1:1 into Avios, Virgin Points and other airline schemes
• Get £100 per year to spend at Dell

This is a charge card, not a credit card. You must clear your balance in full each month.  Annual fee £195 from Year 2, free in Year 1.

Apply here

See if you qualify for the 20,000 points sign-up bonus +

You will receive 20,000 American Express Membership Rewards points as a sign-up bonus on the American Express Business Gold card if you spend £3,000 within 90 days.

Membership Rewards points are hugely flexible.  You can transfer them into Avios, Virgin Flying Club or other airlines (at 1:1) or into various hotels schemes, into Club Eurostar or use them for shopping vouchers.

To qualify for the bonus, you must NOT, currently or in the previous 13 months, have held any other American Express card which earns Membership Rewards points.  This includes Business or personal Gold, Business or personal Platinum and the personal American Express Rewards credit card.

You are OK if you had a complimentary card on someone else’s American Express account.

You are OK if the only American Express card you have had in the previous 13 months was a British Airways, Marriott Bonvoy, Nectar, Platinum Cashback or Harrods American Express card.

For clarity, you can still apply for the American Express Business Gold card even if you do not qualify for the bonus.  You would still benefit from the ‘no fee in Year 1’ offer.

Learn more about the card benefits +

You receive £100 of Dell statement credit per calendar year.  This is made available in two parts.  You receive a £50 credit on Dell purchases made between January and June and a £50 credit on Dell purchases made between July and December.  There is no minimum spend requirement.

You can apply for complimentary Amex business cards for your employees.

You will receive one consolidated statement showing the spend on your card and all of the complimentary cards.  All of the Membership Rewards points earned on the complimentary cards will flow into your personal account.

Depending on when in your monthly cycle you make a payment, you will effectively receive up to 54 days free credit on your spending.

American Express statements provide more underlying transaction detail for flights and certain other transactions than Visa or Mastercard statements, making it easier to reconcile transactions.

You need a minimum personal income of £20,000 to apply for the card.

American Express Business Platinum

Bonus: 40,000 Membership Rewards points

Read our full review

Sign-up bonus and earn rate:

• Get 40,000 Membership Rewards points when you spend £6,000 within 90 days
• Earn 1 Membership Rewards point per £1 spent
• Earn 10,000 bonus points in every month you spend £10,000+
• Points transfer at 1:1 into Avios, Virgin Points and other airline schemes

Other information:

• Get £200 per year to spend at Amex Travel
• Two Priority Pass cards, each allowing two people into 1,400 airport lounges
• Elite status in four major hotel loyalty programmes
• Get £150 per year to spend at Dell
• Get £300 per year to spend at job ads site Indeed
• Comprehensive travel insurance
• Annual fee: £650

This is a charge card, not a credit card. You must clear your balance in full each month.  Annual fee £650.

Apply here

See if you qualify for the 40,000 points bonus +

You will receive 40,000 American Express Membership Rewards points as a sign-up bonus on the American Express Business Platinum card if you spend £6,000 within 90 days.

Membership Rewards points are hugely flexible.  You can transfer them into Avios, Virgin Flying Club or other airlines (at 1:1) or into various hotels schemes, into Club Eurostar or use them for shopping vouchers.

To qualify for the bonus, you must NOT, currently or in the previous 13 months, have held any other American Express card which earns Membership Rewards points.  This includes Business or personal Gold, Business or personal Platinum and the personal American Express Rewards credit card.

You are OK if you had a complimentary card on someone else’s American Express account.

You are OK if the only American Express card you have had in the previous 13 months was a British Airways, Marriott Bonvoy, Nectar, Platinum Cashback or Harrods American Express card.

For clarity, you can still apply for the American Express Business Platinum card even if you do not qualify for the bonus.  You would still benefit from all of the other card features including the £200 of annual Amex Travel credit.

Learn more about the card benefits +

American Express Business Platinum comes with an unrivalled list of benefits for the keen traveller.

Your personal travel patterns will determine which of these is the most valuable.  The key benefits are:

£200 of Amex Travel credit per membership year

Full comprehensive travel insurance for you, your family and the family of up to five complimentary cardholders, subject to enrolment

Two Priority Pass cards, each of which allows the holder and a guest unlimited free access to 1,400 airport lounges

Elite status in four major hotel loyalty schemes: Marriott Bonvoy (Gold), Hilton Honors (Gold), Radisson Rewards (Premium), MeliaRewards (Gold)

You need a minimum personal income of £35,000 to apply for the card.

£150 of Dell statement credit per year – you receive £75 credit on Dell purchases betweeen January and June and £75 credit on purchases between July and December

Digital subscription to The Times and The Sunday Times, worth over £300

Disclaimer: Head for Points is a journalistic website. Nothing here should be construed as financial advice, and it is your own responsibility to ensure that any product is right for your circumstances. Recommendations are based primarily on the ability to earn miles and points. The site discusses products offered by lenders but is not a lender itself. Robert Burgess, trading as Head for Points, is regulated and authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority to act as an independent credit broker.

(Want to earn more miles and points from credit cards?  Click here to visit our dedicated airline and hotel travel credit cards page or use the ‘Credit Cards’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.)

Today I wanted to do one of our occasional ‘first principles’ articles where we look at a topic that is regularly discussed on Head for Points but which, if you are a new reader, you might not fully understand.

This is very much an article for beginners who have not yet, or who have only just, applied for their first Membership Rewards-earning card.  This is usually American Express Preferred Rewards Gold which I regard as the best starter card for a miles and points beginner as I explained here.

Amex Gold comes with a very generous bonus of 20,000 Membership Rewards points and is free for the first year. You also receive four airport lounge passes per year and 2 x £5 credits per month to spend at Deliveroo.

What are Membership Rewards points?

Membership Rewards points are a global currency used by American Express to reward users of its charge cards and selected credit cards.

It is important to note that the scheme has different partners and different conversion rates in different countries. You may read, for example, that Lufthansa is a Membership Rewards partner, but this is only true if you live in Switzerland.

More commonly, you may read that the conversion rate from A to B is 1:2, when for the UK card it is actually 1:1.

How do I earn Membership Rewards points?

You earn Membership Rewards points from American Express Centurion, Platinum, Preferred Rewards Gold, Green and their equivalent Corporate and Small Business credit and charge cards.

There is also the Amex Rewards Credit Card – this is the only ‘free for life’ UK card which earns Membership Rewards points.

The earnings rate is 1 point for every £1 spent on the card.  The exception is the Preferred Rewards Gold card – which earns double points on airline transactions and on foreign spend – and on all cards for American Express Travel transactions, which earn 2 points per £1.

By far the most popular Membership Rewards card is American Express Preferred Rewards Gold.  This is due to its good sign-up bonus of 20,000 points and the fact that the first year is FREE.

Heavy travellers can also get value from American Express Platinum, despite the £575 fee, because of its strong benefits package. The sign-up bonus on American Express Platinum is 30,000 Membership Rewards points.

Our review of Amex Gold is here and our review of Amex Platinum is here.

Small business owners may be attracted by the generous sign up offers available for the Business Gold and Business Platinum variants.

It is important to remember that you must retain an American Express charge or credit card which earns Membership Rewards points to retain your Membership Rewards points.  If you are planning to cancel your Gold, Green or Platinum card to stop paying annual fees, you will need to empty your Membership Rewards account.

For simplicity, it is best to transfer your points before cancelling the card.  Strictly speaking, according to the Membership Rewards terms and conditions here (p20), you have 30 days from the day you cancel the card.

There is an alternative.  Getting the free Amex Rewards Credit Card lets you cancel your fee paying card and keeps your Membership Rewards points alive as I explained here.

Where can I spend Membership Rewards points?

Here are the key links to the American Express website:

• the UK Membership Rewards home page is here
• the UK airline rewards home page is here and
• the UK hotel rewards page is here

Here is a summary of the UK airline rewards and which airline grouping each airline is in.

1 Membership Rewards point gets you:

• 1 Avios (into British Airways or Iberia)
• 1 Asia Mile (oneworld)
• 1 Delta mile (SkyTeam)
• 1 Etihad mile (no alliance)
• 1 Emirates mile (no alliance)
• 1 Finnair mile (oneworld)
• 1 Flying Blue mile (SkyTeam)
• 1 Qantas Point (oneworld)
• 1 SAS mile (Star Alliance)
• 0.66 Singapore Airlines miles (Star Alliance)
• 1 Virgin Point (SkyTeam from January 2023)

And here are the hotel rewards with 1 Membership Rewards point getting you:

• 3 Radisson Rewards points
• 2 Hilton Honors points
• 1.5 Mariott Bonvoy points

You can transfer into Club Eurostar at the ratio of 15 Membership Rewards points to 1 Eurostar point.  As we wrote in an article last week, this is currently a very good redemption due to the high cost of cash Eurostar tickets and Club Eurostar’s guaranteed reward availability.

How do I maximise the value of my Membership Rewards points?

There are other reward options apart from airline, hotel and Eurostar points, such as store gift cards and travel gift vouchers.  The list got a lot shorter in 2019 when American Express removed all ‘physical goods’ redemptions. It is no longer possible to redeem for a toaster.

However, in almost all cases, these are based on a simple formula which gets you no more than 0.5p per point redeemed (eg 10,000 points for a £50 voucher).  Some of the easiest ones to use are Amazon and iTunes gift vouchers.

For the truly lazy, you can also redeem your points for a credit against your American Express statement.  This gets you a poor 0.45p per point.

However …..

NEVER redeem for less than 0.66p per point of value

In January 2021, Avios formed a partnership with Nectar.  1 Avios point is now worth 1.33 Nectar points when you transfer them via this page of ba.com.

This had an interesting side effect.  Since 1 Membership Rewards point = 1 Avios, and since 1 Avios = 1.33 Nectar points, and since 1 Nectar point = 0.5p, your Membership Rewards points are now worth a GUARANTEED minimum of 0.66p.

All you need to do is transfer them from American Express to a British Airways Avios account and on to Nectar.  You can spend the Nectar points in Sainsbury’s, Argos or on eBay, amongst other partners.

Because you can get 0.66p per point via this route, there is NO REASON AT ALL to redeem your Membership Rewards points for gift cards or statement credit where you get 0.5p per point at best.

You can beat 0.66p, however

In general, you can get more than 0.66p per Membership Rewards point by transferring into an airline programme.  I value airline miles – very conservatively – at 0.8p to 1p each depending on programme and route, but it isn’t hard to beat this.

Hilton Honors, Radisson Rewards and Marriott Bonvoy points are less interesting as transfer options.

I value Hilton Honors points at around 0.33p so that would be 0.66p per Membership Rewards point based on the 1:2 transfer rate.  I value Marriott Bonvoy points at 0.5p, which means you are getting 0.75p per Membership Rewards point based on the 2:3 transfer rate.  I value Radisson Rewards points at 0.2p following a recent devaluation, so you are getting 0.6p per Membership Rewards points based on a 1:3 transfer rate. None of these are noticeably richer than going via the Nectar route.

However, you can do substantially better than this if you need a hotel room on a peak date in a peak city.  It can still be worth transferring Membership Rewards points across to Hilton and Marriott but only if you have identified a redemption where you know you will beat 0.66p per Amex point.

There is no reason to transfer to Radisson Rewards, since this is now a fixed value programme with each point worth a fixed amount, roughly 0.2p, off your next booking.

When should I transfer my Membership Rewards points?

Unless there is a conversion bonus going on, it makes sense to keep your points in Membership Rewards until you need them. This lets you maximise your flexibility. However, in order to speed up a transfer when you do need one, you can ‘link’ your loyalty programmes in advance.

The ‘link’ process allows Amex to confirm that your loyalty account is correct, and knocks a day or two off the time taken for your first transfer to that programme to be processed. You can do this by going into your Membership Rewards account and doing a dummy transfer for the relevant programme.

Once your accounts are linked, a transfer will usually only take 2-3 days at most. In reality most transfers complete overnight and some partners (Virgin Points, Emirates Skywards, Marriott Bonvoy, Delta SkyMiles, Qantas Frequent Flyer) are usually instant.  I compiled a list of Membership Rewards transfer times with help from Head for Points readers.

Can I transfer to another persons frequent flyer account?

This is a common question – and the answer is ‘No’.  Until recently, the US Membership Rewards scheme let you transfer to an airline or hotel account in any name.  This has never been the case in the UK.

It is possible, if you are transferring to someone with the same surname, it will work with some partners who only verify that the account surnames match.

Historically Nectar and Radisson Rewards transfers did no name matching at all. I don’t know if this is still the case.

Are there conversion bonuses?

We have not seen any UK airline conversion bonuses for the last few years.  Etihad and Singapore Airlines have done ‘unofficial’ transfer bonuses recently, ie ones which are not promoted by Amex directly and are only advertised by the airline.

My understanding is that American Express has been trying to reduce the number of people who redeem for airline miles, as these are substantially more expensive than other options.

There have been modest Hilton Honors and Marriott Bonvoy transfer bonuses in the last couple of years, so they may be making a comeback. Neither was generous enough to justify jumping in without any eventual plan for using the points.

Conclusion

American Express Membership Rewards points can be very valuable.  The key thing is that they offer FLEXIBILITY – you do not need to commit them to an airline or hotel scheme until it is time to redeem.  You can avoid being caught out by scheme devaluations or changes in travel plans.

The option of redeeming to Nectar points, routing via Avios, puts a floor value of 0.66p on your points which is good news.

The big sign-up bonuses on the American Express Preferred Rewards Gold (20,000 points) and The Platinum Card (30,000 points) offer an easy way to get your collection going.

Want to earn more points from credit cards? – January 2024 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 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 Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

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.

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard

15,000 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:

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

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

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points bonus 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 Business Rewards Visa

Get a 10,000 points bonus plus an extra 500 points for our readers Read our full review

For a non-American Express option, we also recommend the Barclaycard Select Cashback card for sole traders and small businesses. It is FREE and you receive 1% cashback on your spending.

Barclaycard Select Cashback credit card

2% cashback on all your business spend for 3 months (1% thereafter) and no annual fee Read our full review

This would convert into 60,000 Avios or lots of other great travel rewards. The £200 of Amex Travel credit will also come in handy. Even better, you qualify for the bonus even if you have a British Airways American Express card as long as you meet the other criteria.

Our introductory article on the ‘60,000 Membership Rewards points plus £200’ offer is here.

We have also looked at:

• ‘Are the four free American Express Platinum hotel status cards worth having?‘

• ‘Why American Express Platinum gets you into more lounges than you think‘

• ‘Why Fine Hotels & Resorts is one of the best Amex Platinum benefits‘

Today I want to look at how you can keep your 60,000 Membership Rewards points bonus intact even if you choose to cancel The Platinum Card.

You can apply for The Platinum Card here.

The Platinum Card comes with a lot of impressive benefits, as well as (for a limited period), 60,000 Membership Rewards points and £200 to spend at American Express Travel in return for spending £6,000 in six months.

The benefits include:

• travel insurance for you and your family, plus your supplementary cardholder and their family

• car hire insurance

• 2 x Priority Pass airport lounge access cards, each of which allows a free guest on each visit (so a family of four is covered)

• mid-tier status in Hilton Honors (Gold), Marriott Bonvoy (Gold), Radisson Rewards (Gold) and MeliaRewards (Gold)

• £100 per year of Harvey Nichols credit, valid instore or online

• £150 per year to spend in 150+ UK restaurants

• £150 per year to spend in 1,400+ international restaurants

• Eurostar lounge access

…… and lots of other bits and bobs.

But there’s a snag …..

Paying almost £50 per month for these benefits works out well for many readers.  However, once you have spent £6,000 to trigger the 60,000 bonus points and your £200 of travel credit, you may find that you are not justifying the fee, especially if your travel has not picked up.

The good news is that, if you cancel The Platinum Card, you receive a pro-rata fee refund.

(One caveat: if you cancel, you will have no travel insurance if you have no other cover.  If you have non-refundable trips booked for the future, ensure you buy alternative coverage as soon as you cancel as, of course, you could fall ill at any time.)

The only risk is losing your Membership Rewards points

The only short-term downside of cancelling your American Express Platinum charge card is that you are required to empty out your Membership Rewards points account.

Because Amex points can be transferred to many different airline and hotel partners, they are more valuable than airline or hotel points.  You shouldn’t convert them until you need them. The flexibility is worth having.

If you are forced to transfer them because you close your card down, you may regret it later.  American Express isn’t going bankrupt or devaluing its points any time soon.  The safest place for your points, and the place that gives you the most flexibility in the future, is with American Express.

Since late 2017, there has been a solution that:

• lets you keep your Membership Rewards points account open, and

• allows you to stop paying an annual fee for either the Gold or Platinum card

We very rarely write about it on HfP so I thought I would run through it again today.  This card is the answer:

You can apply for the little-known American Express Rewards Credit Card.  Full details are here.

This card has NO ANNUAL FEE and lets you collect Membership Rewards points. If you apply for this card before you cancel The Platinum Card, it will allow you to keep your 60,000+ Membership Rewards points with no pressure to transfer them.

For simplicity, I will occasionally refer to this card as ARCC as ‘American Express Rewards Credit Card’ is a bit of a mouthful.

What is the American Express Rewards Credit Card?

ARCC is a standard Amex-branded credit card.  It has no annual fee and no substantial benefits, except for the ability to collect Membership Rewards points at 1 point per £1 spent.

The representative APR is 31.0% variable.

You need to spend £2,000 within three months to receive the bonus.

It is unlikely that many (any?!) Head for Points readers will qualify for the bonus because you cannot have held any personal American Express card in the previous 24 months.  That’s not why you’re applying though.

Once your American Express Rewards Credit Card is active, you can cancel your Platinum card in the knowledge that your Membership Rewards points balance is safe.

You will be saving roughly £50 per month on your Platinum card.  If you find that your travelling starts to pick up, you can re-apply for The Platinum Card and start getting all the insurance, lounge, dining, Harvey Nichols and status benefits again.

You can apply for the free American Express Rewards Credit Card here.

If you want to learn more about the 60,000 points and £200 travel credit bonus on The Platinum Card, our core article on the deal is here. You can apply for The Platinum Card here.

PS. If you are thinking of cancelling your Platinum card, get the timing right. On 1st January each year, for example, your £300 of annual dining credit and your £50 per half-year of Harvey Nichols credit will reset. Cancelling close to Christmas makes little sense. You should also consider when you will need the travel insurance and airport lounge access.

Disclaimer: Head for Points is a journalistic website. Nothing here should be construed as financial advice, and it is your own responsibility to ensure that any product is right for your circumstances. Recommendations are based primarily on the ability to earn miles and points. The site discusses products offered by lenders but is not a lender itself. Robert Burgess, trading as Head for Points, is regulated and authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority to act as an independent credit broker.

Pre September 2021, if you spent £20,000 per year on the free British Airways American Express credit card, you received a 2-4-1 companion voucher valid on any Avios flight in Economy, Premium Economy, Business or First Class.

Today, you only need to spend £12,000 per year to receive a 2-4-1 companion voucher but it is only valid in Economy.

In February 2022, we saw another major change. Barclaycard introduced the Barclaycard Avios Mastercard – details here. This has the same earning rate as the free British Airways American Express card (1 Avios per £1) but comes with an upgrade voucher instead of a 2-4-1 companion voucher.

Should the average HfP reader hold the free British Airways American Express card?

You can read our free British Airways American Express review here.

To be honest, probably not. If you do have the free BA Amex, let’s look at why other cards may be better suited to you.

Do you spend under £12,000 on your free British Airways American Express?

When we get into the territory of looking at the annual vouchers earned on the core Avios credit cards, you are into the realms of personal preference.

If you’re not spending £12,000 per year on the free BA Amex card, however, you’re not triggering the 2-4-1 companion voucher.

In this scenario, why are you holding the card? There are two better options open to you:

• Get the free Barclaycard Avios Mastercard – you earn the same rate (1 Avios per £1) and, as a Mastercard, it is accepted in more places than American Express. You are reducing the cards in your wallet or purse, because everyone needs a back-up Visa or Mastercard for their Amex anyway.

or

• Get the free American Express Rewards Credit Card – you earn the same rate (1 Avios per £1, if you choose to convert the Membership Rewards points into Avios) but you can also convert your points into many other airline or hotel loyalty programmes

Whilst the Barclaycard Avios Mastercard is a fairly self explanatory product, I will cover the Amex Rewards Credit Card is more detail because you are less likely to be familiar with it.

What you get with the Amex Rewards Credit Card is flexibility.

Yes, you can use your points for Avios.  You can send them over to BA via the Amex website and they will arrive within 48 hours.

However, you have other options.  Membership Rewards points can also be sent to Virgin Atlantic, Flying Blue, Emirates, Etihad or Delta among other airline partners.  You can also send them to Hilton Honors (1:2), Marriott Bonvoy (2:3) and Radisson Rewards (1:3).  You can convert them to Club Eurostar (15:1).  You can even use them for shopping vouchers.  You can see the airline partners here.

The Amex Rewards Credit Card gives you more choice.  You can still take Avios if you want, and at the same 1 Avios per £1 earning rate.  If you suddenly decide that you want hotel points, or that Virgin Points make more sense, or even that you want to abandon Avios altogether, you can.  Simply move your Amex points somewhere else instead.

With the free BA Amex card, your points are sitting in Avios from Day 1 and you can’t do anything else with them.  If Avios devalues its rewards, if BA stops flying your preferred route, if reward availability suddenly gets a lot harder to find, if Reward Flight Saver fees jump up, if new surcharges get added ….. you’re stuck. Your only way out is via a transfer to Nectar points.

There is literally no area where the free British Airways card outperforms the Amex Rewards Credit Card. You don’t even get bonus Avios when paying with the free BA Amex at ba.com – this is a benefit that only comes with the British Airways Premium Plus card.

Whether you get the free Barclaycard Avios Mastercard or the free Amex Rewards Credit Card, either is a better choice than the free British Airways American Express card if you spend under £12,000 per year.

Do you spend over £12,000 per year on your free British Airways American Express card?

If you spend £12,000 per year on the free British Airways American Express card, you might think that it IS worth keeping the card.

After all, you are earning the annual 2-4-1 companion voucher, valid for travel begun within 12 months of issue. This allows you to:

• book two Avios flights in Economy for the cost of one (full taxes are due on both tickets) or

• book one Avios flight in Economy for half of the usual Avios cost (full taxes are still due)

If you are an Economy traveller, you may well see some value here. Even if you don’t travel Economy on long haul flights, you would save a handful of Avios on a short haul European trip.

However …..

Once you are spending over £10,000 per year on your free BA Amex, you have a different decision to make. Should you upgrade to the £250 per year British Airways Premium Plus American Express card or the £20 per month Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard?

Yes, you probably should.

Reasons to swap your free BA Amex to the British Airways Premium Plus card

• The 2-4-1 companion voucher on the free BA Amex is only valid on Economy tickets, whilst the voucher on the Premium Plus card is valid in ALL classes

• Holders of the British Airways Premium Plus American Express get access to additional Avios inventory when redeeming in Business Class, making it a lot easier to find seats

• The 2-4-1 companion voucher on the free BA Amex is only valid for one year, instead of two years for the BA Premium Plus voucher, which is a major issue if you want to book seats 355 days in advance

• The £2,000 of ‘extra’ spending required to trigger the voucher (£12,000 compared to £10,000 on the Premium Plus card) could be directed elsewhere, helping trigger sign-up bonuses on other cards

• You earn an extra 0.5 Avios per £1 spent and double Avios when you spend with British Airways and BA Holidays, which offsets some of the £250 annual fee on the Premium Plus card

There is no official upgrade form – you simply apply for the Premium Plus card via this link. American Express will recognise that you are upgrading and will copy over your existing spend and account data. If your application is rejected for some reason, give Amex a call.

Your card year remains the same, and if you have already spent £10,000 this card year on the free card then your 2-4-1 companion voucher is triggered immediately.

Reasons to swap your free BA Amex to the Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

• The 2-4-1 companion voucher on the free BA Amex is only valid on Economy tickets, whilst the upgrade voucher on the Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard lets you travel in Business or Premium Economy, albeit not First Class (this is how the Barclaycard upgrade voucher works)

• The 2-4-1 companion voucher on the free BA Amex is only valid for one year, instead of two years for the Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard voucher, which is a major issue if you want to book seats 355 days in advance

• The £2,000 of ‘extra’ spending required to trigger the voucher (£12,000 compared to £10,000 on the Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard) could be directed elsewhere, helping trigger sign-up bonuses on other cards

• As it’s a Mastercard, you can use it in more places than an American Express card which makes it easier to hit the £10,000 target for the annual voucher

• If you’ve not applied for a Barclaycard Avios Mastercard before, you would qualify for a 25,000 Avios sign-up bonus – you won’t get a bonus if you swap from the free BA Amex to the British Airways Premium Plus American Express

Conclusion

Given:

• the September 2021 changes to the 2-4-1 companion voucher on the free British Airways American Express card, and

• the February 2022 launch of the Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

….. there are good reasons for EVERY holder of the free British Airways American Express card to reconsider whether it remains the card for them.

If you spend under £10,000 on the free BA Amex, I believe that the free Barclaycard Avios Mastercard and the Amex Rewards Credit Card offer a compelling alternative. If you’re spending five figures on your free BA Amex, you should consider whether there is value in swapping to either the fee-paying Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard or the British Airways Premium Plus American Express.

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Bonus: 25,000 Avios

Read our full review

Sign-up bonus and earn rate:

• Get 25,000 Avios when you spend £3,000 within 90 days
• Earn 1.5 Avios per £1 spent

Other information:

• Receive an Avios upgrade voucher when you spend £10,000 in a card year
• Upgrade a return BA flight for one person or two one-way flights for a couple
• Annual fee: £240, charged at £20 per month

Representative 80.1% APR variable based on an assumed £1,200 credit limit and £20 monthly fee.  Interest rate on purchases 29.9% APR variable.

Apply here

See if you qualify for the 25,000 Avios sign-up bonus +

You will receive 25,000 Avios as a sign-up bonus on the Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard credit card if you spend £3,000 within 90 days of signing up.

To qualify for the bonus, you must NOT, currently or in the previous six months, have held any other Barclaycard credit card.

You are OK if you had a supplementary card on someone else’s Barclaycard account.

You are OK if, currently or in the previous six months, you have had a British Airways American Express credit card.

For clarity, you can still apply for the Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard even if you do not qualify for the bonus.  You would still benefit from the upgrade voucher and the other card benefits.

Learn more about the card benefits +

When you spend £10,000 on the Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard, you receive a voucher entitling you to:

• book a return Avios flight for one person, paying the Avios of the next lowest cabin (ie book Club World but only pay the World Traveller Plus Avios requirement)
• book a one-way Avios flight, or one leg of a return flight, for two people, paying the Avios of the next lowest cabin

The voucher is valid for two years.  Full taxes and charges need to be paid on both tickets, based on the cabin you fly.

The voucher cannot be used to fly in First Class.

The voucher can be used for anyone, as long as the booking is made from the Avios account of the cardholder.

You receive your voucher within five days of reaching the spending target.

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

Bonus: 5,000 Avios

Read our full review

Sign-up bonus and earn rate:

• Get 5,000 Avios when you spend £1,000 within 90 days
• Earn 1 Avios per £1 spent

Other information:

• Receive an Avios upgrade voucher when you spend £20,000 in a card year
• Upgrade a return BA flight for one person or two one-way flights for a couple
• Annual fee: Free

Representative 29.9% APR variable

Apply here

See if you qualify for the 5,000 Avios sign-up bonus +

You will receive 5,000 Avios as a sign-up bonus on the free Barclaycard Avios Mastercard credit card if you spend £1,000 within 90 days of signing up.

To qualify for the bonus, you must NOT, currently or in the previous six months, have held any other Barclaycard credit card.

You are OK if you had a supplementary card on someone else’s Barclaycard account.

You are OK if, currently or in the previous six months, you have had a British Airways American Express credit card.

For clarity, you can still apply for the Barclaycard Avios Mastercard even if you do not qualify for the bonus.  You would still benefit from the upgrade voucher and the other card benefits.

Learn more about the card benefits +

When you spend £20,000 on the Barclaycard Avios Mastercard, you receive a voucher entitling you to:

• book a return Avios flight for one person, paying the Avios of the next lowest cabin (ie book Club World but only pay the World Traveller Plus Avios requirement)
• book a one-way Avios flight, or one leg of a return flight, for two people, paying the Avios of the next lowest cabin

The voucher is valid for two years.  Full taxes and charges need to be paid on both tickets, based on the cabin you fly.

The voucher can be used for anyone, as long as the booking is made from the Avios account of the cardholder.

The voucher cannot be used to fly in First Class.

You receive your voucher within five days of reaching the spending target.

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

Bonus: 25,000 Avios

Read our full review

Sign-up bonus and earn rate:

• Get 25,000 Avios when you spend £3,000 within 90 days
• Earn 1.5 Avios per £1 spent
• Earn 3 Avios per £1 spent with British Airways and BA Holidays

Other information:

• Receive a companion voucher, letting you book two flights for the Avios of one, when you spend £10,000 in a card year
• A solo traveller can use it for a 50% discount on the Avios for one ticket
• The voucher is valid in any cabin
• It can be used on British Airways, Iberia and Aer Lingus
• Annual fee: £250

Representative 113.1% APR variable based on an assumed £1,200 credit limit and £250 annual fee. Interest rate on purchases 31.0% APR variable.

Apply here

See if you qualify for the 25,000 Avios sign-up bonus +

You will receive 25,000 Avios as a sign-up bonus on the British Airways American Express Premium Plus card if you spend £3,000 within 90 days of signing up.

To qualify for the bonus, you must not have held the British Airways Premium Plus or the free British Airways American Express cards in the previous 24 months.

You are OK if you had a supplementary card on someone else’s British Airways American Express account.

You are OK if, currently or in the previous 24 months, you have held any other American Express card.

For clarity, you can still apply for the British Airways Premium Plus card even if you do not qualify for the bonus.  You would still benefit from the companion voucher and all of the other card benefits.

Learn more about the card benefits +

When you spend £10,000 on the British Airways American Express Premium Plus card, you receive a companion voucher entitling you to book two Avios redemption flights for the miles of one.

Alternatively, a solo traveller can use the voucher for a 50% reduction on the Avios required for one ticket,

This voucher is valid for two years.  Full taxes and charges need to be paid on both tickets.

This voucher is the most valuable perk available in the UK airline and hotel credit card sector in my view. It could save you 150,000 or more Avios when used for a long-haul redemption in a premium cabin.

The voucher with the Premium Plus card is far more powerful than the voucher given with the free British Airways American Express card.  You only need to spend £10,000, instead of £20,000, in a card year to receive it.  More importantly, the Premium Plus voucher is valid for two years and is valid in ALL cabins.  The voucher on the free British Airways American Express card is only valid for one year and can only be used for Economy flights.

You receive your voucher within a few days of reaching the spending target.  You need to fly the outbound leg of your 2-4-1 flight before the expiry date of the voucher.

The voucher can be used for flights on British Airways, Iberia and Aer Lingus.

You need a minimum personal income of £35,000 to apply for the card.

British Airways American Express

Bonus: 5,000 Avios

Read our full review

Sign-up bonus and earn rate:

• Get 5,000 Avios when you spend £1,000 within 90 days
• Earn 1 Avios per £1 spent

Other information:

• Receive a companion voucher, letting you book two flights for the Avios of one, when you spend £12,000 in a card year
• The companion voucher is only valid on Economy flights
• It can be used on British Airways, Iberia and Aer Lingus
• Annual fee: Free

Representative 31.0% APR variable

Apply here

See if you qualify for the 5,000 Avios sign-up bonus +

You will receive 5,000 Avios as a sign-up bonus on the free British Airways American Express card if you spend £1,000 within 90 days of signing up.

To qualify for the bonus, you must NOT, currently or in the previous 24 months, have held any other personal American Express card.

You are OK if you had a supplementary card on someone else’s British Airways American Express account.

You are OK if, currently or in the previous 24 months, you have held a Business American Express card.

For clarity, you can still apply for the British Airways American Express card even if you do not qualify for the bonus.  You would still benefit from the companion voucher and the other card benefits.

Learn more about the card benefits +

When you spend £12,000 on the British Airways American Express card, you receive a companion voucher entitling you to book two Avios redemption flights for the miles of one.  This voucher is valid for one year.  (Full taxes and charges need to be paid on both tickets.)

The voucher on the free British Airways American Express card can only be used on Economy flights.

The voucher can be used for Avios bookings on British Airways, Iberia and Aer Lingus.

You receive your voucher within a few days of reaching the spending target.  You need to fly the outbound leg of your 2-4-1 flight before the expiry date of the voucher.

If you want more flexibility, the voucher issued with the British Airways Premium Plus American Express card is valid for two years, only requires £10,000 of annual card spend and is valid in ALL cabins including Business and First.  The Premium Plus card also has a higher earning rate of 1.5 Avios per £1 on general spend and 3 Avios per £1 on spend with British Airways and BA Holidays.

You need a minimum personal income of £20,000 to apply for the card.

American Express Rewards

Bonus: 10,000 points

Read our full review

Sign-up bonus and earn rate:

• Get 10,000 Membership Rewards points when you spend £2,000 within 90 days
• Earn 1 Membership Rewards point per £1 spent
• Points transfer at 1:1 into Avios, Virgin Points and other airline and hotel schemes

Other information:

• Your best choice if you want a ‘free for life’ card which earns Membership Rewards points
• A good choice if you want to close a Gold or Platinum card but keep your points intact
• Annual fee: Free

Representative 31.0% APR variable

Apply here

See if you qualify for the 10,000 points sign-up bonus +

You will receive 10,000 American Express Membership Rewards points as a sign-up bonus on the American Express Rewards card if you spend £2,000 within 90 days of signing up.

Membership Rewards points are hugely flexible. You can transfer them into Avios, Virgin Flying Club or other airlines (at 1:1) or into various hotels schemes, into Club Eurostar or use them for shopping vouchers.

To qualify for the bonus, you must NOT, currently or in the previous 24 months, have held any other personal American Express card.

You are OK if you had a supplementary card on someone else’s American Express account.

You are OK if, currently or in the previous 24 months, you have held a Business American Express card.

For clarity, you can still apply for the American Express Rewards card even if you do not qualify for the bonus.  You may want to do this if you are thinking of swapping your Preferred Rewards Gold or Platinum card for a free alternative, and would prefer to keep your existing Membership Rewards points balance alive.

Learn more about the card benefits +

American Express Rewards is the only ‘free for life’ American Express card which lets you collect Membership Rewards points.

We do NOT recommend this card if you would also qualify for the sign-up bonus on American Express Preferred Rewards Gold.  The Gold card is free for the first year, comes with four free airport lounge passes and £120 of Deliveroo credit and has a higher sign-up bonus of 20,000 points.

The best reason to get American Express Rewards is if you are coming to the end of your free first year with American Express Preferred Rewards Gold, or no longer want to pay the fee on The Platinum Card, but want to keep your Membership Rewards points intact.

You need a minimum personal income of £20,000 to apply for the card.

This includes a members lounge. You can see the details on the Wimbledon website here.

I need to thank reader Alex for the photographs in this article which he took for us yesterday. Shame about the weather …..

Visit the American Express Wimbledon Cardmember Lounge

The biggest benefit is the members lounge, located in the Southern Village by Court 3.

Any American Express cardholder can enter the lounge, irrespective of the country where their card was issued.

Each cardholder can take up to two guests into the lounge.

Even though Amex has, perhaps deliberately, kept publicity about the lounge low key this year, there were still modest queues to enter yesterday:

Note that the lounge does not have any toilets. You have to leave the lounge and rejoin the queue to get back in, which is clearly not ideal.

You get a great view over the outside courts (rain permitting):

Here are a couple of interior shots:

and

Whilst the lounge has a bar and serves snacks, these are not free. You can pick up some free Amex goodies – a radio to listen to match commentary, water spray and branded fans.

An exclusive £20 cashback offer

There’s also a special cashback offer for purchases on site.  If you spend £120 or more in the grounds during the tournament on your card you’ll get £20 back.  You can only get the cashback once per card.

Annoyingly, you must register for this offer on site at either the Amex lounge or one of the Amex stands arounds the grounds.  You CANNOT register online.

Historically this offer has also been available to holders of non-UK American Express cards.

Conclusion

Amex spends a lot of money on its Wimbledon lounge but it never fully delivers, in my view. I can only imagine that the lack of publicity this year is an attempt to reduce queueing.

It’s a shame that food and drink is not free, but then it would only encourage more people to visit and to stay longer so it may end up being self defeating. I would have been tempted to offer fast track entry to Platinum cardholders, or at least a free drink voucher.

That said, if it is crowded in the grounds – which it usually is – then this is a decent spot to get out of the sun / rain and watch the play on the outside courts from the balcony.

Want to earn more points from credit cards? – January 2024 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 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 Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

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.

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard

15,000 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:

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

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

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points bonus 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 Business Rewards Visa

Get a 10,000 points bonus plus an extra 500 points for our readers Read our full review

For a non-American Express option, we also recommend the Barclaycard Select Cashback card for sole traders and small businesses. It is FREE and you receive 1% cashback on your spending.

Barclaycard Select Cashback credit card

2% cashback on all your business spend for 3 months (1% thereafter) and no annual fee Read our full review

The campaign runs from 20th to 26th June. This is far shorter than the 2021 version which ran for almost three weeks.

Whilst Amex has been chipping away at the attractiveness of Shop Small over the last couple of years, it still remains a decent way to save on your local shopping.

Despite the cap of £25 cashback, there is a separate limit for every Amex card you hold – with a further separate limit for supplementary cards – so it is still possible to do well.

What is American Express Shop Small?

‘Shop Small’ is designed to encourage you to shop in local independent stores instead of major chains.

(‘Shop Small UK’ is, of course, also a way for American Express to persuade more small shops to sign up to accept American Express cards.)

Between 20th and 26th June, you will receive £5 cashback on the first FIVE transactions you make for £15 or more at participating ‘Shop Small’ businesses.

There are very few rules apart from the fact that you can only get one £5 cashback per shop per card.  You can, of course, register multiple American Express cards if you have more than one.

Cashback is capped at £25 per card. Supplementary cards are treated separately and have their own cap, so you could technically get more than £25 cashback.

You get a separate £25 cashback limit for each American Express card you hold.

How does Shop Small UK work?

It is a simple process:

You MUST register your credit or charge card before making a ‘Shop Small’ purchase:

‘Shop Small’ should appear as a card offer online or in the app – Amex told us that it would be live from today.  Look under the ‘Offers’ tab on the American Express website for each card you have.

(If you do not have the offer on your card, reach out to Amex customer services who will add it manually for you.)

You can register by going to the American Express website, logging in and looking under ‘My Offers’ on the statement page.

Corporate American Express cards do not quality, but the small business cards usually do.

You can also register a supplementary card (an additional card held by your partner or friend on the same account) as long as it has a different card number to your main card and has its own separate Amex log-in.

You must find a participating ‘Shop Small’ small shop:

The main Shop Small website is here which will, by the 20th, probably contain a link to an interactive map where you can find participating shops in your area.  You will also often see a Shop Small sticker in a shop window.

Beware that this map, in previous years, has not been accurate. Often in a good way (some shops not featured give the credit) and often in a bad way (shops on the map are closed or don’t even accept Amex).  Your best option is to use your Amex whenever you can during the Shop Small period and see what hits.

It is worth noting that it is not just sellers of ‘things’ who are taking part. You will find cafes and even the occasional pub taking part. 

You can even get credits when you are not expecting them – during the Summer 2021 ‘Shop Small’ offer, Rob found that purchases he made in Gibraltar were triggering cashback.

You must make a qualifying purchase of £15 or more:

You can make one purchase per registered card per shop that is taking part in ‘Shop Small’.  

Supplementary cards can get credit at the same shop as a card where the main cardholder has already made a purchase.  You can also get credit for different American Express cards at the same shop.

For example …. Rob and his wife have six American Express cards, including supplementary cards, between them.  They can earn 6 x £5 cashback payments at the same store over Shop Small week, as long as they use a different registered card each time.

American Express appears to have stopped sending email confirmations after a cashback transaction is made, so don’t expect to receive any notifications.  A £5 credit for every £15 purchase will be added onto your credit card account within a few days of the original charge hitting your statement.

Note that American Express has closed down card accounts before (including some HfP readers) when they believe that ‘Shop Small’ has been abused.  ‘Abuse’ includes asking a retailer to break down a transaction into chunks of £15 and paying each £15 with a different registered American Express card.  This is easy for Amex to spot when transactions are processed within a few seconds of each other.

For clarity …. this promotion is fully funded by American Express as part of its campaign to encourage more small shops to accept the card.  It is not funded by the shop so you shouldn’t feel guilty about taking part.

You can find out more on the American Express website here.

Want to earn more points from credit cards? – January 2024 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 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 Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

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.

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard

15,000 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:

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

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

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points bonus 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 Business Rewards Visa

Get a 10,000 points bonus plus an extra 500 points for our readers Read our full review

For a non-American Express option, we also recommend the Barclaycard Select Cashback card for sole traders and small businesses. It is FREE and you receive 1% cashback on your spending.

Barclaycard Select Cashback credit card

2% cashback on all your business spend for 3 months (1% thereafter) and no annual fee Read our full review

In this article I want to look at your options for earning Avios points from a UK credit card, and explain my preferred choices.

There are nine UK credit cards which earn Avios points at a rate of at least 1 Avios per £1 spent so it isn’t an easy choice.

All of these cards add a 3% foreign exchange fee, so you might want to get a separate free credit card to use abroad.   

Unfortunately there are no travel rewards cards without a foreign exchange fee.  One option is to get a free card from Currensea. Currensea is a simple but clever idea. You pay abroad with your Currensea Mastercard debit card. Currensea translates the cost to Sterling with just a 0.5% fee (83% less than the usual rate) and withdraws the money from your bank account. You can find out more by clicking here. Currensea is free so there is no risk in giving it a try.

This article was updated on 1st January 2024, and all of the information is correct as of that date. Ignore the original publication date shown.

What are my options for an Avios credit card?

This is what you have to choose from, ranked in order of sign-up bonus, followed by my preferred picks.

I will discuss the best choices at the bottom of the list.

HSBC Premier World Elite Mastercard

Bonus: 80,000 points

Read our full review • Apply here

Sign-up bonus and earn rate:

• Get 80,000 HSBC points, paid over two years
• Earns 2 HSBC points per £1 spent
• Points convert at 2:1 into Avios or nine other programmes

Other information:

• Only available to HSBC Premier account holders
• Receive free airport lounge access with LoungeKey
• Annual fee: £195

Representative 59.3% APR variable based on an assumed £1,200 credit limit and £195 annual fee. Interest rate on purchases 18.9% APR variable.

Apply here

See if you qualify for the 80,000 points sign-up bonus +

The sign-up bonus on the HSBC Premier World Elite Mastercard is 80,000 points.

This is paid in two parts.  You receive 40,000 HSBC points (worth 20,000 Avios or other airline miles or hotel points) for spending £2,000 within three months and a further 40,000 HSBC points (=20,000 points) for spending £12,000 within twelve months.

The annual fee is £195 and you need to pay the fee for the second year in order to receive the second half of the bonus.

There is no restriction on receiving the bonus if you have previously held the card, as long as you cancelled it over six months ago, or are upgrading from the free HSBC Premier Mastercard.

Learn more about the card benefits +

The points earned with the HSBC Premier World Elite Mastercard can be transferred to 10 airline and hotel loyalty schemes – Asia Miles, British Airways Executive Club / Avios, Emirates Skywards, Etihad Guest, Finnair Plus, Flying Blue (Air France KLM), Qantas Frequent Flyer, Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer, TAP Miles&Go and Wyndham Rewards.

They can also be redeemed for other items including retailer gift cards.

Cardholders can access any airport lounge in the LoungeKey network for free.  No guest are allowed, but you can get your partner a supplementary credit card on your account for an annual fee of £60.  Children would be charged at £20 per visit.

You need to be a HSBC Premier current account holder to apply for this card.  HSBC Premier comes with a range of additional benefits including comprehensive travel insurance.

The Platinum Card from American Express

Bonus: 40,000 points

Read our full review • Apply here

Sign-up bonus and earn rate:

• Get 40,000 Membership Rewards points when you spend £6,000 within three months
• Earn 1 Membership Rewards point per £1 spent
• Points transfer at 1:1 into Avios, Virgin Points and other airline and hotel schemes

Other information:

• Two Priority Pass cards, each allowing two people into 1,400 airport lounges
• Elite status in four major hotel loyalty programmes
• Comprehensive travel insurance
• £300 per year of restaurant credit
• £100 per year to spend at Harvey Nichols
• Annual fee: £650

Representative 704.6% APR variable based on an assumed £1,200 credit limit and £650 annual fee. Interest rate on purchases 31.0% APR variable.

Apply here

See if you qualify for the 40,000 points sign-up bonus +

You will receive 40,000 American Express Membership Rewards points as a sign-up bonus on The Platinum Card if you spend £6,000 within three months of signing up.

Membership Rewards points are hugely flexible.  You can transfer them into Avios, Virgin Flying Club or other airlines (at 1:1) or into various hotels schemes, into Club Eurostar or use them for shopping vouchers.

This is the ONLY personal American Express card where you still qualify for the bonus if you already hold a British Airways American Express card.

To qualify for the bonus, you must NOT, currently or in the previous 24 months, have held any other personal American Express card which earns Membership Rewards points.  This includes The Platinum Card and Preferred Rewards Gold.

You are OK if you had a supplementary card on someone else’s American Express account.

You are OK if, currently or in the previous 24 months, you have held any other American Express card, including the British Airways, Marriott and Nectar cards.

For clarity, you can still apply for The Platinum Card even if you do not qualify for the bonus.  You would still benefit from the long list of other benefits.

Learn more about the card benefits +

The Platinum Card from American Express comes with an unrivalled list of benefits for the keen traveller.

Your personal travel patterns will determine which of these is the most valuable.  The key benefits are:

Full comprehensive travel insurance for you, your family and the family of your supplementary cardholder, subject to enrolment

Two Priority Pass cards, each of which allows the holder and a guest unlimited free access to 1,400 airport lounges

Elite status in four major hotel loyalty schemes: Marriott Bonvoy (Gold), Hilton Honors (Gold), Radisson Rewards (Premium), MeliaRewards (Gold)

Access to Eurostar lounges, irrespective of travel class

£150 per year to spend in over 160 UK restaurants

£150 per year to spend in over 1,200 international restaurants

£100 per year to spend at Harvey Nichols, instore or online (no minimum spend required)

£300 per year of dining credit – £150 to be spent at 150+ UK restaurants and £150 to be spent at 1,200+ restaurants outside the UK

You need a minimum personal income of £35,000 to apply for the card.

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Bonus: 25,000 Avios

Read our full review • Apply here

Sign-up bonus and earn rate:

• Get 25,000 Avios when you spend £3,000 within 90 days
• Earn 1.5 Avios per £1 spent

Other information:

• Receive an Avios upgrade voucher when you spend £10,000 in a card year
• Upgrade a return BA flight for one person or two one-way flights for a couple
• Annual fee: £240, charged at £20 per month

Representative 80.1% APR variable based on an assumed £1,200 credit limit and £20 monthly fee.  Interest rate on purchases 29.9% APR variable.

Apply here

See if you qualify for the 25,000 Avios sign-up bonus +

You will receive 25,000 Avios as a sign-up bonus on the Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard credit card if you spend £3,000 within 90 days of signing up.

To qualify for the bonus, you must NOT, currently or in the previous six months, have held any other Barclaycard credit card.

You are OK if you had a supplementary card on someone else’s Barclaycard account.

You are OK if, currently or in the previous six months, you have had a British Airways American Express credit card.

For clarity, you can still apply for the Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard even if you do not qualify for the bonus.  You would still benefit from the upgrade voucher and the other card benefits.

Learn more about the card benefits +

When you spend £10,000 on the Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard, you receive a voucher entitling you to:

• book a return Avios flight for one person, paying the Avios of the next lowest cabin (ie book Club World but only pay the World Traveller Plus Avios requirement)
• book a one-way Avios flight, or one leg of a return flight, for two people, paying the Avios of the next lowest cabin

The voucher is valid for two years.  Full taxes and charges need to be paid on both tickets, based on the cabin you fly.

The voucher cannot be used to fly in First Class.

The voucher can be used for anyone, as long as the booking is made from the Avios account of the cardholder.

You receive your voucher within five days of reaching the spending target.

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

Bonus: 25,000 Avios

Read our full review • Apply here

Sign-up bonus and earn rate:

• Get 25,000 Avios when you spend £3,000 within 90 days
• Earn 1.5 Avios per £1 spent
• Earn 3 Avios per £1 spent with British Airways and BA Holidays

Other information:

• Receive a companion voucher, letting you book two flights for the Avios of one, when you spend £10,000 in a card year
• A solo traveller can use it for a 50% discount on the Avios for one ticket
• The voucher is valid in any cabin
• It can be used on British Airways, Iberia and Aer Lingus
• Annual fee: £250

Representative 113.1% APR variable based on an assumed £1,200 credit limit and £250 annual fee. Interest rate on purchases 31.0% APR variable.

Apply here

See if you qualify for the 25,000 Avios sign-up bonus +

You will receive 25,000 Avios as a sign-up bonus on the British Airways American Express Premium Plus card if you spend £3,000 within 90 days of signing up.

To qualify for the bonus, you must not have held the British Airways Premium Plus or the free British Airways American Express cards in the previous 24 months.

You are OK if you had a supplementary card on someone else’s British Airways American Express account.

You are OK if, currently or in the previous 24 months, you have held any other American Express card.

For clarity, you can still apply for the British Airways Premium Plus card even if you do not qualify for the bonus.  You would still benefit from the companion voucher and all of the other card benefits.

Learn more about the card benefits +

When you spend £10,000 on the British Airways American Express Premium Plus card, you receive a companion voucher entitling you to book two Avios redemption flights for the miles of one.

Alternatively, a solo traveller can use the voucher for a 50% reduction on the Avios required for one ticket,

This voucher is valid for two years.  Full taxes and charges need to be paid on both tickets.

This voucher is the most valuable perk available in the UK airline and hotel credit card sector in my view. It could save you 150,000 or more Avios when used for a long-haul redemption in a premium cabin.

The voucher with the Premium Plus card is far more powerful than the voucher given with the free British Airways American Express card.  You only need to spend £10,000, instead of £20,000, in a card year to receive it.  More importantly, the Premium Plus voucher is valid for two years and is valid in ALL cabins.  The voucher on the free British Airways American Express card is only valid for one year and can only be used for Economy flights.

You receive your voucher within a few days of reaching the spending target.  You need to fly the outbound leg of your 2-4-1 flight before the expiry date of the voucher.

The voucher can be used for flights on British Airways, Iberia and Aer Lingus.

You need a minimum personal income of £35,000 to apply for the card.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Bonus: 20,000 points

Read our full review • Apply here

Sign-up bonus and earn rate:

• Get 20,000 Membership Rewards points when you spend £3,000 within 90 days
• Earn 1 Membership Rewards point per £1 spent
• Get up to 12,500 bonus points each year based on your total spending
• Earn double points on all airline and overseas spend
• Points transfer at 1:1 into Avios, Virgin Points and other airline and hotel schemes

Other information:

• Amex Gold is our recommended ‘first card’ for a miles and points beginner
• Get four free airport lounge passes when you sign up, and a further four each year
• After your four free passes, you can visit further lounges for a small fee
• You receive £120 of Deliveroo credit each year (24 x £5 credits)
• Annual fee: Free for the first year, £195 from Year 2

Representative 88.8% APR variable.  Annual fee applies after the first year.

Apply here

See if you qualify for the 20,000 points sign-up bonus +

You will receive 20,000 American Express Membership Rewards points as a sign-up bonus on the American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card if you spend £3,000 within 90 days of signing up.

Membership Rewards points are hugely flexible, which is why we recommend this as the best choice for your first miles and points card.  You can transfer them into Avios, Virgin Flying Club or other airlines (at 1:1) or into various hotels schemes, into Club Eurostar or use them for shopping vouchers.

To qualify for the bonus, you must NOT, currently or in the previous 24 months, have held any other personal American Express card.

You are OK if you had a supplementary card on someone else’s American Express account.

You are OK if, currently or in the previous 24 months, you have held a Business American Express card.

For clarity, you can still apply for the American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card even if you do not qualify for the bonus.  You would still benefit from the four free airport lounge passes and the ‘no fee in Year 1’ offer.

Learn more about the card benefits +

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold comes with four free airport lounge passes.  These allow either you and up to three friends, or yourself four times, to visit any of the 1,400 lounges in the Priority Pass network.  You make additional lounge visits for £24 per person.  You receive an additional four free passes each year.

You earn double Membership Rewards points on all airline spend (made directly on an airline website) and all spend made outside the UK.

You will receive up to 12,500 bonus Membership Rewards points each year, based on how much you spend.

You receive £120 of Deliveroo credit each year.  Amex will repay you £5 for the first two Deliveroo orders charged to your Gold card each month.

Other benefits include a 10% discount on Hertz car rentals, Avis Preferred Plus car rental status and special deals at 350 selected hotels worldwide, where Preferred Rewards Gold cardholders receive a $75 in-hotel credit per stay.

You need a minimum personal income of £20,000 to apply for the card.

Nectar American Express

Bonus: 20,000 points

Read our full review • Apply here

Sign-up bonus and earn rate:

• Get 20,000 Nectar points when you spend £2,000 within 90 days
• Earn 2 Nectar points per £1 spent
• Points transfer at 400 : 250 into Avios
• Points are worth 0.5p each when spent at Sainsbury’s, Argos or eBay

Other information:

• You can convert Nectar points into Avios, and vice versa
• Annual fee: Free for the first year, £30 from Year 2

Representative 37.8% APR variable.  Annual fee applies after the first year.

Apply here

See if you qualify for the 20,000 points sign-up bonus +

You will receive 20,000 Nectar points as a sign-up bonus on the Nectar American Express credit card if you spend £2,000 within 90 days of signing up.

Nectar points are worth 0.5p each if spent in Sainsbury’s, Argos or eBay.  They can also be converted to Avios at the rate of 400 : 250.  1 Nectar point gets you 0.625 Avios.

To qualify for the bonus, you must NOT, currently or in the previous 24 months, have held any other personal American Express card.

You are OK if you had a supplementary card on someone else’s American Express account.

You are OK if, currently or in the previous 24 months, you have held a Business American Express card.

For clarity, you can still apply for the Nectar American Express card even if you do not qualify for the bonus.  You would still benefit from the ‘no fee in Year 1’ offer.

Learn more about the card benefits +

The Nectar American Express credit card comes lets you earn 2 Nectar points for every £1 you spend.  This is on top of any Nectar points you would usually earn at Sainsbury’s and other Nectar partners.

Converted to Avios, you would be earning 1.25 Avios per £1.  This makes the card better value than the free British Airways American Express credit card for your first year, as the Nectar American Express is ‘fee free’ for the first 12 months.  There is a £30 annual fee from Year 2.

The sign-up bonus of 20,000 Nectar points is worth £100 to spend in Sainsbury’s, Argos or eBay.

20,000 Nectar points can also be converted into 12,500 Avios.

You need a minimum personal income of £20,000 to apply for the card.

American Express Rewards

Bonus: 10,000 points

Read our full review • Apply here

Sign-up bonus and earn rate:

• Get 10,000 Membership Rewards points when you spend £2,000 within 90 days
• Earn 1 Membership Rewards point per £1 spent
• Points transfer at 1:1 into Avios, Virgin Points and other airline and hotel schemes

Other information:

• Your best choice if you want a ‘free for life’ card which earns Membership Rewards points
• A good choice if you want to close a Gold or Platinum card but keep your points intact
• Annual fee: Free

Representative 31.0% APR variable

Apply here

See if you qualify for the 10,000 points sign-up bonus +

You will receive 10,000 American Express Membership Rewards points as a sign-up bonus on the American Express Rewards card if you spend £2,000 within 90 days of signing up.

Membership Rewards points are hugely flexible. You can transfer them into Avios, Virgin Flying Club or other airlines (at 1:1) or into various hotels schemes, into Club Eurostar or use them for shopping vouchers.

To qualify for the bonus, you must NOT, currently or in the previous 24 months, have held any other personal American Express card.

You are OK if you had a supplementary card on someone else’s American Express account.

You are OK if, currently or in the previous 24 months, you have held a Business American Express card.

For clarity, you can still apply for the American Express Rewards card even if you do not qualify for the bonus.  You may want to do this if you are thinking of swapping your Preferred Rewards Gold or Platinum card for a free alternative, and would prefer to keep your existing Membership Rewards points balance alive.

Learn more about the card benefits +

American Express Rewards is the only ‘free for life’ American Express card which lets you collect Membership Rewards points.

We do NOT recommend this card if you would also qualify for the sign-up bonus on American Express Preferred Rewards Gold.  The Gold card is free for the first year, comes with four free airport lounge passes and £120 of Deliveroo credit and has a higher sign-up bonus of 20,000 points.

The best reason to get American Express Rewards is if you are coming to the end of your free first year with American Express Preferred Rewards Gold, or no longer want to pay the fee on The Platinum Card, but want to keep your Membership Rewards points intact.

You need a minimum personal income of £20,000 to apply for the card.

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

Bonus: 5,000 Avios

Read our full review • Apply here

Sign-up bonus and earn rate:

• Get 5,000 Avios when you spend £1,000 within 90 days
• Earn 1 Avios per £1 spent

Other information:

• Receive an Avios upgrade voucher when you spend £20,000 in a card year
• Upgrade a return BA flight for one person or two one-way flights for a couple
• Annual fee: Free

Representative 29.9% APR variable

Apply here

See if you qualify for the 5,000 Avios sign-up bonus +

You will receive 5,000 Avios as a sign-up bonus on the free Barclaycard Avios Mastercard credit card if you spend £1,000 within 90 days of signing up.

To qualify for the bonus, you must NOT, currently or in the previous six months, have held any other Barclaycard credit card.

You are OK if you had a supplementary card on someone else’s Barclaycard account.

You are OK if, currently or in the previous six months, you have had a British Airways American Express credit card.

For clarity, you can still apply for the Barclaycard Avios Mastercard even if you do not qualify for the bonus.  You would still benefit from the upgrade voucher and the other card benefits.

Learn more about the card benefits +

When you spend £20,000 on the Barclaycard Avios Mastercard, you receive a voucher entitling you to:

• book a return Avios flight for one person, paying the Avios of the next lowest cabin (ie book Club World but only pay the World Traveller Plus Avios requirement)
• book a one-way Avios flight, or one leg of a return flight, for two people, paying the Avios of the next lowest cabin

The voucher is valid for two years.  Full taxes and charges need to be paid on both tickets, based on the cabin you fly.

The voucher can be used for anyone, as long as the booking is made from the Avios account of the cardholder.

The voucher cannot be used to fly in First Class.

You receive your voucher within five days of reaching the spending target.

British Airways American Express

Bonus: 5,000 Avios

Read our full review • Apply here

Sign-up bonus and earn rate:

• Get 5,000 Avios when you spend £1,000 within 90 days
• Earn 1 Avios per £1 spent

Other information:

• Receive a companion voucher, letting you book two flights for the Avios of one, when you spend £12,000 in a card year
• The companion voucher is only valid on Economy flights
• It can be used on British Airways, Iberia and Aer Lingus
• Annual fee: Free

Representative 31.0% APR variable

Apply here

See if you qualify for the 5,000 Avios sign-up bonus +

You will receive 5,000 Avios as a sign-up bonus on the free British Airways American Express card if you spend £1,000 within 90 days of signing up.

To qualify for the bonus, you must NOT, currently or in the previous 24 months, have held any other personal American Express card.

You are OK if you had a supplementary card on someone else’s British Airways American Express account.

You are OK if, currently or in the previous 24 months, you have held a Business American Express card.

For clarity, you can still apply for the British Airways American Express card even if you do not qualify for the bonus.  You would still benefit from the companion voucher and the other card benefits.

Learn more about the card benefits +

When you spend £12,000 on the British Airways American Express card, you receive a companion voucher entitling you to book two Avios redemption flights for the miles of one.  This voucher is valid for one year.  (Full taxes and charges need to be paid on both tickets.)

The voucher on the free British Airways American Express card can only be used on Economy flights.

The voucher can be used for Avios bookings on British Airways, Iberia and Aer Lingus.

You receive your voucher within a few days of reaching the spending target.  You need to fly the outbound leg of your 2-4-1 flight before the expiry date of the voucher.

If you want more flexibility, the voucher issued with the British Airways Premium Plus American Express card is valid for two years, only requires £10,000 of annual card spend and is valid in ALL cabins including Business and First.  The Premium Plus card also has a higher earning rate of 1.5 Avios per £1 on general spend and 3 Avios per £1 on spend with British Airways and BA Holidays.

You need a minimum personal income of £20,000 to apply for the card.

Frankly, it would be madness to try to do a comparison chart so instead I want to pick out the key reason for getting each of the cards – if there is one ….

Cards with a specific ‘best in class’ reason to get them:

If you are looking for your first Avios credit card, I recommend one of these four:

British Airways Premium Plus American Express

The No 1 attraction is the 2-4-1 voucher that you receive for spending £10,000 each year. This is valid on Avios redemptions in ALL classes and saves you, for eg, 150,000 Avios on two Club World peak day tickets to San Francisco. A solo traveller receives a 50% discount on the Avios neeed for a redemption. Coupled with a high earnings rate, all serious Avios collectors should have one of these.  This is the best Avios card if you know you will qualify for, and use, the 2-4-1 voucher each year. Apply here.

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

The key attraction here is an Avios upgrade voucher for spending £10,000 per year. This lets you book 1 x return flight or 2 x one-way Avios flights for the cost of the next cheapest cabin. This card is particularly attractive to solo travellers. Apply here.

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

The free Barclaycard has a lower Avios earning rate and a far lower sign-up bonus. For many people, however, it will be the perfect product to use alongside a British Airways Premium Plus American Express. That said, I strongly recommend getting the Plus version for the 25,000 Avios bonus and downgrading later. Apply here.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

This card offers the most generous sign-up bonus for a free card.  You receive 20,000 Amex points for signing up (=20,000 Avios) and there is no fee for Year 1 (£160 thereafter). You also receive four free Priority Pass airport lounge passes, valid at 1,300 lounges globally, and £120 of annual Deliveroo credit among other benefits.  This is the best Amex card for beginners to the miles and points hobby. You will still qualify for the bonus on the British Airways Premium Plus American Express if you choose to trade up later. Apply here.

Avios credit cards that work for a niche market:

These cards are less popular with Avios collectors but there are reasons why you may choose them:

The Platinum Card from American Express

You should seriously consider applying for this card. For the first year, the £575 can easily be covered with the 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus, the Priority Pass for airline lounge access, Eurostar lounge access and the Marriott Bonvoy Gold Elite, Hilton Honors Gold, MeliaRewards Gold and Radisson Rewards Premium cards.  Many people find that they end up keeping the card despite their initial intentions because of the value of the travel insurance, lounge access and other perks, such as £300 per year of restaurant credit (yes, £300, although terms apply) and £100 per year of Harvey Nichols credit. Apply here.

American Express Rewards Credit Card

As I explain in this article about the American Express Rewards Credit Card benefits, the ARCC card is an excellent option if you already have a Gold or Platinum Amex card and want to cancel it to avoid the annual fee.  Getting a free ARCC card will keep your Membership Rewards points alive and allow you to delay transferring them to an airline or hotel partner. Apply here.

Cards which are not ‘best in class’ in terms of benefits:

British Airways American Express

There is little point getting this card now that the free Barclaycard Avios Mastercard is available. The paid British Airways Premium Plus American Express has a far better annual spend voucher, whilst the Barclaycard earns the same 1 Avios per £1 and benefits from being accepted in more places than an Amex. Apply here.

Nectar American Express

This is basically a half-way house between the two British Airways American Express cards. The free BA Amex earns 1 Avios per £1. The £250 British Airways Premium Plus Amex earns 1.5 Avios per £1. The Nectar Amex has a £25 annual fee and earns 1.25 Avios per £1 if you convert the Nectar points. The snag is that there is no option to earn a 2-4-1 voucher on the Nectar Amex and this is the most valuable feature of the British Airways cards.

HSBC Premier World Elite Mastercard

There is a lot to like about this card, especially the airport lounge access. However, looked at purely for its ability to earn Avios, the new Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard now outguns it with a 50% higher earning rate per £1.

Don’t forget that our directory of all UK airline and hotel credit cards can be found here.

PS. Do you run a small business?

If you are a sole trader or run a small business, you may also want to check out these cards, all of which earn Avios or points which convert to Avios:

EDIT: As of June 2023, British Airways Accelerating Business is temporarily not accepting new applications. We expect this to resume soon.

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points bonus 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 Business Rewards Visa

Get a 10,000 points bonus plus an extra 500 points for our readers Read our full review

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

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

Disclaimer: Head for Points is a journalistic website. Nothing here should be construed as financial advice, and it is your own responsibility to ensure that any product is right for your circumstances. Recommendations are based primarily on the ability to earn miles and points. The site discusses products offered by lenders but is not a lender itself. Robert Burgess, trading as Head for Points, is regulated and authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority to act as an independent credit broker.