The earnings rate on the old bmi credit cards has been secretly increased

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Yes, strange but true.

According to this Flyertalk thread, the earning rate on the bmi credit cards, issued by MBNA, has been increased. This is despite the fact that a) that you can no longer apply for these cards and b) no-one has been officially notified of this increase.

My own card statement is not triggered for another couple of days, so I don’t have personal proof of this yet.

However, based on the FT thread:

The bmi American Express card rate is increased from 1.5 miles per £1 to 2 miles per £1

The bmi Visa card rate is increased from 0.75 miles per £1 to 1 mile per £1

The (very old) bmi £60 Platinum MasterCard, which I still have, is increased from an already-crazy 2 miles per £1 to 2.5 miles per £1

The (very old) bmi MasterCard is increased from 1.5 miles per £1 to 2 miles per £1

There are no data points yet on the bmi ‘Plus’ cards, but presumably similar increases have been applied and they will be earning 2.5 miles on the Amex and 1 or 1.5 miles

Why is this happening? Does MBNA have a massive pile of pre-bought Diamond Club miles they want to use up before BA terminates their contract? Have customers started to drift away now that Diamond Club is effectively closed and miles can only be transferred to Avios? Have some people started using the BA American Express cards instead and MBNA wants to woo them back?

We don’t know. But with earnings rates like this, you’d be crazy to use any other card in your wallet at the moment.

(PS. None of these cards are available to new applicants, before anyone asks.)

How to earn Avios points from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (December 2021)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards. Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways BA Amex American Express card

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up, no annual fee and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending ….. Read our full review

British Airways BA Premium Plus American Express Amex credit card

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the UK’s most valuable credit card perk – the 2-4-1 companion voucher Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points, such as:

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

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

The Platinum Card from American Express

30,000 points and an unbeatable set of travel benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital On Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios:

Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa

The most generous Avios Visa or Mastercard for a limited company Read our full review

You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus:

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

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.

(Want to earn more Avios? Click here to visit our home page for our latest articles on earning and spending your Avios points and click here to see how to earn more Avios this month from offers and promotions.)

Category

General

This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.

Grandmaster says:

2 Apr2 April 07:43

Wow, that’s excellent news. I own this credit card after you recommended it to me on Flyertalk for a £6k spend from a merchant who didn’t take Amex. It’s mostly been dormant since then, but I’ll make more of an effort to remember the PIN from now on!

So I guess I should also be moving across spend from the BA Amex Platinum across to this one? Thinking about it though, I think my next Amex membership year is about to commence…
Koshka says:

2 Apr2 April 07:53

I was having difficulty making any sense of my most recent statement which had 470 miles on a spend of £144. I think all the Foursquare credits confused the issue. Having tried again I think that the February spends earnt 1.5 miles per pound and the March ones earnt 2.0 miles per pound. No miles were deducted even after the Foursquare credits were applied. I have the standard MBNA BMI Amex/Visa.
Barry Lynch says:

2 Apr2 April 08:06

Just got my April statement.It’s giving 2.5 Avios per £1 of Amex spend and 1.25 Avios per £1 of Visa spend for my ‘Plus’ card.
Thanks very much Raffles for putting me on to this before it closed to new applicants.
- David says:
  
  2 Apr2 April 10:04
  
  1.25 Avios per £ just moves the Visa ahead the old Tesco Mastercard (also no longer avilable to new applicants – sorry) at 1CC/£2 = 1.2 Avios per £.
  Ofcourse Tesco clubcard may have a conversion bonus, and you have a choice where to convert….
  
  Really wish someone would say officially these new rates have ‘stuck’, or a ‘good for’ period.
Dannyrado says:

2 Apr2 April 08:34

Any reports on what the stand alone BMI mastercard is earning? The one I’m referring to was free, and earned 1 point per pound.
- gnarlyoldgoatdude says:
  
  2 Apr2 April 10:32
  
  I’m fairly certain that my bmi Mastercard used to earn 1 mile per £1, but that had/has a £60 yearly fee. My statement is due on the 10th, so I’ll let you know.
  - Rob says:
    
    2 Apr2 April 17:54
    
    If you paid the £60, your card was 2 miles per £1 and will now be 2.5 per £1 (same card I have)
    - David says:
      
      2 Apr2 April 17:59
      
      2.5 per £ on a non-Amex. Obsecene….
- dannyrado says:
  
  2 Apr2 April 19:00
  
  The answer to my own question is 1.25 avios per pound. I got my statement today. My card is free. There were a few different stand alone BMI mastercards, mine was one of the last.
Flashware says:

2 Apr2 April 08:52

Will be interesting to see what it posts as. Had quite a large spend on Visa this month (gotta love how building/home improvement related companies tend not to take AMEX….), so hopefully ended up with 1:1 on it!
Robert says:

2 Apr2 April 09:00

Just checked and I have indeed been awarded 2 points per £ from March on my BMI Mastercard.
Was getting 1.5 points per £ up to February.
john says:

2 Apr2 April 12:07

Dammit, I wish I could have applied for these, but with 6 credit searches in 6 months at the time I couldn’t risk another one and probably would have been declined.
Roger says:

2 Apr2 April 12:32

Same here, 2.5 miles per £ on my very old £60/year BMI Platinum Mastercard. Excellent stuff!
- Roger says:
  
  3 Apr3 April 08:41
  
  … and 2/£ on my zero fee MC for THIS Roger! 😀
  
  [not entirely serious] We have two posters using the same name. I hesitate to suggest registration for the forum, so I’ll think about using a different name. Slightly reluctant as it is my username on FT. Perhaps ‘Real Roger’? 😉 [/not entirely serious]
  - RogerJ says:
    
    3 Apr3 April 09:30
    
    I’m happy to become RogerJ which also matches my FT username. Should have done that in the first place!
    - Roger says:
      
      3 Apr3 April 09:45
      
      What a gentleman! Thank you. 🙂
      
      It would only have been an issue if we had wildly diverging opinions on something. I think that as we probably have similar interests, this would have been unlikely. Nice gesture!