An interesting one for BMI credit card holders

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Are you one of the many people who still holds one of the old BMI (British Midland) credit cards? You would have been pretty crazy to cut them up, given that you will be earning up to 2.5 Avios per £1 on a Mastercard.

If you have one of these cards, you will be using ‘Combine My Avios’ every month to move your Destination Miles from Diamond Club across to British Airways Executive Club or avios.com.

Here is something I have noticed recently …..

Usually, with ‘Combine My Avios’, your details need to match PERFECTLY for the transfer to work. Full name, home address, email address and date of birth – it seems that at least three of these need to match.

When moving Destinations Miles into Avios, though, the restrictions are weaker. From a bit of testing, it seems that only surname and address need to match.

This means that you may be able to transfer Destinations Miles into the Avios account of another family member. For example, my Mum has a BMI credit card and her Avios account is now at exactly 18,000 Avios (enough for a Club Europe redemption).

I decided to ‘freeze’ her account at this level, and have been moving her Destinations Miles into my own BA account. (Not a fortune, just a couple of hundred a month.) We only share surname and account address, not email address or, obviously, date of birth, but the transfers are going through OK.

If you or a family member still have a BMI credit card, you may be able to use this to distribute your credit card miles in a more effective way ….

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: