BA Amex sign-up bonuses (9,000 / 25,000 Avios) extended to 21st May

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British Airways has extended the current sign-up bonus offer on its two credit cards from 12th February to 21st May.

These two deals are pretty good:

The free British Airways American Express (see my review) has a bonus of 9,000 Avios

The British Airways Premium Plus American Express (see my review) has a bonus of 25,000 Avios

If you’re interested, details of how to get a referral from me can be found in the reviews.

SPG Amex

The Starwood Amex is now the biggest offer nearing expiry.

With both of these deals now extended into May, you main focus if you plan to sign-up for a new credit card in the short term should be the Starwood Preferred Guest American Express credit card.

The current offer on this card expires on January 30th. The Starwood / SPG Amex offers you 20,000 Starwood points in their hotel programme for signing up. If you transfer the 20,000 points to Avios, you will receive 25,000 miles!

As well as Avios, Starwood partners with another 20+ airline programmes, so this is also a good opportunity to top-off any other airline account you have.

You pay a £75 annual fee, but this is refundable pro-rata when you cancel.

You can get this card even if you already have a BA Amex, Amex Gold, Amex Platinum or indeed any other Amex card. My full review of the card is here and my initial post on the 20,000 points promotion is here. The official Amex page for the SPG card is here.

Want to earn more points from credit cards? – December 2021 update

If you are looking to apply for a new credit or charge card, here are our November 2021 recommendations based on the current sign-up bonus.

You can see our full directory of all UK cards which earn airline or hotel points here. Here are the top current deals:

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

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

Earning miles and points from small business cards

If you are a sole trader or run a small company, you may also want to check out these offers.

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and free for a year Read our full review

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points sign-up bonus and a long list of travel benefits 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

The most generous Avios Visa or Mastercard for a limited company 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

1% cashback and no annual fee Read our full review

Category

British Airways American Express, Marriott Bonvoy American Express

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

Stuart says:

16 Jan16 January 06:21

I completed my SPG Amex min spend in early Dec yet my joining bonus has still not arrived. Very different to the Gold Amex where the points appeared just a few days later.

Does anyone have experience of receiving the SPG points quicker ?
- Rob says:
  
  16 Jan16 January 07:34
  
  Yes, most people. However, if Amex sets up your card incorrectly, the bonus does not post automatically and you need to wait for the 3 month period to elapse, at which point it is manually reviewed and they spot it. This is my understanding.
  - Mark says:
    
    16 Jan16 January 08:30
    
    Yes, mine took ages to appear last year. I completed the minimum spend in March, but was unable to close the account until early August once the points had finally all been credited and posted to my SPG account.
    
    Unfortunately that means the current offer expires about 8 days before I’d be eligible for a new sign up bonus… 🙁
    
    My wife’s on the other hand were credited with the transaction that took her over the minimum spend.
DANIEL says:

16 Jan16 January 06:52

My friends SPG posted immediately, but after mine didnt and a bit of email back and forth, I was advised they will psot in the 4th month.
John says:

16 Jan16 January 07:23

Excellent news, you will be getting referral(s) from some of my relatives in May… probably only one though as I want some for myself!

Is there still a 5 referral per year limit, how are you getting around that?
James says:

16 Jan16 January 07:46

On a related note, I just upgraded my free BA Amex standard to Premium Plus as i was approaching the £10k spend I would need to get a 2 4 1 on PP, and i was awarded 6,000 bonus avios for my first spend on the card! Was under the impression there was no bonus for upgrading so was a welcome suprise. If i wanted to i suppose I could cancel/downgrade after i spend another £800 to get/redeem my 241, and receive a pro-rata refund – effectively getting a 241 and 6000 avios for very little.
John Tickner says:

16 Jan16 January 08:07

May I enquire how the pro-rata refunds work ?

I assume the refund amount is transferred to another card – is that correct, or is it a cash payment sent by Amex ?
- Rob says:
  
  16 Jan16 January 09:24
  
  No, it is credited to your card account. When you log in (it remains active) you will see a positive balance. You then need to email or ring Amex and either move it to another Amex card (the easiest way) or arrange repayment to your bank.
Dave y says:

16 Jan16 January 08:07

Would my wife be eligible for the BA sign up bonus if she already has a supplimentry BA card on my main card?
- Mark says:
  
  16 Jan16 January 08:33
  
  Yes. We both have Gold charge cards at present and are supplementary card holders on each others accounts.
  
  Just have to be very careful not to get them mixed up!
- Rob says:
  
  16 Jan16 January 09:23
  
  Yes, fine, no problem at all
John Tickner says:

16 Jan16 January 10:00

In relation to the 2-4-1 voucher with a BA Amex I understand the taxes have to be paid with Amex – but it can be any Amex. Is it possible therefore to gain the 2-4-1 on my card, but pay the taxes on the supplementary card to my wife’s account thereby also going some way towards the spend required for the bonus on that second card ?
- Rob says:
  
  16 Jan16 January 10:32
  
  Any Amex is fine. When you come to pay the taxes, it will hard code YOUR name in the payee box and it can’t be deleted. Don’t worry – Amex does not do name verification so the payment will still go through with your wifes number.
Will says:

16 Jan16 January 10:09

Is there any way to charge the card fee to somewhere other than the card itself? I currently use the free BA card as my work credit card, and the accountant wouldn’t look too fondly upon £150 for ‘nothing’… I would rather upgrade it though because I get a fair amount going through it and it would be worth it for the 1.5 Avios. Can I charge the fee each year to somewhere else?
- Rob says:
  
  16 Jan16 January 10:27
  
  You can but ask, but I doubt it. If you are self-employed and use the card purely for business, you could charge the card fee as a business expense anyway. My SPG Amex is only use for HFP expenses so I feel fine offsetting the £75 fee against the ad income.
  - Will says:
    
    16 Jan16 January 10:35
    
    Also worth noting – if anyone does a similar thing to me, that when I last called AMEX and tried to set up the direct debit for the card to be paid from the business current account they said that the rules had changed and this was now impossible – direct debits could only be set up from a personal bank account in your own name.
    To be honest though – I don’t know if this is me being stupid and not realising this has been the case for a long time, or whether something has actually changed…
    - Will says:
      
      16 Jan16 January 10:35
      
      Sorry, to clarify – this is obviously just for the ‘personal’ AMEX cards.
      - Rob says:
        
        16 Jan16 January 11:24
        
        If this is a personal card that you happen to put company expenses through, I don’t see why you are worried about your employer seeing that you pay a £150 fee for the card? If your finance guy made a joke about you clearly being overpaid if you can afford to pay £150 for a credit card, simply point him to this website so he can learn why 25,000 Avios and a 241 voucher for £150 is a great deal!
      - Will says:
        
        16 Jan16 January 11:42
        
        Very true – perhaps I shouldn’t be so stressed about it!
      - Will says:
        
        16 Jan16 January 11:47
        
        To clarify – It’s a ‘personal’ AMEX card as opposed to one of the small business versions (because they dont do small business versions of the BA cards), but the only spend that goes on it is company spend and the direct debit is paid in full by the company each month, apologies if that wasnt clear!
      - Rob says:
        
        16 Jan16 January 12:18
        
        They do offer Corporate BA Amex cards, which is what a ‘proper’ business should use. http://www.britishairways.com/travel/amex-corporate-card-rewards/public/en_gb
        
        The ‘small business’ Gold and Platinum cards are really aimed at sole traders, there is no BA Amex version of that.