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American Express retains the British Airways credit card contract

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The British Airways credit card contract was up for renewal recently.  I don’t know when the current deal was ending – the only bit of news I managed to find out in advance was that IAG was tendering for a single contract covering all of its airlines.

I had a sneaky feeling – which have been wrong – that some of the aggressive promotional activity we saw from MBNA last year on its airline cards may have been linked to this.  Did they want to show BA what could be done if they won the deal?

The inclusion of Iberia and Vueling (the Spanish based budget airline owned by IAG) in the contract played into the hands of American Express, however.  I am not aware of MBNA or Barclays, who were the only realistic competitors, having an established credit card operation in Spain of the scale required to take this on.

British Airways American Express card

On Wednesday, American Express held an investor day in New York.  The slides are available online but they do not tell you anything interesting.  Bloomberg released a summary of the discussion, however, and it confirmed the following:

A new British Airways deal has been signed

A new Iberia deal has been signed (this is currently an Amex and Visa combo)

A new Vueling product is included

The Starwood Preferred Guest Amex deal has been extended

Nothing else is known at this time.  There does not seem to be a transcript of the investor day (yet?) which would provide some more information.

We can treat this as good news.  The British Airways credit cards are, if we’re honest, a very attractive product with a set of benefits which is well pitched.

The 2-4-1 voucher on the Premium Plus card is the most valuable spending perk of ANY UK credit card as I showed here.  You only need to look at the mish-mash of additional benefits offered on, say, the Virgin Black and Emirates Elite cards (which turn out to be far less useful than you think when you read the small print) to realise how good the BA cards are.


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

Nectar American Express

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

American Express Platinum card Amex

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

Amex Platinum Business American Express

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 card

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

Comments (12)

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

  • nerd. says:

    I’m just out of my 6-months since I ditched the BA card. Here’s hoping for another welcome bonus boost to celebrate the news 🙂

  • Dmitri says:

    Sorry guys, a bit off topic but whats the name of the new credit card coming up in April which will eliminate the foreign transaction fees, because you can link your current credit / debit cards to it?

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