Travelex replacing Moneycorp at Heathrow – what happens to the BA partnership?

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During June, Travelex is taking over the Moneycorp foreign exchange desks at Heathrow.

There seems to be a continual merry-go-round here, because it wasn’t too long ago that Moneycorp replaced American Express Currency Exchange.

What is not clear at the moment is what happens to the British Airways Executive Club partnership with Moneycorp.

The BA partnership has been a bit of a joke ever since American Express Currency Exchange pulled out. BA had an exclusive deal with Amex for earning Avios on foreign currency. When Amex lost their desks at Heathrow, they remained as BA’s exclusive partner for pre-ordering currency.

This was a bit tricky, of course, since you couldn’t actually collect it at the airport. The only way to earn Avios on pre-ordered currency was to use American Express Currency Exchange online and have it delivered to your home or office.

(There is one upside to this. If you pre-order currency online from Amex via this site – to earn Avios – or this site, which doesn’t earn Avios but has better exchange rates, it is charged as a purchase to your Amex card. This means that you earn points on the transaction and that it counts as qualifying spend towards any sign-up bonus or BA Amex 2-4-1 voucher.)

BA agreed a deal with Moneycorp to award Avios for ‘walk-up’ transactions at Heathrow. If you pre-ordered at substantially better rates, you were not meant to earn Avios – although Moneycorp would occasionally award them accidentally. You need to be a little short in the brain department to buy foreign currency at Heathrow without pre-ordering it, however, given the spread of around 20%.

There is no sign at the moment of a new Travelex deal being agreed with British Airways. This may mean, as of the end of June, there is no way of collecting Avios on currency purchases at Heathrow.

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.

JAXBA says:

24 May24 May 06:48

Before Moneycorp, and before Amex, Travelex were the BAEC partner. I remember using them in T4 and T3 pre-T5.

They also used to be a place to drop off BA/UNICEF Change for Good envelopes too…

I’m sure there’s some behind the scenes process they’ll dig out and dust off again!
- Save East Coast Rewards says:
  
  25 May25 May 15:45
  
  Travelex carried on being a BA partner well into their T5 move. There used to be a Travelex in Galleries South.
Jileen says:

24 May24 May 06:50

How does this work? I have a Moneycorp card which I usually top up at a Moneycorp counter of whichever airport I’m departing from with my BA Amex card. Based on the advertised promos it suggests a better rate if you pre-order online. However, if my Moneycorp card and Amex is linked do I still need to “pick up”from the airport / have it delivered to home?
- callum says:
  
  24 May24 May 13:43
  
  You don’t need to do it at a counter, you can do it online.
  
  Though you do realise their fees are generally more expensive than your Amex card for purchase transactions?
Stuart says:

24 May24 May 07:39

Only slightly OT but has anyone received their Supercard yet?
- Guesswho2000 says:
  
  24 May24 May 07:51
  
  There’s a thread on MSE about this, someone had received theirs but the majority haven’t as yet. I haven’t had mine yet.
- Mark says:
  
  24 May24 May 10:39
  
  Yes, although it didn’t work. Turns out they’d sent me more than one and cancelled the duplicates, so still waiting for the one that hasn’t been cancelled to turn up!
flood says:

24 May24 May 11:29

I got one yesterday. Loaded it into the app, but trying to switch which credit card it links to crashes the app…
dgsupersonic says:

24 May24 May 14:12

I received mine yesterday. Activated fine on app and CC linked too but didn’t have the chance to use it yet.
gnarlyoldgoatdude says:

24 May24 May 18:19

Won’t you still earn Avios if you hand over your Heathrow rewards number and convert?
- Rob says:
  
  25 May25 May 05:15
  
  Yes, but that is 1 HR point per £10 converted, so 10 Avios for every £100!
Dan says:

24 May24 May 18:37

Are you 100% sure about foreign currency from the Amex website being classed as a purchase rather than cash?

I sent Amex a secure message a month or so ago, and they said i’d need to “activate cash withdrawal” on my Amex Gold, in order to withdraw cash – and then i got the impression interest would be charged?

“I would like you to know that you can certainly purchase foreign currency using your American Express Preferred Rewards Gold Charge Card. However, before you make an attempt to purchase currency you need to enrol your account into Cash Advance facility.

You can opt for Cash Advance facility by visiting the following link, download and submit the completed application form for Cash Access:

http://www.americanexpress.com/uk/cash” .
- Liz says:
  
  24 May24 May 21:45
  
  I ordered £600 of US $ on my BA Amex recently and it went through as a purchase and not a cash advance as per Rob’s advice – didn’t have to activate anything. The avios appeared on my Amex account after 2/3 days. I got 600 avios plus 600 for the amex spend!
  - skins says:
    
    27 May27 May 22:10
    
    I seem to remember from previous HFP posts that this works for Amex issued cards only. Can anyone confirm?
    - Alan says:
      
      27 May27 May 22:52
      
      I’ve never tried it on a non-Amex issued card myself but that it definitely what I’ve seen reported on here before by Rob – it’s an Amex-issued only thing.
    - Rob says:
      
      28 May28 May 01:59
      
      In my experience (ie what I have been told by people who experimented with MBNA Amex cards), yes.
- Alan says:
  
  24 May24 May 23:42
  
  This is a long standing issue, Dan – Rob is correct and the agents are wrong 🙂
  - Dan says:
    
    25 May25 May 21:33
    
    Thanks Alan! I’ll give this a try (perhaps for a amount initially!)
Londonbus says:

24 May24 May 21:53

Or enjoy Supercard, Halifax Clarity and your Santander Zero – and with the money you save pay cashl for a revenue J ticket with Finnair or QR for your next Asian trip.