Why some people are missing their 15,000 Avios BA Amex loyalty bonus

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I wrote earlier last week about the generous bonus of 15,000 Avios points which British Airways has awarded to anyone who has held a British Airways American Express card since it launched in 2001.

Well, not quite ‘anyone’.

I have had a few emails from people who have held the card since 2001 and have not received the bonus.

BA Premium Plus American Express card BAPP

Almost all of these people have one thing in common:

At some point between 2001 and today, they upgraded from the free BA Amex to the Premium Plus card.

So, the situation is:

If you have had the free card for 15 years, and are actively using it, you got 15,000 Avios

If you have had the Premium Plus card for 15 years, and are actively using it, you got 15,000 Avios

If you upgraded or downgraded from one card to the other during the past 15 year, you did NOT got a bonus

I genuinely do not believe that British Airways intended this to happen. They will have asked Amex for a list of everyone who has held a card continuously since 2001 and this will have excluded people who upgraded or downgraded during that time.

Plenty of Avios, Amex and BA employees will read this, so hopefully they can take another look and issue the bonus to those people who do deserve it but have been tripped up on a technicality.

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

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

Kevin says:

22 Nov22 November 17:00

Regardless, the way it’s been administered is appalling. The BA (and Amex) guys I spoke with yesterday had no idea about the bonus. To be fair, the BA guy said he would pass it on to be investigated – I will post the outcome “as-and when”
- Rob says:
  
  22 Nov22 November 19:04
  
  They have all got the details on their screens.
  - Alan says:
    
    22 Nov22 November 19:55
    
    That’s almost worse that they clearly aren’t even reading what’s in front of them!
Emily says:

23 Nov23 November 13:59

Hi, I didn’t receive the 15,000 bonus Avios either. However…. on checking my account I have:
Car Hire – Avis – Avios Winner 18,000
This seems to relate back to the Avis competition in October – thanks Rob for promoting it, I would not have entered otherwise! (I completely missed the email that I had won!)
Alexandra says:

23 Nov23 November 17:16

My husband has had the BA Blue Amex card since 2001 and when I saw the various posts about the loyalty reward from BA for 15000 Avios I asked him to call up and check it out as he had not received these promotional Avios. He has spoken to Amex 3 times and BA Executive club twice and each time referred them to the HFP website. Both BA & Amex categorically said each time that they have not heard about this promotion (having referred to promotions dept, supervisors etc etc). My husband is not one to give up easily he will pursue something to the bitter end if he thinks he should be getting it. We know that BA play hard ball but based on our experience it is difficult to believe that this promotion does exist. Why is there such a wall of silence if they have it “on their screens” or maybe we are missing something?
- the real harry says:
  
  29 Nov29 November 20:21
  
  resilience is a good quality to possess
  
  or as we call it: just try another agent until you get what you want
Roger I* says:

29 Nov29 November 15:29

Not good news. 🙁

E-mail just now from BA:

QUOTE
Thank you for getting in touch with us about the Amex Loyalty 15 Year Anniversary bonus Avios promotion.

If you qualify for the award your account will be credited with 15000 bonus Avios.

However, due to the sheer volume of customers eligible for the promotion, it has taken longer than expected to credit all accounts.

If you have not received your award by the start of January 2017, please contact us again.
UNQUOTE
- Rob says:
  
  29 Nov29 November 15:46
  
  It is good news, because you weren’t actually going to get them at all but our little PR effort means that you now will, just not for a bit ….
  - Roger I* says:
    
    29 Nov29 November 20:00
    
    Gosh, thanks. 🙂
Anne says:

5 Dec5 December 10:51

I was too busy to chase this up with Amex or BA, but I received my 15k email anyway, today.
Kevin says:

6 Dec6 December 17:25

I promised to revert – and am pleased to say, following my call to Amex and then to BA last month, my 15,000 Avios arrived today!
HayMow says:

9 Dec9 December 10:27

Just to say a BIG thanks to you, Rob, for pursuing this for us – my own 15k finally arrived (without my contacting BA again) in the last week – hubby’s not yet arrived, but he didn’t join till a few months later in 2001 (vs my Jan01 start) so hopefully they are going through in date order and these will appear by the early Jan mentioned above 🙂