Great BA Amex / Amex Gold / Amazon offer: 500-1000 easy Avios or Membership Rewards points

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American Express and Amazon have launched a generous offer for many – but not all – British Airways American Express, Amex Gold and Amex Platinum cardholders.

It is limited to 20,000 people, so I strongly suggest you register as soon as possible. To put this in perspective, HFP gets 25,000 unique visitors daily and the number of BA Amex cardholders, let alone Gold and Platinum, is well into six figures.

You will find this offer on the ‘Offers’ tab of your British Airways American Express / Amex Gold / Amex Platinum statement page online, or in the app.

There appear to be a couple of versions. Both my wife and I have:

Get 500 Avios when you spend £25 at amazon.co.uk before 17th September using your BA Amex

However, a reader sent me:

Get 1,000 Avios when you spend £25 at amazon.co.uk before 17th September using your BA Amex

There is also:

Get 500 / 1,000 Membership Rewards points when you spend £25 at amazon.co.uk before 19th September using your Amex Gold / Platinum

It isn’t clear who gets what and you may have got nothing if you are very unlucky.

It is limited to the first 20,000 people to register. The only rule is that “purchases made with Market Place Sellers, Amazon Prime or subscriptions to Amazon Prime” do not count. Does this mean that if you are an Amazon Prime customer, like myself, it does not count? (it seems not – see below) Or is it a typo, meaning that purchases via Prime Now do not count? Or only purchases made using Prime next day delivery, which you can opt out from?

I did a test purchase on my own Amazon account for a £25 gift card. I AM an Amazon Prime customer. Within 2 minutes of making the purchase I got an email from American Express saying “Congratulations, you have earned 500 bonus Avios – if your transaction meets the offer terms”. Assuming that it does, since Amex has picked up the transaction and has no idea what I bought, this means:

gift card purchases do count

even Amazon Prime customers still earn the bonus on gift cards

This offer should be a no-brainer for qualifying BA Amex / Amex Gold / Amex Platinum cardholders, especially if you have the 1,000 points version. £25 is a ludicrously low purchase limit for earning 1,000 Avios or Membership Rewards points.

As I found, purchases of Amazon e-gift cards seem to count. These can be bought online via this link and added to your personal Amazon account via this page. The balance is used automatically on your next purchase.

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

American Express Gold card, American Express Platinum card, British Airways American Express

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

GQ says:

8 Aug8 August 10:27

Hilarious comments over a tenner? Hey big spender….

btw anyone had their pounds worth of martiott reward point’s?! :o)

Get a grip people…
- Graeme says:
  
  8 Aug8 August 11:24
  
  I am amused at the bizarre feeding frenzy of activity for what effectively is a ten quids worth of Avios tops, even if it is effectively free.
  
  Equally the widespread condemnation of the chat functionality seems to have miraculously changed to one of adulation when they have said yes to requests for adding this off to offers and memory of the secure messaging is long gone…
  - David says:
    
    8 Aug8 August 18:03
    
    Isn’t the very point of this website that many of us enjoy partaking in a bizarre feeding frenzy over a few avios/alternative points…?
    
    The tips and tricks on here are what’s paying for me and the other half to go BA First to Tokyo next year – and I can’t wait! 🙂
    - Graeme says:
      
      8 Aug8 August 22:28
      
      it is – that’s why i was amused… but come on, some of the attitudes some have have really can be a bit childish and petulant..
      
      I just think you win some you lose some in this game and thats part of the fun, but the level of injustice and drama that some of the comments have beggars belief, you think Amex had asked for a kidney not offered some ‘free’ MR/Avios 🙂
  - Alan says:
    
    8 Aug8 August 21:04
    
    Nope – the secure messaging were just as good in these situations but without all the issues trying to get hold of someone.
    
    I’d asked them to log my issues with them removing secure messaging and inadequately staffing online chat – had an email today saying they’ve logged a formal complaint and will investigate! Not expecting much to come of it but at least they did do as requested and properly note that I was frustrated by the new system! 🙂
    - Graeme says:
      
      8 Aug8 August 22:30
      
      i didn’t say it wasn’t (secure messaging) but perception of the chat has changed when computer says yes…
      - Alan says:
        
        8 Aug8 August 22:35
        
        Yep, can certainly appreciate that point from some of the comments! 🙂
    - Polly says:
      
      9 Aug9 August 00:11
      
      Same here. Miss secure msg. Got a survey to fill in today and last week, so am bringing itmtomtheir attention. Maybe too many staff cuts?
Kinkell says:

8 Aug8 August 10:32

Apparently I am a top customer of Amex(!) ha ha! Retired NHS employee that I am….and not a doctor! And the offer is targeted to those who are not high spenders! The lady I have literally just spoken to states that after a chat with her manager, there is no way she can add the offer to any of our cards. I have explained, read out some of the HfP comments and told her that some folk have it on a few cards, and are getting the offer added to even more cards. Still absolutely adamant she is not adding to any of our 4 cards.
Definitely out of sorts this morning!
- RKP says:
  
  8 Aug8 August 10:40
  
  A customer care exec I spoke to refused to add the offer to my card too saying they have been sent memo to not add this offer to everyone over the phone. Its targetted one
- Mark LLL says:
  
  8 Aug8 August 13:12
  
  OT but Amex CS related.
  
  Reading comments across several older articles on HfP I had formed the impression that Amex Customer Support were almost always very obliging.
  
  However this has not been my (admittedly very limited) experience.
  
  Not complaining, but some details for the curious, others should skip the following:
  
  Received e-mail offer 3k MR to add a supp card to Gold Rewards Charge. Understood must use embedded link. I began my application via the link, but failed to complete – I became concerned it was a phishing scam. Later completed my sup application while logged in to my online account. Got the sup card but no 3k MR. Left it a couple of weeks, still no MR. Called CS and politely asked about the missing MR explaining how I’d started the application via the link in the offer, and my reason for completing the application via my online account. Was immediately told I had no entitlement because I’d failed to use the link so no reward and he (for it was a male) said there was no way he could just give out MR to any cardholder who asked as then everyone would be asking for points they had not earned.
  - John says:
    
    8 Aug8 August 17:07
    
    Sounds like a case where HUACA would have worked.
  - Alan says:
    
    8 Aug8 August 21:09
    
    I know it’s a small number of points but I’d escalate that to a formal complaint. I also received an email offer for supplementary cardholder saying it must be made via the link, but every time I tried it I got an error – eventually got them to honour the points manually after they tried the link too and found it didn’t work. Clearly something up with their website though with all these issues.
Phil says:

8 Aug8 August 10:36

Thanks for the heads up. I never normally look at offers on my BA Amex, but got 1000 Avios for £25.00 spend. Used wife’s non-Prime account ‘just in case’, bought a gift voucher and got the Amex confirmation of ‘1000 Avios within next 5 days’ about 2 minutes later. This, coupled with 5 upcoming Hilton Sale overnights before 31 August as part of a very cheap cycling tour along the Rhine, mean a minimum of 13,000 Avios for a net spend of around £300.00. Cheers HFP!
RKP says:

8 Aug8 August 10:37

I called up Amex customer care and they refused to add this offer to my BA premium plus amex card. They said they have been given a memo to not add this offer to customers over the phone as its customer targeted offer
- BA says:
  
  8 Aug8 August 10:47
  
  Maybe try the online chat?
  - RKP says:
    
    8 Aug8 August 11:14
    
    Thanks, I tried online chat and they added it quickly. I am very desperate to get as many avios as Quick as Possible for booking of reward flights to tokyo in spring 2018 (without burning too many £££’s). I have 90k now, 50k more to collect. Every little helps 🙂
sam says:

8 Aug8 August 10:43

used this offer this am but no email to say i got the avios – only the confirmation of purchace of gift card. anyone else not get an email? rob got one by return.
- Geoff says:
  
  8 Aug8 August 10:59
  
  Same here – and if I look at the offer under ‘my offers’ on the amex web site, it doesn’t say ‘offer redeemed’ as it usually does.
  - RKP says:
    
    8 Aug8 August 11:09
    
    Use chat customer care and ask them politely, they will add the offer without any fuss
  - Polly says:
    
    9 Aug9 August 06:33
    
    Our 3 all now say offer redeemed.
- Martin says:
  
  8 Aug8 August 11:00
  
  Same problem with me. No email to say I got the avios. Did exactly what you and Rob did.
  - Alan says:
    
    8 Aug8 August 11:29
    
    I have the same problem, It says on the detailed terms that gift cards are excluded. Whoops I now have £100 on my Amazon account and I haven’t got the extra Avios. I think I will have to spend the credit before I can do a transaction ( not gift card) that does count.
    - Alan says:
      
      8 Aug8 August 12:15
      
      Thanks Lumma. I will do that then.
    - Rob says:
      
      8 Aug8 August 12:58
      
      Wait until the base points hit your Amex card overnight.
    - Alan says:
      
      8 Aug8 August 21:05
      
      I highly doubt that will be necessary – based on previous offers it is very likely the points will just post!
Jonnie says:

8 Aug8 August 10:55

Must have run out as cannot find on website
RKP says:

8 Aug8 August 11:08

Guys, Just got the offer 1000 avios for £25 amazon spend added by Chat customer care. Remember, chat customer care is supported by Amex India and other remote locations (not from the UK). So, Hail Amex India customer care. From my recent experiences with Amex UK customer care over the phone, is they are just a bunch of scum bags who’s sole motive is to FOB the card holder away, do not go out of the way to help the customer, different ways to say NO. I suggest, dont waste time in talking to UK customer care on phone, login to Amex online a/c, scribble thru your card details, you will see chat icon appear in few minutes or so, initiate chat conversation, ask them politely as a disappointment instead demanding the offer, and VOILA they will add the offer.
- Graeme says:
  
  8 Aug8 August 11:23
  
  I am sure this opinion of UK based CS is not swayed by the fact the online chat staff gave you what you wanted and the UK guys didn’t – a sweeping and unjustified view of their operation to label them as scum bags is quite pathetic IMHO.
  - Trevor says:
    
    8 Aug8 August 13:56
    
    Agreed, my experience has always been excellent.
  - RKP says:
    
    8 Aug8 August 14:28
    
    Well, that’s my opinion based on the assistance I have sought from Amex UK customer care over the phone. I have made complaints in past with Amex UK complaints team of why not a consistent response from across their customer care medium – over the phone in UK hrs vs Email response vs Chat. Out of which, the worst response and experience over a variety of issues such as fraudulent redemption of membership points, card cancellations, offer enquiries, invoking of protection insurance on purchases. When you escalate the issues to complaints, seemingly they don’t have answers and all they have is Apologies and they fix it (which frustrates me why in the first instance they didn’t fix). I am not making it out by myself. 90% of instances with a sample size of 10 different instances of situations where I have asked Amex UK customer care for help. An exceptional case will always be there.
- bill says:
  
  8 Aug8 August 13:53
  
  That’s exactly what happened with mine, I got through a lady in the UK via the chat and said she couldn’t do it. Waited a few mins tried again, got someone in India and politely asked if they could apply the offer. Not only did she apply it to the card I asked but also to the other 5 cards I had.
  A little politeness goes a long way.
Calz says:

8 Aug8 August 11:19

Got the 1,000 MR points, woop

OT sold my last ink cartridge on eBay. 40,000 avios (or lots of uber credit) for 0.38P per mile. Happy days, thanks Rob.