You can get enough Avios for a free flight to Milan if you take out a British Airways American Express credit card before 21st May.
Time is running out to take advantage of the bumper Avios bonus when you take out the British Airways American Express credit card.
At the moment, new cardholders benefit from a whopping 9,000 Avios (formerly Airmiles) when they spend £1,000 in the first three months with the card. That’s enough for a return flight to places like Milan, Prague, Berlin or Copenhagen (though you’ll pay a £35 fee on top).
However, you only have until 21st May to apply for the card if you want to benefit from this bonus Avios bonanza!
What else do you get with the British Airways American Express credit card?
There are a series of other benefits to the British Airways American Express credit card besides the welcome bonus. For each £1 you spend with the card, you get one Avios. So put all of your regular spending on the card and you’ll rack up Avios that can slash the cost of your next holiday.
Spend £20,000 or more on the card over the course of a year and you’ll get a free companion voucher, meaning a friend or loved one can join you when you cash in your Avios and only have to pay the fees, taxes and charges.
You also get automatic membership of the British Airways Executive Club, which means all sorts of member-only deals and exclusive offers.
And as the card is an American Express, you also benefit from American Express Invites, a programme which gives you access to tickets to a range of music, theatre and film events before they go on general sale.
There is no annual fee and a representative APR of 15.9%.
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Who can get the British Airways American Express credit card?
American Express says that so long as the following describes you, you stand a decent chance of being accepted for the British Airways American Express credit card:
- aged 18 or over;
- have a current UK bank or building society account;
- have a permanent UK home address;
- have a household income of at least £30,000;
- no history of bad debt;
- if you're self-employed, you've been working for more than one year.
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Travel credit cards: the best of the rest
The one problem with an American Express is that there are still some retailers that don’t accept them. But if you still want to earn Avios on your spending, then a good alternative are the Lloyds Bank Avios Rewards cards.
[SPOTLIGHT]You actually get two credit cards – an American Express and a MasterCard. The rate of return is better on the American Express, earning 1.25 Avios for every £1 spent rather than for every £5 spent with the MasterCard. But it at least means that even if you shop somewhere that doesn’t accept American Express, you will still pick up Avios.
For the first six months you actually earn double Avios each time you spend with the American Express, while you can also enjoy 0% interest on purchases and balance transfers for 13 months (with a 3% transfer fee) and no foreign exchange fees. You can even get a flight upgrade voucher when you spend £7,000 across the year.
But there is a £24 annual fee to take into account and a representative APR of 22.7%.
If you don’t like flying with British Airways, many other airlines offer credit cards that will help you cut the cost of future flights.
For example, Virgin Atlantic has the White credit cards. The White cards (made up of an American Express and Visa) allows you to earn one Flying Club mile for every £1 you spend on the American Express and for every £2 spent on the Visa. You get 3,000 bonus miles when you make your first purchase, plus 7,000 bonus miles if you spend £1,000 in your first three months and apply for the card before 30th June.
The White cards also offer 0% interest on balance transfers for six months, with a 2% transfer fee, and come with a representative APR of 17.9%.
The Flybe credit card offers the chance to get a bonus return flight (where you only have to pay the taxes and charges) when you make a purchase with the card. It also boasts a 12-month 0% period on balance transfers (with a transfer fee of a whopping 5%). For every £250 you spend on the card, you get one Rewards4all point. Those points can then be cashed in for flights (a return UK flight costs from 16 points, while European flights cost from 24 points).
There’s no annual fee and the card comes with a representative APR of 18.9%.