Travel reward credit card sign-up bonuses are lucrative incentives that can grow your points stash very quickly.

But if you want to maximise the points these highly valuable bonuses will give you it’s important that you apply for cards in a particular order to protect your eligibility.

One false move and you could block yourself from being able to pick up a handsome bonus, but play your cards right and you’ll be flying around the globe in no time.

There are a number of different American Express and Avios cards on the UK market, but if I was starting out today, this is the order in which I would apply for personal cards.

This guide assumes that you are collecting travel reward points to turn into Avios and redeem on British Airways, Air Lingus or Iberia flights. It also assumes that you have never previously held any of the cards mentioned.

Do not take this as financial advice. It is a suggestion as to how the reader can maximise credit card sign-up bonuses on travel reward cards.

Card 1 – American Express Preferred Rewards (Gold) Card

The perfect travel rewards starter card. With no annual fee in the first year it’s as close to a risk free approach to getting started as you can get.

More importantly, it is the correct card to start with to keep your welcome bonus eligibility intact for key future cards.

Earning the sign-up bonus on the American Express Preferred Rewards (Gold) card is fairly straight forward. Spend £5,000 on the card in the first six months of card membership and you will earn 20,000 AMEX membership reward points.

The card earns you one membership reward point per £1 spent. Assuming you only spend the minimum requirement to hit the sign-up bonus you will accumulated 25,000 reward points for your efforts.

These points can be converted into Avios at a 1:1 ratio. Before you can do that, you must join the BA Club (free) to get a BA account No (this was formerly known as the BA executive club.

This card comes with some handy perks such, as four airport lounge priority passes per year and £5 Deliveroo statement credits twice a month. But whether you choose to take advantage of these perks or not, there is no real need to keep this card beyond the first 12 months.

At this point (or earlier) I would convert my AMEX membership reward points into Avios and then close this account. Because now, we are moving on to our next card.

Special promotional offer

American Express is currently offering an enhanced sign-up bonus of 40,000 membership reward points on the Preferred Rewards (Gold) card.

Offer ends January 13, 2026. Contact me for a referral link and the sign-up bonus will be further enhanced to 45,000 membership reward points!

GARNSTER

Card 2 – American Express British Airways Premium Plus Card

American Express offer two different British Airways Credit Cards – a free one and one with a £300 annual fee. Do not touch the free one.

For starters, if you have already held a personal American Express credit card within the previous 24 months, you will not be eligible for the 5,000 Avios sign-up bonus.

Instead, I would make the £300 investment and apply for the American Express British Airways Premium Plus Card, known hereafter as the BAPP.

You are now entering what I would describe as a slightly more serious approach to earning travel reward points.

This card does not earn you AMEX membership reward points but rather Avios directly, which you can link to your BA account No. You will be eligible for the 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus if you have not previously held an American Express British Airways credit card.

As the Preferred Rewards (Gold) card is not a BA card, you are fair game for the bonus.

However, the bonus on this one involves a higher spend – £6,000 in the first three months of card membership. Before taking out this card, ask yourself if you can afford to spend £2,000 a month on the card for three consecutive months.

If you can, without causing yourself financial problems, then press ahead and chase that sign-up bonus.

Earn a companion voucher

The BAPP features more than just a sign-up bonus, however. Spend £15,000 in a membership year and you will qualify for a BA Companion Voucher – the most valuable perk available in the UK travel rewards credit card market.

The BAPP earns Avios at a rate of 1.5 per £1 spent, so if you hit your sign-up bonus target and then spend the minimum required to activate the companion voucher, you will have accrued 52,500 Avios in total.

Add that to the 25,000 points/Avios we earned on the Preferred Rewards card and we now have 77,500 points/Avios plus a companion voucher. This is now enough to get two people from London to Tokyo and back off-peak with BA + taxes and fees.

Many people keep the BAPP for consecutive years so they can earn a companion voucher each year. But whether you decide to do this or not, we are chasing sign-up bonuses here, so it’s time to switch to your next card.

Card 3 – Barclaycard Avios Plus

Like AMEX’s British Airways cards, Barclaycard does two Avios cards – a free one and one that costs £20 a month. When it comes to sign-up bonuses, once again, it is the paid for card you should be applying for.

The sign-up bonus is relatively easy to achieve. If you are new to Barclaycard, spend £3,000 in the first three months of card membership and you will qualify for a 25,000 Avois bonus. Happy days.

Like the BAPP, the Barclaycard Avios Plus card earns Avios at rate of 1.5 Avios per £1 spent. If you spend £10,000 on the card in a membership year you will also qualify for a BA upgrade voucher. This is different to the AMEX BA Companion Voucher and you can learn more about it here.

Let’s make an assumption that you want the upgrade voucher and have spent £10,000 on the card within 12 months. With the 25,000 sign up bonus, that will have earned you 40,000 Avios in total.

Add that to our running total and you now have 117,500 points/Avios, plus a BA companion voucher AND a BA upgrade voucher!

By way of example, this is now enough to fly two people return from London to Tokyo off-peak in Premium Economy, plus taxes and fees. A solo traveller can use the companion voucher for a 50% reduction in Avios and could go Business class.

Still want more? There is another sign-up bonus you could be eligible for and it’s the biggest of the lot.

Card 4 – American Express Platinum card

This is AMEX’s flagship product that is primarily aimed at frequent flyers. It also comes with a whopping £650 annual fee that you must pay on your first statement.

If that hasn’t put you off yet, the card has countless great features and benefits but we are not going into them here. Our focus for this blog is on the sign-up bonus.

Remember when I told you to CLOSE Card one – the American Express Preferred Rewards (Gold) card? If 24 months has passed since then you will now be eligible for the sign-up bonus on the Platinum card.

You will earn 50,000 AMEX membership rewards points on this card when you spend £6,000 in the first three months.

The Platinum Card earns reward points at a rate of 1 point per £1 spent, so by activating the sign-up bonus, you will have earned yourself 56,000 reward points that can be turned into Avios.

Add that to the points we have earned off the other three cards and we now have 173,500 Avios points plus the companion voucher and the upgrade voucher.

Special promotional offer

American Express is currently offering an enhanced sign-up bonus of 75,000 membership reward points plus a £250 travel credit on the Platinum card.

Offer ends January 13, 2026. Contact me for a referral link and the sign-up bonus will be further enhanced to 85,000 membership reward points!

GARNSTER

Summary of card order for sign-up bonuses

1 – American Express Preferred Rewards (Gold) Card (free for first year)

2- American Express British Airways Premium Plus Card (£300 annual fee)

3 – Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard (£20 per month fee)

4 – American Express Platinum Card – 24 months after Gold Card is closed (£650 annual fee)

Are there more sign-up bonus options?

If you run a business as either a sole trader or a limited company you can also qualify for sign-up bonuses on business cards. I will be covering them in a separate blog post.

There are other ways to earn Avios sign-up bonuses such as the Barclays Premier Current Account, but from a credit card perspective, this is the order I would be apply for cards today if I wanted to maximise the sign-up bonuses on offer.

Other ways to earn Avios

My article Five Ways to Boost Your Avios Balance Quickly can give you plenty of pointers!

• Best order to get AMEX and Avios credit card bonuses
• What is the Barclays upgrade voucher and how to make it work
• Smart Avios hack reduced my holiday cost by £500
• American Express launch tempting new welcome bonus offers
• Five ways to boost your Avios balance quickly