There are so many travel rewards credit cards in the UK, but which one is the best?
Credit cards can be a scary thought for many people. They were for me for many years after I got into debt with one when I was at University. But, 15 years later, I’ve learned how to use them effectively. I want to help you make the most of your finances and travel arrangements. Travel rewards credit cards are a great way to benefit from your usual spending and support your travels. So, I am going to show you the best travel rewards credit cards in the UK.
Table of contents
- What Are The Best UK Travel Credit Cards?
- British Airways American Express Credit Card
- British Airways American Express Premium Plus Credit Card
- American Express Preferred Rewards Gold Credit Card
- American Express Platinum Credit Card
- Virgin Atlantic Rewards Credit Card
- Virgin Atlantic Rewards+ credit card
- Barclaycard Avios Credit Card
- Barclaycard Avios Plus Credit Card
- Which is the best UK travel credit card for you?
- Casual Travellers
- Moderate Travellers
- Major Travellers
Here is a snapshot of the cards I cover in the post.
| Credit Card | Annual Fee | APR (Purchase Rate) | Welcome Bonus | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| British Airways American Express Credit Card | £0 | 30.4% (30.4%) | 5,000 Avios when you spend £2,000 in first 3 months | – 1 point for every £1 spent – Companion voucher when you spend £15,000 in a year |
| British Airways American Express Premium Plus Credit Card | £300 | 138.5% (30.4%) | 25,000 Avios points when you spend £3,000 in the first 3 months | – 1.5 points for every £1 spent – Companion voucher when you spend £15,000 in a year |
| American Express Preferred Rewards Gold Credit Card | £195 (free in first year) | 87.8% (30.4%) | 20,000 Membership Rewards Points when you spend £3,000 in the first 3 months | – 1 point for every £1 spent – 2 points for every £1 spent in the Amex travel portal – 2,500 bonus points for every £5,000 spent |
| American Express Platinum Credit Card | £650 | 694.9% (30.4%) | 50,000 Membership Rewards Points when you spend £10,000 in the first 6 months | – 1 point for every £1 spent – 2 points for every £1 spent in the Amex travel portal |
| Virgin Atlantic Rewards Credit Card | £0 | 26.9% (26.9%) | 3,000 Virgin Points with your first purchase within 90 days | – 0.75 Virgin Points for every £1 spent – 1.5 points for every £1 spent with Virgin Atlantic or Virgin Holidays – Upgrade voucher when you spend £20,000 in a year |
| Virgin Atlantic Rewards+ credit card | £160 | 69.7% (26.9%) | 18,000 Virgin Points with your first purchase within 90 days | – 1.5 Virgin Points for every £1 spend – 3 points for every £1 spent with Virgin Atlantic or Virgin Holidays – Upgrade voucher when you spend £10,000 in a year |
| Barclaycard Avios Credit Card | £0 | 29.9% (29.9%) | 5,000 Avios when you spend £1,000 in first 3 months | – 1 Avios for every £1 spent – Upgrade voucher when you spend £20,000 in a year |
| Barclaycard Avios Plus Credit Card | £240 (£20 per month) | 80.1% (29.9%) | 25,000 Avios when you spend £3,000 in first 3 months | – 1.5 Avios for every £1 spend – Upgrade voucher when you spend £10,000 in a year |
What Are The Best UK Travel Credit Cards?
British Airways American Express Credit Card
The British Airways Amex credit card is one of the best UK travel credit card if you’re new to travel rewards credit cards, if you’re a casual traveller, or if you regularly fly with British Airways and their partners. This card is designed for UK residents aiming to collect and benefit with Avios points through everyday spending. You will earn 1 Avios point for every £1 spent on your credit card, which can be redeemed for flights, upgrades, and more. These points can be used to redeem benefits with British Airways and their partners. For example, you can redeem a one-way economy flight from London to over 25 destinations for 10,000 Avios points.
As with many credit cards you can also earn additional points through bonuses. Firstly, you can earn 5,000 Avios points if you spend £2000 in the first three months and you can earn 4,000 Avios points for each person you refer, up to a maximum of 90,000 points per year.
Another notable feature of the British Airways American Express credit card is the British Airways Companion Voucher. This is earned by spending £15,000 in a membership year and allows you to bring a companion on the same flight and cabin, for free, when booking a reward flight using Avios. Alternatively, if you don’t have a companion to take, you can use your voucher to get 50% discount off you book your Avios rewards flight. If you don’t think you will meet the requirements of the companion voucher, you should consider the American Express Rewards Credit Card. This card offers the same benefits but you earn Amex points instead of Avios points. This gives you more flexibility as you can transfer your points to numerous different airline programmes and offers twice as many points for the sign-up bonus.
The British Airways Amex credit card comes with no annual fee and a representative APR of 30.4% as of April 2025.
Other benefits of the British Airways American Express credit card include –
- Global assist
- Travel accident insurance
- Purchase and refund protection
- Fraud Guarantee
- American Express experiences
- Complimentary supplement cards
British Airways American Express Premium Plus Credit Card
The British Airways Premium Plus Amex credit card is the upgraded version of the British Airways Amex card. It offers enhanced Avios earning potential and exclusive travel benefits. This makes the card more beneficial for frequent travellers who primarily use British Airways and their airline partners and travellers who want to maximise their Avios earnings and rewards.
You will get everything you get with the basic card, but there are also many enhancements with British Airways American Express Premium Plus. The table below shows a full comparison of benefits.
| British Airways Amex Premium Benefits | British Airways Amex Basic Benefits |
|---|---|
| 1.5 Avios points for every £1 spent | 1 Avios points for every £1 spent |
| 3 Avios points for every £1 spent directly with British Airways and their partners | 1 Avios points for every £1 spent |
| 30,000 bonus Avios points if you spend £6,000 in the first 3 months | 5,000 bonus Avios points if you spend £2,000 in the first 3 months |
| 9,000 Avios points for every person you invite | 4,000 Avios points for every person you invite |
| Companion voucher valid for economy, business and first class | Companion voucher valid for economy only |
| Companion voucher valid for 24 months after redemption | Companion voucher valid for 12 months after redemption |
| 3,000 bonus Avios points with your first supplementary card | 1,000 bonus Avios points with your first supplementary card |
| Global assist, travel accident insurance, travel inconvenience insurance, missed departure coverage, flight delay coverage, delayed/ lost/ stolen baggage cover | Global assist, travel accident insurance |
As you can see, the benefits look much better. But unfortunately they do not come for free. The British Airways Amex Premium card costs £300 per year, which is not cheap, especially for a casual traveller. This card also states a representative APR of 138.5%. However, this is not as ridiculous as it sounds. This rate includes the £300 annual fee on an assumed credit limit of £1,200. The actual interest rate on purchases is also 30.4%, the same as the basic card.
American Express Preferred Rewards Gold Credit Card
You’re probably starting to see a theme here. American Express has a lot of different credit cards with travel benefits. But unlike the previous cards, this one is not affiliated with any company or airline like the British Airways cards are. This means the rewards are not Avios points, they are Amex membership rewards points instead. The good thing about these points is that you have more flexibility with them as they can be transferred to many airline programmes, usually at a rate of 1:1. This includes British Airways Executive Club (Avios), Delta SkyMiles, Air France/ KLM Blue, Iberia Plus, as well as many other airline and hotel programs.
The American Express Preferred Rewards Gold Credit Card also offers some incredible other benefits for travellers. I think this is the best UK travel rewards credit card to get started with. Firstly, you get a generous welcome offer of 20,000 points when you spend £3,000 in your first 3 months. They also offer enhanced welcome bonuses, such as 30,000 points until 27th May 2025. As well as this, you have 4 complimentary airport lounge visits each year and some moderate level travel insurance.
Here is a full list of benefits of the American Express Preferred Rewards Gold include –
- Generous welcome bonus
- 4 complimentary airport lounge visits with Priority Pass
- 1 point for every £1 you spend
- 2 points for every £1 you spend directly with airlines
- 3 points for every £1 you spend through the Amex travel portal
- 2,500 bonus points for every £5,000 spent (up to 12,500 points per year)
- 9,000 bonus points per referral
- £10 cashback on Deliveroo orders per month
- Travel Insurance
- Access to exclusive Amex Experiences
You get very good benefits with this card. The first year is usually free but it will cost £195 per year after this. The interest (purchase rate) for this card is also 30.4% but the representative APR is listed as 87.8%. This includes the £195 card fee with an assumed credit limit of £1,200.
I chose this card for my first credit card, and I personally think this is the best UK travel credit card to start with. The only reason being the generous welcome bonus and the first year being free. After this I would consider whether it is right for you and probably cancel it and change to a different one.
American Express Platinum Credit Card
The American Express Platinum Credit Card is the upgraded version of the American Express Preferred Rewards Gold Card and is very much a premium credit card designed for frequent travellers who want premium benefits and luxury experiences. It comes with a hefty annual fee of £650 but does come with some very generous benefits.
The table below shows a comparison of the American Express Preferred Rewards Gold Card and the American Express Platinum Credit Card, with some additional benefits listed further down.
| American Express Platinum Benefits | American Express Preferred Rewards Gold Benefits |
|---|---|
| Unlimited airport lounge visits with Priority Pass | 4 airport lounge visits with Priority Pass |
| Welcome bonus of 50,000 points when you spend £10,000 in 6 months | Welcome bonus of 20,000 points when you spend £3,000 in 3 months |
| 2 points per £1 spent on Amex travel | 2 points per £1 spent on Amex travel |
| 12,000 point referral bonus | 9,000 point referral bonus |
| Comprehensive travel insurance | Less comprehensive travel insurance |
Additional benefits included with Amex platinum
- £200 per year UK dining credit with selected restaurants
- £200 per year Europe dining credit with selected restaurants
- Elite status with hotels such as Hilton, Marriott and Radisson
- Hotel benefits (free upgrades, free breakfast, late checkouts) with Fine Hotels and ResortsGenerous welcome bonus
The Amex Platinum Credit Card is not going to valuable for a lot of people. However, it is very valuable for those who can make the most of the benefits. For example, the dining credit, unlimited airport lounge access and travel insurance is worth around £1,000. In my opinion this is the best UK travel rewards credit card for regular travellers.
Virgin Atlantic Rewards Credit Card
The Virgin Atlantic Rewards credit card is honestly not one of my favourites but is still one of the best UK travel credit cards. It is a great card if you fly regularly with Virgin Atlantic and their partners, but you can’t transfer points to other airline programs unlike Avios and Amex Membership points. This card is more of a normal credit card with some travel benefits rather than a credit card designed for travellers.
The Virgin Atlantic Rewards Credit Card starts very well with no annual fee and a lower representative APR of 26.9%. They also have a good welcome bonus of 3,000 points on your first purchase in the first 90 days of having the card. You will earn 0.75 points per £1 spent or 1.5 points per £1 spent directly with Virgin Atlantic or Virgin Holidays. Although the earning rate of these points is less than other Credit Cards, the points are generally worth a more (1 point is worth 1.2 – 1.8p vs 0.5 – 1p for Avios).
As with the British Airways American Express credit card, the Virgin card offers a rewards voucher for an upgrade or companion. However, this is earned through quite a large spending of £20,000 per year.
Virgin Atlantic Rewards+ credit card
The Virgin Atlantic Rewards+ credit card is the upgrade from the Virgin Atlantic Rewards card and offers much better benefits. You get the same basic benefits and restrictions as you do with the basic card. Then, there aren’t any different benefits specific to the Virgin Atlantic Rewards+ credit card, just enhancements of the basic card as show below.
| Virgin Atlantic Rewards+ Benefits | Virgin Atlantic Rewards Benefits |
|---|---|
| 18,000 point welcome bonus with your first purchase | 3,000 point welcome bonus with your first purchase |
| Companion voucher after £10,000 spent in a year | Companion voucher after £20,000 spent in a year |
| 1.5 points for every £1 spent | 0.75 points for every £1 spent |
| 3 points per £1 spent with Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Holidays | 1.5 points per £1 spent with Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Holidays |
So the Virgin Atlantic Rewards+ credit card definitely offers better benefits than the basic card but it does cost £160 per year. The interest rates are the same at 26.9% APR but the website states 69.7% due to the annual fee being included based on a £1,200 credit limit. This is one of the best credit cards for travel rewards in the UK if you use Virgin a lot.
Barclaycard Avios Credit Card
I would put the Barclaycard Avios credit card in a similar category to the Virgin Atlantic Rewards Credit Card. It offers similar benefits but works on the Avios points network rather than Virgin, which are more flexible due to being able to transfer them to other airline groups.
The Barclaycard Avios Credit Card does not cost anything and offers an APR of 29.9%. You will earn 1 Avios point for every £1 spent on the card and 5,000 bonus points when you spend £1,000 in your first 3 months. Other than this the only benefits are a bonus voucher when you spend £20,000 in a year, which you can use to upgrade a flight bought with points or transfer for 7,000 Avios points, and payment protection and fraud monitoring (which is pretty standard for credit cards in general).
Although the Barclaycard Avios Credit Card doesn’t sound like a particularly rewarding credit card, you can boost these earnings with a Barclaycard Premier bank account. The bank account costs £12 per month and gives you these additional rewards –
- 25,000 Avios points welcome bonus if you do a full switch using the Current Account Switcher Service within 3 months or 2,500 Avios points if you’ve been with Barclaycard for four months of more
- 1,500 Avios points every month
- 7,000 Avios points every year
- Discounted airport lounge access with Assurant and DragonPass
If you choose this option, you could get 50,000 Avios in the first year plus a companion or upgrade voucher. For reference, you can get return economy flights from London in to Europe starting from 20,000 – 30,000 Avios points. The annual cost of the account is £144, and when you dig deeper and see that to be eligible for the premier account you have to have an annual income of at least £75,000 it seems ridiculous.
Barclaycard Avios Plus Credit Card
The Barclaycard Avios Plus Credit Card offers the same benefits as the Barclaycard Avios Credit Card with some upgraded enhancements. The APR is the same at 29.9% but this card does come with a fee of £20 per month. The enhancements don’t seem that great considering the monthly fee.
With the Barclaycard Avios Plus Credit Card you will a welcome bonus of 25,000 Avios points when you spend £3,000 in your first 3 months and an enhanced rate of 1.5 Avios for every £1 you spend on your card. The upgrade voucher is also earned after £10,000 of annual spending instead of £20,000. You will also get discounted access to airport lounges, costing £20.50 per person (usually £25ish for one hour or £40ish for 3 hours).
There is also the option to add the Barclaycard premier banking account as mentioned above. The benefits of this are exactly the same other than an extra bonus of having £5 per month deposited into your account.
Which is the best UK travel credit card for you?
Firstly, I would strongly recommend the Amex Preferred Rewards Gold card to everybody whilst it’s free for the first year. After this you should look at other options to fit your travel and spending habits.
Casual Travellers
If you’re a casual traveller the British Airways American Express is the best credit card for travel rewards in the UK. The general benefits are great for beginners, they offer amazing potential for referral bonuses and Avios points have the flexibility of being transferrable to other airline programs.
Moderate Travellers
If you travel regularly, have moderate spending levels each month and are happy to pay a fee for additional benefits, I suggest the British Airways American Express Premium Plus credit card. This card offers greater Avios earning potential, better referral bonuses, and more comprehensive travel insurance.
Major Travellers
If you travel a lot, spend a lot of time in airports and can make the most of the additional vouchers, the American Express Platinum offers the best value. Despite the hefty fee you can easily get this value back throughout the year.
I hope this has helped you decide which credit card is best for you as they truly are an amazing tool to use when your travelling. Let me know in the comments which credit card you think is the best value and if there are any others that I have missed.
I have many other articles on the site, whether you need inspiration, travel tips or itineraries.
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