The BA Amex Premium Plus earn rate cut is already confirmed - and October will arrive faster than most people expect. If you are still relying on that card as your primary Avios earner, the clock is ticking.

Which personal credit card arguably offers the highest Avios earn rate of any card currently available in the UK?

The answer is waiting near the bottom... keep scrolling 👇

From 7th October, the BA Amex Premium Plus drops from 1.5 Avios per £1 to 1.25 Avios per £1 on general spend - and the 3 Avios per £1 on BA and British Airways Holidays spend disappears entirely, also falling to 1.25. That is a meaningful cut for heavy spenders who use it as their main earner.

The companion voucher and tier points are still worth keeping the card for many collectors. But if your annual spend goes well beyond the £15,000 needed to trigger the 2-4-1 voucher, the card is now doing very little heavy lifting on the remainder. So where do you put that overflow spend?

Here are the five options worth knowing about - all personal cards, all currently matching or beating 1.25 Avios per £1, and some beating 1.5 comfortably.

The Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard earns 1.5 Avios per £1 on all spend, with a 25,000 Avios sign-up bonus if you spend £3,000 in the first three months. The fee is £20 per month (dropping to £15 if you also hold a Barclays Avios Rewards current account), and you get an annual BA cabin upgrade voucher on £10,000 of spend or 7,000 Avios as an alternative.

It also includes a Dragonpass lounge pass for £24 per visit and works as a Mastercard everywhere Amex is rejected - councils, small shops, HMRC. If you only take one thing from today's issue, it is this: most collectors should have this card anyway, independent of whatever happens with their BA Amex.

This one surprises people. The Amex Gold earns 1 Membership Rewards point per £1 at base - but layer in the spend bonuses and the maths improves significantly.

Membership Rewards points are also a transferable currency - you can move them into Virgin Points, Flying Blue, Hilton, Marriott, and more. That flexibility alone is worth something. The card is free in year one, then £195 per year - and includes four airport lounge passes plus £120 of Deliveroo credit.

Heads up: if you have held a BA Amex in the last two years, you will not qualify for the Amex Gold sign-up bonus. That is a painful but important caveat.

For eligible holders, the HSBC Premier World Elite Mastercard arguably beats every card on this list. It earns 1.5 Avios per £1 on UK spend and 2 Avios per £1 abroad at base rates. But HSBC also runs annual transfer bonuses - the most recent was a 25% deal in February 2026. If that pattern continues, you are effectively earning 1.875 Avios per £1 on UK spend. The annual fee is £290, offset by a 40,000-point welcome bonus in year one.

The catch is significant though: this card is only available to HSBC Premier current account holders. You need either £100,000 invested with HSBC or an income over £100,000 paid into a Premier account. Not for everyone - but for those who qualify, it is genuinely exceptional.

The free Barclaycard Avios Mastercard earns 1 Avios per £1, but at £20,000 of spend you can take a 7,000 Avios bonus instead of the upgrade voucher. That works out to 1.35 Avios per £1 from a no-fee card - better than the post-October BA Amex on general spend. Worth noting, but the recommended approach is to start with the Plus card for the 25,000 bonus, then cancel or downgrade.

Finally, the Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard earns 1.5 Virgin Points per £1 plus a voucher worth 75,000 Virgin Points on £10,000 of spend. The annual fee is £160 and the sign-up bonus is 18,000 points on hitting a spend target. Whether to switch into the Virgin ecosystem is a bigger conversation - but the earn rate alone is competitive. Use the Virgin Atlantic Points Calculator to check how Virgin Points value compares for your specific routes.

Qatar Airways Privilege Club recently brought in tough new restrictions on using Avios to book flights for other people. The intent is fraud prevention, and the rules are here to stay - with one carve-out: Gold and Platinum members are exempt.

If you regularly use Privilege Club Avios to book for family or friends and you do not hold elite status, this is worth paying attention to. The restrictions effectively mean casual collectors with lower status tiers face the tightest limitations on third-party bookings.

For those using Qatar Avios primarily for their own travel, the day-to-day impact is minimal. But if gifting or pooling redemptions was part of your strategy, it is worth reviewing how Privilege Club fits into your setup. You can check what Qatar award availability looks like for your routes using the Qatar Avios Award Flight Finder.

Using powers granted by the Scottish Government, Edinburgh is introducing a 5% accommodation levy from this Friday, July 25th. The levy applies to the pre-VAT element of a stay, so the headline impact on your total bill is slightly lower than 5% of the full price - but it is still a real additional cost on every cash booking in the city.

For points collectors, this is a timely reminder that award nights can insulate you from some of the accumulating taxes and levies that keep rising on cash rates. If Edinburgh is on your radar this summer or autumn - whether for festivals, business, or a weekend break - it is worth running the maths on whether a points redemption actually lands cheaper in real terms now that cash bookings carry an extra charge.

Heads up: the levy applies from check-in date, not booking date - so any stays from this Friday onwards are affected, even if already booked.

Hilton Honors is currently running a 100% bonus on purchased points - meaning every point you buy comes with a matching bonus point. This is one of the stronger Hilton purchase bonuses and it expires this Friday, July 24th. If you have an upcoming Hilton redemption in mind and are a few thousand points short, this is worth a look. Buying points is never a blanket recommendation - but at a 100% bonus, the maths improves considerably for specific high-value redemptions like Category 7 properties or aspirational hotel nights. Don't top up speculatively; only buy if you have a concrete booking in mind.

KLM's Flying Blue programme is offering an 80% bonus on purchased Flying Blue Miles and this one runs out this Tuesday, July 28th. Flying Blue is one of the more flexible currencies for European and transatlantic redemptions, covering Air France, KLM, and SkyTeam partners. The 80% bonus is unusually generous for a points purchase promotion. Again - only buy if you have a specific redemption target. But if you have been eyeing a KLM business class seat to the US or a short-haul Air France booking and are just short on miles, this is a solid window.

The answer is 🟣 HSBC Premier World Elite Mastercard. At base rates it matches the Barclaycard Avios Plus and Reward+ Mastercard at 1.5 Avios per £1 for UK spend - but with an annual transfer bonus (25% in February 2026), the effective rate climbs to approximately 1.875 Avios per £1. No other personal card currently comes close on UK spend once that bonus is factored in. The catch, of course, is that you need £100,000 invested with HSBC or a six-figure salary paid into a Premier account to even access it.

Now that the BA Amex Premium Plus earn rate is dropping, are you planning to switch your main everyday spend to a different card - or will you keep it just for the companion voucher? Hit reply and let me know what your setup looks like. I read every response and it genuinely shapes what I cover next.

And if you want to sense-check exactly what your Avios are worth right now, the Avios Value Calculator is a good place to start before making any card decisions.

That's it for today - but one last nudge: the Hilton 100% bonus points deal disappears this Friday. If you have a Hilton stay booked and are short on points, tonight is the time to run the maths. Don't leave it to the weekend.

These are the top credit card welcome bonuses we're tracking. Offers change frequently - see all cards.

1. Currensea Hilton Honors Debit Card: 30,000 points after spending £2,500 in 6 months (£1.5/yr)

2. Business Gold Card: 40,000 points after spending £3,000 in 3 months (No annual fee)

3. Currensea Marriott Bonvoy Debit Card: 40,000 points after spending £3,000 in 12 months (£1.75/yr)

Looking to redeem your points? Here's what's available right now (via Award Travel Finder):

Hotels:

Status Matches:

• Flying Blue Status Match - Air France / KLM (SkyTeam)

• Flying Blue UK (BA Status Holders) - Air France / KLM (SkyTeam)

• Flying Blue (Iberia) - Air France / KLM (SkyTeam)

Buy Points & Miles Deals:

Browse every award deal we track at AwardTravelFinder.com →

Award Travel Finder hunts down the best redemptions so you don't have to.

See all deals at AwardTravelFinder.com →