EDIT: This opening post was rewritten in August 2012 to reflect the current terms


Congratulation to Roger who spotted this and tucked it away in the Amex thread. I thought it needed a wider audience.

Look here:

http://www.americanexpress.com/uk/gold-card/

The American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card is currently offering its best ever deal. The card is now FREE for the first year (£125 a year thereafter) and comes with 20,000 Membership Rewards points for signing-up and spending £2,000 in the first three months.

20,000 Membership Rewards points are good for:

20,000 Avios - potentially more if the recent 40% / 100% transfer bonuses are repeated!
20,000 Virgin FC miles
40,000 Hilton points
30,000 Alitalia miles
20,000 United miles
20,000 Asia Miles
20,000 Etihad miles
20,000 Delta miles
25,000 Flying Blue miles
1,333 Jumeirah Sirius points
20,000 SAS miles
20,000 Singapore Airlines miles
60,000 Club Carlson points
10,000 SPG points

You also get 2 airport lounge passes valid in 350 lounges worldwide.

The card gives DOUBLE POINTS on all travel spend (flights, hotels, car hire) which could be attractive - that is 2 Avios per £1 on travel expenditure which is better than the BA Amex for non-BA flights. A sample list of retailers which are qualifying for double points on travel (and indeed, for the first year, grocery) spend can be found in post 379.

You also get DOUBLE POINTS on all overseas spend (although you cannot double-up with the travel bonus) and DOUBLE POINTS on grocery and petrol spend, although this latter deal is only for your first year.

The terms and conditions of who qualifies for the bonus have been changing on a regular basis. However, the current rule is this:

"The 20,000 Membership Rewards bonus points will be awarded onto your account once you have been approved and you have spent and charged £2,000 within the first 3 months of Cardmembership.All introductory offers are subject to change, can be withdrawn at any time and are not available if you currently hold or have held any other Membership Rewards enrolled American Express Cards in the past 6 months. "

This means:

If you have or have had in the last 6 months a BA Amex, Nectar Amex, SPG Amex or Costco Amex then you are OK

If you have or have had in the last 6 months a Platinum, Gold or Green Amex charge card, then you are NOT OK

If you have any Amex issued by someone other than Amex (a Lloyds Amex, an MBNA Amex etc) then you are OK as these have nothing to do with the qualifying criteria as they were not issued directly by Amex

Most people will look to cancel the card before the first anniversay to avoid paying the fee in Year 2. If you do decide to keep the card and pay the £125 renewal fee, you will get a bonus of 7,500 MR points if you have spend £15k on the card during your previous year.

Important things to note:
1. This is a CHARGE card and not a credit card. You must settle your account in full every month.
2. Note the £20k minimum household income

You can increase your sign-up bonus to 22,000 Membership Rewards points if you are referred by an existing Platinum or Gold Amex cardholder. The referrer will receive 12,000 points as well. There is a long list of FT'ers in post 1 of this thread - http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...t-sign-up.html - who will be able to refer you.