UPDATE MARCH 2022 – CHECK NEW OFFER: Brussels Airlines American Express card with 20000 bonus miles.
Brussels Airlines is relaunching its Miles & More credit cards with a very attractive limited time offer: double sign-up bonus for friend referrals. To receive a personalized sign-up link for this offer, please complete the form below.
- Brussels Airlines Preferred American Express (€120 annual fee)
Sign-up bonus: 6000 miles (instead of 3000 miles)
- Brussels Airlines Premium American Express (€150 annual fee)
Sign-up bonus: 12000 miles (instead of 6000 miles)
- Pay your cellphone bills with Brussels Airlines American Express
Extra bonus: 2000 miles (one time)
Earning airline miles is not limited to flying, you can earn miles with almost anything these days. One of the easiest ways to earn extra miles is signing up for a credit card. You will receive a number of miles just for signing up for the card and you will get 1,25 or 1,5 miles per euro spent. American Express also provides a bonus when you spend a certain amount in one year. Unfortunately, the number of credit cards earning airline miles is very limited in Belgium. Still, they can offer you a great opportunity to travel the world in luxury on a budget. For Belgian residents, the credit card offers are limited to one program, Miles and More of the Lufthansa group. Miles of this program can be used to book (and upgrade) flights of any Star Alliance carrier.
Brussels Airlines offers three Miles and More credit cards: the Preferred MasterCard, the Preferred American Express and the Premium American Express. I don’t detail the MasterCard in this posts as it comes with only 2000 welcome miles. I signed-up for the Brussels Airlines Preferred American Express Card back in 2008 and switched to the Premium American Express card in 2011 earning me a total of more than 400,000 miles! The key to earning the maximum amount of miles is to pay as much as possible with your credit card. Pay all your bills and purchases (both online and offline) with your credit card, every euro counts! Shopping (including groceries), dining, gas, electronics, hotels, airline tickets, … almost everything! Some payments might even result in an extra bonus. Example: Paying your cellphone bills with your Brussels Airlines American Express card gets you 2000 bonus miles!
The yearly fee also includes a number of insurances:
How much are those miles worth?
It all depends on what you spend them. In my opinion, only long-haul Business Class and First Class flights are worth spending miles on. These allow you to maximize the value of your miles as Business Class flights easily cost >€2000 and First Class flights >€8000. Airline loyalty programs will do everything to make you spend your miles on less valuable options e.g. use miles to buy goodies in their online shop, book hotel nights or rent a car. You really don’t want to do that! Miles and More is currently selling miles with a 20% bonus, which is still way too expensive, but it gives you an idea how they value the miles.
Signing up for the Brussels Airlines Premium American Express earns you 12,000 miles which are being sold for €245 by Lufthansa.
Include the 2000 extra miles you get for paying your cellphone bill with American Express, and you have 14,000 miles which are being sold for ~€290!
How do I maximize the number of miles earned?
I would recommend to sign-up for the Brussels Airlines Premium American Express card now to get the 12000 miles. Complete the form to pay your cellphone bill with the card and earn an additional 2000 miles. Next year, you could cancel the Premium card and switch to the Preferred card. You would earn the sign-up bonus again (this time for the Preferred card, which is 6000 miles via the friend referral) and you would earn another 2000 miles when you register to have your cellphone bills paid with the Preferred card. That’s 22,000 miles in one year, just by signing up for these cards!
What are the pitfalls?
- The annual fees of the Brussels Airlines American Express cards are high (€120/€150).
- American Express cards have a high conversion fee (2,5%) for non-euro payments. Use your Brussels Airlines American Express cards for euro payments only. For non-euro payments, I recommend Revolut.
I’m not yet a Miles and More member, where do I sign-up?
You can enroll at the Miles and More website.
UPDATE MARCH 2022 – CHECK NEW OFFER: Brussels Airlines American Express card with 20000 bonus miles.
Questions? Email me at bart@bart.la
Don’t see the form? Click here.
To receive a personalized sign-up link with double welcome bonus, please complete the form below.
Full disclosure: By signing up for the Brussels Airlines American Express card using my personalized link, I will also receive bonus miles (friend referral program). Thank you for supporting my travel blog and enjoy your double sign-up bonus.
Bart Lapers 
Hi Bart!
I am Belgian, but mostly living (and spending) in Southeast Asia and Australia, Is there any credit card program you can recommend to me? Thank you!
Hi Karel, not familiar with local credit cards earning points/miles in Asia, but if you have euros and would like to avoid currency conversion fees I can recommend https://www.denizen.io/
Hi Bart,
Do you remember the delivery time for these credit cards? Want to order one, but would need it by next week on Wednesday.
Thanks in advance!
Aaron
Hi Aaron, by next Wednesday would be quite challenging. Are you traveling and need the card? For non-euro payments I recommend Revolut.com and Denizen https://www.denizen.io/pricing/
Hi Bart,
Thanks for your reply. I have a MasterCard Gold by Belfius (1% conversion fee, which is OK for me), but going on a quite expensive holiday so thought of accruing some award miles. Pity I thought of it this late.
Hi Bart….here a request for advice. I’m considering the purchase of the SN/Amex Premium card and am currently AMEX Gold Card holder with +50.000 Membership Rewards in my account. Would you consider it interesting transferring my membership rewards into M&M in order to be able to accumulate even more M&M miles, or do you consider the tranfer too expensive (2 membership rewards -> 1M&M). Thanks for your opinion!
Hi Vern, 2 to 1 is indeed not a great conversion rate for Miles and More. Do you have any other points which you collect? I convert my Membership Rewards points to Avios or Etihad Guest miles.
Hey Bart…thanks for your reply! I’m also Skymiles member at Delta….and the conversion for AMEX Rewards to DL Skymiles is 3 to 2. However if I’m not mistaken, you also need more miles for upgrades/free flights on DL. it’s only recently that I started to subscribe to several FF programs, so any advice is more than welcome. Thanks again!
Hi Vern, Delta SkyPesos are indeed not the best miles out there. (see https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/milesbuzz/1101679-why-delta-s-skymiles-called-skypesos.html ) The right airline loyalty program for you depends on:
– Which airline alliance you often fly (Star Alliance, SkyTeam, OneWorld, …)
– And/or in case you don’t fly a lot but want to redeem miles with a specific airline, what alliance that airline is part of.
You seem to fly SkyTeam often? Any specific award flights in mind?
Hey Bart…the subscription to Skymiles was only due to the bargain fare I managed to book for my NYC trip last week…..But, (just like you), I’m a travel fanatic and I would like to start using my Membership Rewards for some more personal trips (European & Worldwide (mainly to the US). In general, I’m quite BA minded, but have heard changes to Avios are on its way. However, I also understood the Reward Flight Saver are still quite interesting. So, BA Executive Club might still be a possibility. On the other hand, BA webfares ( mainly POS (point of sale) Belgium are quite expensive. In your opinion is BA Exec Club a valid alternative? thanks again!
Hi Vern, for OneWorld flights, BA Executive Club might be a good option. Here are some great ways to use BA
avios. http://onemileatatime.boardingarea.com/2017/09/18/use-avios-points/
Hi Bart,
I just got the Amex Premium through your referral. Thanks!
I’d like to know roughly how long it takes for the sign up bonus to be posted on my Miles and More account. I already made a few purchases with the card.
Thanks!
Hi Felipe, the referral bonus only posts after you have fulfilled your first statement. If you didn’t receive if after using the card for two months, please get in touch with me at bart@bart.la Enjoy collecting and spending your miles!
Hi,
is it possible tto link more than one American Express card to the same M&M account for example my girlfriend applies for a card for her personally seperate from my own American Express.
Hi Dries, unfortunately that is not possible. You can only request a second card for your girlfriend which will be linked to your account but you’ll be held accountable to make sure the bills are paid at the end of the month.
Hi Bart I have also a question. I and my wife have different MM cards as usual. We would like to have Brussels Airlines Premium American Express. It is very expensive to have 2 AMEX cards. We want to have one AMEX with one additional card on my wife’s name. Can my wife link her MM to the additional card?
Hi Samet, thanks for your question. The second card would be linked to your M&M account
Too bad you need 35,000 annual income for the premium…
Another bonus for you!
And me 😉
Thanks Merlijn! Enjoy your Miles & More reward flights!
I finally received the welcome bonus last week, but it’s only 6000 miles, not the promised 12000. I did get the Premium card. Should I make another phone call? Once this is settled, I’d consider switching to the Preferred card as you suggest in your blog post.
Hi Merlijn, when did you start using the card? Did you use the same email address for your application as you provided to me in the referral form? I can contact AlphaCard to have it corrected for you.
Hi Bart,
I have another question regarding the AMEX premium (I now have it, and I got my 12k points thank to you!). I think that the miles can expire if we don’t use the card each month (or every 3 months). So my question is, if we switch to the AMEX preferred at some points, how many months/years do we have to use the miles earned with the premium card ?
Thx,
Alex
Hi Alexandre, Miles & More miles expire 36 months after you have earned them. As long as you have a Brussels Airlines American Express card and pay at least once a month with it, they won’t expire. My suggestion, request the Preferred card, once you get it, cancel the Premium one and you’ll get the membership fee for the remaining months refunded.
Thank you very much for this article, Bart! So, if I understand well, your advice is to cancel the premium card just before the end of the first year (to avoid paying the next 150€), and subscribe to the regular one?
Hi Alexandre. Correct, at least if you would like to enjoy both double sign-up bonuses.
Thanks for the answer! Also, do you know the Beobank World Travel MC (https://www.beobank.be/fr/Cartes-de-credit/Beobank-World-Travel-MasterCard.aspx) ? If you do, does it look like a good deal?
Hi Alexandre, the Beobank card is not interesting as you’re not earning ‘real’ airline miles. You’re provided with miles which can only redeemed via Beobanks rewards program which isn’t really generous.
Hi bart, i have a question. Is it possible to buy with the cc lets say 500 euro in an legal online casino and get the miles for it ? Then cash out and buy again ?
Is this legal ?
Depends on the Terms & Conditions of the online casino I would say. There’s always a risk that your ‘casino credits’ freeze one day. Up to you to decide if it’s all worth the effort / risk… 😉
Any idea how much it costs to get an additional card for my wife ? Can you confirm that the miles from both cards are accumulated in the same M&M account ? Thx
Hi Simon, an extra card would €50 per year. Miles earned with that card would be accumulated in the same M&M account.
Hi Bart,
Last year (August) I used your link via email to get the American Express BA Premium card, but I never got the 6000 extra miles for using your referral link. Can you please check this ?
As you suggested, I now asked for the Preferred card using your referral email again. However, I noticed that the pdf created from this link is exactly the same as the one created when just clicking on the amex website.
Thanks
Nora
Dear Nora,
Thank you for your message. I have contacted Alpha Card to check this. I’ll keep you updated as soon as I receive feedback. The referral miles are linked to your name and email address and are manually assigned, so it’s normal to have exact same PDF. Alpha Card manually matches the approved card applications with the referral database names & email addresses. That’s why it’s important to use the same email address on the application as used in the referral request.
Apologies for any inconvenience caused.
Kind regards,
Bart Lapers
Hi Bart,
I’ve used the same email on referral and application. Any replies from amex ?
Thanks
Nora
Hi Nora, looks like you didn’t get my email earlier this month. Alpha Card checked and your Welcome Miles should have posted in September 2015 and the referral miles in October 2015. Could you please check your M&M statements? Thank you.
Hi Bart,
I checked my M&M statements and it appears I didn’t get the referral miles. So I think they “forgot” to post the 6000 referral miles to my account.
Sorry, ignore my last comment. Miles were prob not labeled as Referral but they were credited in November anyway.
Thanks for your help 🙂
You’re welcome Nora. Enjoy your miles, happy travels!
Hi Bart,
i”ve started following you. So many tips you offer. Great job.I am following you on Insta…great great pictures. I envy you for so much traveling you do 🙂
As I will start to travel more I need to get as much as possible to a gold level membership to be able to access the S lounges.
So Iam trying to find the best option. Nobody knows better than you. So please, tell me which are the best options? I have Miles&More card.Is the subscription for the AMEX Premium card works for another country citizens?(Iam from Romania).
best regards,
M
Hi Maia, the Brussels Airlines Miles & More AMEX card is only available for Belgian residents.
Dag Bart, ik heb mijn BA premium visa kaart van AMEX aangekregen via jou friend referral. Alvast bedankt daarvoor.
Laat dit maar al even weten omdat ik hier al een paar keer gelezen heb dat ze de 6000 extra miles niet direct toekennen. Mss kunnen we dat al pro-actief laten weten 🙂
één ding vind ik wel heel spijtig en dat is dat de kaart het eerste jaar enkel met een strip is en niet met een chip. In veel winkels, resto’s kunnen ze zo een strip niet meer lezen…
Alvast bedankt
Nicolas
Nicolas, de extra bonus van 6K wordt manueel toegekend en kan 2 tot 3 maanden op zich laten wachten. Wat de chip betreft, je kan naar Alpa Card bellen om een kaart met chip aan te vragen. (nummer op achterzijde van je kaart) Veel plezier bij het verzamelen en besteden van je mijlen!
Hey Bart,
Bedankt voor je zeer informatieve website. Ik ga me dan ook aanmelden via de friend referral link. Ik vroeg me nog het volgende af. Kan ik punten van 2 Brussesl Airlines premium amex kaarten combineren in 1 portefeuille? Ik zou namelijk de eerste premium amex op mijn zaak aankopen de 2e privé en zo moet ik gemakkelijk aan 1500€/maand komen wat me een mooie 2250 miles oplevert. Of gelden aankopen via een kaart die op een vennootschap geregistreerd staat niet?
Alvast bedankt.
Dag Tom, bedankt voor de feedback. De Brussels Airlines American Express kaarten kunnen enkel door natuurlijke personen worden aangevraagd. Voor vennootschappen heeft American Express de Corporate kaarten met het Membership Rewards programma. Niet zo interessant omdat je dan maar 1 mijl krijgt bij Miles & More per 2 euro uitgegeven. Meer info op http://network.americanexpress.com/be/nl/homepage/default.aspx
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Hi Bart,
I have a question – I live in Belgium and I have the Belgian national number; however, I do not have the Belgian ID (I never needed it as I am EU citizen). I have no bills in my name or the bank account in Belgium. I have rental contract and my payslips which come from here. Is this sufficient to get the credit card in Belgium (Miles & More Credit Card in particular)? I am the frequent flyer member with the Brussels Airlines.
Thank you in advance!
Karol
Hi Karol, thanks for your questions. Aplha Card (the issuer of the Amex cards in Belgium) is quite picky to approve applications. I’m afraid you won’t get the card without a Belgian utility bill / bank account.
Hi Bart
What amount should somebody minimal spend on a yearly basis to justify the 150 euro price tag?
Thanks for your answer.
Kind regards
Jelle
Hi Jelle, thanks for your interest in the Brussels Airlines Premium American Express card. You don’t really need to spend much on the card to get value out of it the first year. The 12K miles sign-up bonus equals buying the miles at 1,25 Euro cents a piece which isn’t a bad deal. Furthermore it comes with a number of insurances and your miles don’t expire. Add the automatic payment of your cellphone bill with the Amex card and you’ll get another 2000 miles on top. At the end of the year, you can always cancel the Premium card and request the Preferred card with another 6K sign-up bonus + another 2K for your cellphone bill!
Thanks Bart for your answer.
Do you also save miles when withdrawing money?
I wish! That would be a really easy way to ‘manufacture’ miles. 🙂 There are some other options for ‘manufactured spend’ but again those are limited compared to what is possible abroad (e.g. USA)
Could you give some examples of manufactured spend
Think all services which allow you to pay with Amex but refund directly on your bank account.
Hi,
If I sign up for the premium card then I receive the 12000 bonus miles, signup for cell Phone bills another 2000. If I cancel the card once all these miles are on there and re apply for a preferred amex a month later (all still in 2015), would that be possible or are you obliged to keep the first card at least till the end of the year?
Hi Dirk, that is indeed possible. They will even refund the part of the yearly fee you didn’t use. Example: if you cancel your card after 2 months, you’ll get 10 months fee refunded via your statement. However, there are no guarentees you second application will be approved.
I am interested to join, I have a Miles and more card from Lufthansa, is it the same thing? I ask to avoid confusion…then I don’t have a credit card, should I get one just to get more miles…I’m a little confused..
Hi, it’s not the same as a Miles and More membership card, it’s a credit card. But only available to Belgian residents, and I think you live in The Netherlands, right? Thank you for your interest.
Oh ok, I get it. Yes, I live in NL.
And why do I still have a normal master card, where I throw those 5 euro coupons away every month after spending around 3K a month?! This is genious. Thanks for the blogpost, will request the premium card right away.
Hi Bart, I have applied for the BrusselsAirlines Premium Amex through your referral and got the miles credited today but only half of them. 6000 instead of 12000. How is on your side? Have you got miles? I have sent a mail to M&M hope to get a feedback. I will keep you posted. Thanks
Hi Giuseppe, thank you for your message. Miles & More is not responsible for the bonus, the card issuer ‘Alpha Card’ is. Please give them a call at +3226762666. Feel free to email me at bart@bart.la in case you have any issues. Thank you.
Hi Bart,
I hope you well.
Following up my issue, I have been calling Alpha Card several times, I guess counter is at 5. The operators I have been talking too always promised to called me back after double checking but no feedback whatsoever. This is really frustrating, today the girl I talked to was particularly rude and asked me to provide my evidence by post or fax ( of course no email) because she was not aware of any referral promotion. This is to keep you informed since I guess you are also expecting a bonus as well. Sorry again for bothering you but as I say having to ask over and over to get what you are entitled for is really annoying.
Cheers.
Giuseppe.
Hi Giuseppe,
Thank you for your feedback. I apologize for any inconveniences this may cause. I have contacted Alpha Card management and provided them a list of all new members I have referred in the past 6 months. I have requested to verify the list to make sure all approved card applications have received the double sign-up bonus. Feedback should follow soon. Thank you for your patience! Bart.
Wow, this is a feedback!
I should have called you since day one…… Thank you. Best regards. Giuseppe
Hello, Bart. Sorry to bother you, but I got the same problem… Signed up for double sign up – bonus via your referral in september 2015. Until today i’ve received only 6000 miles. I’ve contacted Alpha Card, and they told me it would take three months after sign up. Still nothing, though… Hope they gave you what they promised? Could you check with them? Thanks in advance…
Hi Peter, sorry to hear you still didn’t get the extra sign-up bonus. Apologies for any inconveniences this may have caused. Could you please email me at bart@bart.la so I can contact Alpha Card to get this sorted? Thank you!
Dear Bart,
Last year I applied for a BA premium AMEX via your referral. As the card is coming close to its expiry date, I will have to make decision soon. If I don’t do anything it will be prolonged, but in that case there are no extra miles.
In your knowledge, is it possible to apply again for a premium card via your referral or should I change this year to the preferred card?
Regards,
Thomas
Hi Thomas, you’ll need to apply for the preferred card if you want another sign-up bonus. Thanks.
Hi Bart,
Thx for the referral, applied 26/7, card in mail 4/8! Let the miles flow! I keep thinking: if only I knew about this x time ago 🙂
Cheers,
Olivier
Thanks for the feedback Olivier. Enjoy collecting and spending your miles!
Hi Bart, any chance current cardholders can take advantage of this: ie. ‘upgrading’ from the classic to the new preferred card? If so: cancel the classic first and then re-apply, or apply first and cancel the classic later?
Hi Tijl, sure! You can apply for the Premium Amex card and receive 12K miles! I would recommend to request the card first (no issue to have both cards at the same time) and cancel the classic card afterwards. Reason: you want to avoid having your request denied while you already cancelled your classic card. Note: Your yearly fee of the classic card will be refunded for the remaining months you had paid for. (will be credited to the card)
Does anyone have any experience with combining two miles and more accounts as a couple? Lets say I am collecting way more points than my wife, and we want to travel together. We both need 50000 miles for a reward flight, I have 80000 in my account and my wife 20000. Can we combine these two to buy the two reward tickets? If that’s the case, it makes sense for both of us to have an amex credit card
Nobody?
Sorry, no idea…
Hi Thomas, sorry for my late reply. It is not possible to combine award miles from different M&M accounts.
Hi Bart,
I recieved my AmEx Card yesterday, I started using it immediately 🙂
2 more questions:
* when can I expect the 12 000 bonus Miles in my M&M account?
* when are Miles earned by paying with the AmEx Card put in the M&M account? Monthly after paying the AmEx bill, or immediately after using the card?
Thx
Stijn
Hi Stijn, miles are posted at the end of the billing cycle, even before you’ve settled your balance. It might take up to 2 months for the first miles to post (incl. 12K bonus), but as of then, every 30 days your miles should appear in your Miles & More account.
Bart,
i received email that it will no longer be possible to buy awardmiles after june 2014. Is it interesting to buy award miles now as a last opportunity? Or is price too high(also 20% extra miles at purchase). How long are bought miles valid anyway ?
I do not plan a trip before 2015-2016 as i am trying to gather many miles through my AEX(which is not easy btw)
Hi Geert, I would recommend not to buy miles. Only do it to top off account for award redemption. Lufthansa created a separate company for the Miles and More program, which might be the reason why they will no longer sell miles. Option might return. As long as you have a Miles and More credit card (and use it at least once a month) your miles will not expire.
Bart,
do I need to sign up with the “Membership Rewards – Classic” program by AmEx to earn my 1.5 miles/1€ spent? (It costs a yearly 18.50€…)
Hi SirBotex,
The Membership Rewards program is the loyalty program that comes with American Express cards which are not airline branded. You can collect Membership Rewards points with those cards. The Brussels Airlines American Express cards are not part of the Membership Rewards program as you earn miles with the Brussels Airlines American Express card. So you don’t have to sign-up for the Membership Rewards program if you use the Brussels Airlines cards. Hope this answers your questions. Thanks.
Very clear!
Thx
Bart, hoe creeer je zo’n friend referral link? Ik heb dankzij jouw link vorig jaar een amex card, en zou nu graag zelf iemand referren
Thomas, I expect Alpha Card (the issuer of the Brussels Airlines credit cards) to send out a mass mail to its existing Brussels Airlines American Express credit card holders about the ‘member get member’ referral program in the near future.
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