UPDATE MARCH 2022: The €60 reduction offer has expired. However, you can get the Brussels Airlines American Express card with 20,000 bonus miles!
Don’t have a Brussels Airlines American Express card yet? Lucky you! Until May 30th 2015, you get a €60 reduction on your first American Express annual fee! Combine this with the double sign-up bonus for friend referrals and you get an awesome deal.
- Brussels Airlines Preferred American Express (
€120€60 annual fee)
Sign-up bonus: 6000 miles (instead of 3000 miles)
- Brussels Airlines Premium American Express (
€150€90 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)
Pic: Use your Miles & More miles to fly Lufthansa First Class like me!
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:
Full details of the Brussels Airlines Preferred and Premium American Express 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 more than €2000 and First Class flights more than €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 no longer sells its miles directly, but screenshots from past miles sales give you an idea how they value their miles.
Signing up for the Brussels Airlines Premium American Express earns you 12,000 miles which were 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 were 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 only reduced for the first year (€60/€90). Next year’s fees would be (€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 the BKCP Visa card. See all details in our Credit Cards for Belgian Travellers post.
I’m not yet a Miles and More member, where do I sign-up?
You can enroll at the Miles and More website.
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!
Conditions of the offer:
- The discount of €60 only applies on the first year of membership and will be applied on the first monthly statement. As of the second year of membership the normal annual card fee will be charged, which is €120 for the Brussels Airlines Preferred American Express Card and €150 for the Brussels Airlines Premium American Express Card.
- This offer is only valid for approved Brussels Airlines American Express Card applications introduced between 12/03/2015 until 30/05/2015.
- This offer is reserved for new clients.
- This offer only applies for principal card applications and not for supplementary card applications.
- The discount of €60 is non-refundable, non-transferable and cannot be converted into cash.
Bart Lapers 
Hey Bart,
Een 4-tal maanden geleden zijn we met de ganse familie naar Tanzania op verlof geweest.
We vlogen met Condor in business class, de factuur voor 7 personen werd betaald door 1 persoon.
Bestaat er een mogelijkheid om deze miles te recupereren? Ik neem aan dat de persoon die de factuur betaalde niet alle miles van de 7 personen kan recupereren maar dat dit persoonsgebonden is ?
Ik ben ook al even aan het uitzoeken om een american express card via brussels airlines aan te vragen maar de toekenning van punten lijkt me eerder mager in verhouding tot de jaarlijkse kosten van de kaart of vergis ik mij daar?
Grts
Pieter
Hey Bart, brief question – At what moment do you switch from premium to preferred? Is it basically after 11 months of using premium, then cancel and then switch to the preferred card?
Then, basically repeat the cycle by switching from preferred to premium?
Thanks!
Hi Sven, in theory you could cancel the Premium card after 1 month and get the remaining 11 months of yearly fee refunded. However, I recommend to request the Preferred card before cancelling your Premium one to make sure you have at least one card left. (in case your application would be rejected for whatever reason) Also note you can only get the sign-up bonus once per card. So only once for the Premium and once for the Preferred card.
I just received my Brussels Airlines American Express Card. I was quite surprised that the first year the card has no chip and thus requires no PIN for payments.
Doesn’t feel that secure 🙂
Kinda crazy, I know. Still don’t get it why they can’t provide a card with chip from day 1!
You can request it from day 1 (just call Amex) – the only thing is that you can’t change your pin that chip card..
Indeed, I just called Amex and they will provide me with a new card with chip, but I will (never) be able to change my pin number…
Hi Bart,
I now have the Brussels Airlines Premium American Express, which expires this June. Should I cancel it now and apply for the preferred Card?
Or do I let my wife sign up for the premium Card and can I get her miles in my M&M account?
Thx
Stijn
Hi Stijn,
Unfortunately, you can’t credit the miles of someone else in your M&M account. You probably won’t get the discount on the yearly fee either, as you are not a new customer. My suggestion is to have your wife sign-up for M&M and the Premium card. This way she gets the 12K miles for 90 EUR and can start collecting miles herself to join you on a Business of First Class trip! 🙂 I also suggest to request the preferred card for yourself (6K miles), and once approved, cancel the Premium card.
Hi Bart, if you are none resident in Belgium, but have a bank account in Belgium would one still be able to sign up? thanks. Marc
Hi Marc, you need both a bank account and residence in Belgium.
thanks – but no plans to move back to Belgium yet
I ve just found out from the proximus helpdesk that the VISA PROXIMUS Card has stopped cooperation with Brussels Airlines and points cannot be transferred to Miles and More anymore – HORRID
It was the only way in Belgium to get 2 miles per 1 euro spent 😦
do you happen to know if it s true ?
sometimes things change in proximus
Hi Greg, that’s unfortunately correct.
do you know if they are planning to resume it?
Hello Bart,
I tried to find the Businesses that accept Amex, but there was nothing on their website.
Do you know which shops and stores accept Amex?
I will ask some stores, which i usually go to, if they accept.
Kind Regards,
Marc
Marc, I assume you live in Belgium? Super markets like Carrefour and Delhaize accept Amex, Esso petrol stations, and thousands of other businesses do to. Anything specific you are looking for? Thank you.
Hi Bart,
I’m in the process of requesting the M&M premium card following the link on the mail received.
However on the application form is says 6000 miles as a welcome bonus. Anything specific I should mention to get the 12K miles?
Thanks in advance.
Koen
No worries Koen, you’ll receive the 12K welcome miles. The form is the general one which all applicants use. The extra referral bonus is added manually. Thanks!
Hi, have only received 6K bonus so far. Any ideas? Thanks.
Koen, I’ll contact Alpha Card to check it for you. Thanks.
Dear Bart,
Still have not received the additional 6K miles. I contacted Alpha card and they mentioned only the person who refers gets the additional bonus – so I guess you got the 6K?
Any ideas?
Same here, only 6K miles
Hi Koen and Goya, first of all, apologies for the inconvenience. You’ll receive the additional 6K bonus as well. Unfortunately, most first line Alpha Card helpdesk agents aren’t familiar with the friend referral program (Member gets Member). I’ll escalate once more with Alpha Card. Thank you for your patience.
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