One of the key ideas I push on Head for Points is that transferable, or convertible, points are better than non-transferable points.

The best way to explain this is via American Express Membership Rewards points, earned from American Express Preferred Rewards Gold, The Platinum Card and the Amex Rewards Credit Card.

You can transfer 1 American Express Membership Rewards point into 1 Avios.  You might think, therefore, that 1 Amex point is worth the same as 1 Avios.  IT ISN’T.

1 American Express Membership Rewards points is worth MORE than 1 Avios.  This is because, as well as converting to 1 Avios, it will also convert into 1 Virgin Point, 1 Etihad mile, 1 Flying Blue mile, 2 Hilton points, 1.5 Marriott points, 3 Radisson points, 0.5p of shopping vouchers, 0.45p of statement credit etc etc.

As well as giving you more choice, transferable points are also defensive.  Even if you intend to convert your Amex points to Avios, it makes sense to keep them with Amex until the last minute.  If you move them to Avios and British Airways moves the goal posts in terms of points needed or availability then you’re stuffed.

Other convertible points currencies include:

• HSBC Premier credit card points (12 airline and hotel partners)
• Tesco Clubcard points (Virgin Points plus many non-travel partners)
• Heathrow Rewards (various airline partners as well as shopping discounts)

You could, arguably, include Marriott Bonvoy points in this list too.  It is the only hotel scheme where you get genuine good value if you convert your points to airline miles.  This article looks at the 40 Marriott Bonvoy airline partners.

I do NOT include Nectar on this list, because transfers between Nectar and Avios are 2-way.  It doesn’t matter where your points sit, because you can move them in either direction, albeit with a slight loss of value.

So …. convertible points are worth more than non-convertible points.

That is stage one.  There is a second stage however ….. INSTANTLY convertible points are worth more than all other convertible points.

One – sensible – argument against not converting your points until you need them is that the transfer takes time.  Even transfers which are quick, such as American Express transfers to Avios, still require you to wait overnight.  It is possible that the redemption seat you wanted may have gone when they arrive.

What you want is an instantaneous transfer. This is your dream result.  You can look for the seat you want and, when you find it, move the points and immediately book without any risk of losing the seat.

Where can you find instant transfers? Here are your options:

• you CAN do it with Heathrow Rewards to Emirates (according to reader reports – I have not done this myself)

• you CAN do it with NatWest Rewards points to Emirates

• you can’t do it with Heathrow Rewards or hotel points transfers to other airlines, as far as I know, or with NatWest Rewards transfers to Avios

• you CAN do it with Tesco Clubcard transfers to Virgin Atlantic (anyone signed up to auto-conversion can request a transfer of their current points balance, if it is 150+, at any time and the transfer is instant)

• HSBC Premier (instant for all partners, we think)

• American Express (some partners)

There is one other UK Avios partner which allows instant transfers – Capital On Tap, via their Business Rewards Visa card for SMEs.  You can learn more about Capital On Tap’s Avios earning credit card here.  There is an exclusive sign-up bonus for HfP readers of 10,500 Avios.

Which American Express partners offer INSTANT transfers?

As far as I know, the list of Membership Rewards partners which transfer instantly is:

• Delta SkyMiles
• Emirates Skywards
• Virgin Atlantic Flying Club
• Qantas (based on reader feedback)
• Marriott Bonvoy

Note that first-time Amex transfers to a new partner may not be instant due to security checks. It makes sense to link your accounts in advance by doing a dummy transfer on the Membership Rewards website.

Which HSBC Premier credit card partners offer INSTANT transfers?

We think that all HSBC Premier card partners are now instant. We have tested a few and all were. Please let us know if you have found any that are not. Let me repeat – we do not guarantee that all of the partners are instant but we haven’t found any yet which are not.

Airline partners:

• Asia Miles
• British Airways Executive Club
• Emirates Skywards
• Etihad Guest
• EVA Air Infinity MileageLands
• Finnair Plus
• Flying Blue (Air France KLM)
• Qantas Frequent Flyer
• Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer
• TAP Miles&Go

Hotel partners:

• IHG One Rewards
• Wyndham Rewards

Remember that HSBC points have a hard three year expiry. They expire irrespective of your activity. You can’t keep them mounting up for decades and you will have to move them at some point. Amex points are better if you are taking a very long term view.

Conclusion

Transferable points, such as American Express Membership Rewards and HSBC Premier points, are more valuable than non-transferable points such as Avios.

The most valuable transferable points of all are those that transfer instantly.

Want to earn more points from credit cards? – January 2024 update

If you are looking to apply for a new credit card, here are our top recommendations based on the current sign-up bonuses.

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

You can see our full directory of all UK cards which earn airline or hotel points here. Here are the best of the other deals currently available.

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard

15,000 bonus points and 1.5 points for every £1 you spend Read our full review

Earning miles and points from small business cards

If you are a sole trader or run a small company, you may also want to check out these offers:

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and free for a year Read our full review

Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa

Get a 10,000 points bonus plus an extra 500 points for our readers Read our full review

For a non-American Express option, we also recommend the Barclaycard Select Cashback card for sole traders and small businesses. It is FREE and you receive 1% cashback on your spending.

Barclaycard Select Cashback credit card

2% cashback on all your business spend for 3 months (1% thereafter) and no annual fee Read our full review

In truth, virtually the only thing that Amex Gold and Amex Platinum have in common is the fact that you earn American Express Membership Rewards points from your spending and as a sign-up bonus.  Everything else varies.

To find out more, or to apply, the website for American Express Preferred Rewards Gold is here.  The website for The Platinum Card is here.

How does American Express Gold differ from American Express Platinum?

I am going to compare each key feature of the Amex Gold and Amex Platinum cards side by side.  If you want to see a dedicated article on either card, click here for our full review of American Express Preferred Rewards Gold and click here for our full review of The Platinum Card from American Express.

How do the cards differ legally?

They don’t, as of late 2022.

After decades as a charge card, The Platinum Card is now issued as a credit card.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold has been issued as a credit card for almost six years now.  As long as you meet the small minimum monthly payment, you can roll over what you owe from month to month – although you will be charged interest. 

Here is the current interest rate information:

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold:

The representative APR is 88.8% variable, including the annual fee.  The representative APR on purchases, and in the first year which has no fee, is 31.0% variable.

The Platinum Card:

The representative APR is 704.6% variable, including the annual fee.  The representative APR on purchases is 31.0% variable.

How do the annual fees on Amex Gold and Amex Platinum differ?

Amex Gold has no annual fee in year 1 and is £195 per year thereafter.

Amex Platinum has an annual fee of £650 per year.

Annual fees are refunded pro-rata if you cancel during your membership year until at least 29th February 2024. At some point after this date the ability to get a pro-rata refund mid-year will be removed.

How do the minimum income requirements differ?

American Express brought back PERSONAL minimum income requirements during 2023. It previously looked at household income and did not have an official minimum.

Amex Gold requires a personal minimum income of £20,000.

Amex Platinum requires a personal minimum income of £35,000.

To put this into comparison, all other personal American Express cards have a minimum income requirement of £20,000 except for the British Airways Premium Plus American Express which is £35,000.

What are the sign-up bonuses?

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold offers 20,000 Membership Rewards points when you spend £3,000 within 90 days. This is the most generous sign-up bonus generally available on any free UK loyalty credit card – albeit that Amex Gold is only free for the first year.

The Platinum Card offers 40,000 Membership Rewards points when you spend £6,000 within 90 days.

Membership Rewards points can be converted 1 to 1 into Avios or Virgin Points. Click here to see what other reward programmes are Membership Rewards transfer partners.

This means that you can receive 20,000 Avios points for free by applying for Amex Gold (no fee in Year 1), spending enough to trigger the sign-up bonus and then transferring the points to British Airways.  You would receive 40,000 points by applying for Platinum.

What are the rules for qualifying for the sign-up bonuses?

These differ by card. There are fewer restrictions for getting the Platinum bonus than the Gold bonus, perhaps unsurprising given the large fee difference.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold:

The Amex Gold sign-up bonus is only available to customers who have not held a personal American Express card in the previous 24 months. 

You will receive the sign-up bonus if you have a Corporate or Business American Express card via your job and you receive Membership Rewards points from it.

You will definitely receive the bonus if you are only a supplementary cardholder on someone else’s American Express card. As far as Amex is concerned, that card belongs to the primarily cardholder and does not make you an ‘existing cardholder’.

If you do not qualify for the Gold bonus, you can still apply.  You still receive the other card benefits, including the four free airport lounge passes, £120 of Deliveroo credit and ‘no fee in the first year’.

The Platinum Card:

The Amex Platinum sign-up bonus is only available to customers who have not held a personal American Express card which earns Membership Rewards points in the previous 24 months.  This would include Green, Gold, Platinum and the American Express Rewards credit card.

You are OK if you currently or recently only had a British Airways, Marriott or Nectar American Express card.  All that matters is that you have not held a personal card offering Membership Rewards points.

You will receive the sign-up bonus if you have a Corporate or Business American Express card via your job and you receive Membership Rewards points from it.

You will definitely receive the bonus if you are only a supplementary cardholder on someone else’s American Express card. As far as Amex is concerned, that card belongs to the primarily cardholder and does not make you an ‘existing cardholder’.

If you do not qualify for the bonus, you can still apply.  You still receive the other card benefits, which are substantial.

To summarise on bonuses ….

• You are blocked from the Gold bonus if you have had ANY personal American Express card in the last two years. 

• You are ONLY blocked from the Platinum bonus if you have had a Green, Gold, Platinum or any other MR-earning personal American Express in the last two years.

• There is no scenario under which you can get the bonus on both Gold and Platinum within a two year period, unless you have Gold and receive a targetted upgrade offer to Platinum

What other card benefits do you get?

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold:

You receive FOUR free airport lounge passes each membership year with Amex Gold, valid at any airport lounge in the Priority Pass network. Heathrow (including the Aspire and Plaza Premium lounges in Terminal 5), Gatwick, Luton and Stansted – amongst many others – have participating lounges as do most major airports worldwide. After your four free visits, you can make further lounge visits for a £24 charge.

You will receive 2,500 bonus Membership Rewards points for every £5,000 you spend, up to a maximum of 12,500 bonus points per membership year. You receive these as soon as you pass each £5,000 threshold.

You will receive a 10% discount and free additional driver on Hertz bookings. We looked at the American Express Gold / Hertz partnership in more detail in this article.

You receive Preferred Plus status with Avis.

There are also 600 4-5 star hotels worldwide which offer a $75 in-hotel credit and an upgrade when booked by an American Express Gold cardholder via the American Express travel service.

The Platinum Card:

The Platinum Card has substantial benefits – easily the best package of any UK loyalty card.

You receive travel insurance for yourself and your family. Some benefits require you to pay for your trip with an American Express card, but the core medical benefit is automatic. There is an age limit of 70 on the travel insurance. If you choose to give your free supplementary card to someone outside your family (eg your parents) they are covered too – my Mum had mine until she hit 70.

You receive full car hire insurance – with no requirement to pay with your card.

You and your main supplementary cardholder will each receive a Priority Pass card. This gets the cardholder plus a guest into 1,300 airport lounges across the world for free, including the Aspire lounge in Heathrow Terminal 5 reviewed here and the Plaza Premium lounge in Terminal 5. As you get two Priority Pass cards, each of which allows a free guest, you can get a family of four into a lounge – as I do on a regular basis.

You can also get into Amex’s own network of high quality ‘Centurion’ airport lounges for free. These are primarily in the US but are rolling out globally – the only UK site is in Heathrow Terminal 3, which we reviewed here.

You will also receive status in various hotel schemes for as long as you keep the card:

• Gold in Marriott Bonvoy
• Premium in Radisson Rewards
• Gold in Hilton Honors
• Gold in MeliaRewards

Other travel benefits include Eurostar lounge access in London, Brussels and Paris whatever your class of travel. You also receive lounge access when flying with Delta although any guests must pay $29.

There is an exclusive hotel booking scheme called ‘Fine Hotels & Resorts’ which offers valuable additional benefits on your stays. If you are a regular visitor at five star hotels then you can recoup your entire membership fee via FHR bookings. I wrote more about Amex Fine Hotels & Resorts here – for me, the guaranteed 4pm check-out on every stay is invaluable, especially for weekend breaks.

Non-travel benefits include:

• £100 per year to spend at Harvey Nichols, either instore or online. This is split into £50 to spend between January and June and £50 between July and December. There is no minimum spend – it is genuinely free stuff if you spend exactly £50.

• £150 to spend at 160 UK restaurants. This benefit renews on 1st January each year. There is no minimum spend required and you can use the £150 over multiple visits to different restaurants if you wish.

• £150 to spend at 1,400 international restaurants. Again, this benefit renews on 1st January each year.

What do you earn per £1 spent on the cards?

Both cards earn 1 Membership Rewards point per £1 spent.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold has three special bonuses, however:

• foreign currency transactions earn 2 points per £1
• airline transactions earn 2 points per £1
• you receive a bonus of 2,500 points for every £5,000 you spend in a card year, up to a maximum of 12,500 points

What is best way to spend Membership Rewards points?  As it turns out, I wrote this lengthy article on how to best redeem Membership Rewards points.

Do Amex Gold and Amex Platinum impose foreign exchange fees?

Yes. Both card impose a 3% foreign exchange fee on transactions outside the UK.

American Express Gold is a better card to use abroad than Amex Platinum, because you earn double Membership Rewards points when spending in a foreign currency.

Conclusion

I hope this article has helped you realise that American Express Preferred Rewards Gold and The Platinum Card are two completely different beasts.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold gets you:

• a sign-up bonus of 20,000 American Express Membership Rewards points
• a free first year (£195 thereafter)
• a generous offer of four free airport lounge passes per year
• £120 of Deliveroo credit (24 x £5) per year
• up to 12,500 bonus points per year based on spending

The Platinum Card has a very heavy fee – and is not free in the first year – but comes with an unmatched range of travel and non-travel benefits and a big sign-up bonus. 

Whether or not these benefits are worth the fee is up to you.  I make it work – I’ve had a Platinum card for over 20 years – but it depends entirely on your circumstances.

Where do I apply?

The application form for American Express Preferred Reward Gold (20,000 points sign-up bonus) can be found here.

The application form for The Platinum Card (40,000 points sign-up bonus) can be found here.

Want to earn more points from credit cards? – January 2024 update

If you are looking to apply for a new credit card, here are our top recommendations based on the current sign-up bonuses.

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

You can see our full directory of all UK cards which earn airline or hotel points here. Here are the best of the other deals currently available.

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard

15,000 bonus points and 1.5 points for every £1 you spend Read our full review

Earning miles and points from small business cards

If you are a sole trader or run a small company, you may also want to check out these offers:

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and free for a year Read our full review

Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa

Get a 10,000 points bonus plus an extra 500 points for our readers Read our full review

For a non-American Express option, we also recommend the Barclaycard Select Cashback card for sole traders and small businesses. It is FREE and you receive 1% cashback on your spending.

Barclaycard Select Cashback credit card

2% cashback on all your business spend for 3 months (1% thereafter) and no annual fee Read our full review

Part 1 looked at how to use unwanted points in hotel schemes.  Today I look at some of the major European airline schemes and Tesco Clubcard.

I have not covered Avios as Head for Points readers are generally keener to build those up – and if you did want to bail out, the obvious route is to convert them to Nectar and go on a spending spree at Argos, Sainsburys or eBay to get 0.66p per Avios.

Tesco Clubcard (points convert to Virgin Points)

If you have multiple cards in your name, try to get them up to 150 points using extra points coupons or offers.  150 points is the trigger to receive vouchers or allow in-app points conversion.  You can then chuck the card.

Tesco can also merge accounts together if you contact them.

American Express Membership Rewards

If you are closing your American Express card and emptying out your Membership Rewards account, you will discover that transfers to Avios are in multiples of 1,000.  If this leaves you with 1-999 spare points, get a Nectar account and transfer the exact balance there.  There is no minimum conversion into Nectar.

Radisson Rewards is another option, requiring a minimum transfer of just three Amex points.  Hilton Honors requires a minimum transfer of 200 points.

Another option, if you are closing a Gold or Platinum American Express card to avoid the annual fee, is to get the FREE American Express Rewards Credit Card.  Holding this card will keep your Membership Rewards balance alive after you have closed your Gold or Platinum. You can learn more about the Amex Rewards Credit Card in this article.

Virgin Flying Club / Virgin Points

• SPEND – You can use a small amount of points as part-payment towards a cash flight on Virgin Atlantic.  You will get £16.50 per 3,000 miles used.  You also use points at the same rate to part-pay with Virgin Holidays.
• SPEND – Virgin Points (10,000+) can be transferred into Hilton Honors (1:1.5) and IHG One Rewards (1:1)
• SPEND – 2,000 points gets you a £10 Virgin Voucher, valid at many Virgin Group businesses
• SPEND – The Virgin Red app lets you redeem Virgin Points for lots of low value items, even for coffee and sausage rolls at Greggs!
• SPEND – The Virgin Trains Ticketing app lets you redeem points (minimum just 200) for 0.5p per point off a rail ticket
• SPEND – You can redeem Virgin Points for hotel rooms booked via the Kaligo.com site
• SPEND – Remember that one-way flight redemptions are available, so you may need fewer points than you think for a flight (use Avios to come back!)
• SPEND – With Air France and KLM now redemption partners, you can book low cost flights to France and the Netherlands from as little as 4,000 points one way
• TOP-UP – There is a 15,000 points sign-up bonus with the Virgin Atlantic Reward+ credit card
• TOP-UP – Alternatively, you could get the free Virgin Atlantic credit card (no bonus) and top-up your account at 0.75 points per £1 spent
• TOP-UP – You can top-up your account from various hotel schemes, Tesco Clubcard, Heathrow Rewards, the Virgin Atlantic credit cards and American Express Membership Rewards, or via a car rental
• TOP-UP – Some hotel chains give Virgin Points even when they do not give Avios points
• TOP-UP – Virgin Trains Ticketing is an interesting new option for earning Virgin Points at 3 per £1 spent

Lufthansa Miles & More

• SPEND – You can cash out small amounts into Heathrow Airport shopping vouchers via Heathrow Rewards
• SPEND – You can redeem for UK High Street gift cards from 3,700 miles for £10
• SPEND – There are hotel and car hire redemptions available via the M&M hotel booking portal
• SPEND – Remember that one-way redemptions are allowed on Lufthansa and all its partners, so you need fewer miles than you think
• SPEND – Keep an eye on the regular list of destinations which are on mileage sale
• TOP-UP – You can transfer in from Heathrow Rewards (and out, see the first point) or credit a car rental.  Many hotel schemes have suspended transfers into Miles & More due to a on-going legal dispute in Germany.
• TOP-UP – You can also earn Miles & More miles from shopping at Bicester Village

Emirates Skywards

• SPEND – You can redeem Skywards miles for Arsenal football tickets, both general seats and the Emirates Skybox, although at present they are restricting tickets to Gold members
• SPEND – Other event tickets pop up throughout the year.  Here are details of a 2023 VIP package at the Queen’s Club tennis tournament for example.
• SPEND – You can transfer miles INTO Heathrow Rewards.  The minimum is 6,000 miles which gets you a £20 Heathrow shopping voucher.  You can also top-up your account with Heathrow Rewards points.
• SPEND – You can redeem Skywards miles for easyJet travel credit
• SPEND – If you are travelling to Dubai, Skywards miles can be used for gift vouchers for various Dubai shops and tourist attractions
• SPEND – You can use your miles to book a hotel via this Emirates / Rocketmiles site
• TOP-UP – Emirates Skywards is an American Express Membership Rewards transfer partner.  Miles transfer INSTANTLY as long as your accounts are already linked.

Etihad Guest

Etihad is a partner with Amex Membership Rewards which lets you top up your account to a suitable level.

You can also cash out via the Etihad Guest Rewards Card / PointsPay.  This is an impressive scheme for small balances which I have used – you used to get 0.55p per point, delivered as a ‘virtual Visa’ card number.  There is no excuse for having an unused Etihad balance.  I wrote more about Points Pay here although I haven’t run the numbers for some time on the current value.

SAS EuroBonus

You can redeem SAS points for Radisson hotels, Scandic Hotels, First Hotels, Best Western (selected countries only) amongst other hotel offers – see here.  You can also redeem points for lounge access.

https://www.saseurobonusshop.com/en/donations.

SAS EuroBonus is also an American Express Membership Rewards transfer partner if you need to top-up your account.

Flying Blue

Apologies for the lack of Flying Blue coverage but this scheme is really not my strong point.  The obvious way to cash out of Flying Blue miles is by transferring them into Accor Live Limitless hotel points in chunks of 4,500.  Please leave any further suggestions or ideas I have missed in the comments below.

Remember that Part 1 of this article, which shows how to use up or top up hotel loyalty points, is here.

This would convert into 100,000 Avios (!) or lots of other great travel rewards. Even better, you qualify for the bonus even if you have a British Airways American Express card as long as you meet the other criteria.

Our introductory article on the ‘100,000 bonus Membership Rewards points’ offer is here. Remember that you can get a pro-rata refund on the annual fee until at least 29th February 2024, and it may be available for longer.

In earlier articles (this is the last one) we looked at:

• ‘Are the four free American Express Platinum hotel status cards worth having?‘
• ‘Why American Express Platinum gets you into more lounges than you think‘
• ‘Why Fine Hotels & Resorts is one of the best Amex Platinum benefits‘
• ‘If you cancel Platinum, the Amex Rewards Card will keep your points alive‘

You can apply for The Platinum Card here.

Today I want to look at the question of how much value can you get for your 100,000 American Express Membership Rewards points sign-up bonus?

The representative APR is 704.6% variable, including the annual fee.  The representative APR on purchases is 31.0% variable.

This article is about how to make the best use of your Amex Membership Rewards points.  It does NOT cover every Membership Rewards redemption but it does cover the bulk of the pseudo-cash, cash and travel options. If we haven’t covered an option, you should assume that it offers poor value.

The Amex Membership Rewards website is here if you want to look for yourself at what is available.

How can you earn Membership Rewards points?

This article is based around the current 100,000 points bonus on American Express Platinum. However, you can also earn Membership Rewards points from other American Express cards. These include:

• American Express Preferred Rewards Gold (review) – 30,000 points bonus (special offer to 9th January) and FREE for a year, with four airport lounge passes and £10 per month of Deliveroo credit thrown in, apply here

• American Express Rewards (review) – the only ‘free for life’ Amex card which earns Membership Rewards, apply here

• American Express Business Platinum Card (review) – 40,000 points bonus and a host of benefits including airport lounge access for four people, four mid-tier hotel elite statuses, digital subscription to The Times, £150 of annual Dell credit and more, apply here

• American Express Business Gold (review) – 20,000 points bonus, £100 of annual Dell credit and FREE for a year, apply here

What are your 100,000 points from American Express Platinum worth?

0.75p – 1.5p per point, £750 – £1,500 (my target value)

Airline miles.  My last piece on valuing Avios points is here and Amex points transfer into Avios at 1:1.  This is why the sign-up bonuses are so valuable.

It is impossible to tie down a tighter range because of the number of different airline partners and the various ways (upgrade, long-haul, short-haul, economy, premium) you can redeem.  Membership Rewards points convert at 1:1 to Avios, Virgin Atlantic, Emirates, Etihad, Cathay Pacific, Delta, Finnair, Flying Blue, Qantas and SAS. The transfer rate to Singapore Airlines is 3:2.

My personal spreadsheet of the last 9.1 million Avios I have redeemed shows that I got an average value of 1.2p.  This is based on what I would personally have been prepared to pay for the flights I took, however, which may be far different from what you would have been prepared to pay.  My best redemptions far exceeded this.

0.75p per point, £750 (my target value)

Marriott Bonvoy hotel transfers.  Amex points convert at 2:3 into the Marriott Bonvoy programme.  It is fairly easy to get 0.5p per Marriott Bonvoy point as I explain here.

0.5p per Marriott Bonvoy point means, at a 2:3 exchange rate from Membership Rewards, you should be getting 0.75p per Membership Rewards point.  You now have a whopping 31 hotel brands to redeem at, including Le Meridien, Sheraton, Westin, W, Marriott, Autograph, Design Hotels, The Luxury Collection, The Ritz Carlton, St Regis etc etc.

I have had some exceptionally good redemptions in recent years which have got me far more than 0.5p per Bonvoy point as the valuation article above shows.

0.66p per point, £666 (guaranteed value)

In early 2021, the supermarket loyalty scheme Nectar become a partner with British Airways Avios points. You can convert 50,000 Avios per month to Nectar, at a rate of 300 : 400.

Because a Nectar point has a fixed value of 0.5p when spent at Sainsbury’s, eBay or Argos, it means that 1 Avios can be turned into 1.33 Nectar points worth 0.66p.

As long as you shop at Sainsbury’s, eBay or Argos, you can get 0.66p per Membership Rewards point, guaranteed.

To do this, you convert your American Express points to Avios and then transfer them to Nectar.

Before I go on ….

You are guaranteed 0.66p per Membership Rewards point if you convert American Express points to Avios to Nectar.

All of the options below earn you less than 0.66p per point. You need to have a good reason to use any of the options below instead of Nectar. That said, if you know how to maximise the value of hotel points then Hilton can still be a decent option.

0.66p per point, £666 (my target value)

Hilton Honors hotel transfers.  Hilton has moved closer to a revenue-based redemption model in recent years, although you can get still outsized value at times.  Over time I have come to believe that 0.33p per point is a fair valuation for a Hilton Honors point.  The conversion rate is 1:2 to Hilton which is how I get to 0.66p per Amex point.  Hilton brands include Conrad, Waldorf Astoria and Hampton.

You can beat 0.33p per point if you are strategic in how and when you redeem, so there are reasons why you may want to transfer to Hilton instead of cashing out via Nectar.

0.55p per point, £550 (my target)

Club Eurostar points.  Following the 2023 devaluation, I value a Club Eurostar point at 7p to 10p. The 15:1 transfer rate into Club Eurostar means you are getting 0.55p per point if you take a midpoint of 8.5p.

You should get slightly more than 0.55p if redeeming in Standard class and slightly less if redeeming in Standard Premier or upgrading from Standard to Standard Premier.

0.5p per point, £500 (guaranteed)

Retailer gift cards – Starbucks, M&S, Harrods etc.

0.5p per point, £500 (guaranteed)

The value of a Nectar point, given that you can redeem Amex points for Nectar points at a 1:1 ratio.  It is stupid to do this, however, given that you get 60% more value by transferring American Express to Avios to Nectar as I explained above.

0.45p per point, £450 (my target value)

Radisson Rewards hotel transfers. Radisson Rewards in the UK covers Radisson Blu, Radisson RED, Radisson Edwardian, Park Inn and Park Plaza.

Until an October 2022 devaluation, Radisson Rewards points were a great use of American Express Membership points. Now they are not.

The average value has dropped from around 0.33p per Radisson Rewards point to around 0.15p as I show here. The conversion rate is 1 American Express Membership Rewards point to 3 Radisson Rewards points.

This means that you are getting around 0.45p per American Express point. You can’t do much better than this because Radisson Rewards pricing is now ‘dynamic’, with the points cost increasing if the cash price increases.

0.45p per point, £450 (guaranteed)

Linking your Amex account to amazon.co.uk and paying for your purchases directly with points (more in this article).  This is a slightly silly option, however, as you can also redeem for Amazon gift cards and get 0.5p per point.

0.45p per point, £450 (guaranteed)

Redeeming for American Express statement credit at 0.45p per Membership Rewards point you cash in.

Conclusion

There is real value, potentially over £1,000-worth, in the 100,000 American Express Membership Rewards points you would receive as a sign-up bonus on American Express Platinum.

This assumes that you qualify for the bonus and meet the target of spending £10,000 in six months. Remember that you can cancel the card until at least 29th February 2024 (and potentially longer – Amex will announce the exact date next year) for a pro-rata refund of the annual fee.

You can apply for American Express Platinum here.

Disclaimer: Head for Points is a journalistic website. Nothing here should be construed as financial advice, and it is your own responsibility to ensure that any product is right for your circumstances. Recommendations are based primarily on the ability to earn miles and points. The site discusses products offered by lenders but is not a lender itself. Robert Burgess, trading as Head for Points, is regulated and authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority to act as an independent credit broker.

You might think that the Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer programme, which is part of Star Alliance and so accesses a different group of airlines to Avios, is irrelevant to you.

The KrisFlyer frequent flyer scheme has some interesting sweet spots in it, however. As the scheme is an American Express Membership Rewards transfer partner, albeit at 3:2 and not 1:1, I thought it was worth looking at some of the best options today.

If you want to learn more about the programmme I recommend the Mainly Miles website which is based in Singapore and is very similar to HfP in its content.

How can you earn KrisFlyer miles?

The obvious route is transferring American Express Membership Rewards points.  As you can see here, it is a 3:2 airline partner from the UK scheme.

(Yes, 3:2. Singapore Airlines is the only UK Amex airline partner where the transfer rate is not 1:1.)

Here are the key Membership Rewards earning cards we cover:

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

American Express Rewards

The only ‘free for life’ Amex card which earns Membership Rewards Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and free for a year Read our full review

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

Other options include Heathrow Rewards and moving points from hotel schemes, in particular Marriott Bonvoy where the rate is 3:1 (3:1.25 if you move chunks of 60,000 points at a time).

Marriott Bonvoy points can be earned via the Bonvoy Amex:

Marriott Bonvoy American Express

20,000 points sign-up bonus and 15 elite night credits each year Read our full review

It is also a HSBC Premier credit card partner if you want a Visa / Mastercard option:

HSBC Premier Mastercard

Highest earning Visa or Mastercard for Avios, but hard to get Read our full review

HSBC Premier World Elite Mastercard

A huge bonus, but only available to HSBC Premier clients Read our full review

You can also earn KrisFlyer miles via the Currensea debit card.

We wrote a full article on how to earn Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer miles from UK credit cards which you can find here.

What are the KrisFlyer sweet spots?

Why might you want to redeem KrisFlyer miles if you live in the UK?

Here (click) is the Singapore Airlines reward chart for partner airlines.

The best deal is travel from the UK to the Middle East

The slam dunk best deal is ‘Europe to Middle East’ for 67,000 KrisFlyer miles RETURN in Business Class.

Remember that British Airways wants up to 120,000 Avios on a peak day for a return Club World flight to Dubai, Abu Dhabi etc. This number is even higher if you want the Reward Flight Saver option with £350 of add-ons.

You can use just 67,000 KrisFlyer miles, most likely routed on Lufthansa via Frankfurt or SWISS via Zurich, instead.  Other fun routings include Turkish Airlines via Istanbul and Egyptair via Cairo.

Here are some other good options

Here are other sweet spots for UK residents:

• Europe to South East Asia, at 103,500 miles one-way in Business.  You can fly direct to Singapore on Singapore Airlines for the same 103,500 miles, but if you can’t find seats on your dates (not unlikely) then you should get something on partners such as Thai, Lufthansa, SWISS and Turkish Airlines.

• Europe to South Africa for 60,000 miles one-way in Business.   Your primary choices would be Lufthansa, SWISS, Ethiopian and Turkish, given that South African Airways is not currently flying to Europe.

• Europe to the Maldives is 61,500 miles one-way in Business.   Turkish Airlines is your likely carrier.  Sri Lanka and India are in the same pricing zone.

• Domestic USA / Canada flights.  Whilst not as cheap as Avios for short hops, 14,000 miles one-way in Economy or 26,000 miles one-way in Business (domestic First in the USA is priced as Business, currently priced at 23,000 miles) can work out well.

And if you are prepared to start your trip in Turkey ….

Istanbul to Singapore is astonishingly cheap at 56,500 miles one-way in Business. Taxes are also exceptionally low – just US$24.60 last time I checked.

This is based on flying with Singapore Airlines itself, not a partner airlines, priced off the Singapore Airlines reward chart for Singapore Airlines flights.  You want Page 2 which covers ‘Saver Awards’ – look at Zone 1 to Zone 10 travel. OK, you need to position yourself in Istanbul first – but for a discount like this I think you could live with it.

Virgin Atlantic redemptions look like a great deal but ….

In theory, the biggest value for KrisFlyer miles from London comes from the Virgin Atlantic partner award chart.  You would pay 50,000 miles one-way Upper Class to any US destination.

These awards are not going up on 5th July but “Upward revisions will be made to Award Levels for flights on partner airlines and will be implemented progressively.”

There’s a big drawback though – Virgin Atlantic limits its award inventory to KrisFlyer so tightly it’s almost useless.  You cannot book online and the call centre finds it virtually impossible to find seats.  This may be some sort of retaliation by Virgin Atlantic for the rules that Singapore Airlines imposes on Virgin Flying Club members who want to redeem with them.

I hope this article has given you a few ideas for potential uses for the Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer programme, especially if you are sitting on a large pot of American Express Membership Rewards points.

Is this the right approach, or should you leave your points where they are for as long as you can?

Why ‘convertible’ points are more valuable than all other points

Let’s recap why you should value ‘convertible’ points more highly than other points, and why you definitely should not rush to convert them.

In general, you should value ‘convertible’ points more highly than a point which has no other use.  It is therefore worth choosing ‘convertible’ points when given the choice, and you should keep your points unconverted for as long as possible.

There are a number of ‘convertible’ currencies you will come across.  The main one is American Express Membership Rewards points, which can be earned from The Platinum Card, Preferred Rewards Gold, American Express Rewards Credit Card, Business Platinum or Business Gold.

Other convertible currencies include Tesco Clubcard points (to Virgin Flying Club), Heathrow Rewards points and HSBC Premier Mastercard points (to Avios and various other airline and hotel programmes). Most hotel scheme points are also, to a lesser or greater extent, convertible.

(I am not discussing Nectar to Avios transfers in this article, because those points can be moved in either direction, albeit with some loss of value.  This is not the case for the other transfers listed above.)

There is one thing you need to remember

This is the key point I want to make:

• If you have 1 American Express Membership Rewards point, it has more value than 1 Avios even though the former converts into the latter

There are various reasons for this:

• An American Express point will hold its value better.   If you transfer them to Avios and Avios devalues, you have lost out – you can’t convert them back.  Keeping them as Amex Membership Rewards points means that you have alternative options.

• American Express or British Airways may decide to run a conversion bonus at some point for moving your points across to Avios.  If this happened, 1 Amex point would be worth more than 1 Avios.  Whilst I admit that Amex and Clubcard bonuses are rare, Heathrow Rewards (admittedly not since covid) and HSBC Premier (annually to Avios) do run them.

• Amex may run a great promotion with another partner which allows you to get far more value from a point than you would get from 1 Avios

• Your personal priorities may change and you may decide that you would prefer to redeem your Amex points for something else other than Avios.  By not converting, you retain the flexibility. 

I have written on HfP before that, even before the partnership ended, I did not convert my Tesco Clubcard points into Avios.  For years I used them for Safestore as we have some furniture with them and Safestore accepted Clubcard vouchers at 3 x face value.

When that deal ended, we switched to Uber credit at 3 x face value.  My choice was to use 100 Clubcard points for either £3 off my Uber bills or receive 240 Avios.  If I took Avios I would be valuing them at 1.25p each – and I don’t.

Of course, the Clubcard / Uber deal is now over too.  The few Clubcard points I earn – and it is only a few these days – get sent over to Virgin Points simply to keep my life easy.

Fast transfers are another reason to leave points where they are

There is another reason why keeping American Express and Tesco points in their ‘original’ form as long as possible makes sense.  Amex points usually convert to Avios within 24 hours of a transfer being initiated – in general, even transfers done late evening will be there the next morning. Tesco points usually convert to Virgin Atlantic within 24 hours, whilst Amex transfers to Virgin Points are instantaneous if the accounts are already linked.

If a reward seat opened up and I didn’t have enough Avios or Virgin Points, I would be confident enough to assume that the seat would still be there tomorrow morning when I could have converted points across.

Some American Express Membership Rewards transfers are INSTANT – Virgin Atlantic, Delta Air Lines, Marriott Bonvoy and Emirates – as long as you have already linked your accounts.  There is absolutely no reason whatsoever, except for a conversion bonus, why you should move points to those partners before you need them.

Some transfers, admittedly, are not instant.  Slow transfers are one reason why you may want to move across hotel points before you need them.  The last time I moved some Starwood (now Marriott Bonvoy) points to Lufthansa it took 28 days!  I was lucky that the redemption I wanted was still available.  You shouldn’t rely on a hotel scheme moving your points across to British Airways in a hurry.  If you will be totally reliant on a hotel transfer to make a redemption you have planned, you may want to move them in advance.

Conclusion

In general, if you want to maximise the value of your points then you want to maximise their flexibility.  For ‘convertible’ currencies, this means keeping them in their original form as long as possible.

PS.  If you are planning to cancel an The Platinum Card or American Express Preferred Rewards Gold but don’t want to empty out your Membership Rewards account, there is a solution.  Get the Amex Rewards Credit Card, which is FREE and allows you to keep your Membership Rewards account open.  This article explains why the Amex Rewards Credit Card is an easy way to save your Membership Rewards points.

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (January 2024)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending £12,000 Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital On Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios.

Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa

Get a 10,000 points bonus plus an extra 500 points for our readers Read our full review

You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus.

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

There are also generous bonuses on the two American Express Business cards, with the points converting at 1:1 into Avios. These cards are open to sole traders as well as limited companies.

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and free for a year Read our full review

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.

We’ve only seen this new offer on British Airways American Express cards although that’s not to say that it isn’t on any others.

You will receive 3,000 bonus Avios when you spend £300 in a participating Hyatt hotel in Europe by 15th March.

The hotel list is here.

As usual, there are gaps in countries where Amex isn’t active – no Ireland, no Portugal etc. The biggest chunk of properties is in Germany following Hyatt’s absorption of the Lindner chain.

3,000 Avios isn’t huge attractive, especially as you will be paying a 2.99% FX fee for using your British Airways American Express outside the UK.

If this means the end of generous hotel cashback deals via American Express then it will undermine the value proposition of the cards – I’ve earned well over £500 from these offers this year.

World of Hyatt update – January 2024:

Get bonus points: World of Hyatt is not currently running a global promotion

New to World of Hyatt?  Read our overview of World of Hyatt here and our article on points expiry rules here. Our article on what we think World of Hyatt points are worth is here.

Buy points: If you need additional World of Hyatt points, you can buy them here.

Want to earn more hotel points?  Click here to see our complete list of promotions from Hyatt and the other major hotel chains or use the ‘Hotel Offers’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.

As usual, it is a targetted offer so you need to check all of your cards individually, on your statement page online or in the app, and click ‘Save to Card’ to register.

You will receive £5 back when you spend £15+ at eBay by 31st December.

Cumulative transactions count – you don’t need to spend £15 in one go. The £15 can include postage because the cashback is driven by the total amount charged to your credit card.

Note that “Orders must originate from, and ship to, a UK location.”

If your eBay account is set up to pay via PayPal, remember that using Amex via PayPal won’t trigger the cashback. You need to pay directly with your registered American Express card.

Remember that you also earn 1 Nectar point for every £1 you spend at eBay. You can link your Nectar and eBay accounts via this page of the eBay website.

If you’re looking for something buy, I’ve found that eBay is surprisingly good for buying books these days. You can often find sellers who undercut Amazon, and many of the sellers have over 100,000 positive reviews (over 10 in some cases – I saw one with 9m).

The eBay home page is here.

Want to earn more points from credit cards? – January 2024 update

If you are looking to apply for a new credit card, here are our top recommendations based on the current sign-up bonuses.

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

You can see our full directory of all UK cards which earn airline or hotel points here. Here are the best of the other deals currently available.

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard

15,000 bonus points and 1.5 points for every £1 you spend Read our full review

Earning miles and points from small business cards

If you are a sole trader or run a small company, you may also want to check out these offers:

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and free for a year Read our full review

Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa

Get a 10,000 points bonus plus an extra 500 points for our readers Read our full review

For a non-American Express option, we also recommend the Barclaycard Select Cashback card for sole traders and small businesses. It is FREE and you receive 1% cashback on your spending.

Barclaycard Select Cashback credit card

2% cashback on all your business spend for 3 months (1% thereafter) and no annual fee Read our full review

With American Express Business Platinum, you will receive a sign-up bonus of 40,000 Membership Rewards points (= 40,000 Avios or other miles).

You need to spend £6,000 within three months to receive the bonus.

You can find out more details about, and apply for, American Express Business Platinum here.

You may qualify for the sign-up bonus even if you think you don’t

Remember that it is easier to qualify for the sign-up bonus on the Business Platinum card than the personal Platinum card.

To get the 40,000 Membership Rewards points on signing up, you only need to have gone 13 MONTHS without any American Express card (personal or business) which earns Membership Rewards points.  The personal Platinum card requires you to wait 24 months.

However …. having Business Platinum does NOT stop you getting the bonus on personal Platinum later.  The rule on the personal Platinum card is that you can’t have had any PERSONAL card earning Membership Rewards points in the last 24 months.  Amex does not look at Business cards.  The Business Platinum card is a good way to fill the gap if you are waiting 24 months before you can reapply for personal Platinum.

Now let’s look at the card in more detail …..

The card facts

American Express Business Platinum is a charge card, not a credit card.  You must clear your full balance at the end of each month.

The card is metal.

The sign-up bonus is 40,000 Membership Rewards points which requires you to spend £6,000 within your first three months of membership.  You qualify for the bonus as long as “[you do not] currently hold or have held any Membership Rewards enrolled American Express Card in the past 13 months.”

You earn 1 Membership Rewards points on virtually every £1 spent on the card.  These convert 1:1 into Avios, Virgin Points and lots of other airline and hotel programmes, plus Eurostar points (15:1).  You can also redeem for various shopping vouchers.  You can see the redemption options on the Membership Rewards website.

You can earn a monthly bonus on top. In any month where you spend over £10,000, you will receive a bonus of 10,000 points. This means that you could earn up to 120,000 bonus points per year. If you are a high spender then this could be the most valuable card on the market for you.

The annual fee is £650, refundable pro-rata if you cancel.  Additional Platinum supplementary cards after the first free one are now £295 – these cards receive all of the benefits below.  You can have 98 free Gold supplementary cards but these do not come with any benefits.

What are the criteria for applying for Amex Business Platinum?

You can apply even if you have just set up your business, as long as:

• The business has a current UK Bank or Building Society account
• You are aged 18 or over
• You have a permanent UK home address

You must have a minimum personal income of £35,000 to apply.

What is the Amex Business Platinum benefits package?

Let’s look at what you get for £650.  For comparison, the annual fee on the personal Platinum card is also £650:

You receive £200 per membership year to spend with Amex Travel. The only small print is that it must be a pre-paid transaction and you must spend the £200 in one go. This is as good as cash for most of our readers, I think.

You will receive a free Priority Pass card.  Priority Pass is a network of 1,300 airport lounges across the world, including eight in London Heathrow.  This includes the Aspire lounge in BA’s Heathrow Terminal 5 and the Plaza Premium lounge in Heathrow Terminal 5.  Your Priority Pass allows an unlimited number of free visits to their lounges.  You can also bring in a guest for free.

You can also give a Priority Pass card to a second person by allocating your one free supplementary Platinum Business card to them.  If this is your partner or spouse, you would both be able to get into the lounge for free and each bring in a free guest so a family of four is covered.  Additional guests would be charged at £20 each.

You can access American Express Centurion lounges with a guest, including the Centurion Lounge in Heathrow Terminal 3.

You will receive comprehensive travel insurance.  This is a very valuable benefit because of the high level of coverage available – you can take a look at the policy document here (PDF).  This is a substantially stronger insurance package than you get with the personal version of Platinum.  There is NO EXCESS to pay at any time, there is no requirement to use the Platinum Card to pay for anything and you are covered up to the age of 80.

You will receive Gold status in the Marriott Bonvoy hotel loyalty scheme.  This will give added benefits at Marriott, Renaissance, Sheraton, Westin, W, aloft, St Regis, The Ritz-Carlton, The Luxury Collection etc properties – almost 30 brands in total.

You will receive Premium status in the Radisson Rewards hotel loyalty scheme.  This will give added benefits at Radisson Blu / RED, Park Plaza and Park Inn hotels.

You will receive Gold status in the Hilton Honors hotel loyalty scheme.  This is the best mid-tier hotel status to have, because you get free breakfast with it.  You will get benefits at Hilton, Waldorf Astoria, Hampton, Curio etc.

You will receive Gold status in the MeliaRewards hotel loyalty scheme.  You will get benefits at Melia and INNSiDE hotels, with benefits including three 20% discount vouchers each year and ‘2 for 1’ breakfast.

You receive a free digital subscription to The Times and The Sunday Times.  This is worth over £300, and if you currently pay for this it is a huge incentive to take out the card.

You receive £150 credit per year to spend with Dell. No minimum spend applies but the credit is split into two parts. You can earn £75 cashback between January and June and £75 cashback between July and December.

You receive £300 credit per year to spend with Indeed on recruitment advertising. You receive this in quarterly chunks of £75.

You can access the Amex Fine Hotels & Resorts Programme.  This offers genuine added value benefits at a large number of luxury hotels across the world.  These include a GUARANTEED 4pm check-out, free breakfast, an upgrade if available at check-in and typically a $100 credit towards on-property spending.

There are also benefits with Avis Preferred and Hertz Gold Plus Rewards but these are, in all honesty, no better than deals that are generally available.

There are only two negative points to note.  You do NOT receive Eurostar lounge access with Business Platinum.  This is only a benefit for holders of the personal version of The Platinum Card.  You also do not receive the £300 of annual dining credit or the £100 of annual Harvey Nichols shopping credit that come with the personal card.  On the upside, personal Platinum cardholders do not receive a subscription to The Times.

Conclusion

40,000 Membership Rewards points (worth 40,000 Avios or 60,000 Marriott Bonvoy points or 120,000 Radisson Rewards points or 40,000 Virgin Points etc etc) is an excellent return for getting this card.

Whilst the £650 annual fee is high, it would be refunded pro-rata if you decided after a few months that the card was not for you.

Remember that it is easier to get the bonus on Business Platinum compared to the personal version because it only requires you to have gone 13 months without a card earning Membership Rewards points.  The personal version requires to have gone 24 months without a personal card earning Membership Rewards points.

You can find out more about American Express Business Platinum, and apply, on the American Express website here.

Disclaimer: Head for Points is a journalistic website. Nothing here should be construed as financial advice, and it is your own responsibility to ensure that any product is right for your circumstances. Recommendations are based primarily on the ability to earn miles and points. The site discusses products offered by lenders but is not a lender itself. Robert Burgess, trading as Head for Points, is regulated and authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority to act as an independent credit broker.

Remember that there are currently two excellent special offers running:

• 100,000 (!) Membership Rewards points with The Platinum Card (click to read more, click here to apply)

• 30,000 Membership Rewards points with American Express Preferred Rewards Gold (click to read more, click here to apply)

Every couple of years, we like to ask for your help in putting together a list of the actual (as opposed to promised) time taken to transfer points from the UK version of American Express Membership Rewards to various airline and hotel programmes.

The list below is where we ended up last time, together with updates based on our own transactions since.

EDIT: the list below has been updated to reflect the comments under this article and is now the most accurate list we have

I thought it was time to update it.  If you have done a Membership Rewards transfer recently, or will be doing one in the next few days, please let me know how long it took by posting a comment under this article.

All of these transfer times are for transfers where the relevant airline or hotel account is already linked to your Membership Rewards account.  If they are not linked, you should expect your first transfer to take a little longer.

Two tricks to note

If you have never transferred out of Membership Rewards before, one thing you should note is that transfers to Virgin Atlantic, Delta Air Lines, Marriott Bonvoy, Qantas and Emirates should be INSTANT as long as your accounts are already linked.

This is a very handy function because, if you see a reward flight you want, you know that you can transfer over the points with minimal risk of losing the seat.

The other thing to note is that some partners have very low transfer thresholds.  Nectar is just 1 point.  Radisson Rewards is 3 points.  Hilton Honors is 200 points.

If you are emptying out your Membership Rewards points to Avios then you will have some left over because transfers must be in multiples of 500.  Nectar, Radisson and Hilton are a good way of using up the rest.

What are UK Membership Rewards transfer times?

References to ‘day’ in this article technically mean ‘night’.  If I say ‘1 day’ it means that if you do the transfer at some point during today it should arrive in your account at some point tomorrow.

Points generally arrive in your account well before the completion email arrives from American Express, so you should not treat the confirmation email as the actual arrival time.  It is normally better.

Airlines:

• British Airways Executive Club – we say 1 day, Amex says 3 days

• Cathay Pacific Asia Miles – we say 1-2 days, Amex says 3 days

• Delta SkyMiles – we say instantaneous, Amex says 30 minutes

• Emirates Skywards – we say instantaneous, Amex says 2 days

• Etihad Guest – we say 1-2 days, Amex says 5 days

• Finnair Plus – no recent experience, Amex says 3 days

• Flying Blue – we say 1 day, Amex says 4 days

• Iberia Plus – we say 1-2 days, Amex says 4 days

• Qantas Frequent Flyer – we say overnight (some examples of overnight), Amex says 3 days

• SAS EuroBonus – we say 1-2 days, Amex says 5 days

• Singapore Airlines Krisflyer – we say 1 day, Amex says 15 days!

• Virgin Flying Club – we say instantaneous, Amex says 30 minutes

Hotels:

• Hilton Honors – we say 1-3 days, Amex says 5 days

• Marriott Bonvoy – we say instantaneous / same day, Amex says ‘up to’ 1 day

• Radisson Rewards – we say 1-2 days, Amex says 10 days

Other:

• Club Eurostar – we say 1 day, Amex says 5 days

• Nectar – we say 1 day, Amex says 4 days

Thanks in advance for your input.

Want to earn more points from credit cards? – January 2024 update

If you are looking to apply for a new credit card, here are our top recommendations based on the current sign-up bonuses.

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

You can see our full directory of all UK cards which earn airline or hotel points here. Here are the best of the other deals currently available.

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard

15,000 bonus points and 1.5 points for every £1 you spend Read our full review

Earning miles and points from small business cards

If you are a sole trader or run a small company, you may also want to check out these offers:

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and free for a year Read our full review

Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa

Get a 10,000 points bonus plus an extra 500 points for our readers Read our full review

For a non-American Express option, we also recommend the Barclaycard Select Cashback card for sole traders and small businesses. It is FREE and you receive 1% cashback on your spending.

Barclaycard Select Cashback credit card

2% cashback on all your business spend for 3 months (1% thereafter) and no annual fee Read our full review

Amidst all of the competitions and other promotions, the one thing that seemed to offer genuine value was £75 cashback on a £300 Amex Travel spend.

The deal is now live so we have full clarity on how it works. The bad news is that flight bookings are excluded.

It is also very restricted, both in terms of the number of registrations allowed and the cards on which it appears.

The good news is that, if you are selected, you have until 20th December to make your purchase.

You MUST register for the offer before making a booking. You may, or may not, find it under the ‘Offers’ tab of your American Express card:

Here are the key things to note:

• It’s restricted to 20,000 registrations, which is a tiny fraction of the UK American Express cardholder base. Move quickly if you want to register.

• It does not seem to appear on co-brand travel cards (British Airways, Marriott), presumably due to conflicts with the co-brand partner – your best bet is Gold or Platinum, and I don’t even have it on my Platinum (it is on my wife’s Gold)

• It only appears to be on primary cards, not supplementary cards

• The £300 must be spent in a single transaction

• You have until 20th December to make your booking, and there are no restrictions on when the hotel stay or car hire actually takes place

• Only pre-paid hotel and car hire bookings count, not flights

• As usual, hotel bookings via Amex Travel will be ineligible for status benefits or loyalty points, so the deal is best used for independent hotels or those where you have no interest in points

The bottom line is that it’s both better and worse than we expected. The inability to book flights is disappointing, as is the low number of registrations allowed, but the fact that you have until 20th December to book means that those who can register should be able to find a way of using it.

Want to earn more points from credit cards? – January 2024 update

If you are looking to apply for a new credit card, here are our top recommendations based on the current sign-up bonuses.

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

You can see our full directory of all UK cards which earn airline or hotel points here. Here are the best of the other deals currently available.

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard

15,000 bonus points and 1.5 points for every £1 you spend Read our full review

Earning miles and points from small business cards

If you are a sole trader or run a small company, you may also want to check out these offers:

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and free for a year Read our full review

Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa

Get a 10,000 points bonus plus an extra 500 points for our readers Read our full review

For a non-American Express option, we also recommend the Barclaycard Select Cashback card for sole traders and small businesses. It is FREE and you receive 1% cashback on your spending.

Barclaycard Select Cashback credit card

2% cashback on all your business spend for 3 months (1% thereafter) and no annual fee Read our full review

It runs from Monday 16th to Sunday 22nd October.

Whilst not all of the offers will be interesting to you, the £75 travel discount does offer genuine value.

Here is what you can expect. Note that registration MAY be required for some of these offers.

Save £75 on a £300 booking at Amex Travel

This is one which I think will be of most value.

Any (TBC) Amex cardholder spending £300 on a pre-paid product at American Express Travel will receive £75 cashback.

It isn’t clear if this is once per card or once per cardholder. If the former, you would be able to split a long hotel stay or multiple flight bookings up and receive £75 back each time, assuming you had multiple American Express cards.

Got a Platinum card? There will be special offers on selected Fine Hotels & Resorts hotels, offering an extra free night or an extra property credit. I assume these would stack with the £75 credit if prepaid.

Got a Gold or Platinum card? Similar deals will run with The Hotel Collection.

Other Member Week offers include ….

Entertainment

You will be able to enter a range of competitions all week to win tickets to see Little Simz and Amex Gold Unsigned, plus ice skating packages at Somerset House and tickets for Wimbledon, the National Theatre, BST Hyde Park, All Points East and Brighton & Hove Albion football games.

A Membership Rewards competition to potentially avoid

300 members who use ‘Pay with Points’ to cover the cost of a purchase on their Membership Rewards-earning Amex card next week will win 30,000 Membership Rewards points.

As ‘Pay with Points’ gets you a terrible 0.45p per Membership Rewards points, the small chance of winning isn’t worth the loss of value on your points in my view. Potentially, if you bought something for £1 or so next week, you could cover the cost of that with points if you wanted to enter. You will need to register for the competition in advance.

A Bose deal

You will receive 25% off (up to £50) any online purchase from Bose next week.

You can find out more about Member Week on this page of the American Express website.

We’ll remind you about the Amex Travel deal when we have the full T&C but you may want to think about any £300 travel purchases you could bring forward to next week. Remember that any hotels booked via Amex Travel do NOT earn hotel loyalty points or status benefits so it’s not a no-brainer at branded properties.

Want to earn more points from credit cards? – January 2024 update

If you are looking to apply for a new credit card, here are our top recommendations based on the current sign-up bonuses.

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

You can see our full directory of all UK cards which earn airline or hotel points here. Here are the best of the other deals currently available.

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard

15,000 bonus points and 1.5 points for every £1 you spend Read our full review

Earning miles and points from small business cards

If you are a sole trader or run a small company, you may also want to check out these offers:

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and free for a year Read our full review

Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa

Get a 10,000 points bonus plus an extra 500 points for our readers Read our full review

For a non-American Express option, we also recommend the Barclaycard Select Cashback card for sole traders and small businesses. It is FREE and you receive 1% cashback on your spending.

Barclaycard Select Cashback credit card

2% cashback on all your business spend for 3 months (1% thereafter) and no annual fee Read our full review

I have written numerous articles before about using American Express Membership Rewards points and a few pieces on how I value airline miles and hotel points.

I have pulled together both of these strands in this article on how to make the best use of your Amex Membership Rewards points.  It does NOT cover every Membership Rewards redemption but it does cover the bulk of the pseudo-cash, cash and travel options.

Membership Rewards sensibly chose to discontinue ‘physical’ redemptions a few years ago.  You can no longer redeem your points for a toaster.  This is good news because the toaster was, unsurprisingly, poor value for your points.  If you still want a free toaster, redeem your points for an Amazon gift card.

The Amex Membership Rewards website is here if you want to look for yourself at what is available.

How can you earn Membership Rewards points?

The three main ways to earn Membership Rewards points in the UK from a personal American Express card are:

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

American Express Rewards

The only ‘free for life’ Amex card which earns Membership Rewards Read our full review

The two most common business payment cards are:

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and free for a year Read our full review

The complex rules on whether you qualify for an American Express sign-up bonus are explained in my article here. 

Fundamentally, it is fairly easy to qualify for the bonus on Business Gold and Business Platinum (you cannot have held any Membership Rewards card for 13 months) and personal Platinum (you cannot have held a personal Green, Gold or Platinum card for 24 months). 

It is harder to qualify for the bonus on personal Preferred Rewards Gold or the American Express Rewards Credit Card (you cannot have held ANY personal Amex card for 24 months).

How I value Amex Membership Rewards points:

0.75p – 1.5p per point (my target)

Airline miles.  My last piece on valuing Avios points is here and Amex points transfer into Avios at 1:1.  This is why the sign-up bonuses, such as 20,000 points for taking out the free (in Year 1) Americn Express Preferred Rewards Gold, are so valuable.

It is impossible to tie down a tighter range because of the number of different airline partners and the various ways (upgrade, long-haul, short-haul, economy, premium) you can redeem.  Membership Rewards points convert at 1:1 to Avios, Virgin Atlantic, Emirates, Etihad, Cathay Pacific, Delta, Finnair, Flying Blue, Qantas and SAS. The transfer rate to Singapore Airlines is 3:2.

My personal spreadsheet of the last 8.5m Avios I have redeemed shows that I got an average value of 1.2p.  This is based on what I would personally have been prepared to pay for the flights I took, however, which may be far different from what you would have been prepared to pay.  My best redemptions far exceeded this.

0.75p per point (my target)

Marriott Bonvoy hotel transfers.  Amex points convert at 2:3 into the Marriott Bonvoy programme.

This article explains why we value Marriott Bonvoy points at 0.5p which has held firm despite the move to nearer revenue-based reward pricing.

0.5p per Marriott Bonvoy point means, at a 2:3 exchange rate from Membership Rewards, you should be getting 0.75p per Membership Rewards point.  You now have a whopping 30 hotel brands to redeem at, including Le Meridien, Sheraton, Westin, W, Marriott, Autograph, Design Hotels, The Luxury Collection, The Ritz-Carlton, St Regis etc etc.

I have had some exceptionally good redemptions in recent years which have got me far more than 0.5p per Bonvoy point as the valuation article above shows.

0.66p per point (guaranteed)

In 2021, the supermarket loyalty scheme Nectar become a partner with British Airways Avios points. You can convert 50,000 Avios per month to Nectar, at a rate of 300 : 400.

Because a Nectar point has a fixed value of 0.5p when spent at Sainsbury’s, eBay or Argos, it means that 1 Avios can be turned into 1.33 Nectar points worth 0.66p.

As long as you shop at Sainsbury’s, eBay or Argos, you can get 0.66p per Membership Rewards point, guaranteed.

To do this, you convert your American Express points to Avios and then transfer them to Nectar. This article explains how to link your accounts.

Before I go on ….

You are guaranteed 0.66p per Membership Rewards point if you convert American Express points to Avios to Nectar.

All of the options below earn you less than 0.66p per point. You need to have a good reason to use any of the options below instead of Nectar.

0.66p per point (my target)

Hilton Honors hotel transfers.  Hilton has moved closer to a revenue-based redemption model in recent years, although you can get still outsized value at times.  Over time I have come to believe that 0.33p per point is a fair valuation for a Hilton Honors point.  The conversion rate is 1:2 to Hilton which is how I get to 0.66p per Amex point.  Hilton brands include Conrad, Waldorf Astoria and Hampton.

You can beat 0.33p per point if you are strategic in how and when you redeem, so there are reasons why you may want to transfer to Hilton instead of cashing out via Nectar.

0.55p per point (my target)

Club Eurostar points.  Following the 2023 devaluation, I value a Club Eurostar point at 7p to 10p. The 15:1 transfer rate into Club Eurostar means you are getting 0.55p per point if you take a midpoint of 8.5p.

You should get slightly more than 0.55p if redeeming in Standard class and slightly less if redeeming in Standard Premier or upgrading from Standard to Standard Premier.

0.5p per point (guaranteed)

Retailer gift cards – Amazon, Harrods, Hotels.com, Marks & Spencer, Selfridges, Waterstones etc.  20,000 Amex points will get you a £100 shopping voucher, for example.

0.5p per point (guaranteed)

The value of a Nectar point if you don’t convert via Avios, given that you can redeem Amex points directly for Nectar points at a 1:1 ratio.  It is pointless to do this, however, given that you get 30% more value by transferring American Express to Avios to Nectar as I explained above.

0.45p per point (my target)

Radisson Rewards hotel transfers. Radisson Rewards in the UK covers Radisson Blu, Radisson RED, Radisson Edwardian, Park Inn and Park Plaza.

Until an October 2022 devaluation, Radisson Rewards points were a great use of American Express Membership points. Now they are not.

The average value has dropped from around 0.33p per Radisson Rewards point to around 0.15p as I show here. The conversion rate is 1 American Express Membership Rewards point to 3 Radisson Rewards points.

This means that you are getting around 0.45p per American Express point. You can’t do much better than this because Radisson Rewards pricing is now ‘dynamic’, with the points cost increasing if the cash price increases.

0.45p per point (guaranteed)

Linking your Amex account to amazon.co.uk and paying for your purchases directly with points (more in this article).  This is a slightly silly option, however, as you can also redeem for Amazon gift cards and get 0.5p per point.

0.45p per point (guaranteed)

Redeeming for American Express statement credit. The simplest and least worthwhile way of using your Membership Rewards points.

I hope this article gives you some ideas for using your American Express Membership Rewards points for maximum value.

Learn more about the credit cards mentioned above

Here is the legally required interest rate information on the credit cards mentioned above, together with links to our detailed reviews:

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Bonus: 20,000 points

Read our full review

Sign-up bonus and earn rate:

• Get 20,000 Membership Rewards points when you spend £3,000 within 90 days
• Earn 1 Membership Rewards point per £1 spent
• Get up to 12,500 bonus points each year based on your total spending
• Earn double points on all airline and overseas spend
• Points transfer at 1:1 into Avios, Virgin Points and other airline and hotel schemes

Other information:

• Amex Gold is our recommended ‘first card’ for a miles and points beginner
• Get four free airport lounge passes when you sign up, and a further four each year
• After your four free passes, you can visit further lounges for a small fee
• You receive £120 of Deliveroo credit each year (24 x £5 credits)
• Annual fee: Free for the first year, £195 from Year 2

Representative 88.8% APR variable.  Annual fee applies after the first year.

Apply here

See if you qualify for the 20,000 points sign-up bonus +

You will receive 20,000 American Express Membership Rewards points as a sign-up bonus on the American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card if you spend £3,000 within 90 days of signing up.

Membership Rewards points are hugely flexible, which is why we recommend this as the best choice for your first miles and points card.  You can transfer them into Avios, Virgin Flying Club or other airlines (at 1:1) or into various hotels schemes, into Club Eurostar or use them for shopping vouchers.

To qualify for the bonus, you must NOT, currently or in the previous 24 months, have held any other personal American Express card.

You are OK if you had a supplementary card on someone else’s American Express account.

You are OK if, currently or in the previous 24 months, you have held a Business American Express card.

For clarity, you can still apply for the American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card even if you do not qualify for the bonus.  You would still benefit from the four free airport lounge passes and the ‘no fee in Year 1’ offer.

Learn more about the card benefits +

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold comes with four free airport lounge passes.  These allow either you and up to three friends, or yourself four times, to visit any of the 1,400 lounges in the Priority Pass network.  You make additional lounge visits for £24 per person.  You receive an additional four free passes each year.

You earn double Membership Rewards points on all airline spend (made directly on an airline website) and all spend made outside the UK.

You will receive up to 12,500 bonus Membership Rewards points each year, based on how much you spend.

You receive £120 of Deliveroo credit each year.  Amex will repay you £5 for the first two Deliveroo orders charged to your Gold card each month.

Other benefits include a 10% discount on Hertz car rentals, Avis Preferred Plus car rental status and special deals at 350 selected hotels worldwide, where Preferred Rewards Gold cardholders receive a $75 in-hotel credit per stay.

You need a minimum personal income of £20,000 to apply for the card.

The Platinum Card from American Express

Bonus: 40,000 points

Read our full review

Sign-up bonus and earn rate:

• Get 40,000 Membership Rewards points when you spend £6,000 within three months
• Earn 1 Membership Rewards point per £1 spent
• Points transfer at 1:1 into Avios, Virgin Points and other airline and hotel schemes

Other information:

• Two Priority Pass cards, each allowing two people into 1,400 airport lounges
• Elite status in four major hotel loyalty programmes
• Comprehensive travel insurance
• £300 per year of restaurant credit
• £100 per year to spend at Harvey Nichols
• Annual fee: £650

Representative 704.6% APR variable based on an assumed £1,200 credit limit and £650 annual fee. Interest rate on purchases 31.0% APR variable.

Apply here

See if you qualify for the 40,000 points sign-up bonus +

You will receive 40,000 American Express Membership Rewards points as a sign-up bonus on The Platinum Card if you spend £6,000 within three months of signing up.

Membership Rewards points are hugely flexible.  You can transfer them into Avios, Virgin Flying Club or other airlines (at 1:1) or into various hotels schemes, into Club Eurostar or use them for shopping vouchers.

This is the ONLY personal American Express card where you still qualify for the bonus if you already hold a British Airways American Express card.

To qualify for the bonus, you must NOT, currently or in the previous 24 months, have held any other personal American Express card which earns Membership Rewards points.  This includes The Platinum Card and Preferred Rewards Gold.

You are OK if you had a supplementary card on someone else’s American Express account.

You are OK if, currently or in the previous 24 months, you have held any other American Express card, including the British Airways, Marriott and Nectar cards.

For clarity, you can still apply for The Platinum Card even if you do not qualify for the bonus.  You would still benefit from the long list of other benefits.

Learn more about the card benefits +

The Platinum Card from American Express comes with an unrivalled list of benefits for the keen traveller.

Your personal travel patterns will determine which of these is the most valuable.  The key benefits are:

Full comprehensive travel insurance for you, your family and the family of your supplementary cardholder, subject to enrolment

Two Priority Pass cards, each of which allows the holder and a guest unlimited free access to 1,400 airport lounges

Elite status in four major hotel loyalty schemes: Marriott Bonvoy (Gold), Hilton Honors (Gold), Radisson Rewards (Premium), MeliaRewards (Gold)

Access to Eurostar lounges, irrespective of travel class

£150 per year to spend in over 160 UK restaurants

£150 per year to spend in over 1,200 international restaurants

£100 per year to spend at Harvey Nichols, instore or online (no minimum spend required)

£300 per year of dining credit – £150 to be spent at 150+ UK restaurants and £150 to be spent at 1,200+ restaurants outside the UK

You need a minimum personal income of £35,000 to apply for the card.

American Express Rewards

Bonus: 10,000 points

Read our full review

Sign-up bonus and earn rate:

• Get 10,000 Membership Rewards points when you spend £2,000 within 90 days
• Earn 1 Membership Rewards point per £1 spent
• Points transfer at 1:1 into Avios, Virgin Points and other airline and hotel schemes

Other information:

• Your best choice if you want a ‘free for life’ card which earns Membership Rewards points
• A good choice if you want to close a Gold or Platinum card but keep your points intact
• Annual fee: Free

Representative 31.0% APR variable

Apply here

See if you qualify for the 10,000 points sign-up bonus +

You will receive 10,000 American Express Membership Rewards points as a sign-up bonus on the American Express Rewards card if you spend £2,000 within 90 days of signing up.

Membership Rewards points are hugely flexible. You can transfer them into Avios, Virgin Flying Club or other airlines (at 1:1) or into various hotels schemes, into Club Eurostar or use them for shopping vouchers.

To qualify for the bonus, you must NOT, currently or in the previous 24 months, have held any other personal American Express card.

You are OK if you had a supplementary card on someone else’s American Express account.

You are OK if, currently or in the previous 24 months, you have held a Business American Express card.

For clarity, you can still apply for the American Express Rewards card even if you do not qualify for the bonus.  You may want to do this if you are thinking of swapping your Preferred Rewards Gold or Platinum card for a free alternative, and would prefer to keep your existing Membership Rewards points balance alive.

Learn more about the card benefits +

American Express Rewards is the only ‘free for life’ American Express card which lets you collect Membership Rewards points.

We do NOT recommend this card if you would also qualify for the sign-up bonus on American Express Preferred Rewards Gold.  The Gold card is free for the first year, comes with four free airport lounge passes and £120 of Deliveroo credit and has a higher sign-up bonus of 20,000 points.

The best reason to get American Express Rewards is if you are coming to the end of your free first year with American Express Preferred Rewards Gold, or no longer want to pay the fee on The Platinum Card, but want to keep your Membership Rewards points intact.

You need a minimum personal income of £20,000 to apply for the card.

American Express Business Gold

Bonus: 20,000 Membership Rewards points

Read our full review

Sign-up bonus and earn rate:

• Get 20,000 Membership Rewards points when you spend £3,000 within 90 days
• Earn 10,000 additional bonus points whenever you spend £20,000 in a quarter
• Earn 1 Membership Rewards point per £1 spent

Other information:

• Annual fee: Free for the first year, £195 from Year 2
• Points transfer at 1:1 into Avios, Virgin Points and other airline schemes
• Get £100 per year to spend at Dell

This is a charge card, not a credit card. You must clear your balance in full each month.  Annual fee £195 from Year 2, free in Year 1.

Apply here

See if you qualify for the 20,000 points sign-up bonus +

You will receive 20,000 American Express Membership Rewards points as a sign-up bonus on the American Express Business Gold card if you spend £3,000 within 90 days.

Membership Rewards points are hugely flexible.  You can transfer them into Avios, Virgin Flying Club or other airlines (at 1:1) or into various hotels schemes, into Club Eurostar or use them for shopping vouchers.

To qualify for the bonus, you must NOT, currently or in the previous 13 months, have held any other American Express card which earns Membership Rewards points.  This includes Business or personal Gold, Business or personal Platinum and the personal American Express Rewards credit card.

You are OK if you had a complimentary card on someone else’s American Express account.

You are OK if the only American Express card you have had in the previous 13 months was a British Airways, Marriott Bonvoy, Nectar, Platinum Cashback or Harrods American Express card.

For clarity, you can still apply for the American Express Business Gold card even if you do not qualify for the bonus.  You would still benefit from the ‘no fee in Year 1’ offer.

Learn more about the card benefits +

You receive £100 of Dell statement credit per calendar year.  This is made available in two parts.  You receive a £50 credit on Dell purchases made between January and June and a £50 credit on Dell purchases made between July and December.  There is no minimum spend requirement.

You can apply for complimentary Amex business cards for your employees.

You will receive one consolidated statement showing the spend on your card and all of the complimentary cards.  All of the Membership Rewards points earned on the complimentary cards will flow into your personal account.

Depending on when in your monthly cycle you make a payment, you will effectively receive up to 54 days free credit on your spending.

American Express statements provide more underlying transaction detail for flights and certain other transactions than Visa or Mastercard statements, making it easier to reconcile transactions.

You need a minimum personal income of £20,000 to apply for the card.

American Express Business Platinum

Bonus: 40,000 Membership Rewards points

Read our full review

Sign-up bonus and earn rate:

• Get 40,000 Membership Rewards points when you spend £6,000 within 90 days
• Earn 1 Membership Rewards point per £1 spent
• Earn 10,000 bonus points in every month you spend £10,000+
• Points transfer at 1:1 into Avios, Virgin Points and other airline schemes

Other information:

• Get £200 per year to spend at Amex Travel
• Two Priority Pass cards, each allowing two people into 1,400 airport lounges
• Elite status in four major hotel loyalty programmes
• Get £150 per year to spend at Dell
• Get £300 per year to spend at job ads site Indeed
• Comprehensive travel insurance
• Annual fee: £650

This is a charge card, not a credit card. You must clear your balance in full each month.  Annual fee £650.

Apply here

See if you qualify for the 40,000 points bonus +

You will receive 40,000 American Express Membership Rewards points as a sign-up bonus on the American Express Business Platinum card if you spend £6,000 within 90 days.

Membership Rewards points are hugely flexible.  You can transfer them into Avios, Virgin Flying Club or other airlines (at 1:1) or into various hotels schemes, into Club Eurostar or use them for shopping vouchers.

To qualify for the bonus, you must NOT, currently or in the previous 13 months, have held any other American Express card which earns Membership Rewards points.  This includes Business or personal Gold, Business or personal Platinum and the personal American Express Rewards credit card.

You are OK if you had a complimentary card on someone else’s American Express account.

You are OK if the only American Express card you have had in the previous 13 months was a British Airways, Marriott Bonvoy, Nectar, Platinum Cashback or Harrods American Express card.

For clarity, you can still apply for the American Express Business Platinum card even if you do not qualify for the bonus.  You would still benefit from all of the other card features including the £200 of annual Amex Travel credit.

Learn more about the card benefits +

American Express Business Platinum comes with an unrivalled list of benefits for the keen traveller.

Your personal travel patterns will determine which of these is the most valuable.  The key benefits are:

£200 of Amex Travel credit per membership year

Full comprehensive travel insurance for you, your family and the family of up to five complimentary cardholders, subject to enrolment

Two Priority Pass cards, each of which allows the holder and a guest unlimited free access to 1,400 airport lounges

Elite status in four major hotel loyalty schemes: Marriott Bonvoy (Gold), Hilton Honors (Gold), Radisson Rewards (Premium), MeliaRewards (Gold)

You need a minimum personal income of £35,000 to apply for the card.

£150 of Dell statement credit per year – you receive £75 credit on Dell purchases betweeen January and June and £75 credit on purchases between July and December

Digital subscription to The Times and The Sunday Times, worth over £300

Want to earn more points from credit cards? – January 2024 update

If you are looking to apply for a new credit card, here are our top recommendations based on the current sign-up bonuses.

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

You can see our full directory of all UK cards which earn airline or hotel points here. Here are the best of the other deals currently available.

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard

15,000 bonus points and 1.5 points for every £1 you spend Read our full review

Earning miles and points from small business cards

If you are a sole trader or run a small company, you may also want to check out these offers:

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and free for a year Read our full review

Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa

Get a 10,000 points bonus plus an extra 500 points for our readers Read our full review

For a non-American Express option, we also recommend the Barclaycard Select Cashback card for sole traders and small businesses. It is FREE and you receive 1% cashback on your spending.

Barclaycard Select Cashback credit card

2% cashback on all your business spend for 3 months (1% thereafter) and no annual fee Read our full review

You can read the This Is Money article here but I turned the key points into a HfP article at the time and thought it was worth updating today given the recent improvements to the card benefits.

What are the benefits of signing up for Amex Gold?

The package you get for the first year of holding this card is excellent.  You can’t deny that.  Among the benefits are:

• You don’t pay a fee for your first year

• You receive 20,000 American Express Membership Rewards points after you spend £3,000 in your first three months.  These convert into 20,000 Avios, 20,000 Virgin / Emirates / Etihad / Flying Blue etc miles, 40,000 Hilton Honors points, 30,000 Marriott Bonvoy points, 90,000 Radisson Rewards points …. or many other things

• You get four free passes to get into selected airport lounges – the directory is here 

• You get £120 per year of Deliveroo credit (2 x £5 credits can be used each month)

Full details of the card, and the application form, are on the American Express website here.

In order to qualify for the sign up bonus, you cannot have held any personal American Express cards in the past 24 months.

The representative APR is 88.8% variable, including the annual fee.  The representative APR on purchases, and in the first year which has no fee, is 31.0% variable.

What happens after Year 1?

After the first year, you need to make a decision about whether to keep the card or not.

Many people baulk at the idea of paying the £19t fee, especially if they are not used to paying fees for credit or charge cards.  Whilst the easy answer to those readers who contact me would be ‘cancel’, it is worth looking objectively at the ongoing package – especially if you are not the sort of person who likes to churn his or her card portfolio regularly.

Good reasons to keep Amex Gold beyond Year 1

Reason 1:  the annual bonus of up to 12,500 Membership Rewards points

You can earn up to 12,500 bonus Membership Rewards points each year based on your spending.

You receive 2,500 points for hitting £5,000 on spend and a further 2,500 points for every additional £5,000. The maximum bonus you can earn is 12,500 points.

This means, assuming you spent an exact multiple of £5,000, your earning rate on the card 1.5 Membership Rewards points per £1. This is made up of the 1 point per £1 you get for your spending plus an average of 0.5 points per £1 as a bonus.

This is an impressive earning rate – in fact, it is equal to the best earning rate of ANY travel rewards credit card.

Reason 2:  four more free Priority Pass airport lounge passes

You receive another four airport lounge passes when you renew.  These are worth at least £100.

Reason 3: if you are making good use of the Deliveroo credits

When American Express added the £120 of annual Deliveroo credits as a card benefit in 2021, it hugely changed the economics of the card for many people.

Not everyone lives in a Deliveroo area, or uses it if they do. If it is available where you live and you use it, the £120 of annual credit basically covers the annual fee in one go. Remember that Deliveroo isn’t just food delivery these days – you can also order groceries via the app. You don’t even need to do delivery – many outlets now allow ‘pick up’ orders which save the delivery fee.

Reason 4:  you don’t need to empty your Membership Rewards points account

You keep your Membership Rewards points alive.  If you cancel your Amex Gold, you will need to transfer your Membership Rewards points out.  This gets rid of the main benefit of Membership Rewards points – flexibility.

Keeping your Gold card means you can keep your Membership Rewards points account open and so keep all of your options for the points open.  (One option to get around this is to open a FREE Amex Rewards Credit Card instead – I explain how to save your Membership Rewards points in this article.)

Reason 5:  you retain access to the Amex Gold hotel programme

You retain access to the other, often forgotten, Amex Gold benefits.  The most interesting is ‘The Hotel Collection’ programme – details here.

‘The Hotel Collection’ gives you an upgrade and up to $100 equivalent credit when booking a 2+ night stay at participating upscale hotels.  Chains taking part include Radisson Blu, Omni, Kimpton, Hilton, Sofitel and many more.  There is also a 10% Amex Gold Hertz discount, although I admit this can probably be matched by other deals you can access.

Reason 6:  if you have no other Amex, you retain access to Amex’s valuable cashback deals

If Preferred Rewards Gold is your only American Express card, you retain access to the wide range of Amex cashback deals which are permanently available.  Even if you do have other Amex cards, you can double up on deals which interest you if you have multiple cards available.

There are other smaller benefits too:

• You retain access to the refer-a-friend programme which earns you up to 90,000 Membership Rewards points each year for referring friends and family.  You will receive the referral bonus even if the person you refer does not qualify for a sign-up bonus.

• If you spend a lot on flights, the ‘double points on all airline spend’ benefit will add up.  You don’t need to book via Amex Travel to get this, it is automatic for spending on all airlines. Whilst I charge all of my British Airways flights to my British Airways Premium Plus American Express to earn 3 Avios per £1, all of our other family flights go on my wife’s Amex Gold.

• You receive double points on all foreign spend. This is not a great deal on personal spending due to the 3% fee on FX spend which is added by Amex. You can avoid this fee by getting a card which doesn’t charge FX fees. If your FX spend is repaid by your employer, however, this benefit is attractive.

There are other ways of accessing some of the benefits above, of course.  The Amex Rewards Credit Card ……

American Express Rewards

Bonus: 10,000 points

Read our full review

Sign-up bonus and earn rate:

• Get 10,000 Membership Rewards points when you spend £2,000 within 90 days
• Earn 1 Membership Rewards point per £1 spent
• Points transfer at 1:1 into Avios, Virgin Points and other airline and hotel schemes

Other information:

• Your best choice if you want a ‘free for life’ card which earns Membership Rewards points
• A good choice if you want to close a Gold or Platinum card but keep your points intact
• Annual fee: Free

Representative 31.0% APR variable

Apply here

See if you qualify for the 10,000 points sign-up bonus +

You will receive 10,000 American Express Membership Rewards points as a sign-up bonus on the American Express Rewards card if you spend £2,000 within 90 days of signing up.

Membership Rewards points are hugely flexible. You can transfer them into Avios, Virgin Flying Club or other airlines (at 1:1) or into various hotels schemes, into Club Eurostar or use them for shopping vouchers.

To qualify for the bonus, you must NOT, currently or in the previous 24 months, have held any other personal American Express card.

You are OK if you had a supplementary card on someone else’s American Express account.

You are OK if, currently or in the previous 24 months, you have held a Business American Express card.

For clarity, you can still apply for the American Express Rewards card even if you do not qualify for the bonus.  You may want to do this if you are thinking of swapping your Preferred Rewards Gold or Platinum card for a free alternative, and would prefer to keep your existing Membership Rewards points balance alive.

Learn more about the card benefits +

American Express Rewards is the only ‘free for life’ American Express card which lets you collect Membership Rewards points.

We do NOT recommend this card if you would also qualify for the sign-up bonus on American Express Preferred Rewards Gold.  The Gold card is free for the first year, comes with four free airport lounge passes and £120 of Deliveroo credit and has a higher sign-up bonus of 20,000 points.

The best reason to get American Express Rewards is if you are coming to the end of your free first year with American Express Preferred Rewards Gold, or no longer want to pay the fee on The Platinum Card, but want to keep your Membership Rewards points intact.

You need a minimum personal income of £20,000 to apply for the card.

…….. will keep your Membership Rewards points alive. 

I accept that, if are not triggering a decent chunk of the 12,500 annual bonus Membership Rewards points, the maths on keeping Amex Gold isn’t great. Unless you can use the full £120 of Deliveroo credit each year, you’d be relying on getting £195 of value from ‘The Hotel Collection’ programme, the airport lounge passes and getting double points on your flight spending.

If you earning between 2,500 and 12,500 bonus Membership Rewards points from your spending, however, the fee begins to look like it is worth paying.

You can apply for American Express Preferred Rewards Gold here.

Disclaimer: Head for Points is a journalistic website. Nothing here should be construed as financial advice, and it is your own responsibility to ensure that any product is right for your circumstances. Recommendations are based primarily on the ability to earn miles and points. The site discusses products offered by lenders but is not a lender itself. Robert Burgess, trading as Head for Points, is regulated and authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority to act as an independent credit broker.

We don’t have any further information at this point. This is very much a last minute change of heart, given that the original announcement was made (in a HfP exclusive story) back in mid June.

This means that there is no longer a requirement to cancel any cards this week if you didn’t want to find yourself locked in for the rest of your membership year.

We believe that Amex does not intend to inform cardholders of this change, but the call centre agents have been told and can confirm this to you. You may want to call to get your own confirmation since there is no public statement that we can show you as verification.

We don’t know what the position is if you have cancelled a card this week and would now like it back.

The plan to stop pro-rata fee refunds is not dead, just resting, but we understand that there will be no changes until at least 2024.

I suggest keeping a regular eye on HfP over the next 2-3 weeks for more news ….

Want to earn more points from credit cards? – January 2024 update

If you are looking to apply for a new credit card, here are our top recommendations based on the current sign-up bonuses.

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

You can see our full directory of all UK cards which earn airline or hotel points here. Here are the best of the other deals currently available.

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard

15,000 bonus points and 1.5 points for every £1 you spend Read our full review

Earning miles and points from small business cards

If you are a sole trader or run a small company, you may also want to check out these offers:

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and free for a year Read our full review

Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa

Get a 10,000 points bonus plus an extra 500 points for our readers Read our full review

For a non-American Express option, we also recommend the Barclaycard Select Cashback card for sole traders and small businesses. It is FREE and you receive 1% cashback on your spending.

Barclaycard Select Cashback credit card

2% cashback on all your business spend for 3 months (1% thereafter) and no annual fee Read our full review

This is the most lucrative of the cashback offers that regularly pop up on American Express cards.

You even have a decent period of time to use it. Until 10th December you will receive £100 back when you spend £250 at participating Hyatt hotels.

As usual, you need to see if you have the offer showing on any of your American Express cards and then save it to lock it in. My wife and I both have it, despite the fact that we both had an identical offer in the spring and successfully used it.

There are a few things to note about this deal:

• it is only valid at selected Hyatt properties in Europe

• Small Luxury Hotels properties are not included

• you need to stay by 10th December

• it is clear that cumulative spend does count

The list of participating hotels is here.

Most people are finding the deal on Preferred Rewards Gold and The Platinum Card but it could be on others.

This is a deal well worth jumping on

The list covers hotels in:

• Austria
• Belgium
• France
• Germany
• Italy
• Netherlands
• Spain
• Sweden
• Switzerland
• United Kingdom

The German list is now far longer than it used to be following the additional of the Lindner properties.

Of the hotels we have reviewed, you can use the offer at:

• Austria – Park Hyatt Vienna (review here)

• France – Hyatt Regency Paris Etoile (review here)

• France – Hyatt Regency Palais de la Mediterranee, Nice (review here) – image below

• Germany – Grand Hyatt Berlin (review here)

• Germany – Hyatt Regency Dusseldorf (review here)

• Netherlands – Andaz Amsterdam (review here)

• Netherlands – Hyatt Regency Amsterdam (review here)

• Spain – Hyatt Centric Gran Via Madrid (review here)

• Spain – Thompson Madrid (review here)

• Sweden – Hotel Reisen, Stockholm (review here)

• UK – Great Scotland Yard, London (review here)

• UK – Andaz London Liverpool Street (review here)

• UK – Hyatt Place London City East (review here)

• UK – Hyatt Regency London Stratford (review here)

• UK – Hyatt Place London Heathrow Airport (review here)

You can check out the full list of participating hotels here.

Grand Hyatt La Manga Club in Spain is not included (review here).

Earn World of Hyatt bonus points too

Don’t forget to register here for the current World of Hyatt promotion.

For stays between 6th October and 30th November, you will earn 3,000 bonus points (which we’d value at £35) for every three nights you stay. These do not need to be consecutive.

Our full article on the new Hyatt offer is here.

If you want to learn more about how World of Hyatt works, see this article.

This deal will double up with Hyatt Prive benefits

You can combine this deal with Hyatt Prive, the benefits programme offered by luxury travel agents including our partner Emyr Thomas.

Hyatt Prive gets you the following benefits – at no additional cost, compared to the usual Best Flexible Rate – for stays at:

• all Park Hyatt hotels
• all Andaz hotels (some cheaper ones require a 2-night stay)
• some Grand Hyatt hotels
• some Hyatt Regency hotels
• some hotels in The Unbound Collection

You get:

• $100 property credit per room per stay ($50 or $75 at some cheaper Grand Hyatt and Hyatt Regency hotels)
• one category room upgrade confirmed within 24 hours of booking
• daily full breakfast for two
• early check-in (from 9am) and late check-out (to 4pm) subject to availability
• welcome gift and letter

Because all Hyatt Prive rates are ‘pay on departure’, you can be sure that they will combine with the cashback. Click here to learn more about Hyatt Prive, and use the form here to contact Emyr with booking enquiries.

World of Hyatt update – January 2024:

Get bonus points: World of Hyatt is not currently running a global promotion

New to World of Hyatt?  Read our overview of World of Hyatt here and our article on points expiry rules here. Our article on what we think World of Hyatt points are worth is here.

Buy points: If you need additional World of Hyatt points, you can buy them here.

Want to earn more hotel points?  Click here to see our complete list of promotions from Hyatt and the other major hotel chains or use the ‘Hotel Offers’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.

You may be thinking of cancelling your American Express Preferred Rewards Gold or The Platinum Card before the pro-rata fee refund option ends on 1st October.

One downside of this is that you are required to empty out your Membership Rewards points account. If you don’t, your points will be lost if you have no other Membership Rewards cards.

However ….. is there a free way to keep your Membership Rewards points alive when cancelling an American Express Gold or Platinum card?

Yes.  (OK, you probably guessed I was going to say that!)

You shouldn’t transfer Membership Rewards points until you are about to book a flight or hotel

Having to close your Membership Rewards points account can lead to a dilemma over when to cancel your Preferred Rewards Gold or Platinum card.  

You will be paying £160 per year after the free first year to keep an American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card active and £575 for The Platinum Card.  However, this allows you to keep your Membership Rewards points where they are.  If you are forced to transfer them because you close the account, you may regret it later.

Because American Express Membership Rewards points can be transferred to many different airline and hotel partners, they are more valuable than airline or hotel points.  You shouldn’t convert them until you need them.

Can you keep your Membership Rewards points when cancelling an American Express card?

There is a solution that:

• lets you keep your Membership Rewards points account open, and

• allows you to cancel your Gold or Platinum card this week before pro-rata fee refunds end on 1st October

This card is the answer:

You can apply for the little-known American Express Rewards Credit Card.  Full details are on the American Express website here.

This card has NO ANNUAL FEE and lets you collect Membership Rewards points.

For simplicity, I will occasionally refer to this card as ARCC as ‘American Express Rewards Credit Card’ is a  bit of a mouthful.

What is the American Express Rewards Credit Card?

ARCC is a standard Amex-branded credit card.

The representative APR is 31.0% variable.

It has no annual fee and no substantial benefits, except for the ability to collect Membership Rewards points at 1 point per £1 spent.

It is unlikely that many Head for Points readers will qualify for the 10,000 points sign-up bonus because you cannot have held any Membership Rewards cards in the previous 24 months.  That will exclude anyone who has, or has recently had, a Gold or Platinum Amex card.

Don’t worry about that.  You may still want to get this card even though you won’t get a bonus.

Get the ARCC card if you are planning to cancel Amex Gold or Platinum this week

If you have an Amex Gold or Platinum card and want to cancel this week whilst you can still get a pro-rata fee refund, but do not want to cash in your Membership Rewards points, this card is your answer.

Apply for the Amex Rewards Credit Card.  Once you are accepted, you can cancel your Preferred Rewards Gold card or The Platinum Card safe in the knowledge that your Membership Rewards points are safe.

(You get a window between cancelling your Membership Rewards cards and losing your points, so don’t worry about not receiving your new ARCC card before the 1st October cancellation deadline. As long as you’ve been accepted you’ll be fine, as long as you make sure your ARCC card is linked to your existing Membership Rewards account and not a brand new one.)

The only ‘snag’ is that you will not have reset the 24 month clock on being able to reapply for a new Gold or Platinum card and receive another sign-up bonus.  In order to do that you need to close down your Membership Rewards account entirely.

For a lot of people, though, being able to keep your existing Membership Rewards balance alive will be more important.

You can apply for the FREE American Express Rewards Credit Card here.

Disclaimer: Head for Points is a journalistic website. Nothing here should be construed as financial advice, and it is your own responsibility to ensure that any product is right for your circumstances. Recommendations are based primarily on the ability to earn miles and points. The site discusses products offered by lenders but is not a lender itself. Robert Burgess, trading as Head for Points, is regulated and authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority to act as an independent credit broker.

Want to earn more points from credit cards? – January 2024 update

If you are looking to apply for a new credit card, here are our top recommendations based on the current sign-up bonuses.

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

You can see our full directory of all UK cards which earn airline or hotel points here. Here are the best of the other deals currently available.

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard

15,000 bonus points and 1.5 points for every £1 you spend Read our full review

Earning miles and points from small business cards

If you are a sole trader or run a small company, you may also want to check out these offers:

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and free for a year Read our full review

Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa

Get a 10,000 points bonus plus an extra 500 points for our readers Read our full review

For a non-American Express option, we also recommend the Barclaycard Select Cashback card for sole traders and small businesses. It is FREE and you receive 1% cashback on your spending.

Barclaycard Select Cashback credit card

2% cashback on all your business spend for 3 months (1% thereafter) and no annual fee Read our full review

Today I want to look at another change which may have passed you by. American Express is stopping the direct sale of Membership Rewards points on 1st October.

Did you even know this was possible? The facility is mentioned in the Terms & Conditions for the Membership Rewards scheme, for anyone willing to wade through them.

One of the lesser known features of the American Express Membership Rewards programme is the ability to buy up to 10,000 Membership Rewards points per year for 1.5p each.

Note that a lot of Amex call centre agents will never have done this and may deny it can be done.  You may need to hang up and call again.

Let’s have a look at whether this is worth doing in the few days you have left.

Why buy miles indirectly via Amex when you can buy them directly?

Over the last few years, pretty much every airline and hotel programme has brought in a ‘buy points’ option.  This is not surprising – it is easy money for the programme, and they are still charging you more than the marginal cost to them of redeeming the points.

Since American Express is willing to sell Platinum and Preferred Rewards Gold cardholders additional Membership Rewards points, you can use this method to buy yourself airline points for a discount on the price charged by the programme itself.

This method has got more attractive over the last couple of years for those airlines who sell miles priced in US$ or Euro, since the fall in Sterling has made them noticeably more expensive if bought direct.

American Express sells you Membership Rewards points priced in £ so the cost has remained constant.

Of course, many airlines have occasional mileage sales which bring down the price below what you will pay using this route.  Don’t use this method to buy miles speculatively which you don’t plan to use immediately.

This method does not really work for hotel programmes, based on my maths.

How much can you save by buying 10,000 Membership Rewards points?

Let’s take a look at a few examples, based on the points you get from converting 10,000 Membership Rewards points which you have bought from Amex for £150.

This is the full list of airline and hotel groups offering transfers from Membership Rewards in the UK.

Compared to buying 10,000 Membership Rewards points for £150 ….:

UK airlines:

• Avios – 10,000 Avios cost £195 directly (see here), you save £45

• Virgin Points – 10,000 points cost £165 directly (see here), you save £15

Other airlines:

• Asia Miles – 10,000 miles cost £245 directly ($300, see here – can only be done at the point of redemption if already have 70% of the miles needed), you save £95 as well as getting around the ‘can only buy whilst redeeming’ issue

• Delta SkyMiles – 10,000 miles cost £285 directly ($350, see here), you save £135

• Emirates Skywards – 10,000 miles cost £245 directly ($300, see here), you save £95

• Etihad Guest – 10,000 miles cost £160 directly, you save £10

• Finnair Plus – 10,000 miles cost £110 directly (€129, see here), no saving via Amex at the current exchange rate

• Flying Blue – 10,000 miles cost £223 directly (see here), you save £73 (although if you buy direct there is currently a bonus promotion running worth 50% to 100%)

• Qantas Points – 10,000 points cost £200 directly (A$388, see here, points can only be purchased at the point of redemption to top up an existing balance), you save £50

• SAS EuroBonus – 10,000 points cost £145 directly (SEK 2,000, see here), no saving via Amex at the current exchange rate

• Singapore Airlines – 6,667 miles cost £205 directly ($267, you cannot buy online and can only buy 50% of whatever redemption you are planning), you save £55

Hotels:

• Hilton Honors – 20,000 points cost £165 directly ($200, see here), you save £15

• Marriott Bonvoy – 15,000 points costs £155 directly ($187.50, see here), no saving via Amex at the current exchange rate

• Radisson Rewards – 30,000 points cost £170 directly ($210, see here), you save £20 – although it no longer makes sense to buy Radisson points now they have a fixed redemption value of under 0.2p

This method also gets around arcane rules in some programmes. Singapore Airlines, for example, only lets you buy miles directly if you are about to redeem and already have 50% of the miles you need. Asia Miles has a similar rule. The Amex points purchase route lets you get around this.  This method also gets around any annual caps on the amount of miles you can buy directly.

Conclusion

As you can see from the numbers above, there is a big difference between the airline and hotel schemes.

There is often a good saving to be made by NOT buying airline miles directly and, instead, buying up to 10,000 Membership Rewards points from American Express at 1.5p each and converting them. You need to do this by 1st October before the option is withdrawn.

This is not the case with hotel schemes, where buying Membership Rewards points to convert to hotel points rarely offers great value.

Want to earn more points from credit cards? – January 2024 update

If you are looking to apply for a new credit card, here are our top recommendations based on the current sign-up bonuses.

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

You can see our full directory of all UK cards which earn airline or hotel points here. Here are the best of the other deals currently available.

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard

15,000 bonus points and 1.5 points for every £1 you spend Read our full review

Earning miles and points from small business cards

If you are a sole trader or run a small company, you may also want to check out these offers:

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and free for a year Read our full review

Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa

Get a 10,000 points bonus plus an extra 500 points for our readers Read our full review

For a non-American Express option, we also recommend the Barclaycard Select Cashback card for sole traders and small businesses. It is FREE and you receive 1% cashback on your spending.

Barclaycard Select Cashback credit card

2% cashback on all your business spend for 3 months (1% thereafter) and no annual fee Read our full review

American Express wasn’t always a financial services company. Founded in 1850 in Buffalo, New York, American Express was initially a freight forwarding company (hence the ‘Express’).

Around the turn of the century (the 20th century, that is), Amex diversified and started offering money orders, travellers cheques and foreign currency exchange. It opened its first UK office in London’s 3 Waterloo Place in 1896. The first European office of any sort was in Paris, opening in 1895.

According to Amex:

“From 1914 – 1918 during World War I, American Express helped 150,000 stranded travellers in Europe by cashing Travellers Cheques and booking passage to America, at a time when customers had been unable to withdraw funds from their banks.”

Following the US nationalisation of express industry after the first World War in 1918, American Express focused wholly on its banking and travel services.

The first American Express Card was launched in 1958. It was a paper card in purple (photo above); embossed plastic cards followed in 1959. In 1969 the colour of the card changed to “money green” to match the colour of the US dollar.

It was another five years before the company would introduce its first pound sterling American Express Card (technically a charge card) in 1963.

Upon its launch, the BBC noted that:

“There will be an annual fee of £3 12s, but supplementary cards can be obtained at half price for immediate family members. Companies can also apply for cards and issue them to members of staff.”

Adjusted for inflation, £3 12s is around £90; average weekly earnings in 1963 were around £10 according to the Office for National Statistics. The BBC continues:

“American Express Vice President Maxwell Elliot said the people most likely to take up the new card would be managers and sales executives earning £2,000 a year or more.”

Whilst often synonymous with credit and charge cards, American Express was not the first provider in the UK; that was Finders Services, which launched in 1951 and merged with Credit Card Services to form Diners Club UK in 1962.

It was almost 20 years until Amex launched the Gold Card in 1981, with the Platinum Card following 10 years later in 1991. The card designs haven’t changed much in that time.

Membership Rewards, then known as Membership Miles, were introduced in 1993 and the first ‘proper’ American Express credit card was launched in 1995.

In 2000, American Express partnered with British Airways to launch the he British Airways American Express cards.

The rest, as they say, is history.

PS. Things you never knew you never knew ……

And finally …..

“Charles F. Frost was an Oglivy & Mather advertising executive who worked on the American Express account in the 1960s, and his name was kept alive by being featured on credit cards displayed in ads for American Express.”

Thanks to Adweek for this nugget.

Want to earn more points from credit cards? – January 2024 update

If you are looking to apply for a new credit card, here are our top recommendations based on the current sign-up bonuses.

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

You can see our full directory of all UK cards which earn airline or hotel points here. Here are the best of the other deals currently available.

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard

15,000 bonus points and 1.5 points for every £1 you spend Read our full review

Earning miles and points from small business cards

If you are a sole trader or run a small company, you may also want to check out these offers:

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and free for a year Read our full review

Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa

Get a 10,000 points bonus plus an extra 500 points for our readers Read our full review

For a non-American Express option, we also recommend the Barclaycard Select Cashback card for sole traders and small businesses. It is FREE and you receive 1% cashback on your spending.

Barclaycard Select Cashback credit card

2% cashback on all your business spend for 3 months (1% thereafter) and no annual fee Read our full review

If targeted, you will get £150 back when you spend £1,000+ on the KLM website by 2nd October, and book a flight which departs from a UK airport.

Remember that you need to opt in to the offer via your Amex statement page on the website or the Amex app. Only 15,000 registrations will be accepted.

Virgin Atlantic flights to the US can be booked on the KLM website. These flights have KL flight numbers, not VS ones, and so I suspect that they will trigger the £150 cashback if you spend £1,000+.

You can check out options on the KLM website here.

Save £5 on a £50 Esso spend

Finally, a more low-rent Amex offer of £5 off a £50 Esso spend has appeared. This is valid to 15th October.

You can:

• earn Avios via Esso by taking Nectar points and converting them to Avios, or

• earn Virgin Flying Club points at Esso by taking Tesco Clubcard points and converting them to Virgin Points (only valid at Esso stations with a Tesco Express store)

The price gap between supermarket petrol and branded petrol has narrowed. Since Asda and Morrisons were taken over and decided to stop using petrol as a loss leader, all supermarkets have increased their fuel prices. Even readers who usually avoided Esso due to cost should come out on top with £5 cashback.

It is also worth checking the Nectar app for any opt-in Nectar bonuses before visiting Esso. Any bonuses will be under the ‘Partner Offers’ section.

Want to earn more points from credit cards? – January 2024 update

If you are looking to apply for a new credit card, here are our top recommendations based on the current sign-up bonuses.

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

You can see our full directory of all UK cards which earn airline or hotel points here. Here are the best of the other deals currently available.

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard

15,000 bonus points and 1.5 points for every £1 you spend Read our full review

Earning miles and points from small business cards

If you are a sole trader or run a small company, you may also want to check out these offers:

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and free for a year Read our full review

Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa

Get a 10,000 points bonus plus an extra 500 points for our readers Read our full review

For a non-American Express option, we also recommend the Barclaycard Select Cashback card for sole traders and small businesses. It is FREE and you receive 1% cashback on your spending.

Barclaycard Select Cashback credit card

2% cashback on all your business spend for 3 months (1% thereafter) and no annual fee Read our full review

You will receive £200 cashback on a spend of £1,000+ by 20th October.

A lot of top independent hotels in the UK are part of Relais & Chateaux. The offer is valid across Europe and is especially strong in France. Some US hotels are also taking part.

Whilst you are asked to book via the Relais & Chateaux website, the offer is triggered by checkout spend.

This means that you could book via American Express Fine Hotels & Resorts (if you have The Platinum Card) for the extra benefits it brings – as long as you choose ‘pay on departure’. I would also strongly recommend asking our luxury hotel booking partner Emyr Thomas (click here) for a quote as he can usually get you extra benefits on your stay.

From the UK list, I would highlight:

• Chewton Glen
• The Vineyard at Stockcross
• Lucknam Park
• Gidleigh Park
• Longueville Manor (for anyone heading to Jersey)
• Cliveden
• 11 Cadogan Gardens
• Grantley Hall – which we just reviewed and loved (image below)

…… but there are plenty more to choose from.

PS. I also have a ‘£100 back on £500 spend at The Peninsula or Mandarin Oriental’ and ‘£80 back on a £300 spend at Enterprise Rent-A-Car‘.

Want to earn more points from credit cards? – January 2024 update

If you are looking to apply for a new credit card, here are our top recommendations based on the current sign-up bonuses.

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

You can see our full directory of all UK cards which earn airline or hotel points here. Here are the best of the other deals currently available.

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard

15,000 bonus points and 1.5 points for every £1 you spend Read our full review

Earning miles and points from small business cards

If you are a sole trader or run a small company, you may also want to check out these offers:

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and free for a year Read our full review

Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa

Get a 10,000 points bonus plus an extra 500 points for our readers Read our full review

For a non-American Express option, we also recommend the Barclaycard Select Cashback card for sole traders and small businesses. It is FREE and you receive 1% cashback on your spending.

Barclaycard Select Cashback credit card

2% cashback on all your business spend for 3 months (1% thereafter) and no annual fee Read our full review

Keep up to date with the latest UK credit card bonuses by signing up for our free daily or weekly newsletters.

American Express Business Platinum is currently running a new promotion but it ends on Tuesday 18th July.

It isn’t life changing but if you were on the fence about applying then it should be enough to tilt you over.

Until Tuesday night, new cardmembers will receive an extra £100 statement credit. This is on top of the usual bonus of 40,000 Membership Rewards points when you spend £12,000 within your first three months of holding the card.

American Express has also improved the benefits package recently, with all cardmembers now getting a £200 annual travel credit to spend at Amex Travel.

You can find out more details about, and apply for, American Express Business Platinum here.

Get 40,000 Membership Rewards points as a sign-up bonus

New cardmembers receive 40,000 Membership Rewards points as a sign-up bonus on American Express Business Platinum.

You need to spend £12,000 within three months to trigger the two parts of the bonus.

Once you’ve spent £12,000, you receive 40,000 American Express Membership Rewards points which convert into:

• 40,000 Avios
• 40,000 Virgin Points
• 40,000 Emirates, Etihad, Flying Blue, Asia Miles, Delta, Finnair, Qantas or SAS miles
• 26,666 Singapore Airlines miles
• 80,000 Hilton Honors points
• 60,000 Marriott Bonvoy points
• 120,000 Radisson Rewards points
• 2,666 Club Eurostar points

….. and many other non-travel rewards.  I wrote this article on the most valuable Membership Rewards redemptions.

Apply now and receive an extra £100 on top

If you successfully apply by Tuesday 18th July, American Express will give you a £100 statement credit at the same time as you trigger the 40,000 bonus points.

You may qualify for the bonus even if you think you don’t

It is easier to qualify for the sign-up bonus on the Business Platinum card than the personal Platinum Card.

To get the 40,000 Membership Rewards points on signing up, you only need to have gone 13 MONTHS without any American Express card (personal or business) which earns Membership Rewards points.  The personal Platinum Card requires you to wait 24 months.

A valuable new £200 benefit for all Business Platinum cardmembers

In 2022, American Express added a £200 Amex Travel credit to the benefits package.

Importantly, you receive this credit EVERY membership year. It isn’t a one-off.

You will receive an annual £200 of statement credit against £200 of charges from Amex Travel.

The only catch is that the £200 must be spent in a single transaction. If you use it against a hotel booking, it will need to be pre-paid and therefore will not qualify for elite status benefits or hotel loyalty points.

A second new benefit – up to 120,000 annual bonus points

In addition to the new £200 credit when you book with Amex Travel, you will now earn an extra 10,000 Membership Rewards point bonus in every month where you spend £10,000+.

There is cap of 120,000 bonus points each year. If you can reach that, even in the worse case scenario – ie you convert them via Avios into Nectar points worth 0.66p each – you’re getting £800 of extra value each year.

£10,000 per month may seem a lot but there are lots of small companies – primarily those who do lots of Google and Facebook advertising – who spend this easily.

If this sounds like you, American Express Business Platinum is now THE most valuable credit card in the UK for your spending.

You’d be earning 2 Membership Rewards points per £1 spent in a month where you charged exactly £10,000 to the card, and this can’t be beaten. This would convert into 2 Avios per £1 or whatever else you chose to do with them.

Card facts

Now let’s look at the card in more detail …..

The annual fee is £650, refundable pro-rata if you cancel.

(Important: whilst it will no longer be possible to get a pro-rata refund on personal credit cards from 2nd October, you will still be able to get a pro-rata refund on Amex charge cards like this one.)

You receive one free supplementary Platinum Card. Additional Platinum supplementary cards after the first free one are £295. Supplementary cards receive all of the benefits below, including the travel insurance, hotel status cards and Priority Pass, with the exception of the Dell credit and the Amex Travel credit.  You can have free Gold supplementary cards for other employees but these do not come with any substantial benefits.

American Express Business Platinum is a charge card, not a credit card.  You must clear your full balance at the end of each month.

The card is metal.

Until 18th July, the sign-up bonus is 40,000 Membership Rewards points and a £100 statement credit. This requires you to spend £12,000 within your first three months of membership.  You qualify for the bonus as long as “you do not currently hold or have held any Membership Rewards enrolled American Express card in the past 13 months.”

You earn 1 Membership Rewards points on virtually every £1 spent on the card.  These convert 1:1 into Avios, Virgin Points and lots of other airline and hotel programmes, plus Eurostar points (15:1).  You can also redeem for various shopping vouchers.  You can see the redemption options on the Membership Rewards website.

You earn an extra 10,000 Membership Rewards point bonus in every month where you spend £10,000+. This is capped at 120,000 bonus points per year.

What are the criteria for applying for Amex Business Platinum?

There is no minimum income exclusion and no trading requirement.  You can apply even if you have just set up your business, as long as:

• The business has a current UK Bank or Building Society account
• You are aged 18 or over
• You have a permanent UK home address

What is the Amex Business Platinum benefits package?

Let’s look at what you get for £650:

You will receive a complimentary Priority Pass card.  Priority Pass is a network of 1,300 airport lounges across the world, including seven in London Heathrow.  This includes the Club Aspire and Plaza Premium lounges in BA’s Heathrow Terminal 5.  Your Priority Pass allows an unlimited number of free visits to their lounges.  You can also bring in a guest for free.

You can also give a Priority Pass card to a second person by allocating your one free Supplementary Platinum Business card to them.  If this is your partner or spouse, you would both be able to get into the lounge for free and each bring in a free guest so a family of four is covered.  Additional guests would be charged at £20 each.

You can also access American Express Centurion lounges with a guest, including the new Centurion Lounge in Heathrow Terminal 3.

You will receive comprehensive travel insurance – you can take a look at the policy document here (PDF).

You will receive Gold status in the Marriott Bonvoy hotel loyalty scheme.  This will give added benefits at Marriott, Renaissance, Sheraton, Westin, W, aloft, St Regis, The Ritz-Carlton, The Luxury Collection etc properties – over 30 brands in total.

You will receive Premium status in the Radisson Rewards hotel loyalty scheme.  This will give added benefits at Radisson Blu / RED, Park Plaza and Park Inn hotels.

You will receive Gold status in the Hilton Honors hotel loyalty scheme.  This is the best mid-tier hotel status to have, because you get free breakfast with it.  You will get benefits at Hilton, Waldorf Astoria, Hampton, Curio etc.

You will receive Gold status in the MeliaRewards hotel loyalty scheme.  You will get benefits at Melia and INNSIDE hotels, with benefits including three 20% discount vouchers each year and ‘2 for 1’ breakfast.

You receive £150 or equivalent cashback when you book a onefinestay home rental.  You can use this benefit an unlimited number of times.  There are no ‘cheap’ properties with onefinestay, although your £150 credit could still get you a decent discount at lower cost properties.

You receive a free digital subscription to The Times and The Sunday Times.  This is worth over £300, and if you currently pay for this it is a huge incentive to take out the card.

You receive £150 credit per year to spend with Dell. No minimum spend applies but the credit is split into two parts. You can earn £75 cashback between January and June and £75 cashback between July and December.

You receive £200 credit per membership year to spend with Amex Travel. The only rule is that the spend is made in one pre-paid transaction.

You can access the Amex Fine Hotels & Resorts Programme.  This offers genuine added value benefits at a large number of luxury hotels across the world.  These include a GUARANTEED 4pm check-out, free breakfast, an upgrade if available at check-in and typically a $100 credit towards on-property spending.

There are also benefits with Avis Preferred and Hertz Gold Plus Rewards but these are, in all honesty, no better than deals that are generally available.

This card WILL continue to offer pro-rata refunds

As we reported recently, American Express will no longer offer pro-rata fee refunds from October for anyone who cancels one of its credit cards.

Because Business Platinum is a charge card, and not a credit card, it is not covered by this rule.

You will still be able to cancel Business Platinum at any time and get a pro-rata fee refund for the remainder of your membership year.

Conclusion

The limited time sign-up bonus of 40,000 Membership Rewards points (worth 40,000 Avios or 60,000 Marriott Bonvoy points or 120,000 Radisson Rewards points or 40,000 Virgin Points etc etc) plus a £100 statement credit is a good reason for getting the American Express Business Platinum card now if you had been on the fence.

This is before you consider the new £200 of annual Amex Travel credit, which is an excellent benefit and – for our readers – virtually as good as cash.

Earning an extra 10,000 Membership Rewards points bonus in every month where you spend £10,000+ is also very attractive for bigger spenders.

Whilst the £650 annual fee is high it would be refunded pro-rata if you decided after a few months that the card was not for you.

Remember that it is easier to get the bonus on Business Platinum compared to the personal version because it only requires you to have gone 13 months without a card earning Membership Rewards points.  The personal version requires you to have gone 24 months without a personal card earning Membership Rewards points.

You can find out more about American Express Business Platinum, and apply, on the American Express website here. Remember that you need to apply by Tuesday night to receive the extra £100 statement credit.

Want to earn more points from credit cards? – January 2024 update

If you are looking to apply for a new credit card, here are our top recommendations based on the current sign-up bonuses.

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

You can see our full directory of all UK cards which earn airline or hotel points here. Here are the best of the other deals currently available.

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard

15,000 bonus points and 1.5 points for every £1 you spend Read our full review

Earning miles and points from small business cards

If you are a sole trader or run a small company, you may also want to check out these offers:

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and free for a year Read our full review

Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa

Get a 10,000 points bonus plus an extra 500 points for our readers Read our full review

For a non-American Express option, we also recommend the Barclaycard Select Cashback card for sole traders and small businesses. It is FREE and you receive 1% cashback on your spending.

Barclaycard Select Cashback credit card

2% cashback on all your business spend for 3 months (1% thereafter) and no annual fee Read our full review

There is one thing in the announcement that I didn’t know about. American Express is stopping the direct sale of Membership Rewards points on 1st October.

Did you even know this was possible? The facility is mentioned in the Terms & Conditions for the Membership Rewards scheme, for anyone willing to wade through them.

One of the lesser known features of the American Express Membership Rewards programme is the ability to buy up to 10,000 Membership Rewards points per year for 1.5p each.

Note that a lot of Amex call centre agents will never have done this and may deny it can be done.  You may need to hang up and call again.

Let’s have a look at whether this is worth doing in the few weeks you have left.

Why buy miles indirectly via Amex when I can buy them directly?

Over the last few years, pretty much every airline and hotel programme has brought in a ‘buy points’ option.  This is not surprising – it is easy money for the programme, and they are still charging you more than the marginal cost to them of redeeming the points.

Since American Express is willing to sell Platinum and Preferred Rewards Gold cardholders additional Membership Rewards points, you can use this method to buy yourself airline points for a discount on the price charged by the programme itself.

This method has got more attractive over the last couple of years for those airlines who sell miles priced in US$ or Euro, since the fall in Sterling has made them noticeably more expensive if bought direct.

American Express sells you Membership Rewards points priced in £ so the cost has remained constant.

Of course, many airlines have occasional mileage sales which bring down the price below what you will pay using this route.  Don’t use this method to buy miles speculatively which you don’t plan to use immediately.

This method does not work for hotel programmes, based on my maths.

How much can you save by buying 10,000 Membership Rewards points?

Let’s take a look at a few examples, based on the points you get from converting 10,000 Membership Rewards points which you have bought from Amex for £150.

This is the full list of airlines and hotel companies offering transfers from Membership Rewards in the UK:

Compared to buying 10,000 Membership Rewards points for £150 ….:

UK airlines:

• Avios – 10,000 Avios cost £195 directly (see here), you save £45

• Virgin Points – 10,000 points cost £165 directly (see here), you save £15 (although until 31st July there is a 60% bonus when you buy points directly which makes it the best option)

Other airlines:

• Asia Miles – 10,000 miles cost £230 directly ($300, see here – can only be done at the point of redemption if already have 70% of the miles needed), you save £80 as well as getting around the ‘can only buy whilst redeeming’ issue

• Delta SkyMiles – 10,000 miles cost £270 directly ($350, see here), you save £120

• Emirates Skywards – 10,000 miles cost £230 directly ($300, see here), you save £80

• Etihad Guest – 10,000 miles cost £160 directly, you save £10

• Finnair Plus – 10,000 miles cost £110 directly (€129, see here), no saving via Amex at the current exchange rate

• Flying Blue – 10,000 miles cost £223 directly (see here), you save £73

• Qantas Points – 10,000 points cost £200 directly (A$388, see here, points can only be purchased at the point of redemption to top up an existing balance), you save £50

• SAS EuroBonus – 10,000 points cost £146 directly (SEK 2,000, see here), no saving via Amex at the current exchange rate

• Singapore Airlines – 6,667 miles cost £205 directly ($267, you cannot buy online and can only buy 50% of whatever redemption you are planning), you save £55

Hotels:

• Hilton Honors – 20,000 points cost £154 directly ($200, see here), you save £4 – however, there is currently a 80%-100% bonus running when you buy points directly which clearly beats the Amex route

• Marriott Bonvoy – 15,000 points costs £145 directly ($187.50, see here), no saving via Amex at the current exchange rate

• Radisson Rewards – 30,000 points cost £162 directly ($210, see here), you save £12 – although it no longer makes sense to buy Radisson points now they have a fixed redemption value of roughly 0.2p

This method also gets around arcane rules in some programmes. Singapore Airlines, for example, only lets you buy miles directly if you are are about to redeem and already have 50% of the miles you need. Asia Miles has a similar rule. The Amex points purchase route lets you get around this.  The method also, of course, gets around any annual caps on the amount of miles you can buy directly.

Conclusion

As you can see from the numbers above, there is a big difference between the airline and hotel schemes.

There is often a good saving to be made by NOT buying airline miles directly and, instead, buying up to 10,000 Membership Rewards points from American Express at 1.5p each and converting them. You need to do this by 1st October before the option is withdrawn.

This is not the case with hotel schemes, where buying Membership Rewards points to convert to hotel points rarely offers great value.

Want to earn more points from credit cards? – January 2024 update

If you are looking to apply for a new credit card, here are our top recommendations based on the current sign-up bonuses.

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

You can see our full directory of all UK cards which earn airline or hotel points here. Here are the best of the other deals currently available.

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard

15,000 bonus points and 1.5 points for every £1 you spend Read our full review

Earning miles and points from small business cards

If you are a sole trader or run a small company, you may also want to check out these offers:

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and free for a year Read our full review

Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa

Get a 10,000 points bonus plus an extra 500 points for our readers Read our full review

For a non-American Express option, we also recommend the Barclaycard Select Cashback card for sole traders and small businesses. It is FREE and you receive 1% cashback on your spending.

Barclaycard Select Cashback credit card

2% cashback on all your business spend for 3 months (1% thereafter) and no annual fee Read our full review

It isn’t life changing but if you were on the fence about applying then it should be enough to tilt you over.

Until 18th July, new cardmembers will receive an extra £100 statement credit. This is on top of the usual bonus of 40,000 Membership Rewards points when you spend £12,000 within your first three months of holding the card.

American Express has also improved the benefits package recently, with all cardmembers now getting a £200 annual travel credit to spend at Amex Travel.

You can find out more details about, and apply for, American Express Business Platinum here.

Get 40,000 Membership Rewards points as a sign-up bonus

New cardmembers receive 40,000 Membership Rewards points as a sign-up bonus on American Express Business Platinum.

You need to spend £12,000 within three months to trigger the two parts of the bonus.

Once you’ve spent £12,000, you receive 40,000 American Express Membership Rewards points which convert into:

• 40,000 Avios
• 40,000 Virgin Points
• 40,000 Emirates, Etihad, Flying Blue, Asia Miles, Delta, Finnair, Qantas or SAS miles
• 26,666 Singapore Airlines miles
• 80,000 Hilton Honors points
• 60,000 Marriott Bonvoy points
• 120,000 Radisson Rewards points
• 2,666 Club Eurostar points

….. and many other non-travel rewards.  I wrote this article on the most valuable Membership Rewards redemptions.

Apply now and receive an extra £100 on top

If you successfully apply by 18th July, American Express will give you a £100 statement credit at the same time as you trigger the 40,000 bonus points.

You may qualify for the bonus even if you think you don’t

It is easier to qualify for the sign-up bonus on the Business Platinum card than the personal Platinum Card.

To get the 40,000 Membership Rewards points on signing up, you only need to have gone 13 MONTHS without any American Express card (personal or business) which earns Membership Rewards points.  The personal Platinum Card requires you to wait 24 months.

A valuable new £200 benefit for all Business Platinum cardmembers

In 2022, American Express added a £200 Amex Travel credit to the benefits package.

Importantly, you receive this credit EVERY membership year. It isn’t a one-off.

You will receive an annual £200 of statement credit against £200 of charges from Amex Travel.

The only catch is that the £200 must be spent in a single transaction. If you use it against a hotel booking, it will need to be pre-paid and therefore will not qualify for elite status benefits or hotel loyalty points.

A second new benefit – up to 120,000 annual bonus points

In addition to the new £200 credit when you book with Amex Travel, you will now earn an extra 10,000 Membership Rewards point bonus in every month where you spend £10,000+.

There is cap of 120,000 bonus points each year. If you can reach that, even in the worse case scenario – ie you convert them via Avios into Nectar points worth 0.66p each – you’re getting £800 of extra value each year.

£10,000 per month may seem a lot but there are lots of small companies – primarily those who do lots of Google and Facebook advertising – who spend this easily.

If this sounds like you, American Express Business Platinum is now THE most valuable credit card in the UK for your spending.

You’d be earning 2 Membership Rewards points per £1 spent in a month where you charged exactly £10,000 to the card, and this can’t be beaten. This would convert into 2 Avios per £1 or whatever else you chose to do with them.

Card facts

Now let’s look at the card in more detail …..

The annual fee is £650, refundable pro-rata if you cancel.

You receive one free supplementary Platinum Card. Additional Platinum supplementary cards after the first free one are £295. Supplementary cards receive all of the benefits below, including the travel insurance, hotel status cards and Priority Pass, with the exception of the Dell credit and the Amex Travel credit.  You can have free Gold supplementary cards for other employees but these do not come with any substantial benefits.

American Express Business Platinum is a charge card, not a credit card.  You must clear your full balance at the end of each month.

The card is metal.

Until 18th July, the sign-up bonus is 40,000 Membership Rewards points and a £100 statement credit. This requires you to spend £12,000 within your first three months of membership.  You qualify for the bonus as long as “you do not currently hold or have held any Membership Rewards enrolled American Express card in the past 13 months.”

You earn 1 Membership Rewards points on virtually every £1 spent on the card.  These convert 1:1 into Avios, Virgin Points and lots of other airline and hotel programmes, plus Eurostar points (15:1).  You can also redeem for various shopping vouchers.  You can see the redemption options on the Membership Rewards website.

You earn an extra 10,000 Membership Rewards point bonus in every month where you spend £10,000+. This is capped at 120,000 bonus points per year.

What are the criteria for applying for Amex Business Platinum?

There is no minimum income exclusion and no trading requirement.  You can apply even if you have just set up your business, as long as:

• The business has a current UK Bank or Building Society account
• You are aged 18 or over
• You have a permanent UK home address

What is the Amex Business Platinum benefits package?

Let’s look at what you get for £650:

You will receive a complimentary Priority Pass card.  Priority Pass is a network of 1,300 airport lounges across the world, including seven in London Heathrow.  This includes the Club Aspire and Plaza Premium lounges in BA’s Heathrow Terminal 5.  Your Priority Pass allows an unlimited number of free visits to their lounges.  You can also bring in a guest for free.

You can also give a Priority Pass card to a second person by allocating your one free Supplementary Platinum Business card to them.  If this is your partner or spouse, you would both be able to get into the lounge for free and each bring in a free guest so a family of four is covered.  Additional guests would be charged at £20 each.

You can also access American Express Centurion lounges with a guest, including the new Centurion Lounge in Heathrow Terminal 3.

You will receive comprehensive travel insurance – you can take a look at the policy document here (PDF).

You will receive Gold status in the Marriott Bonvoy hotel loyalty scheme.  This will give added benefits at Marriott, Renaissance, Sheraton, Westin, W, aloft, St Regis, The Ritz-Carlton, The Luxury Collection etc properties – over 30 brands in total.

You will receive Premium status in the Radisson Rewards hotel loyalty scheme.  This will give added benefits at Radisson Blu / RED, Park Plaza and Park Inn hotels.

You will receive Gold status in the Hilton Honors hotel loyalty scheme.  This is the best mid-tier hotel status to have, because you get free breakfast with it.  You will get benefits at Hilton, Waldorf Astoria, Hampton, Curio etc.

You will receive Gold status in the MeliaRewards hotel loyalty scheme.  You will get benefits at Melia and INNSIDE hotels, with benefits including three 20% discount vouchers each year and ‘2 for 1’ breakfast.

You receive £150 or equivalent cashback when you book a onefinestay home rental.  You can use this benefit an unlimited number of times.  There are no ‘cheap’ properties with onefinestay, although your £150 credit could still get you a decent discount at lower cost properties.

You receive a free digital subscription to The Times and The Sunday Times.  This is worth over £300, and if you currently pay for this it is a huge incentive to take out the card.

You receive £150 credit per year to spend with Dell. No minimum spend applies but the credit is split into two parts. You can earn £75 cashback between January and June and £75 cashback between July and December.

You receive £200 credit per membership year to spend with Amex Travel. The only rule is that the spend is made in one pre-paid transaction.

You can access the Amex Fine Hotels & Resorts Programme.  This offers genuine added value benefits at a large number of luxury hotels across the world.  These include a GUARANTEED 4pm check-out, free breakfast, an upgrade if available at check-in and typically a $100 credit towards on-property spending.

There are also benefits with Avis Preferred and Hertz Gold Plus Rewards but these are, in all honesty, no better than deals that are generally available.

This card WILL continue to offer pro-rata refunds

As we reported recently, American Express will no longer offer pro-rata fee refunds from October for anyone who cancels one of its credit cards.

Because Business Platinum is a charge card, and not a credit card, it is not covered by this rule.

You will still be able to cancel Business Platinum at any time and get a pro-rata fee refund for the remainder of your membership year.

Conclusion

The limited time sign-up bonus of 40,000 Membership Rewards points (worth 40,000 Avios or 60,000 Marriott Bonvoy points or 120,000 Radisson Rewards points or 40,000 Virgin Points etc etc) plus a £100 statement credit is a good reason for getting the American Express Business Platinum card now if you had been on the fence.

This is before you consider the new £200 of annual Amex Travel credit, which is an excellent benefit and – for our readers – virtually as good as cash.

Earning an extra 10,000 Membership Rewards points bonus in every month where you spend £10,000+ is also very attractive for bigger spenders.

Whilst the £650 annual fee is high it would be refunded pro-rata if you decided after a few months that the card was not for you.

Remember that it is easier to get the bonus on Business Platinum compared to the personal version because it only requires you to have gone 13 months without a card earning Membership Rewards points.  The personal version requires you to have gone 24 months without a personal card earning Membership Rewards points.

You can find out more about American Express Business Platinum, and apply, on the American Express website here. You have just over two weeks left to apply.

It isn’t life changing but if you were on the fence about applying then it should be enough to tilt you over.

Until 18th July, new cardmembers will receive an extra £100 statement credit. This is on top of the usual bonus of 40,000 Membership Rewards points when you spend £12,000 within your first three months of holding the card.

American Express has also improved the benefits package recently, with all cardmembers now getting a £200 annual travel credit to spend at Amex Travel.

You can find out more details about, and apply for, American Express Business Platinum here.

Get 40,000 Membership Rewards points as a sign-up bonus

New cardmembers receive 40,000 Membership Rewards points as a sign-up bonus on American Express Business Platinum.

You need to spend £12,000 within three months to trigger the two parts of the bonus.

Once you’ve spent £12,000, you receive 40,000 American Express Membership Rewards points which convert into:

• 40,000 Avios
• 40,000 Virgin Points
• 40,000 Emirates, Etihad, Flying Blue, Asia Miles, Delta, Finnair, Qantas or SAS miles
• 26,666 Singapore Airlines miles
• 80,000 Hilton Honors points
• 60,000 Marriott Bonvoy points
• 120,000 Radisson Rewards points
• 2,666 Club Eurostar points

….. and many other non-travel rewards.  I wrote this article on the most valuable Membership Rewards redemptions.

Apply now and receive an extra £100 on top

If you successfully apply by 18th July, American Express will give you a £100 statement credit at the same time as you trigger the 40,000 bonus points.

You may qualify for the bonus even if you think you don’t

It is easier to qualify for the sign-up bonus on the Business Platinum card than the personal Platinum Card.

To get the 40,000 Membership Rewards points on signing up, you only need to have gone 13 MONTHS without any American Express card (personal or business) which earns Membership Rewards points.  The personal Platinum Card requires you to wait 24 months.

A valuable new £200 benefit for all Business Platinum cardmembers

In 2022, American Express added a £200 Amex Travel credit to the benefits package.

Importantly, you receive this credit EVERY membership year. It isn’t a one-off.

You will receive an annual £200 of statement credit against £200 of charges from Amex Travel.

The only catch is that the £200 must be spent in a single transaction. If you use it against a hotel booking, it will need to be pre-paid and therefore will not qualify for elite status benefits or hotel loyalty points.

A second new benefit – up to 120,000 annual bonus points

In addition to the new £200 credit when you book with Amex Travel, you will now earn an extra 10,000 Membership Rewards point bonus in every month where you spend £10,000+.

There is cap of 120,000 bonus points each year. If you can reach that, even in the worse case scenario – ie you convert them via Avios into Nectar points worth 0.66p each – you’re getting £800 of extra value each year.

£10,000 per month may seem a lot but there are lots of small companies – primarily those who do lots of Google and Facebook advertising – who spend this easily.

If this sounds like you, American Express Business Platinum is now THE most valuable credit card in the UK for your spending.

You’d be earning 2 Membership Rewards points per £1 spent in a month where you charged exactly £10,000 to the card, and this can’t be beaten. This would convert into 2 Avios per £1 or whatever else you chose to do with them.

Card facts

Now let’s look at the card in more detail …..

American Express Business Platinum is a charge card, not a Credit card.  You must clear your full balance at the end of each month.

The card is metal.

Until 18th July, the sign-up bonus is 40,000 Membership Rewards points and a £100 statement credit. This requires you to spend £12,000 within your first three months of membership.  You qualify for the bonus as long as “you do not currently hold or have held any Membership Rewards enrolled American Express card in the past 13 months.”

You earn 1 Membership Rewards points on virtually every £1 spent on the card.  These convert 1:1 into Avios, Virgin Points and lots of other airline and hotel programmes, plus Eurostar points (15:1).  You can also redeem for various shopping vouchers.  You can see the redemption options on the Membership Rewards website.

You earn an extra 10,000 Membership Rewards point bonus in every month where you spend £10,000+. This is capped at 120,000 bonus points per year.

The annual fee is £650, refundable pro-rata if you cancel.  You receive one free supplementary Platinum Card. Additional Platinum supplementary cards after the first free one are £295. Supplementary cards receive all of the benefits below, including the travel insurance, hotel status cards and Priority Pass, with the exception of the Dell credit and the Amex Travel credit.  You can have free Gold supplementary cards for other employees but these do not come with any substantial benefits.

What are the criteria for applying for Amex Business Platinum?

There is no minimum income exclusion and no trading requirement.  You can apply even if you have just set up your business, as long as:

• The business has a current UK Bank or Building Society account
• You are aged 18 or over
• You have a permanent UK home address

What is the Amex Business Platinum benefits package?

Let’s look at what you get for £650:

You will receive a complimentary Priority Pass card.  Priority Pass is a network of 1,300 airport lounges across the world, including seven in London Heathrow.  This includes the Club Aspire and Plaza Premium lounges in BA’s Heathrow Terminal 5.  Your Priority Pass allows an unlimited number of free visits to their lounges.  You can also bring in a guest for free.

You can also give a Priority Pass card to a second person by allocating your one free Supplementary Platinum Business card to them.  If this is your partner or spouse, you would both be able to get into the lounge for free and each bring in a free guest so a family of four is covered.  Additional guests would be charged at £20 each.

You can also access American Express Centurion lounges with a guest, including the new Centurion Lounge in Heathrow Terminal 3.

You will receive comprehensive travel insurance – you can take a look at the policy document here (PDF).

You will receive Gold status in the Marriott Bonvoy hotel loyalty scheme.  This will give added benefits at Marriott, Renaissance, Sheraton, Westin, W, aloft, St Regis, The Ritz-Carlton, The Luxury Collection etc properties – over 30 brands in total.

You will receive Premium status in the Radisson Rewards hotel loyalty scheme.  This will give added benefits at Radisson Blu / RED, Park Plaza and Park Inn hotels.

You will receive Gold status in the Hilton Honors hotel loyalty scheme.  This is the best mid-tier hotel status to have, because you get free breakfast with it.  You will get benefits at Hilton, Waldorf Astoria, Hampton, Curio etc.

You will receive Gold status in the MeliaRewards hotel loyalty scheme.  You will get benefits at Melia and INNSIDE hotels, with benefits including three 20% discount vouchers each year and ‘2 for 1’ breakfast.

You receive £150 or equivalent cashback when you book a onefinestay home rental.  You can use this benefit an unlimited number of times.  There are no ‘cheap’ properties with onefinestay, although your £150 credit could still get you a decent discount at lower cost properties.

You receive a free digital subscription to The Times and The Sunday Times.  This is worth over £300, and if you currently pay for this it is a huge incentive to take out the card.

You receive £150 credit per year to spend with Dell. No minimum spend applies but the credit is split into two parts. You can earn £75 cashback between January and June and £75 cashback between July and December.

You receive £200 credit per membership year to spend with Amex Travel. The only rule is that the spend is made in one pre-paid transaction.

You can access the Amex Fine Hotels & Resorts Programme.  This offers genuine added value benefits at a large number of luxury hotels across the world.  These include a GUARANTEED 4pm check-out, free breakfast, an upgrade if available at check-in and typically a $100 credit towards on-property spending.

There are also benefits with Avis Preferred and Hertz Gold Plus Rewards but these are, in all honesty, no better than deals that are generally available.

Conclusion

The limited time sign-up bonus of 40,000 Membership Rewards points (worth 40,000 Avios or 60,000 Marriott Bonvoy points or 120,000 Radisson Rewards points or 40,000 Virgin Points etc etc) plus a £100 statement credit is a good reason for getting the American Express Business Platinum card now if you had been on the fence.

This is before you consider the new £200 of annual Amex Travel credit, which is an excellent benefit and – for our readers – virtually as good as cash.

Earning an extra 10,000 Membership Rewards points bonus in every month where you spend £10,000+ is also very attractive for bigger spenders.

Whilst the £650 annual fee is high it would be refunded pro-rata if you decided after a few months that the card was not for you.

Remember that it is easier to get the bonus on Business Platinum compared to the personal version because it only requires you to have gone 13 months without a card earning Membership Rewards points.  The personal version requires you to have gone 24 months without a personal card earning Membership Rewards points.

You can find out more about American Express Business Platinum, and apply, on the American Express website here.

One of the downsides of cancelling American Express Preferred Rewards Gold or The Platinum Card is that you are required to empty out your Membership Rewards points account. If you don’t, your points will be lost.

However ….. is there a free way to keep your Membership Rewards points alive when cancelling an American Express Gold or Platinum card?

Yes.  (OK, you probably guessed I was going to say that!)

You shouldn’t transfer Membership Rewards points until you are about to book

Having to close your Membership Rewards points account can lead to a dilemma over when to cancel your Preferred Rewards Gold or Platinum card.  

You will be paying £13.33 per month after the free first year to keep an American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card active and £48 for The Platinum Card.  However, this allows you to keep your Membership Rewards points where they are.  If you are forced to transfer them because you close the account, you may regret it later.

Because American Express Membership Rewards points can be transferred to many different airline and hotel partners, they are more valuable than airline or hotel points.  You shouldn’t convert them until you need them.

Can you keep your Membership Rewards points when cancelling an American Express card?

There is a solution that:

• lets you keep your Membership Rewards points account open, and

• allows you to stop paying an annual fee for either the Gold or Platinum credit cards

This card is the answer:

You can apply for the little-known American Express Rewards Credit Card.  Full details are on the American Express website here.

This card has NO ANNUAL FEE and lets you collect Membership Rewards points.

For simplicity, I will occasionally refer to this card as ARCC as ‘American Express Rewards Credit Card’ is a  bit of a mouthful.

What is the American Express Rewards Credit Card?

ARCC is a standard Amex-branded credit card.  Here are the headline details and legally required interest rate information:

American Express Rewards

Bonus: 10,000 points

Read our full review

Sign-up bonus and earn rate:

• Get 10,000 Membership Rewards points when you spend £2,000 within 90 days
• Earn 1 Membership Rewards point per £1 spent
• Points transfer at 1:1 into Avios, Virgin Points and other airline and hotel schemes

Other information:

• Your best choice if you want a ‘free for life’ card which earns Membership Rewards points
• A good choice if you want to close a Gold or Platinum card but keep your points intact
• Annual fee: Free

Representative 31.0% APR variable

Apply here

See if you qualify for the 10,000 points sign-up bonus +

You will receive 10,000 American Express Membership Rewards points as a sign-up bonus on the American Express Rewards card if you spend £2,000 within 90 days of signing up.

Membership Rewards points are hugely flexible. You can transfer them into Avios, Virgin Flying Club or other airlines (at 1:1) or into various hotels schemes, into Club Eurostar or use them for shopping vouchers.

To qualify for the bonus, you must NOT, currently or in the previous 24 months, have held any other personal American Express card.

You are OK if you had a supplementary card on someone else’s American Express account.

You are OK if, currently or in the previous 24 months, you have held a Business American Express card.

For clarity, you can still apply for the American Express Rewards card even if you do not qualify for the bonus.  You may want to do this if you are thinking of swapping your Preferred Rewards Gold or Platinum card for a free alternative, and would prefer to keep your existing Membership Rewards points balance alive.

Learn more about the card benefits +

American Express Rewards is the only ‘free for life’ American Express card which lets you collect Membership Rewards points.

We do NOT recommend this card if you would also qualify for the sign-up bonus on American Express Preferred Rewards Gold.  The Gold card is free for the first year, comes with four free airport lounge passes and £120 of Deliveroo credit and has a higher sign-up bonus of 20,000 points.

The best reason to get American Express Rewards is if you are coming to the end of your free first year with American Express Preferred Rewards Gold, or no longer want to pay the fee on The Platinum Card, but want to keep your Membership Rewards points intact.

You need a minimum personal income of £20,000 to apply for the card.

It has no annual fee and no substantial benefits, except for the ability to collect Membership Rewards points at 1 point per £1 spent.

It is unlikely that many Head for Points readers will qualify for the 10,000 points sign-up bonus because you cannot have held any Membership Rewards cards in the previous 24 months.  That will exclude anyone who has, or has recently had, a Gold or Platinum Amex card.

Don’t worry about that.  You may still want to get this card even though you won’t get a bonus.

Get the ARCC card if you are planning to cancel Amex Gold or Platinum

If you currently have an Amex Green, Gold or Platinum card and want to cancel it but do not want to cash in your Membership Rewards points, this card is your answer.

Apply for the Amex Rewards Credit Card.  Once it is active, you can cancel your Preferred Rewards Gold card or The Platinum Card safe in the knowledge that your Membership Rewards points are safe.

The only ‘snag’ is that you will not have reset the 24 month clock on being able to reapply for a new Gold or Platinum card and receive another sign-up bonus.  In order to do that you need to close down your Membership Rewards account entirely.

For a lot of people, though, being able to keep your existing Membership Rewards balance alive will be more important.

You can apply for the FREE American Express Rewards Credit Card here.

(Want to earn more miles and points from credit cards?  Click here to visit our dedicated airline and hotel travel credit cards page or use the ‘Credit Cards’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.)

Disclaimer: Head for Points is a journalistic website. Nothing here should be construed as financial advice, and it is your own responsibility to ensure that any product is right for your circumstances. Recommendations are based primarily on the ability to earn miles and points. The site discusses products offered by lenders but is not a lender itself. Robert Burgess, trading as Head for Points, is regulated and authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority to act as an independent credit broker.

Want to earn more points from credit cards? – January 2024 update

If you are looking to apply for a new credit card, here are our top recommendations based on the current sign-up bonuses.

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

You can see our full directory of all UK cards which earn airline or hotel points here. Here are the best of the other deals currently available.

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard

15,000 bonus points and 1.5 points for every £1 you spend Read our full review

Earning miles and points from small business cards

If you are a sole trader or run a small company, you may also want to check out these offers:

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and free for a year Read our full review

Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa

Get a 10,000 points bonus plus an extra 500 points for our readers Read our full review

For a non-American Express option, we also recommend the Barclaycard Select Cashback card for sole traders and small businesses. It is FREE and you receive 1% cashback on your spending.

Barclaycard Select Cashback credit card

2% cashback on all your business spend for 3 months (1% thereafter) and no annual fee Read our full review

Here’s a link although the site is paywalled. There’s nothing in it that I haven’t written about on HfP multiple times so you aren’t missing much if you’re a regular reader.

I thought you might be interested in extracts from the comments section under the article. Telegraph readers are generally literate (verbally and financially) so you would expect sensible feedback.

Here are a few:

From Chris:

If you have got enough money to be spending £100k per year on Amex then can you really be bothered spending time exchanging points for pennies?

Er, yes Chris. I suspect Chris believes that wealthy people keep warm in winter by throwing large piles of £50 notes into a roaring fire. In reality the majority of people with cash wealth (as opposed to housing wealth) got it via running their own business and have spent a lifetime focused on cost control.

From Joe:

When I closed the account to which my Amex card was linked they booted me out without any chance of paying from any of my other accounts, despite having been a client for almost two decades. And they kept all my points. Wouldn’t trust them as far as I can throw them.

No idea what Joe is on about 🙂 Failed Direct Debit? Let’s move on.

From Ale:

Avios is a complete and total waste of time. Worth nothing these days, most flights are unavailable and you can still get a cheaper flights elsewhere at the time you actually want to go.

Feedback for IAG there I think ….

From Alan:

I can’t see anywhere on the BA site that lets me convert avios to nectar points

The first Google search result for ‘BA nectar’ is the relevant page.

From Gavin:

You will never be able to use those lounge access vouchers. All lounges are full now all the time and only accept paid entry or business class passengers.

Fair point at peak times in the UK (not internationally).

From Richard:

I don’t fly much, so using the points on Amazon or Laithwaites wine works for me.

I had specifically written in the article that converting points to Nectar via Avios gets you 50% more value than doing what Richard does, getting himself 0.45p per point.

From Bennett:

Just use the Amex points as credit to clear your credit card balance.

See my reply to Richard above.

From LIz:

Wine Flyer – that’s a good way to use up your Avios.

As we showed here, you’re getting 0.68p per Avios via Wine Flyer so, admittedly, it’s not terrible. It’s not great either – we’d be aiming at over 1p – but there are far worse options. Such as:

From Julian:

just use them on amazon.

See my reply to Richard above.

From Jane (replying to Julian):

But then your return on the points is 10% less than buying [Amazon] gift cards, for example, as shown by the figures in the article. I just get get Amazon or M&S gift cards, as I shop there anyway.

No, Jane, don’t do it!

There are some thoughtful contributions from other Telegraph readers, which elevate the discussion to something nearer the HfP comments level:

From Al:

I accumulate thousands of points a year but rolling them into airmiles type schemes is a waste of time as it’s usually cheaper to buy the flights/upgrades elsewhere.

What can be useful with Amex is their rewards discounts. Most of them are pointless overpriced luxury brands, but I tend to make >£300 a year with the more regular ones. For example, LNER has 12% Amex cashback plus another 2% discount booking via LNER directly.

From Chris:

If you’re persistent enough and flexible you will find your seats depending on your flexibility. I have only flown First & Business since I started collecting in 2005.

From Bret:

The best thing about Amex (aside from their human customer service if I ever need to phone them up) is that if you are going overseas for work and need a local credit history (e.g. in the US for a few years), utter the magic words “Global Transfer” and Amex in your new country will use your UK credit history to support your application where you have no local creditworthiness to evidence. So far as I know, they’re the only major global credit provider that will do this.

From George:

I have been an Amex Platinum member since 1995, with gold 2 years prior to that and indeed have had good points benefits because I earned a lot in my working life.

The annual cost has increased hugely and whilst the cost to benefit ratio used to be good now I am over 70 the travel insurance no longer applies ( I though it was to 75 and was surprised that Amex never reminded me that I would loose it at 70). Indeed I still get letters that made me think I still had this.

You would think Amex would want to retain its senior members but now there is little to no point in me retaining the card at £575 a year.

From John (re lounge access):

You will struggle to use them in the UK but in the rest of the world, you should be fine. Lounge entry refusal is a UK phenomenon. At worst in places like the AENA-run lounges across Spain, they may ask you to wait at the door till the next flight boards to smooth out capacity. Whereas in Manchester, the airport-run Escape lounges put a “We’re full, please F off” sign outside when about 25-30% occupied.

From William (re ‘Avios are a waste of time’):

That may be true for short haul destinations, but you can get 1p per avios on many long haul routes even in economy (eg. to South America), thanks to the recent reduction in the required cash component via Reward Flight Saver. You can also redeem on Iberia and Qatar, which gives excellent value. I am flying from Singapore to London on Qatar Business class for 75000 avios plus £180. The cash fare for this same route would be £2500+. Finally this doesn’t take into account the extra value from the 2 for 1 voucher you can earn on the BA Amex, which substantially increases the worth of your avios.

It’s true that certain routes are practically off limits for redemptions (eg. BA Australia/Singapore) and you often need to book close to a year in advance. But with a little flexibility you can get good deals.

What can you take from this?

What you need to remember, as a HfP reader, is that you are very much in the minority in terms of knowing how to maximise the miles and points that you earn.

I think the comments above, from what in theory should be an above-average audience in terms of street smarts, show that.

This is good news for us though. The more people who redeem for sub-optimal redemptions, the lower the pressure on the financial performance of the programme and the more likely it is that higher value redemptions will remain – if only because of their PR value via sites like this.

Want to earn more points from credit cards? – January 2024 update

If you are looking to apply for a new credit card, here are our top recommendations based on the current sign-up bonuses.

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

You can see our full directory of all UK cards which earn airline or hotel points here. Here are the best of the other deals currently available.

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard

15,000 bonus points and 1.5 points for every £1 you spend Read our full review

Earning miles and points from small business cards

If you are a sole trader or run a small company, you may also want to check out these offers:

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and free for a year Read our full review

Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa

Get a 10,000 points bonus plus an extra 500 points for our readers Read our full review

For a non-American Express option, we also recommend the Barclaycard Select Cashback card for sole traders and small businesses. It is FREE and you receive 1% cashback on your spending.

Barclaycard Select Cashback credit card

2% cashback on all your business spend for 3 months (1% thereafter) and no annual fee Read our full review

This would convert into 60,000 Avios or lots of other great travel rewards.

Our main article on the Platinum ‘60,000 points + £200’ offer is here. In earlier articles (this is the last one) we looked at:

• ‘Are the four free American Express Platinum hotel status cards worth having?‘
• ‘Why American Express Platinum gets you into more lounges than you think‘
• ‘Why Fine Hotels & Resorts is one of the best Amex Platinum benefits‘
• ‘If you cancel Platinum, the Amex Rewards Card will keep your points alive‘

You can apply for The Platinum Card here.

Today I want to look at the question of how much value can you get for your 60,000 American Express Membership Rewards points sign-up bonus?

The representative APR is 704.6% variable, including the annual fee.  The representative APR on purchases is 31.0% variable.

This article is about how to make the best use of your Amex Membership Rewards points.  It does NOT cover every Membership Rewards redemption but it does cover the bulk of the pseudo-cash, cash and travel options. If we haven’t covered an option, you should assume that it offers poor value.

The Amex Membership Rewards website is here if you want to look for yourself at what is available.

How can you earn Membership Rewards points?

This article is based around the current 60,000 points bonus on American Express Platinum. However, you can also earn Membership Rewards points from other American Express cards. These include:

• American Express Preferred Rewards Gold (review) – 20,000 points bonus and FREE for a year, with four airport lounge passes and £10 per month of Deliveroo credit thrown in, apply here

• American Express Rewards (review) – the only ‘free for life’ Amex card which earns Membership Rewards, apply here

• American Express Business Platinum Card (review) – 40,000 points bonus and a host of benefits including airport lounge access for four people, four mid-tier hotel elite statuses, digital subscription to The Times, £150 of annual Dell credit and more, apply here

• American Express Business Gold (review) – 20,000 points bonus and FREE for a year, apply here

What are your 60,000 points from American Express Platinum worth?

0.75p – 1.5p per point, £450 – £900 (my target value)

Airline miles.  My last piece on valuing Avios points is here and Amex points transfer into Avios at 1:1.  This is why the sign-up bonuses are so valuable.

It is impossible to tie down a tighter range because of the number of different airline partners and the various ways (upgrade, long-haul, short-haul, economy, premium) you can redeem.  Membership Rewards points convert at 1:1 to Avios, Virgin Atlantic, Emirates, Etihad, Cathay Pacific, Delta, Finnair, Flying Blue, Qantas and SAS. The transfer rate to Singapore Airlines is 3:2.

My personal spreadsheet of the last 8.8 million Avios I have redeemed shows that I got an average value of 1.2p.  This is based on what I would personally have been prepared to pay for the flights I took, however, which may be far different from what you would have been prepared to pay.  My best redemptions far exceeded this.

0.8p per point, £480 (my target value)

Club Eurostar points.  I value a Club Eurostar point at 12p as our article explains.  The 15:1 transfer rate into Club Eurostar means you are getting 0.8p per point.  Club Eurostar offers guaranteed availability – if there is a seat for cash, you can book it for points – which means that you are more likely to be redeeming onto peak trains which are peak priced for cash.

0.75p per point, £450 (my target value)

Marriott Bonvoy hotel transfers.  Amex points convert at 2:3 into the Marriott Bonvoy programme.  It is fairly easy to get 0.5p per Marriott Bonvoy point as I explain here.

0.5p per Marriott Bonvoy point means, at a 2:3 exchange rate from Membership Rewards, you should be getting 0.75p per Membership Rewards point.  You now have a whopping 31 hotel brands to redeem at, including Le Meridien, Sheraton, Westin, W, Marriott, Autograph, Design Hotels, The Luxury Collection, The Ritz Carlton, St Regis etc etc.

I had some exceptionally good returns pre-covid which have got me far more than 0.5p per Bonvoy point.  Whilst not hugely glamorous, I will be in Moxy York in a fortnight where I am getting 0.9p per point.

0.66p per point, £400 (guaranteed value)

In early 2021, the supermarket loyalty scheme Nectar become a partner with British Airways Avios points. You can convert 50,000 Avios per month to Nectar, at a rate of 300 : 400.

Because a Nectar point has a fixed value of 0.5p when spent at Sainsbury’s, eBay or Argos, it means that 1 Avios can be turned into 1.33 Nectar points worth 0.66p.

As long as you shop at Sainsbury’s, eBay or Argos, you can get 0.66p per Membership Rewards point, guaranteed.

To do this, you convert your American Express points to Avios and then transfer them to Nectar.

Before I go on ….

You are guaranteed 0.66p per Membership Rewards point if you convert American Express points to Avios to Nectar.

All of the options below earn you less than 0.66p per point. You need to have a good reason to use any of the options below instead of Nectar. That said, if you know how to maximise the value of hotel points then Hilton can still be a decent option.

0.66p per point, £400 (my target value)

Hilton Honors hotel transfers.  Hilton has moved closer to a revenue-based redemption model in recent years, although you can get still outsized value at times.

Over time I have come to believe that 0.33p per point is a fair valuation for a Hilton Honors point.  The conversion rate is 1:2 to Hilton which is how I get to 0.66p per Amex point.  Hilton brands include Conrad, Waldorf Astoria and Hampton.

0.6p per point, £350 (my target value)

Radisson Rewards hotel transfers. Radisson Rewards in the UK covers Radisson Blu, Radisson RED, Radisson Edwardian, Park Inn and Park Plaza.

Radisson Rewards underwent a huge, secret, devaluation last year which moved it to a revenue based redemption basis overnight. 1 point is now worth roughly 0.2p, so at 3 Radisson points per 1 Amex point you are getting 0.6p for each Membership Rewards point you convert.

0.5p per point, £300 (guaranteed)

Retailer gift cards – Starbucks, M&S, Harrods etc.

0.5p per point, £300 (guaranteed)

The value of a Nectar point, given that you can redeem Amex points for Nectar points at a 1:1 ratio.  It is stupid to do this, however, given that you get 60% more value by transferring American Express to Avios to Nectar as I explained above.

0.45p per point, £270 (guaranteed)

Redeeming for American Express statement credit at 0.45p per Membership Rewards point you cash in.

Conclusion

There is real value, potentially over £600-worth, in the 60,000 American Express Membership Rewards points you would receive as a sign-up bonus on American Express Platinum.

You will also, of course, pick up a £200 Amex Travel credit as well during this current special offer which runs to 13th June.

This assumes that you qualify for the bonus and meet the target of spending £6,000 in six months. Remember that you can cancel the card at any point for a pro-rata refund of the annual fee.

You can apply for American Express Platinum here.

Disclaimer: Head for Points is a journalistic website. Nothing here should be construed as financial advice, and it is your own responsibility to ensure that any product is right for your circumstances. Recommendations are based primarily on the ability to earn miles and points. The site discusses products offered by lenders but is not a lender itself. Robert Burgess, trading as Head for Points, is regulated and authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority to act as an independent credit broker.

You can’t argue that Amex doesn’t have something for everyone. You can choose between Four Seasons at around £750 per night or Point A Hotels at nearer £75 ….

New American Express / Four Seasons cashback offer

For only the third time, as far as I know, the luxurious Four Seasons hotel chain has launched a cashback offer with American Express.

You need to look under the ‘Offers’ tab on the statement page of the Amex website, or in the Amex app, for each American Express card you hold. If the offer is there, you need to click ‘Save to Card’ to activate it.

You will receive £150 cashback when you spend £750 at selected Four Seasons hotels. Last time this offer ran it was £200 off £1,000 of spending.

The participating hotels are:

UK:

• Four Seasons Hotel London At Park Lane
• Four Seasons Hotel London At Ten Trinity Square
• Four Seasons Hotel Hampshire

France:

• Four Seasons Hotel Megeve

Italy:

• Four Seasons Hotel Milan
• Four Seasons Hotel Firenze

Spain:

• Four Seasons Hotel Madrid

Switzerland:

• Four Seasons Hotel Des Bergues Geneva

The offer runs to 7th July.

If you are based in or around London, you probably know that Four Seasons Hampshire is – by a large margin – the best upmarket weekend break option for a family.

We have been visiting since before we had children, so for 16-17 years now, and have probably done around 75 nights over the years. The recent addition of a kids pool made it even better for young children and has relieved some of the pressure on the main pool. Beware the new 5% service charge though.

If you are booking a Four Seasons hotel to take advantage of this deal, you should book via our luxury hotel booking partner Emyr Thomas at Bon Vivant.

As a Four Seasons Preferred Partner, your booking will usually come with:

• free breakfast (this is a big saving at Four Seasons)
• room upgrade if available at check-in
• a hotel credit (usually $100 or equivalent, may be restricted to certain services)

….. and some other bits and pieces depending on property.

Importantly, Emyr can usually get these benefits on ANY rate showing on the Four Seasons website, so you are virtually certain to get a better deal by using him. You pay on departure as usual so there is no issue getting the cashback.

You can contact Emyr via the form on this page of HfP.

New American Express / Point A Hotels cashback offer

Point A Hotels isn’t a group that gets a lot of coverage on HfP, although we run occasional reviews of the Point A Hotels ‘A List’ loyalty scheme.

Point A Hotels is a small chain of ten low-cost properties.  Seven are in London (Shoreditch, Kensington Olympia, Kings Cross, Liverpool Street, Canary Wharf, Westminster and Paddington) plus one each in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Dublin.

The Shoreditch hotel – click here – gives you a good example of how the chain operates.  The two photos above and below are of Shoreditch.  The model is simple:

• Hotels are based in city centre locations, close to key attractions
• Rooms are small but very well equipped – Hypnos beds, power showers, 40 inch smart TV, hairdryers, mood lighting, safe, air conditioning
• Rooms are not fully cleaned during your stay – unless you stay 4+ days – but are ‘refreshed’ daily
• Continental breakfast is available for £9, except at Canary Wharf and Westminster where it isn’t offered at all
• ‘Grab and go’ snacks are available in the lobby 
• There is no full restaurant

This allows Point A to offer rooms from £32 per night off-peak in Scotland (Glasgow goes that low according to the ‘lowest price’ website feature, although I’m not sure when) and £90 per night off-peak in London, which is exceptional value at the moment.

A-List is NOT a traditional hotel loyalty programme.  You don’t earn any points and you can’t earn a free room for doing lots of stays. What you DO get is 10% off your bookings, which would stack with the Amex cashback offer, so it is worth joining purely for that.

You can sign up for A-List here.

What does the American Express deal offer?

If you are targetted, the Amex deal will get you 15% back on your next booking.

The maximum booking value for receiving cashback is £300 (you will get a fixed £45 on bookings higher than £300 if I understand the rules properly) and it is not a cumulative offer – it seems to be based on your first transaction only.

All 10 sites listed above are taking part.

The Point A Hotels website is here if you want to find out more or make a booking.

Hotel offers update – January 2024:

Want to earn more hotel points?  Click here to see our complete list of promotions from the major hotel chains or use the ‘Hotel Offers’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.

Want to buy hotel points?

• Hilton Honors is offering an 80% to 100% bonus when you buy points by 12th March 2024. Click here.

• IHG One Rewards is offering a 100% bonus when you buy points by 2nd February 2024. Click here.

If you haven’t heard of WorldHotels, it is a marketing group – rather like Preferred Hotels or Leading Hotels of the World – which lets hotels remain fully independent but share a common marketing platform. As their website puts it:

“WorldHotels is a proven soft brand solution for a curated collection of luxury & upscale independent properties.”

Assuming that your American Express card is targetted and that you register, you will receive £100 cashback when you spend £250 at a participating WorldHotels property.

This represents a 40% saving if you spend exactly £250 which isn’t to be sniffed at. The offer ends on 31st July.

There are participating hotels across Europe but the UK ones are:

• Courthouse Hotel, London (Shoreditch)
• Courthouse Hotel, London (Great Marlborough Street)
• The Washington Mayfair Hotel, London (Curzon Street)
• The Caesar Hotel, London (Queen’s Gardens W2)
• Royal Garden Hotel, London (Kensington High Street)
• The Crown, London (Cricklewood Broadway)
• The Riverside, Salisbury
• Ambleside Salutation Hotel, Ambleside
• Woughton House Hotel, Milton Keynes
• Bruntsfield Hotel, Edinburgh
• Ten Hill Place, Edinburgh
• Kingsmills Hotel, Inverness
• Gleddoch Golf & Spa Resort, Langbank

WorldHotels is a Virgin Flying Club partner. You will earn 500 Virgin Points per stay as you can see here. There are other airline partners too (Flying Blue and Miles & More are likely to be of most interest) but not Avios / British Airways.

Hotel offers update – January 2024:

Want to earn more hotel points?  Click here to see our complete list of promotions from the major hotel chains or use the ‘Hotel Offers’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.

Want to buy hotel points?

• Hilton Honors is offering an 80% to 100% bonus when you buy points by 12th March 2024. Click here.

• IHG One Rewards is offering a 100% bonus when you buy points by 2nd February 2024. Click here.