American Express Platinum card – Head for Points

What is the best Star Alliance credit card?

Rob Burgess — Tue, 30 Jan 2024 05:20:00 +0000

What credit card should you get if you want to redeem for flights with a Star Alliance airline? Let’s find out.

Who are the members of Star Alliance?

The bulk of major global airlines have formed three alliances – oneworld (which includes British Airways), Star Alliance and SkyTeam.

Star Alliance is the largest of the three, both in terms of member airlines (26) and airports served (1,200). This means that it can be handy to have access to miles in a Star Alliance frequent flyer programme in order to redeem across these carriers.

The full Star Alliance member list is: Aegean, Air Canada, Air China, Air India, Air New Zealand, ANA, Asiana, Austrian, Avianca, Brussels, Copa, Croatia, EgyptAir, Ethopian, EVA, LOT, Lufthansa, SAS, Shenzen, Singapore, South African, SWISS, TAP, Thai, Turkish and United.

Our article on which Star Alliance frequent flyer programme is best for you can be found here.

Which UK credit cards earn Star Alliance miles?

One of the key determinants for me when joining a mileage programme is the ability to earn miles via a credit card. There is often a generous sign-up bonus to be had, and earning via a credit card lets you top up your mileage balance if your flying reduces. A credit card is also a good way to ‘top off’ a mileage programme you intend to abandon after one last redemption.

However, no Star Alliance airlines have their own UK credit card.

The only UK card which did allow you to earn Star Alliance miles directly was the Miles & More Global Traveller Card from Lufthansa. This card was closed in early 2021. There has been no sign of a replacement so far, although there are glimmers of hope as Star Alliance trialled an alliance-wide card in Australia in 2022. We may see some activity here in 2024.

Until / unless a new Lufthansa or joint Star Alliance card appears, you need to look for alternatives.

All of the cards we discuss below add a 3% foreign exchange fee so you might want to get a separate free credit card to use abroad.

Unfortunately there are no travel rewards cards without a foreign exchange fee, although the Virgin Atlantic credit cards have 0% FX fees in the Eurozone. One option is to get a free card from Currensea. Currensea is a simple but clever idea. You pay abroad with your Currensea Mastercard debit card. Currensea translates the cost to Sterling with just a 0.5% fee (83% less than the usual rate) and withdraws the money from your bank account. You can find out more by clicking here. Currensea is free so there is no risk in giving it a try.

Option 1: Get an American Express card which earns Membership Rewards points

The easiest way of earning Star Alliance miles indirectly with a UK credit card is by transferring American Express Membership Rewards points.

You can earn American Express Membership Rewards points with, primarily, these five cards:

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 Preferred Rewards Gold

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

Looking at the Amex Membership Rewards catalogue you can see that the following Star Alliance airlines are transfer partners:

SAS: 1 Membership Rewards points = 1 mile
Singapore Airlines: 3 Membership Rewards points = 2 miles

(Handy hint: don’t assume from the transfer rates above that SAS is automatically ‘better’ than Singapore Airlines for any particular redemption. You need to compare how many miles each scheme wants for your preferred flight, and how much each adds for taxes and charges.)

Click the links to our reviews above to learn more about these five cards and their sign-up bonuses.

Important: SAS is due to leave Star Alliance to join SkyTeam if Air France KLM gets EU approval for its plan to take a partial shareholding in the airline. This is unlikely to happen until 2025 at the earliest.

Option 2: Get the Marriott Bonvoy American Express credit card

Whilst American Express Membership Rewards points are easy to earn, SAS EuroBonus and Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer are just a fraction of the many Star Alliance frequent flyer schemes.

A better answer may be the Marriott Bonvoy American Express card.

The Marriott Bonvoy American Express awards points in the Marriott Bonvoy hotel loyalty scheme, covering 31 hotel brands. It comes with a sign-up bonus of 20,000 Marriott Bonvoy points.

Here are the full card details:

Marriott Bonvoy American Express

Bonus: 20,000 points

Read our full review • Apply here

Other information:

15 elite night credits per year to help you towards higher status
Free night, up to 25,000 points, when you spend £25,000 per year.
Upgrade to Gold Elite status when you spend £15,000 in a card year
Annual fee: £95

Representative 54.8% APR variable based on an assumed £1,200 credit limit and £95 annual fee. Interest rate on purchases 31.0% APR variable.

Apply here

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

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

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 Marriott Bonvoy American Express card even if you do not qualify for the bonus. You would still benefit from the 15 elite night credits per year, the free night (up to 25,000 points) for spending £25,000 and Gold Elite status for spending £15,000.

Learn more about the card benefits +

You will receive 15 elite night credits per year in Marriott Bonvoy. The first batch will arrive within 60 days on applying and then in Spring in each subsequent year.

15 elite nights will automatically get you Silver Elite status in Marriott Bonvoy and put you nearer to Gold Elite and higher tiers.

If you spend £15,000 per card year, you will be upgraded to Gold Elite status in Marriott Bonvoy.

If you spend £25,000 per card year, you will receive a free night voucher, valid at any hotel where reward nights cost up to 25,000 points.

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

You can convert Marriott Bonvoy points to 40 airlines. The transfer rate is nominally 3 : 1, with the credit card earning 2 point per £1. For most partners this is increased to 3 : 1.25 if you convert 60,000 Bonvoy points at once.

There is a preferential conversion rate to United Airlines – which is a Star Alliance member – of 2:1 if you convert 60,000 Bonvoy points at once.

These are the Star Alliance members which are Marriott Bonvoy airline partners. The earning rates shown ignore the 25% bonus if you convert 60,000 Bonvoy points (20,000 miles) at once.

Aegean: 0.66 miles per £1
Air Canada: 0.66 miles per £1
Air China: 0.66 miles per £1
Air New Zealand: 0.66 points per £66
ANA: 0.66 miles per £1
Asiana Airlines: 0.66 miles per £1
Avianca: 0.66 miles per £1
Copa Airlines: 0.66 miles per £1
Singapore Airlines: 0.66 miles per £1
TAP Air Portugal: 0.66 miles per £1
Thai Airways: 0.66 miles per £1
Turkish Airlines: 0.66 miles per £1
United Airlines: 0.66 miles per £1

In most cases, the Marriott Bonvoy American Express card is your best option for earning Star Alliance miles from UK credit card spend.

Option 3: Get a HSBC Premier credit card

HSBC Premier is an option if you want Singapore Airlines, TAP Air Portugal or EVA Air miles. It has an excellent Visa / Mastercard rate (0.5 miles per £1 on the free card, double on the paid card).

You need a HSBC Premier current account, however, which has tough income and savings criteria. This means that it is out of reach for many readers.

We review the free HSBC Premier credit card here and review the £195 HSBC Premier World Elite credit card here.

Conclusion

There are plenty of options here for anyone wanting to earn Star Alliance miles from a credit card. As far as I can see, the only members with no earning ability are Lufthansa Miles & More (admittedly a big hole), EgyptAir and Ethiopian. Shenzhen Airlines uses Air China’s PheonixMiles programme.

Want SAS or Singapore Airlines miles?

The free (in year one) American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card is probably your best choice if you want SAS or Singapore Airlines miles. You earn 1 point per £1 and the sign-up bonus is 20,000 Membership Rewards points. The points convert at 1:1 into SAS and 3:2 into Singapore Airlines. You can apply here.

Want miles with any other Star Alliance airline?

The £95 Marriott Bonvoy American Express is probably your best choice for Star Alliance miles with all other airlines.

The Marriott Bonvoy Amex has a number of partners at a decent conversion rate of 0.825 miles per £1 (assuming you convert in 60,000 Bonvoy point chunks) and may be a good way to hedge your bets about which Star Alliance programme you want to redeem through.

You can, of course, also redeem your points for Marriott hotel rooms if you change your mind about airline miles. My full review of the Marriott Bonvoy American Express card is here. You can apply here.

Which UK airports offer £15 meal credits via Priority Pass? (January update)

Rob Burgess — Sat, 27 Jan 2024 02:11:00 +0000

Airport lounge access card Priority Pass has been on a roll in the last couple of months, adding a large number of new UK restaurant deals for its cardholders via a deal with catering group SSP.

At each, you will receive a £15 credit towards a meal or drinks. If your Priority Pass allows a free guest and you arrive with someone else, you will receive a £30 credit between you.

Unfortunately these deals are NOT available to anyone who gets their Priority Pass via American Express. It is available to anyone who gets their pass directly from Priority Pass or via another financial partner such as the HSBC Premier World Elite Mastercard or the brand new £15 per month Lloyds Bank World Elite Mastercard.

We have run a few articles in recent weeks as new restaurants and bars have been added. In this article I wanted to bring everything together in one place.

The latest changes are:

Cardiff – Beer House has replaced Caffe Ritazza
Edinburgh – a deal has been agreed and will be announced soon – I know who it will be and it will be well received

London:

London City Airport

Juniper & Co
Soul & Grain
Cabin Bar (temporarily closed)

London Heathrow

Big Smoke Taphouse & Kitchen (Terminal 2)
The Oceanic Pub & Kitchen (Terminal 3)
The Globe Pub & Kitchen (Terminal 5)

You can also get free treatments at the two Be Relax Spa sites in Terminal 5.

London Gatwick

Tortilla (North)
Juniper & Co (North)
The Breakfast Club (North)
The Grain Store Cafe & Bar (South)

London Luton

Avalon Crafted Coffee
Big Smoke Taphouse & Kitchen
Nolito

London Stansted

The Camden Bar & Kitchen

Outside London:

Manchester International

Starbucks (Terminal 1)
The Grain Loft (Terminal 1)
PizzaLuxe (Terminal 1)
Upper Crust (Terminal 1)

Bristol International

Starbucks
Cabin Bar
Tortilla
Brigg & Stow

Cardiff

Beer House

Glasgow International

Bird & Signet

Edinburgh International

Coming soon!

But if your Priority Pass is issued by American Express ….

There are a grand total of TWO restaurant experiences globally that Amex-issued Priority Pass customers can use.

One is The Grain Store at London Gatwick’s South Terminal. Given that this is the British Airways terminal, it is at least convenient for most HfP readers. The other is the Moevenpick Cafe in Berlin Brandenburg.

My best guess is that Priority Pass wants to charge American Express a higher fee for restaurant visits, as it pays out more than it pays a lounge operator, and that the two parties could not reach an agreement.

This is something that American Express may want to look at again given the frustration over being unable to access UK lounges with Priority Pass due to overcrowding. The fee differential cannot be more than £1-£2 per visit, given that no other bank or credit card provider has brought in a similar restriction.

You can find out more about these new Priority Pass options by searching for an airport via its website.

PS. Without wishing to state the obvious, you should not take part in any of these restaurant deals if you have a ‘pay per use’ or – if you’re not alone – a ‘pay for guests’ Priority Pass. The guest fee is now £24 and you are getting £15 of restaurant credit so you can see the problem here!

Bits: £1300 business class to Bogota, Harvey Nichols meal deal, Larnaca lounge closure

Rob Burgess — Thu, 25 Jan 2024 03:11:00 +0000

News in brief:

Get a £1,300 business class deal to Bogota on LATAM

Rhys has literally just reappeared in the HfP office after a trip to Bogota in Colombia, trying out the new Iberia A350 business class seat. This review, and a Four Seasons hotel review, will follow in a couple of weeks.

Iberia isn’t the only airline to fly from Madrid to Bogota, however. LATAM also operates on this route, and is currently offering a bargain fare of £1,300 in business class.

For example:

This appear to be valid for most of 2024.

They are not, as far as I can tell, ‘light’ tickets in any way and come with lounge access, 2 x 23kg suitcases and free seat selection.

Whilst LATAM is no longer in a major airline alliance, it is partners with British Airways, Iberia, Qatar Airways and Virgin Atlantic amongst others. You should do the maths to work out which scheme is most attractive for your flight. Virgin Atlantic is the only partner from this list which offers elite status credit.

As a quick summary:

Iberia – no tier points, 1.25 Avios per mile flown if your business class ticket books into Z, C, I, D or J (click here for more)

British Airways – as with Iberia (click here for more)

Qatar Airways – as with Iberia (click here for more)

Virgin Atlantic – 75 tier points per sector (2,000+ miles), 1.25 Virgin Points per miles flown if your business class ticket books into Z, C or I, or 1.5 Virgin Points per mile in D or J (click here for more)

Frustratingly I couldn’t see anywhere on the LATAM booking site which showed the exact fare class you were buying.

You can look up dates and pricing on the LATAM website here. Hat-tip to Luxury Flight Club.

Use your Amex Platinum credit for a Harvey Nichols meal deal

If you have The Platinum Card from American Express, your £50 Harvey Nichols credit for the first half of 2024 will now be available to claim.

Reader Sarah dropped me a note about a £30 three course special set menu currently being served at Harvey Nichols Knightbridge, Leeds, Bristol and Edinburgh as well as the OXO Tower in London (£40 or £45).

Each meal comes with a drink – an Absolut Spritz, Elyx Sour or Espresso Martini in Knightsbridge – so a couple could get out with a bill of £60 plus service, offset by the £50 credit.

You can find out more on the Harvey Nichols website here.

Larnaca airport lounge to close

According to the Priority Pass website, the Aspire Aphrodite Lounge at Larnaca Airport in Cyprus will close permanently on 29th January.

As well as being used by Priority Pass customers, this is also the lounge for British Airways flyers.

There is a dedicated Aegean / Star Alliance lounge at Larnaca but I think that may be it, which would leave British Airways and Priority Pass holders in a pickle. Oddly the airport operator website does not mention the closure.

Thanks to Denis for this.

Amex Platinum makes a permanent increase to its sign-up bonus – now 40,000 points

Rob Burgess — Wed, 10 Jan 2024 04:11:00 +0000

The bumper 100,000 points American Express Platinum sign-up bonus ended last night, and today the deal has returned to normal.

Except, there is a ‘new normal’.

The standard sign-up bonus has increased from 30,000 Membership Rewards to 40,000 Membership Rewards points.

You could qualify for this bonus even if you have a British Airways American Express card.

The minimum spend required to trigger the bonus is now £6,000 in your first three months. It was previously £4,000 in three months.

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

Can you still get a pro-rata fee refund?

The policy on this is a little blurred, to put it mildly.

Until 29th February 2024 you can definitely cancel any American Express credit card and receive a pro-rata fee refund for unused months.

Ignore the letter than American Express sent you last year giving a date in late 2023. This deadline was quietly extended.

Amex’s current position is that it will remove pro-rata fee refunds at some point after 29th February. I haven’t been given any date and it’s possible that dates may differ based on the cards you have. It could be days, weeks or months after 29th February when it actually happens.

To add to the confusion, you won’t find what I’ve just told you on the Amex website. You need to trust us!

Would The Platinum Card still make sense without a pro-rata fee refund?

With the new 40,000 Membership Rewards points bonus (which converts to 40,000 Avios amongst other things), yes. Even if you have no intention of keeping the card beyond the first year, and even if pro-rata fee refunds do go away, you’d still get value for your £650.

In terms of hard ‘pseudo cash’ benefits, in year 1 you’d get:

40,000 Membership Rewards points (converts to 40,000 Avios) – which I’d value at £400 if you know how maximise your airline miles

£150 UK dining credit to use by 31st December

£150 international dining credit to use by 31st December

£100 of Harvey Nichols credit to use by 31st December (£50 by 30th June, £50 after 1st July)

….. plus whatever value you place on the other core benefits:

the two Priority Pass airport lounge passes (valid for a group of four for unlimited visits)
Hilton Honors Gold status
Melia Rewards Gold status
Marriott Bonvoy Gold status
Radisson Rewards Premium status
Eurostar lounge access
the Fine Hotels & Resorts hotel booking scheme
the travel insurance etc etc

What we DON’T know is if the £300 of dining credits and the £50 per half-year of Harvey Nichols credit will roll over into 2025. If they did, you’d be able to claim another £350 of credits in early 2025 before your renewal came due.

(Amex needs to make a statement soon about the dining and Harvey Nichols credits for 2025, since it is now a factor that people will consider when deciding whether or not to apply.)

Our full review of The Platinum Card is here if you want to see the full list of benefits.

You can apply 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

ENDS TUESDAY: Get a huge 100,000 points (=100,000 Avios) with Amex Platinum

Rob Burgess — Mon, 08 Jan 2024 03:11:00 +0000

UPDATE – JANUARY 2024: This article is now out of date, but don’t worry. We produce a monthly directory of the top UK travel credit card offers – please click HERE or use the ‘Credit Cards’ menu above. Thank you.

Keep up to date with the latest UK credit card bonuses by signing up for our free daily or weekly newsletters.

American Express is currently running biggest ever sign-up bonus for The Platinum Card.

You must apply by Tuesday evening, however.

The standard bonus of 30,000 Membership Rewards points, which converts to 30,000 Avios, was already good.

Until Tuesday 9th January, however, you will receive up to 100,000 Membership Rewards points. This is worth 100,000 Avios (£1,000-worth on our valuation) or lots of other interesting things, as we will show below.

You should qualify for the bonus even if you have a British Airways American Express card.

You can apply for The Platinum Card here.

The card comes with some great travel benefits. It also comes with a chunky fee of £650 per year.

One upside is that you can get a pro-rata fee refund if you cancel before at least 29th February 2024 so the cost of trying it out for a few months is low. In fact, you’d make a decent profit as long as you managed to trigger the bonus.

(At some point after 29th February 2024, the exact date to be confirmed, pro-rata fee refunds will no longer be offered on Amex credit cards. You will be tied in for the full year.)

You need a personal income of £35,000 to apply.

The bonus is paid in two parts, so you need to decide on your strategy

In a change from the usual American Express strategy, the bonus will be paid in two parts:

you will receive 75,000 Membership Rewards points if you spend £10,000 within six months

you will receive a further 25,000 Membership Rewards points if you retain your card for 15 months and make a single purchase in month 15

Because you can cancel the card for a pro-rata fee refund until at least 29th February 2024 and potentially for some time after that (TBC), you have three options:

take out the card, spend £10,000 to earn 75,000 bonus Membership Rewards points, and then close it for a pro-rata fee refund by 29th February 2024

take out the card, spend £10,000 to earn 75,000 bonus Membership Rewards points, keep the card for the full first year but cancel before the fee for Year 2 is due

take out the card, spend £10,000 to earn 75,000 bonus Membership Rewards points and keep it for the second year, triggering the second bonus of 25,000 points in month 15

Because The Platinum Card comes with a wide range of other valuable benefits, you should make your choice based on a combination of the bonus and the value you get from the card itself.

What can you do with your 75,000 or 100,000 bonus Membership Rewards points?

You will receive 75,000 bonus Membership Rewards points as soon as you have hit £10,000 of spending, as long as you do it within six months of getting the card.

You will receive a further 25,000 bonus points if you retain your card for 15 months and make a single purchase in month 15.

Assuming you earn both parts of the bonus, you would receive 100,000 bonus American Express Membership Rewards points which convert into:

100,000 Avios
100,000 Virgin Points
100,000 Emirates, Etihad, Flying Blue, Asia Miles, Delta, Finnair, Qantas or SAS miles
66,667 Singapore Airlines miles
200,000 Hilton Honors points
150,000 Marriott Bonvoy points
300,000 Radisson Rewards points
6,667 Club Eurostar points

….. and many other non-travel rewards. I wrote this article on the most valuable Membership Rewards redemptions. Of course, you’d also have the base points from your day-to-day spending too.

What are the benefits of American Express Platinum?

Here are the key benefits of The Platinum Card as I see them. However, for clarity, there is no ‘right’ answer about whether The Platinum Card represents good value.

It is SOLELY down to how you travel and which of the card benefits you can use. This varies from person to person. Most people value the Priority Pass airport lounge access cards the most, for example, but I don’t because we usually fly Business Class and my wife and I both have British Airways status anyway.

On the other hand, as non car-owning Londoners, we do disproportionately value the car hire insurance and the Fine Hotels & Resorts luxury hotel benefits. The 4pm guaranteed late check-out is a real boon if you are only away for a long weekend. Who wants to be kicked out of their hotel at 11am on a Sunday?

I run through this in more detail below. It is why, of all the credit and charge cards we cover on Head for Points, American Express Platinum is the one that people often find the hardest to get their head around.

What is the annual fee on The Platinum Card?

The card has an annual fee of £650.

You can cancel the card until at least 29th February 2024 for a pro-rata fee refund. This reduces the risk considerably if you don’t find it is right for you. From some point after this date (and Amex has not yet told us when this will be – it could be weeks or it could be months), the fee will be non-refundable.

I have had one since 1999, so clearly there is real value to be had.

Here are the American Express Platinum core benefits (for me)

Here are the key card benefits to me. As you read on, you will probably say to yourself that you would value some of these at nothing. That’s fine. You may value some of the benefits that I never use. As I said, there is no right or wrong decision about whether Platinum works for you.

Full travel insurance:

You receive travel insurance for yourself and your family as long as you are under 70. You can insure one other family group by giving one member of that family a supplementary card on your account. Some benefits require you to pay for your trip with an American Express card (any UK personal Amex card, not necessarily Platinum) but the core medical benefit is automatic. My family relies on this as our core family travel policy and do not pay for any other cover. Amex has recently increased the number of pre-existing conditions and sporting activities which are covered (good news – constipation is now OK!). If you have a pre-existing condition which is not listed then you would not be covered for any incident which involved that condition.

Car hire insurance:

You receive full car hire insurance. As we live in London and don’t own a car, this is very useful for us as we hire 3-4 times per year.

Airport lounge access via Priority Pass:

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, the Plaza Premium lounge in Heathrow Terminal 5 and multiple other lounges at London Heathrow and London Gatwick, as well as most other major UK and international airports.

As you get two Priority Pass cards, each of which allows a free guest, you can get a family of four into a lounge.

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 – new ones opened in Hong Kong and Melbourne recently. The first UK Centurion lounge, at Heathrow Terminal 3, is now open and we like it.

I do not personally use the Priority Pass benefit as I have British Airways status and our long-haul travel is always in Business Class. That said, we do occasionally find ourselves at airports where BA does not provide lounge access.

Obviously if you do not have airline status then this benefit has substantial value.

Hotel status:

You will also receive permanent – for as long as you hold your Platinum card – status in various hotel schemes:

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

I value these cards highly and usually plan my stays around hotels which will give me additional status benefits.

Eurostar and Delta lounge access:

Other benefits include Eurostar lounge access in London, Brussels and Paris whatever your class of travel. You also receive lounge access when flying with Delta and, at selected airports including Heathrow, Lufthansa / SWISS / Austrian.

I do value the Eurostar benefit because I tend to travel Standard Premier which gets the business class seat but without lounge access. No guests are allowed although your partner can come in if they have a supplementary Platinum card on your account. At quiet times they will unofficially allow children in.

Exclusive events:

American Express offers an exclusive events programme. This is a mix of free events and special paid events with top restaurants or shows. Now that I have a couple of kids my ability to nip off to every free party I get invited to is much reduced, but I have attended a few good evenings over the years I have held my Platinum card.

The value here obviously varies massively. Would you be interested, for example, in joining a private meal hosted personally by a high-profile chef in their flagship restaurant even if the cost was higher than a standard meal in the same venue? Would you be interested in the best seats in the house for a high profile concert, with a private drinks reception beforehand for Platinum guests, if the cost was higher than a standard top-priced ticket (which sold out months ago)? Some would be keen, some wouldn’t.

The Platinum events programme is now easier to book as an app is now available.

Exclusive benefits at luxury hotels:

I wrote more about Fine Hotels & Resorts here – for me, the guaranteed 4pm check-out on every stay is invaluable, especially for weekend breaks. We use this benefit whenever I must have a 4pm check-out, which can make a real difference on a short break or if you have an evening flight home.

£100 per year of Harvey Nichols credit:

You receive £50 credit to spend at Harvey Nichols, either instore or online, between January and June and a further £50 for July to December.

There is no minimum spend. If you buy exactly £50 of items, or spend exactly £50 in the restaurants, it is genuinely free.

It’s basically £100 of free money as long as you buy the sort of things that Harvey Nichols sell.

£150 per year of UK dining credit:

This is a new benefit added in July 2022 which is guaranteed to run until at least the end of 2024. You receive £150 credit per year to spend in 150+ restaurants across the UK. The benefit resets on 1st January each year.

There is no minimum spend and you can earn the credit across multiple meals at different restaurants if you wish.

Again, it’s basically £150 of free money if you regularly spend in higher end UK restaurants.

£150 per year of international dining credit:

This is another new benefit added in July 2022. You will receive £150 credit per year to spend in 1,200+ restaurants outside the UK. The benefit resets on 1st January each year.

This is less of a slam-dunk benefit as it requires you to be travelling to a city where you can use your credit and finding a suitable restaurant. It’s not difficult to use though.

You can find full details of the two new Amex Platinum dining benefits here.

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

You receive 1 Membership Rewards point per £1 spent on the card. 1 Membership Rewards point is equivalent to 1 Avios or other airline mile per £1 if you choose to transfer them. Spending with American Express Travel, booked and paid for online, earns 2 points per £1.

To be honest, many people who have the card focus their spending elsewhere – in order, for example, to trigger the 2-4-1 voucher on the British Airways American Express card.

Can I get the sign-up bonus if I have a British Airways American Express card?

Yes. The rule is that you will not receive a sign-up bonus if you have held a card which earns Membership Rewards points (ie a Platinum, Gold or Green American Express card, or the Amex Rewards credit card) in the 24 months before you apply.

You WILL receive the sign-up bonus if you have a Corporate or Business American Express Green, Gold or Platinum card via your job and you receive Membership Rewards points from it. Only PERSONAL cards impact on whether you qualify.

For clarity, you will definitely receive the sign-up bonus on The Platinum Card if you already have a BA Amex, Nectar Amex, Marriott Bonvoy Amex or Platinum Cashback Amex. None of these earn Membership Rewards points.

You will also definitely receive the bonus if you are currently a supplementary cardholder on someone else’s Amex Gold or Platinum card. As far as Amex is concerned, that card belongs to the primary cardholder and does not make you an ‘existing cardholder’.

What is the target spend to receive the bonus?

In normal times, you need to spend £4,000 within 90 days to receive a bonus of 30,000 points.

During this promotion, you need to spend £10,000 within SIX months to receive a bonus of 75,000 points.

The spend target does not include the annual fee.

To receive the second part of the bonus – a further 25,000 Membership Rewards points – you need to keep The Platinum Card for 15 months and make a single purchase in your 15th month.

Conclusion

This is, easily, the best sign-up offer we’ve ever seen for Amex Platinum.

You should look at it as two separate offers:

you can get a bonus of 75,000 points if you can spend £10,000 in six months and are only interested in keeping the card for a year (remember that pro-rata fee refunds end at some point after 29th February 2024) or

you can get a bonus of 100,000 points if you can spend £10,000 in six months and keep the card for a second year

You would get £1,500 of value in your first year

Even if you ignore all of the other card benefits (travel insurance, Priority Pass, Fine Hotels & Resorts, Hilton / Marriott / Melia / Radisson hotel status, Eurostar lounge access etc), you are getting in your first year:

75,000 Membership Rewards points, which we’d value at £750 if used for Avios or other airline miles

£150 of Harvey Nichols credit (£50 in £50 in H1 2024, £50 in H2 2024, £50 in H1 2025 if you use it in early January before your renewal)

£600 of dining credit (£150 UK for 2024, £150 International for 2024, £150 UK for 2025, £150 International for 2025 – obviously the latter two require you to spend the money in very early January 2025 before your renewal)

Even if you don’t qualify, perhaps your partner or another family member would qualify. You could get a supplementary card issued in your name which would allow you to earn the hotel status and Priority Pass benefits, as well as letting you run up the target spend. You could then use the Membership Rewards points in a way which benefitted yourself, although they can only be transferred to accounts in the name of the main cardholder.

Long term, whether or not the fee on The Platinum Card represents value for money long-term depends on how many of the card benefits you will use, although you can cancel for a pro-rata fee refund at any point.

In the short term, you should focus on whether you could spend £10,000 in six months to unlock a bonus of 75,000 Membership Rewards points, plus a further 25,000 points if you keep the card for the second year. You’d also have your Harvey Nichols and dining credit on top.

The application form for Amex Platinum can be found here. The offer ends on Tuesday 9th January 2024.

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

What is the difference between American Express Gold and American Express Platinum?

Rob Burgess — Thu, 04 Jan 2024 05:05:00 +0000

We often get asked about the differences between American Express Preferred Rewards Gold and The Platinum Card from American Express.

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.

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

Get 40,000 points, and great benefits, with Amex Platinum

Rob Burgess — Tue, 02 Jan 2024 04:41:00 +0000

The Platinum Card from American Express offers an exceptionally high sign-up bonus (40,000 Membership Rewards points, which convert to 40,000 Avios) and offers some great benefits.

It also comes with a chunky fee of £650 per year. That said, the card benefits include £100 per year to spend at Harvey Nichols and £300 per year of dining credit which covers much of it.

Throw in the value of the sign up bonus and you’re virtually certain to make a decent gain in your first year. Once you’ve got your head around all the different benefits, you should also be able to make a profit in Year 2 and beyond.

What are the benefits of American Express Platinum?

I thought I would run through the full card benefits again today. However, for clarity, there is no ‘right’ answer about whether The Platinum Card represents good value.

What is the sign up bonus on The Platinum Card?

American Express Platinum offers the biggest single sign-up bonus of any UK travel card.

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.

The card currently has an annual fee of £650.

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

I have had one since 1999, so clearly there is real value to be had – although, in recent years, I have used it purely for HfP-related expenditure which allows me to treat the card fee as a business expense.

Even if the card is right for you, it may not be right for you in two years or five years. If it isn’t right for you today, it might be next year.

Here are the American Express Platinum core benefits (for me)

Full travel insurance:

You receive travel insurance for yourself and your family as long as you are under 70. You can insure five other people and their families by giving them supplementary cards on your account. Some benefits require you to pay for your trip with an American Express card (any UK personal Amex card, not necessarily Platinum) but the core medical benefit is automatic. My family relies on this as our core family travel policy and do not pay for any other cover. Amex has recently increased the number of pre-existing conditions and sporting activities which are covered.

Car hire insurance:

You receive full car hire insurance. As we live in London and don’t own a car, this is very useful for us as we hire 3-4 times per year.

Airport lounge access via Priority Pass:

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 Heathrow Terminal 5 reviewed here. As you get two Priority Pass cards, each of which allows a free guest, you can get a family of four into a lounge.

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 – new ones opened in Hong Kong and Melbourne recently. The first UK Centurion lounge, at Heathrow Terminal 3, opened in October 2021.

I do not personally use this benefit as I have British Airways status and our long-haul travel is always in Business Class. That said, we do occasionally find ourselves at airports where BA does not provide lounge access. Obviously if you do not have airline status then this benefit has substantial value.

Hotel status:

You will also receive permanent – for as long as you hold your Platinum card – status in various hotel schemes:

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

I value these cards highly and usually plan my stays around hotels which will give me additional status benefits.

Eurostar and Delta lounge access:

Other 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.

£300 per year of dining credit:

Yes, £300 of free food! You receive £150 per calendar year to spend at 160 UK restaurants, and £150 per calendar year to spend at 1,400 international restaurants.

The credit resets every 1st January. You do not need to spend the entire £150 in one go – it is cumulative. The UK credit is as good as free money for most people, although it will need a little more effort to spend the £150 of international credit.

£100 per year to spend at Harvey Nichols:

You will receive £100 each year to spend at Harvey Nichols, with no catches. You receive £50 to spend during January to June and a further £50 to spend from July to December.

Both online and instore purchases count. Importantly, there is no minimum spend. Spend under £50 and you get 100% of your order reimbursed by Amex. Assuming that you already buy high-end fashion, cosmetics, food or wine, this is effectively as good as cash.

Exclusive events:

Exclusive benefits at luxury hotels:

Of course, if you are not bothered about a guaranteed 4pm check out, you can get similar benefits (free breakfast, upgrade if available, $100 food and drink credit) at similar hotels by booking via HfP’s luxury hotel partner Bon Vivant. Details of that service are here.

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

To be honest, many people who have the card focus their spending elsewhere – in order, for example, to trigger the 2-4-1 voucher on the British Airways American Express card.

Can I get the sign-up bonus if I have a British Airways American Express card?

Yes. The rule is that you will not receive a sign-up bonus if you have held a Platinum, Gold or Green American Express charge card, or the Amex Rewards credit card, in the 24 months before you apply.

For clarity, you will definitely receive the sign-up bonus on The Platinum Card if you already have a BA Amex, Nectar Amex, Marriott Bonvoy Amex or Platinum Cashback Amex.

What is the target spend to receive the bonus?

You need to spend £6,000 within 90 days to receive the bonus. This does not include the annual fee.

Conclusion

As always, whether or not the fee on The Platinum Card represents value for money long-term depends on how many of the card benefits you will use.

If you think it could work for you, give it a go.

Assuming that you can spend £6,000 to earn the bonus, the worse case scenario is that you cancel after a year having walked away with 40,000 Membership Rewards points, £300 of free meals and £100 of Harvey Nichols goodies.

My full review of American Express Platinum is here.

The application form for Amex Platinum can be found here.

What Amex sign-up bonuses are you still eligible for?

Rob Burgess — Mon, 01 Jan 2024 05:11:00 +0000

This is our beginners guide to whether you qualify for an American Express sign-up bonus or not.

If you are planning your credit card strategy for 2024, this article will help you decide which cards you can still go for.

It runs through the checklist of which UK American Express bonuses you can get based on the cards you have. This way I have written it below is, I think, the simplest way of looking at it. It’s still not THAT simple however ….

Your American Express sign-up bonus decision tree

This is the decision tree you need to follow:

QUESTION:

Have you had ANY personal American Express cards in the previous 24 months?

If ‘no’:

You can apply for any personal American Express card and receive the full advertised bonus.

This article outlines my recommended American Express application strategy to maximise your bonuses. A couple can earn 186,875 Avios relatively easily over the course of a year.

If ‘yes’:

You CANNOT get a sign-up bonus on the following cards:

You MAY still qualify for a bonus NOW on:

The Platinum Card (40,000 Membership Rewards points)
British Airways Premium Plus (25,000 Avios)
American Express Business Gold (20,000 Membership Rewards points)
American Express Business Platinum (40,000 Membership Rewards points)
British Airways American Express Accelerating Business (30,000 Avios)

Keep reading to see if you do actually qualify for the cards I just mentioned.

Note the new minimum income requirements

American Express reintroduced minimum income requirements in 2023. These are PERSONAL income limits – Amex no longer looks at your income at a household level.

The Platinum Card and the British Airways American Express Premium Plus card require an income of £35,000 per year.

All other personal cards require an income of £20,000 per year.

This HfP article explains your options if you earn under £35,000.

The 2024 Amex sign-up bonus rules by card type

I’m assuming here that you answered ‘Yes’ to the question above, and that you have had a personal American Express card in the previous 24 months.

We now need to drill down more closely into which cards you have or had. Basically, “if you have THIS card, you MIGHT still qualify for a bonus on THAT card ……”

Remember that supplementary cards do NOT count as having ‘had’ a card. If you are a supplementary on your partner’s Amex Gold, for example, you can still apply in your own name and get a sign-up bonus as long as you meet the other criteria.

If you currently have the free British Airways or British Airways Premium Plus Amex credit card:

You would need to cancel and wait 24 months before you can get a bonus on Platinum Cashback, Platinum Cashback Everyday, British Airways, British Airways Premium Plus, Preferred Rewards Gold, Marriott Bonvoy, Nectar, American Express Rewards

You can get a bonus NOW on The Platinum Card IF you have not held a Preferred Rewards Gold, The Platinum Card, Green or American Express Rewards card in the previous 24 months

You can get a bonus NOW on American Express Business Gold or American Express Business Platinum IF you have not held a Preferred Rewards Gold, The Platinum Card, Green, American Express Rewards, American Express Business Gold or American Express Business Platinum card in the previous 13 months and meet the qualifying criteria for having a small business

You can get a bonus NOW on British Airways American Express Accelerating Business IF you have not held a American Express Business Gold, American Express Business Platinum card or British Airways American Express Accelerating Business card in the previous 12 months and meet the qualifying criteria for having a small business.

If you currently have Preferred Rewards Gold, The Platinum Card, Green or American Express Rewards credit card:

You would need to cancel and wait 24 months before you can get a bonus on Platinum Cashback, Platinum Cashback Everyday, British Airways American Express, Preferred Rewards Gold, The Platinum Card, Marriott Bonvoy, Nectar, American Express Rewards

You can get a bonus NOW on British Airways Premium Plus IF you have not held a British Airways or British Airways Premium Plus card in the previous 24 months

You would need to cancel and wait 13 months before you can get a bonus on American Express Business Gold or American Express Business Platinum, assuming you meet the qualifying criteria for having a small business

If you currently have a Nectar or Marriott Bonvoy American Express credit card:

You would need to cancel and wait 24 months before you can get a bonus on Platinum Cashback, Platinum Cashback Everyday, British Airways American Express (free version), Preferred Rewards Gold, Marriott Bonvoy, Nectar, American Express Rewards

You can get a bonus NOW on The Platinum Card IF you have not held a Preferred Rewards Gold, The Platinum Card, Green or American Express Rewards card in the previous 24 months

You can get a bonus NOW on British Airways Premium Plus IF you have not held a British Airways or British Airways Premium Plus card in the previous 24 months

If you currently have a Platinum Cashback or Platinum Cashback Everyday Amex card:

You can get a bonus NOW on The Platinum Card IF you have not held a Preferred Rewards Gold, The Platinum Card, Green or American Express Rewards card in the previous 24 months

You can get a bonus NOW on British Airways Premium Plus IF you have not held a British Airways or British Airways Premium Plus card in the previous 24 months

If you currently have a Business Platinum or Business Gold American Express card:

You would need to cancel and wait 13 months before you can get a bonus on American Express Business Platinum or American Express Business Gold

You would need to cancel and wait 12 months before you can get a bonus on British Airways Accelerating Business

You can get a bonus NOW on ANY personal American Express card IF you have not held a personal American Express card in the previous 24 months.

For clarity … the bonus rules on the personal Amex cards only look at what other personal Amex products you have had in the past 24 months. Any small business Amex cards you have are not taken into account.

And if you’re starting from scratch ….

If you have not had ANY personal American Express cards in the last 24 months, the best route to optimise the number of sign-up bonuses you can get is:

start with either a Marriott Bonvoy, Nectar or one of the (less generous) Amex cashback cards

follow up with either The Platinum Card or British Airways Premium Plus

follow up with either The Platinum Card or British Airways Premium Plus (depending on which one you didn’t get in stage two)

If you look at the rules above, you’ll see that you can still get three bonuses in a short space of time as long as you do it this way.

If you have any sort of small business, you can also run the Business Gold, Business Platinum or British Airways Accelerating Business alongside your personal cards.

And remember ….

The discussion in this article is only about sign-up bonuses. Subject to credit etc, American Express is still happy to accept you for any of these cards at any time – you just won’t necessarily get a bonus.

This is particularly important in relation to Preferred Rewards Gold where repeat cardholders DO still get another ‘first year free’ and DO still get another set of four airport lounge passes and £120 of Deliveroo credit. You still get these, even if you don’t qualify for a sign-up bous.

NOTE: If you hold, or have held in the past 24 months, a personal American Express card which is not discussed in this article, such as The Centurion Card or a card which is not currently available to new applicants, please do additional checks as to your eligibility for a new bonus.

The current policy on fee refunds

American Express is due to change its policy on pro-rata fee refunds in 2024.

The current situation is that nothing will change until at least 29th February 2024. Until that time, you can cancel any Amex card you hold for a pro-rata refund of the annual fee.

We will let you know via HfP when the firm date for ending pro-rata refunds is announced.

Confused?

If you are still not sure about your eligibility for a bonus after reading the article above, please ask in our forum.

Reference information

Here are links to our reviews on each of the cards, a link to the application website and the legally required interest rate information.

Let me stress again – the bonus rules do NOT stop you applying for any of the cards. They simply influence whether or not you will qualify for a sign-up bonus.

The Platinum Card from American Express

Bonus: 40,000 points

Read our full review

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 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.

American Express Rewards

Bonus: 10,000 points

Read our full review

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.

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.

British Airways American Express

Bonus: 5,000 Avios

Read our full review

Other information:

Receive a companion voucher, letting you book two flights for the Avios of one, when you spend £12,000 in a card year
The companion voucher is only valid on Economy flights
It can be used on British Airways, Iberia and Aer Lingus
Annual fee: Free

Representative 31.0% APR variable

Apply here

See if you qualify for the 5,000 Avios sign-up bonus +

You will receive 5,000 Avios as a sign-up bonus on the free British Airways American Express card if you spend £1,000 within 90 days of signing up.

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 British Airways 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 British Airways American Express card even if you do not qualify for the bonus. You would still benefit from the companion voucher and the other card benefits.

Learn more about the card benefits +

When you spend £12,000 on the British Airways American Express card, you receive a companion voucher entitling you to book two Avios redemption flights for the miles of one. This voucher is valid for one year. (Full taxes and charges need to be paid on both tickets.)

The voucher on the free British Airways American Express card can only be used on Economy flights.

The voucher can be used for Avios bookings on British Airways, Iberia and Aer Lingus.

You receive your voucher within a few days of reaching the spending target. You need to fly the outbound leg of your 2-4-1 flight before the expiry date of the voucher.

If you want more flexibility, the voucher issued with the British Airways Premium Plus American Express card is valid for two years, only requires £10,000 of annual card spend and is valid in ALL cabins including Business and First. The Premium Plus card also has a higher earning rate of 1.5 Avios per £1 on general spend and 3 Avios per £1 on spend with British Airways and BA Holidays.

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

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

Bonus: 25,000 Avios

Read our full review

Other information:

Receive a companion voucher, letting you book two flights for the Avios of one, when you spend £10,000 in a card year
A solo traveller can use it for a 50% discount on the Avios for one ticket
The voucher is valid in any cabin
It can be used on British Airways, Iberia and Aer Lingus
Annual fee: £250

Representative 113.1% APR variable based on an assumed £1,200 credit limit and £250 annual fee. Interest rate on purchases 31.0% APR variable.

Apply here

See if you qualify for the 25,000 Avios sign-up bonus +

You will receive 25,000 Avios as a sign-up bonus on the British Airways American Express Premium Plus card if you spend £3,000 within 90 days of signing up.

To qualify for the bonus, you must not have held the British Airways Premium Plus or the free British Airways American Express cards in the previous 24 months.

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

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

For clarity, you can still apply for the British Airways Premium Plus card even if you do not qualify for the bonus. You would still benefit from the companion voucher and all of the other card benefits.

Learn more about the card benefits +

When you spend £10,000 on the British Airways American Express Premium Plus card, you receive a companion voucher entitling you to book two Avios redemption flights for the miles of one.

Alternatively, a solo traveller can use the voucher for a 50% reduction on the Avios required for one ticket,

This voucher is valid for two years. Full taxes and charges need to be paid on both tickets.

This voucher is the most valuable perk available in the UK airline and hotel credit card sector in my view. It could save you 150,000 or more Avios when used for a long-haul redemption in a premium cabin.

The voucher with the Premium Plus card is far more powerful than the voucher given with the free British Airways American Express card. You only need to spend £10,000, instead of £20,000, in a card year to receive it. More importantly, the Premium Plus voucher is valid for two years and is valid in ALL cabins. The voucher on the free British Airways American Express card is only valid for one year and can only be used for Economy flights.

You receive your voucher within a few days of reaching the spending target. You need to fly the outbound leg of your 2-4-1 flight before the expiry date of the voucher.

The voucher can be used for flights on British Airways, Iberia and Aer Lingus.

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

Nectar American Express

Bonus: 20,000 points

Read our full review

Other information:

You can convert Nectar points into Avios, and vice versa
Annual fee: Free for the first year, £30 from Year 2

Representative 37.8% 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 Nectar points as a sign-up bonus on the Nectar American Express credit card if you spend £2,000 within 90 days of signing up.

Nectar points are worth 0.5p each if spent in Sainsbury’s, Argos or eBay. They can also be converted to Avios at the rate of 400 : 250. 1 Nectar point gets you 0.625 Avios.

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 Nectar American Express 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 +

The Nectar American Express credit card comes lets you earn 2 Nectar points for every £1 you spend. This is on top of any Nectar points you would usually earn at Sainsbury’s and other Nectar partners.

Converted to Avios, you would be earning 1.25 Avios per £1. This makes the card better value than the free British Airways American Express credit card for your first year, as the Nectar American Express is ‘fee free’ for the first 12 months. There is a £30 annual fee from Year 2.

The sign-up bonus of 20,000 Nectar points is worth £100 to spend in Sainsbury’s, Argos or eBay.

20,000 Nectar points can also be converted into 12,500 Avios.

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

American Express Platinum Cashback

Bonus: 5% cashback (to £125) for three months

Read our full review

Other information:

Cashback paid in a lump sum after 12 months
Annual fee: £25

Representative 36.7% APR variable based on an assumed £1,200 credit limit and £25 annual fee. Interest rate on purchases 31.0% APR variable.

Apply here

See if you qualify for the 5% cashback sign-up bonus +

You will receive 5% cashback on purchases on the American Express Platinum Cashback card within 90 days of signing up. This is capped at £125.

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 Platinum Cashback card even if you do not qualify for the bonus. You will receive the standard rate of cashback on your spending.

Learn more about the card benefits +

American Express Platinum Cashback is the most generous cashback credit card in the UK.

After the first three months, during which the special bonus rate applies:

Spend £0 to £10,000 and receive 0.75% cashback on purchases
Spend over £10,000 and receive 1.25% cashback on purchases

Cashback is paid in a lump sum at the end of each 12 month period. If you close the card mid-year you will lose any accumulated cashback.

As our review shows, this card is better value if you will spend over £10,000 per year. If you will spend under £10,000 per year, you should apply for the free American Express Platinum Cashback Everyday credit card instead. The cashback rate is lower but this is offset by the lack of any annual fee.

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

American Express Platinum Cashback Everyday

Bonus: 5% cashback (to £100) for three months

Read our full review

Other information:

Cashback paid in a lump sum after 12 months
Minimum spend of £3,000 per year required to receive cashback
Annual fee: Free

Representative 31.0% APR variable

Apply here

See if you qualify for the 5% cashback sign-up bonus +

You will receive 5% cashback on purchases on the American Express Platinum Cashback Everyday card within 90 days of signing up. This is capped at £100.

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 Platinum Cashback Everyday card even if you do not qualify for the bonus. You will receive the standard rate of cashback on your spending.

Learn more about the card benefits +

American Express Platinum Cashback Everyday is the most generous free cashback credit card in the UK.

After the first three months, during which the special bonus rate applies:

Spend £0 to £10,000 and receive 0.5% cashback on purchases
Spend over £10,000 and receive 1% cashback on purchases

You must spend at least £3,000 per year to receive cashback.

Cashback is paid in a lump sum at the end of each 12 month period. If you close the card mid-year you will lose any accumulated cashback.

As our review shows, this card is better value if you will spend less than £10,000 per year. If you will spend over £10,000 per year, you should apply for the £25 American Express Platinum Cashback credit card instead. The cashback rate is higher and you are better off even after paying the annual fee.

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

Marriott Bonvoy American Express

Bonus: 20,000 points

Read our full review

Other information:

15 elite night credits per year to help you towards higher status
Free night, up to 25,000 points, when you spend £25,000 per year.
Upgrade to Gold Elite status when you spend £15,000 in a card year
Annual fee: £95

Representative 54.8% APR variable based on an assumed £1,200 credit limit and £95 annual fee. Interest rate on purchases 31.0% APR variable.

Apply here

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

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

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.

Learn more about the card benefits +

You will receive 15 elite night credits per year in Marriott Bonvoy. The first batch will arrive within 60 days on applying and then in Spring in each subsequent year.

15 elite nights will automatically get you Silver Elite status in Marriott Bonvoy and put you nearer to Gold Elite and higher tiers.

If you spend £15,000 per card year, you will be upgraded to Gold Elite status in Marriott Bonvoy.

If you spend £25,000 per card year, you will receive a free night voucher, valid at any hotel where reward nights cost up to 25,000 points.

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

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.

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.

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

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

Bonus: 30,000 Avios

Read our full review

Other information:

Get 1 bonus On Business point per £1 spent on BA flights
Annual fee: £250

Representative 108.4% APR variable based on an assumed £1,200 credit limit and £250 annual fee. Interest rate on purchases 28.5% APR variable.

Apply here

See if you qualify for the 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus +

You will qualify for the bonus as long as you have not held an American Express Business card, including Accelerating Business, Business Gold and Business Platinum, in the previous 12 months.

There are no restrictions if you only have personal American Express cards at the moment, including the personal British Airways cards.

You need to spend £5,000 in 90 days to earn the bonus.

Learn more about the card benefits +

The card comes with the typical American Express credit card benefits:

Up to 56 days to pay

Up to 20 complimentary cards for your employees

Travel inconvenience cover (with higher payouts if you or your baggage is delayed on a British Airways flight)

Travel accident protection

Purchase protection

Refund protection

(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.)

100,000 AMEX POINTS: What is the best use of your American Express Platinum sign-up bonus?

Rob Burgess — Sat, 30 Dec 2023 04:11:00 +0000

American Express is currently running a ‘best ever’ sign-up bonus of 100,000 Membership Rewards points when you take out The Platinum Card.

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:

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.

Which UK airports offer £15 meal credits via Priority Pass?

Rob Burgess — Wed, 27 Dec 2023 04:11:00 +0000

Airport lounge access card Priority Pass has been on a roll in the last couple of months, adding a large number of new UK restaurant deals for its cardholders via a deal with catering group SSP.

At each, you will receive a £15 credit towards a meal. If your Priority Pass allows a free guest and you arrive with someone else, you will receive a £30 credit between you.

Two new options have just been added at London City Airport. These are:

London City Airport

Juniper & Co (NEW)
Soul & Grain (NEW)
Cabin Bar (already in the programme, currently closed for refurbishment)

In order to keep all the information we’ve published in recent weeks in one place, here is a summary of all UK food and drink deals you can access via Priority Pass:

London Heathrow

Big Smoke Taphouse & Kitchen (Terminal 2)
The Oceanic Pub & Kitchen (Terminal 3)
The Globe Pub & Kitchen (Terminal 5)

You can also get free treatments at the two Be Relax Spa sites in Terminal 5.

London Gatwick

Tortilla (North)
Juniper & Co (North)
The Breakfast Club (North)
The Grain Store Cafe & Bar (South)

London Luton

Avalon Crafted Coffee
Big Smoke Taphouse & Kitchen
Nolito

London Stansted

The Camden Bar & Kitchen

Outside London:

Manchester International

Starbucks (Terminal 1)
The Grain Loft (Terminal 1)
PizzaLuxe (Terminal 1)
Upper Crust (Terminal 1)

Bristol International

Starbucks
Cabin Bar
Tortilla
Brigg & Stow

Cardiff

Caffe Ritazza

Glasgow International

Bird & Signet

But if your Priority Pass is issued by American Express ….

There are a grand total of TWO restaurant experiences globally that Amex-issued Priority Pass customers can use.

It is also possible that, if it isn’t careful, American Express may find that people who value the Priority Pass benefit move to competing financial products which do allow full access.

You can find out more about these new Priority Pass options by searching for an airport via its website.

100,000 POINTS BONUS: If you cancel Platinum, the Amex Rewards Card keeps your points alive

Rob Burgess — Mon, 18 Dec 2023 03:11:00 +0000

American Express is currently running a ‘best ever’ sign-up bonus of 100,000 Membership Rewards points when you take out The Platinum Card.

We have also 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‘

Today I want to look at how you can keep your 100,000 Membership Rewards points bonus intact even if you choose to cancel The Platinum Card.

You can apply for The Platinum Card here. The 100,000 points offer ends on 9th January 2024.

The Platinum Card comes with a lot of impressive benefits, as well as (for a limited period):

75,000 Membership Rewards points when you spend £10,000 within six months

25,000 Membership Rewards points if you keep the card for 15 months and make a single purchase in month 15

The card benefits include:

travel insurance for you and your family, plus your supplementary cardholder and their family

car hire insurance

2 x Priority Pass airport lounge access cards, each of which allows a free guest on each visit (so a family of four is covered)

mid-tier status in Hilton Honors (Gold), Marriott Bonvoy (Gold), Radisson Rewards (Premium) and MeliaRewards (Gold)

£100 per year of Harvey Nichols credit, valid instore or online

£150 per year to spend in 150+ UK restaurants

£150 per year to spend in 1,400+ international restaurants

Eurostar lounge access

…… and lots of other bits and bobs.

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

But there’s a snag …..

Paying almost £55 per month for these benefits works out well for many readers. However, after your first year with the huge bonus, you may find that you cannot justify the fee and decide to cancel when your renewal comes up.

The only risk is losing your Membership Rewards points

The only short-term downside of cancelling your American Express Platinum card is that you are required to empty out your Membership Rewards points account.

Because Amex 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. The flexibility is worth having.

If you are forced to transfer them because you close your card down, you may regret it later. American Express isn’t going bankrupt or devaluing its points any time soon. The safest place for your points, and the place that gives you the most flexibility in the future, is with American Express.

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 card

We rarely write about it on HfP so I thought I would run through it again today. This card is the answer:

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

This card has NO ANNUAL FEE and lets you collect Membership Rewards points. If you apply for this card before you cancel The Platinum Card, it will allow you to keep your 75,000+ Membership Rewards points at the end of your first year with no pressure to transfer them.

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

The representative APR is 31.0% variable.

ARCC has a 10,000 Membership Rewards points bonus. You need to spend £2,000 within three months to qualify.

However, it is unlikely that many (any?!) Head for Points readers will qualify for the bonus because you cannot have held any personal American Express card in the previous 24 months. That’s not why you’re applying though.

Once your American Express Rewards Credit Card is active, you can cancel your Platinum card in the knowledge that your Membership Rewards points balance is safe.

You will be saving roughly £55 per month on your Platinum card. If you find that your travelling starts to pick up, you can re-apply for The Platinum Card and start getting all the insurance, lounge, dining, Harvey Nichols and status benefits again.

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

If you want to learn more about the 100,000 points bonus on The Platinum Card, our core article on the deal is here. You can apply for The Platinum Card here.

PS. If you are thinking of cancelling your Platinum card before the end of pro-rata refunds (guaranteed not to happen before 29th February and could be later), the timing is now excellent.

On 1st January each year, your £300 of annual dining credit and your £50 per half-year of Harvey Nichols credit will reset. Your Harvey Nichols credit also resets for H2 on 1st July. If you apply now you may be able to claim some or all of these benefits before 31st December 2023 and again soon after 1st January 2024.

ENDS SOON: Use your £50 of Harvey Nichols credit from Amex Platinum by 31st December

Rob Burgess — Sun, 17 Dec 2023 03:11:00 +0000

If you have an American Express Platinum card, one of the unsung but ‘free money’ benefits is that you will receive £100 per year to spend at Harvey Nichols stores.

This offer is valid instore and online (click here) and includes selected store restaurants.

You get £50 to spend in the second half of the year, so you have just two weeks left. On 1st January, the offer resets and you can spend another £50.

If you apply for The Platinum Card today, you would receive both £50 credits within the space of a month as long as your card arrives promptly.

Amex signed a three year deal with Harvey Nichols, meaning that you are guaranteed to receive the credit until at least the end of 2024.

Your credit arrives in two £50 chunks. You will receive £50 back on your Harvey Nichols purchases between January and June, and £50 back between July and December.

The credit is only available on primary cards and not supplementary cards. Spending by a supplementary cardholder will not trigger the cashback on the primary card, according to the small print.

If you haven’t already used your current £50 credit, you need to do so by 31st December. You can’t carry unspent credit over from one half year to the next.

You must opt in to this benefit

This is NOT an automatic offer.

You must visit the American Express website or app, go to your Platinum account page, find the offer and click ‘Save to Card’.

Where can I use my Harvey Nichols credit?

Harvey Nichols currently has UK stores in London, Leeds, Bristol, Birmingham, Edinburgh, Manchester and Liverpool.

The Oxo Tower restaurant in London is also included in the deal as is Zelman Meats, Burger & Lobster and Madhu’s 2 Go in the Knightsbridge store. All Harvey Nichols-branded restaurants are included.

Note that “HN@HOME (OXO at home, Leeds at home and Edinburgh at home)” is excluded, as are purchases from the Oxo Tower restaurant’s website.

If you don’t live near a store, your best bet is probably a purchase of cosmetics or wine from the website. The cosmetics section is here and the ‘food and wine’ section is here.

There is also a ‘gifts’ section here which may be more relevant for a one-off purchase at around the £50 mark.

Sign up to Harvey Nichols rewards before you shop

Harvey Nichols has a loyalty scheme called Harvey Nichols Rewards. You would be silly not to sign up to this, because you will get extra savings and rewards which will make your £50 credit every six months go further.

The scheme is very similar to Harrods Rewards, with some extra upside. You can sign up on the Harvey Nichols website here.

How does Harvey Nichols Rewards work?

There are two ways you benefit.

Get cashback on your spending in Harvey Nichols

Whenever you make a purchase in Harvey Nichols, online or instore, Rewards members will receive a cashback credit.

This starts at 1%. It then steps up based on your annual spend:

Spend £500 and receive 2% going forward
Spend £2,000 and receive 3% going forward
Spend £5,000 and receive 4% going forward
Spend £10,000 and receive 5% going forward

Your higher level kicks in as soon as you reach the spending threshold, and continues for the rest of the current year and all of the following year.

You can see your current level of accumulated cashback in the Harvey Nichols app or on the website. It can be redeemed on your next purchase, either instore or online. As far as I can tell, there is no minimum level of cashback required before you can redeem.

You used to receive £1.50 of additional cashback credit for fully completing your profile after registration. I’m not sure if this is still happening.

Get additional discounts in selected categories

For small spenders, this is where you will benefit the most from Harvey Nichols Rewards.

As a member, you can select annual benefits from the following list. The number of benefits you select depends on your status – new members can just select one.

Once you have picked a benefit, it is fixed for the rest of the year.

Here are your options – remember that you are restricted to one choice as a base level member, but for most benefits you can use them as many times as you want during the year:

10% off own-label food, wine and hampers
free drink in-store
4 x double points booster
‘Kids eat free’ (up to 12 years)
birthday gift
early access pass for sales and other events
10% off in selected bars and restaurants
10% off beauty treatments and grooming

The Harvey Nichols Rewards website shows other benefits but they are restricted to higher tier members of the programme. The ones I have listed above are open to all.

(Some of the restricted ones are very generous. A Level 5 members can pick a six-course meal for two at the Oxo Tower restaurant, for example.)

If you don’t live near a Harvey Nichols store and will be redeeming your £50 credits online, I assume that the ‘10% off own-label food and wine’ option will be most valuable. This will save you £5 on each £50 spend, whilst ‘double points’ will only get you an extra 50p back per £50.

Get 100,000 points with The Platinum Card

If this offer tips you over into deciding to get The Platinum Card, you can find our more in our review here.

Until 9th January, the card comes with a huge 100,000 Membership Rewards points bonus, which converts into 100,000 Avios amongst other things.

You receive 75,000 points when you spend £10,000 in your first six months, and a further 25,000 points if you keep the card for 15 months.

The £100 per year of Harvey Nichols credit sits alongside the £300 of restaurant credit (£150 for the UK, £150 to spend internationally, choose from 1600 restaurants) as a ‘free money’ benefit. Other benefits include travel insurance, 2 x Priority Pass airport lounge access cards (good for a family of four), Eurostar lounge access, the impressive Fine Hotels & Resorts hotel booking programme and full car rental insurance. You can find out more here.

Pro-rata fee refunds if you cancel will be available until at least 29th February 2024 and potentially later. Amex is planning to withdraw this feature but the exact date is not yet known. You are definitely OK to cancel until 29th February and receive a refund for any unused months.

If you apply now, you should have time to cash in your £50 of Harvey Nichols credit for July to December by 31st December. On 1st January, your credit resets and you can claim another £50 of free stuff.

You can apply for The Platinum Card 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

15 days left to claim your FREE Dell products via Amex Business Gold and Business Platinum

Rob Burgess — Sat, 16 Dec 2023 03:21:00 +0000

One interesting and often-forgotten benefit of the American Express Business Gold card and the American Express Business Platinum card is annual Dell credit. It’s a strong benefit, especially for American Express Business Gold where the card is free for Year 1.

As a reminder:

Business Platinum holders get £150 of Dell credit per year – £75 to spend between 1st January and 30th June and £75 to spend between 1st July and 31st December – apply here, review here

Business Gold holders get £100 of Dell credit per year – £50 to spend between 1st January and 30th June and £50 to spend between 1st July and 31st December – apply here, review here (this card is FREE for the first year so it really is £100 of free money to spend at Dell)

You MUST opt-in via this page of the American Express website before making your first Dell purchase. Once you have opted in once, you don’t need to do it again for subsequent purchases.

The six month periods run from January to June and July to December. This means that if you place a Dell order now to use up your allowance, you can place another in two weeks when it is January and the credit resets.

If you are thinking of signing up for an American Express Business Gold or American Express Business Platinum card, there may still be time to sign up and make use of the current Dell credit before the end of December.

The American Express Business Gold card has an annual fee of £195 from Year 2, but is free in Year 1. The American Express Business Platinum card has an annual fee of £650 but has valuable benefits including a £200 annual Amex Travel credit.

How can you use your Dell credit?

Dell is best known for its XPS range of laptops. You can see details here. Rhys swears by his XPS 15 in the HfP office and I had an XPS 13 for many years.

If you don’t need a new computer at the moment, take a look here at the ‘Accessories’ section of the Dell site.

Dell sells a range of laptop bags, briefcases, messenger bags, laptop sleeves and backpacks – see this page of their website.

The picture below is what I bought with my January to June 2022 credit – an Alienware gaming mouse for my son. It is £70 which was handy for my £75 of Business Platinum credit.

Rhys benefitted from my WInter 2021 credit (a spare power cord for his XPS 15, to save him carrying it to and from the office). For Winter 2022, I offered it to Sinead and she chose this:

It’s a funky travel mouse (click here):

“Your on-the-go workday becomes more portable than ever with this lightweight twistable mouse featuring multi-device connectivity that easily stows in any bag or travel case.”

At the time I bought it for her, the price was a convenient £74 including free delivery so it made maximum use of the £75 credit from my Business Platinum card. The price is now down to £54 so it is a good option for Business Gold cardholders too.

For my Spring 2023 credit I bought a new laptop power cord, because my existing seven year old one was starting to play up.

For my Winter 2023, Katie – who is covering for Sinead’s maternity leave next year – wanted a slightly scary pink mouse (only because the black version was out of stock!) and a rucksack. No bother, I got both for under the £75 cashback cap.

If you’re happy with an end-of-line or refurbished item, the credit also works on purchases from the Dell Outlet site here.

You may get an extra 10% back ….

Many American Express Business accounts are currently targetted for a second Dell cashback offer – 10% back on purchases up to £1,000.

Based on previous experience, this will double up with the Dell £50 / £75 credit deal. This means that you will actually make a profit on your order if you spend under £50 (Business Gold) or under £75 (Business Platinum)!

Other benefits from Business Gold and Business Platinum

Of course, the Dell credit isn’t the only reason to get either the American Express Business Gold card and American Express Business Platinum cards.

Both cards come with attractive sign-up bonuses. Currently you’ll receive:

20,000 American Express Membership Rewards points when you spend £3,000 within three months with the American Express Business Gold card

40,000 American Express Membership Rewards points when you spend £6,000 within three months with the American Express Business Platinum card

Whilst the American Express Business Platinum card does have a high annual fee (£650), it also comes with a number of travel benefits. These include:

two Priority Pass cards for airport lounge access (each allowing two guests, so four people are covered)

elite status in four major hotel loyalty programmes

comprehensive travel insurance

£300 per year of credit to spend on job advertisements with Indeed

a free digital subscription to The Times and The Sunday Times, and

£200 per year to spend at Amex Travel (which is basically free money for the sort of person who reads HfP!)

You can see the full list of benefits for the American Express Business Gold card here and the American Express Business Platinum card here.

Check the eligibility criteria for the sign-up bonuses carefully. You will still qualify for the Dell credit even if you don’t qualify for a new cardholder bonus.

Conclusion

If you can make good use of the Dell credit, either for yourself or for friends, family or charity, it offers a significant extra reason to get an American Express Business charge card. This is especially true with the American Express Business Gold card, which is free for the first year but still comes with £100 of Dell credit.

You can apply for American Express Business Gold here – the current sign-up bonus is 20,000 Membership Rewards points for spending £3,000 in three months. There is no annual fee for the first year.

You can apply for American Express Business Platinum here – the current sign-up bonus is 40,000 Membership Rewards points for spending £6,000 in three months.

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

Use your American Express Platinum dining credit for an Ivy gift card

Rob Burgess — Wed, 06 Dec 2023 03:11:00 +0000

A valuable benefit that comes with The Platinum Card from American Express is £300 of annual dining credit. It makes a big dint in the annual membership fee.

Each calendar year – so it resets on 1st January – you receive:

£150 to spend in 180 or so UK restaurants

£150 to spend in 1,000+ international restaurants

You can spend the money over multiple visits to multiple restaurants if you wish. It doesn’t need to be spent in one go.

One of the most common questions asked in our forum is whether the £150 UK Platinum Dining credit can be used for a restaurant gift card. This is a handy way of using your credit if you don’t think you can make it to a participating restaurant before 31st December.

If you mean ‘a restaurant gift card’ you can order online then the answer is No.

However, if you want to use your £150 of UK Platinum Dining credit for a meal to enjoy next year, the most popular option is a gift card for ‘The Ivy’ group of restaurants.

You must buy ‘The Ivy’ gift cards in person to trigger the £150 Platinum dining credit. Do not buy them online because the dining credit won’t trigger.

You can learn more on the giftcard website here but remember – to get the £150 Platinum Dining credit to pay out, you must buy it in a participating branch of ‘The Ivy’.

PS. Remember that reader Tim has created an interactive map of restaurants where the Amex Platinum £150 dining credit can be used. Check it out here.

The Platinum Card from American Express

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

Starts today: American Express Shop Small is back for three days

Rob Burgess — Fri, 01 Dec 2023 03:11:00 +0000

Here’s your reminder that American Express is bringing back its ‘Shop Small’ promotion from today – but only for three days.

‘Shop Small’ is an established Amex offer which incentivises you to shop at small independent retailers. In turn, of course, it encourages small independent retailers to accept American Express in order to participate.

You must register before making any purchases via the ‘Offers’ tab on the Amex website or in the app. Supplementary cards must be registered separately.

The winter 2023 version of ‘Shop Small’ will give you £5 back on a £15 transaction.

You are limited to one £5 payment per retailer per American Express card you register.

You are limited to THREE transactions in total per registered card over the three day promotional period, which means that your cashback is limited at £15 per card.

How will Shop Small winter 2023 work?

The promotion will run from today until Sunday, ie 1st to 3rd December.

You must register in advance via the ‘Offers’ section of the American Express app or website. Each card, and each supplementary card, must be registered separately.

You will be restricted to £15 cashback per American Express card you register (old timers will remember that it used to be £50 ….)

The standard rule of one payment per retailer per card will remain

For clarity … supplementary cards are treated separately from main cards. If you made 2 x £15 purchases in the same store, one on your main card and one on a supplementary card, you would receive £5 cashback on both purchases.

Whilst this is a much-reduced version of Shop Small compared to its heyday, you would be silly not to register. You never know when you might make a purchase this weekend which would trigger it.

For clarity, American Express funds 100% of the cashback. Your local independent shops are not paying to participate so don’t feel guilty about joining in.

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

100,000 POINTS BONUS: Why American Express Platinum gets you in more lounges than you think

Rob Burgess — Wed, 29 Nov 2023 04:11:00 +0000

American Express is currently running a ‘best ever’ sign-up bonus of 100,000 Membership Rewards points when you take out The Platinum Card.

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

Today I want to look at one of the key benefits of the card – the wide range of airport lounges (and three Eurostar lounges) that you can access.

You need to apply by 9th January. The Platinum Card application page is here.

American Express has created a website featuring all of the airport lounge which you can access with The Platinum Card. You can find it here.

Let’s start with Priority Pass

Priority Pass is a network of 1,300 independent airport lounges across the world. The Priority Pass website here has a list of all of the lounges you can access – you are very likely to find one wherever you are travelling.

Note that No1 Lounges – which operates at Heathrow, Gatwick and Birmingham – has rejoined Priority Pass, as has Plaza Premium, following a period away.

Your American Express Platinum charge card comes with 2 free Priority Pass cards. You, as main cardholder, receive one and your first supplementary cardholder receives one. They arrive in the post at roughly the same time as your Platinum card.

Each Priority Pass card lets you take a guest into a lounge for free. Some people don’t join the dots here – what this means is that you can get a full family of four into an airport lounge with your Priority Pass. All you need to do is make sure that your partner is your first supplementary cardholder on your Platinum account and so gets their own Priority Pass. Both adults can then guest in one child each.

Additional guest are charged at £24 each. This is automatically charged by Priority Pass to your Platinum card.

Interestingly, this package is better than any which Priority Pass sells directly. If you look at their website, you’ll see that it is impossible to buy a version which comes with unlimited free entry for both yourself and a guest. The only way to get a Priority Pass which does this is via American Express Platinum.

Priority Pass also has a deal with The Grain Store at London Gatwick’s South Terminal. This is the terminal used by British Airways. You can go to The Grain Store, show your Priority Pass and get £30 of credit (£15 x 2 people) to spend on food and drink, either to eat in or take away.

Note that, whilst other restaurants offer a £15 credit for Priority Pass cardholders, you do not qualify for these if your card is issued by American Express. The Grain Store at Gatwick is the only restaurant which you can visit.

I should note that, during Summer 2023, it proved difficult to get access to UK Priority Pass lounges at peak times. People were arriving earlier for flights – and so spending more time in the lounge, reducing capacity for others – and many lounges were still shut or on reduced hours, cutting capacity further. Some lounges now allow you to pre-book a space for £6 to avoid this problem. At airports outside the UK you are unlikely to be refused entry.

Lounge access with Delta

If you are flying with US airline Delta, your Amex Platinum card gets you (but no guests) access to Delta SkyClub lounges.

This can be more valuable than you think because – as I found myself when flying with Delta from Atlanta to Washington DC a couple of years ago – even having a domestic First Class flight ticket with Delta does not automatically get you into their lounges. Luckily I had my American Express Platinum card with me.

This does NOT allow you to use the Virgin Clubhouse in Heathrow Terminal 3, which is Delta’s London facilty – you can only use Delta-branded lounges.

Lounge access with Lufthansa

If you are flying on Lufthansa, SWISS or Austrian in Economy, you can access selected Lufthansa lounges in Europe. This includes the lounge in Heathrow Terminal 2, image above.

If you are flying in Business Class, you can access the Senator Lounge (in Heathrow this is a separate room at the back of the main lounge) which is usually reserved for Miles & More Senator members, the equivalent of British Airways Gold.

You can find out more about the Lufthansa / American Express lounge access partnership in this HfP article. No guests are allowed, although if your partner has a supplementary Platinum card on your account then clearly they can come in with you.

Lounge access with Eurostar

Away from the airport, American Express Platinum also gets you access to all Eurostar Business Premier Lounges.

The Paris lounge is particularly pleasant following its relocation – see our review of the Eurostar Paris lounge here. A cocktail bar has also been added to the lounge at London St Pancras (see above, it’s closed in the morning!) – our most recent review of the Eurostar lounge at London St Pancras is here.

This benefit can be a money saver. With lounge access provided by your Platinum card, there is arguably little benefit in splashing out for a Business Premier ticket. Standard Premier offers exactly the same seat – albeit with a lower quality meal – and American Express handles lounge access for you.

Lounge access is for the cardmember only and no guests are permitted. Your partner could join you if they have a supplementary Platinum card on your account.

American Express Centurion lounges, inc Heathrow

American Express is rolling out its own network of airport lounges. Despite being called Centurion Lounges, they are accessible by anyone with a Platinum or Centurion American Express card. You are allowed two free guests.

The first Centurion Lounge in Europe opened at Heathrow Terminal 3 last Autumn. It is impressive – click here for our Heathrow Centurion Lounge review. A photo is above.

You can find out where other Centurion Lounge are (mainly the US and Hong Kong) in this HfP article.

Other American Express-branded lounges

American Express also operates some other lounges globally. Full details are here.

They are, confusingly, also branded as ‘Centurion’ but are not done to the same quality. You can find these in Stockholm, Mumbai, Delhi, Buenos Aires, Sao Paulo, Melbourne, Mexico City, Monterrey and Sydney. There are plans to upgrade some of these and merge them into the main ‘Centurion’ brand.

Conclusion

As you can see, American Express Platinum cardholders get a wide range of airport and rail lounge benefits. There is a lot more too it than just a Priority Pass.

You can see the full ‘American Express Global Lounge Collection ‘ on this special website.

Full details of the 100,000 Membership Rewards points (= 100,000 Avios) sign-up bonus is in this HfP article.

You can apply for The Platinum Card here.

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 Shop Small to return in December

Rob Burgess — Fri, 17 Nov 2023 04:11:00 +0000

American Express has confirmed that it is bringing back its ‘Shop Small’ promotion in December – but only for three days.

Registration is now open, although the offer does not start until 1st December.

The winter 2023 version of ‘Shop Small’ will give you £5 back on a £15 transaction.

You are limited to one £5 payment per retailer per American Express card you register.

You are limited to THREE transactions in total per registered card over the three day promotional period, which means that your cashback is limited at £15 per card.

How will Shop Small winter 2023 work?

The promotion will run from 1st to 3rd December.

You must register in advance via the ‘Offers’ section of the American Express app or website. Each card, and each supplementary card, must be registered separately. Registration will open today.

You will be restricted to £15 cashback per American Express card you register (old timers will remember that it used to be £50 ….)

The standard rule of one payment per retailer per card will remain

We will remind you when Shop Small winter 2023 is launching.

For clarity, American Express funds 100% of the cashback. Your local independent shops are not paying to participate so don’t feel guilty about joining in.

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

Priority Pass adds Manchester, Cardiff, Bristol airport food deals – unless you’re with Amex

Rob Burgess — Mon, 13 Nov 2023 03:11:00 +0000

Priority Pass has unveiled a number of new restaurant deals across Manchester, Cardiff and Bristol airports for its cardholders.

At each, you will receive a £15 credit towards a meal. If your Priority Pass allows a free guest and you arrive with someone else, you will receive a £30 credit between you.

Here is the list of restaurant benefits that you can now access at Manchester, Bristol and Cardiff airports:

Manchester International

Starbucks (Terminal 1)
The Grain Loft (Terminal 1)
PizzaLuxe (Terminal 1)
Upper Crust (Terminal 1)

Bristol International

Starbucks
Cabin Bar
Tortilla
Brigg & Stow

Cardiff

Caffe Ritazza – EDIT, Cafe Ritazza is now closed
Beer House

There may be specific reasons for some of these additions:

at Bristol International, the Escape and 1903 lounges are due to be refurbished soon

at Cardiff, the official lounge (reviewed here) does not accept Priority Pass, although it does accept DragonPass

But if your Priority Pass is issued by American Express ….

There are a grand total of TWO restaurant experiences globally that Amex-issued Priority Pass customers can use.

It is also possible that, if it isn’t careful, American Express may find that people who value the Priority Pass benefit move to competing financial products which do allow full access.

You can find out more about these new Priority Pass options by searching for an airport via its website.

How to get FREE airport lounge access via UK credit cards (January 2024)

Here are the four options to get FREE airport lounge access via a UK credit card.

The Platinum Card from American Express comes with two free Priority Pass cards, one for you and one for a supplementary cardholder. Each card admits two so a family of four gets in free. You get access to all 1,300 lounges in the Priority Pass network – search it here.

You also get access to Plaza Premium, Delta Air Lines and Eurostar lounges. Our American Express Platinum review is here. You can apply here.

The Platinum Card from American Express

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

If you have a small business, consider American Express Business Platinum instead.

American Express Business Platinum

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

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold is FREE for the first year. It comes with a Priority Pass card loaded with four free visits to any Priority Pass lounge – see the list here.

Additional lounge visits are charged at £24. You get four more free visits for every year you keep the card.

There is no annual fee for Amex Gold in Year 1 and you get a 20,000 points sign-up bonus. Full details are in our American Express Preferred Rewards Gold review here.

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

HSBC Premier World Elite Mastercard gets you get a free Priority Pass card, allowing you access to the Priority Pass network. Guests are charged at £24 although it may be cheaper to pay £60 for a supplementary credit card for your partner.

The card has a fee of £195 and there are strict financial requirements to become a HSBC Premier customer. Full details are in my HSBC Premier World Elite Mastercard review.

HSBC Premier World Elite Mastercard

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

PS. You can find all of HfP’s UK airport lounge reviews – and we’ve been to most of them – indexed here.

100,000 BONUS POINTS: Why Fine Hotels & Resorts is one of the best Amex Platinum benefits

Rob Burgess — Sat, 11 Nov 2023 03:22:00 +0000

American Express is currently running a ‘best ever’ sign-up bonus of 100,000 Membership Rewards points when you take out The Platinum Card.

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 still get a pro-rata refund on the annual fee as long as you cancel by the end of February 2024. The Platinum Card application page is here.

Two weeks ago we looked at:

‘Are the four American Express Platinum hotel status cards worth having?‘

…. and we will cover some other features in the coming weeks.

Today I want to look at why the Fine Hotels & Resorts booking scheme is one of the best American Express Platinum benefits.

How does American Express Fine Hotels & Resorts work?

One of the most useful benefits of having an American Express Platinum credit card – and one which genuinely helps me justify the £650 fee – is the Fine Hotels & Resorts programme.

FHR, as it is known, is a collection of 1,300 luxury hotels worldwide which commit to offering special benefits to American Express Platinum cardholders when you book via Amex Travel.

FHR bookings can be made online so you don’t need to spend any unnecessary time on the phone.

These special benefits vary in their usefulness, to be honest, but do add up. They are:

Noon check-in when available (I value this at nothing – I want it guaranteed or it is useless)

Room upgrade on arrival when available (can be very good but not guaranteed)

Free breakfast for two people (very valuable at expensive hotels)

GUARANTEED 4pm check-out (very valuable)

Free in-room wi-fi (valuable at the admittedly few luxury hotels which still like to charge)

An additional benefit worth $100, usually a $100 food and beverage credit per stay

You can check out the full list of participating hotels in FHR at this special Amex website. This website is a little confusing because it talks about 2,000 hotels. This includes 700 in ‘The Hotel Collection’ which is a different, less generous plan for both Platinum and Gold cardholders.

The key, for me, is the guaranteed 4pm check-out

Where FHR really works for me is the guaranteed 4pm check-out. If you are on a short break with an evening flight home, you really don’t want to be checking out of your hotel at noon. Yes, the hotel will store your bag for you, but it isn’t the same as having full access to your room.

On our occasional trips to Four Seasons Hampshire, pictured above, using FHR allows us to stay one night less and save a significant sum. With young kids in tow, you don’t get much done in the evenings anyway so leaving at 4pm the day before doesn’t make a lot of difference compared to leaving the next morning. When we just go for the weekend, getting a 4pm Sunday check-out is invaluable.

On one night stays, you’re laughing

Another situation where FHR comes into its own is on one night stays. The value here can be amazing.

Let’s imagine you’re paying £250 for a standard room at a city hotel via FHR, as I used to do a lot at at Park Hyatt Hamburg on my way to/from my in-laws. (This hotel is now sadly closed for refurbishment and will become Conrad Hamburg next year.)

You will get free breakfast AND $100 of food and beverage credit AND a guaranteed 4pm check-out AND a potential upgrade. Your upgrade chances are improved on a one-night stay too as the hotel doesn’t need to have a better room available for multiple nights.

You can clearly see how you can get real value here.

You also earn your usual loyalty points and elite night credits if you pay on departure

All FHR stays are fully qualifying for loyalty points and stay credit with one condition – you must choose to pay on departure.

A strange quirk of the scheme is that if you choose to pre-pay your room (there is no price difference for pre-paying, so I don’t know why you’d do it) the booking is treated as ‘third party’ and you won’t earn any points or elite status benefits. American Express does not make this clear but trust us – this is how it works.

Check the pricing though

One downside of Fine Hotels & Resorts is pricing. It is not necessarily linked to the Best Available Rate, although it usually is. This means that you can often get surprises, both on the upside and the downside. That said, on a short stay the $100 food and drink credit will offset any higher headline price and you still have the benefit of free breakfast, late check-out and potential upgrade.

UK Platinum members should book via travel.americanexpress.co.uk – make sure you are logged in or the FHR rates do not appear.

If you want to learn more about the current special 100,000 points bonus on The Platinum Card, our core article on the deal is here.

You can apply here.

Get £100-£150 of annual Dell cashback with an American Express Business card

Rhys Jones — Wed, 01 Nov 2023 04:01:00 +0000

This article is sponsored by American Express

American Express has a little known but potentially lucrative statement credit offer with Dell Technologies.

It is worth £100 to £150 per year of statement credit on your future purchases from dell.co.uk. Importantly, this is not a one-off promotion but an ongoing Cardmember benefit.

There is a different offer for Business Platinum and Business Gold Cardmembers, and we will look at each in turn.

What do American Express Business Platinum Cardmembers receive?

As a reminder, American Express Business Platinum comes with a wide range of benefits for the small business owner.

You can find full details in our review of American Express Business Platinum. Core cardmember benefits include:

You will receive a free Priority Pass card. You and a guest receive unlimited complementary access to 1300 airport lounges across the world.
Your Supplementary Cardholder also gets a Priority Pass card. If this is your partner or spouse, you would both be able to get into the lounge for free and each bring in a guest.
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). There is NO EXCESS payable on the worldwide travel insurance cover, although a £50 excess applies to purchase protection cover. Medical assistance and expenses are covered up to the age of 80.
You receive £200 per year to spend at American Express Travel.
You will receive Gold Elite status in the Marriott Bonvoy hotel loyalty scheme.
You will receive Premium status in the Radisson Rewards hotel loyalty scheme.
You will receive Gold Elite 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 receive Gold status in the MeliaRewards hotel loyalty scheme.
You receive £150 or equivalent cashback when you book a onefinestay home rental.
You receive £300 per year to spend on job advertising with Indeed.
You receive a free digital subscription to The Times and The Sunday Times.
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.

There is an annual fee of £650 per year. American Express Business Platinum is a Charge Card and you must repay your balance in full each month.

There is a generous sign-up bonus of 40,000 American Express Membership Rewards® points if you spend £6,000 within 90 days and meet the criteria for receiving the bonus.

You will receive 1 Membership Rewards point for virtually every £1 spent on the Card.

This HfP article looks at how you can use American Express Membership Rewards points to benefit your business.

What is the Dell offer for Business Platinum cardmembers?

American Express Business Platinum Cardmembers will receive £150 of annual statement credit for purchases with Dell.

The annual credit is split into two parts:

up to £75 statement credit for purchases between 1st January and 30th June, and
up to £75 of statement credit for purchases between 1st July and 31st December

There is no minimum spend required to receive the statement credit but it is capped at £75 in each period. The spend can be made over multiple transactions.

The credit is valid for purchases on the Dell UK website or via the Dell contact centre. Products may only be shipped to UK addresses. You can also buy from the Dell Outlet site.

The offer is only available for the Basic Cardmember. Spending by Additional Cardmembers will generate credit for the Basic Cardmember, up to their £75 limit.

Full terms and conditions are available on the American Express website.

What do American Express Business Gold Cardmembers receive?

As a reminder, American Express Business Gold has no annual fee for the first year. From your second year, there is an annual fee of £195 per year.

There is a sign-up bonus of 20,000 American Express Membership Rewards points if you spend £3,000 within 90 days and meet the criteria for receiving the bonus.

You will receive 1 Membership Rewards point for virtually every £1 spent on the Card.

You can find details of the Card benefits in our American Express Business Gold review here.

What is the Dell offer for Business Gold Cardmembers?

American Express Business Gold Cardmembers will receive £100 of annual statement credit for purchases with Dell.

The credit is split into parts:

up to £50 statement credit for purchases between 1st January and 31st June, and
up to £50 of statement credit for purchases between 1st July and 31st December

There is no minimum spend required to receive the statement credit but it is capped at £50 in each period. The spend can be made over multiple transactions.

The credit is valid for purchases on the Dell UK website or via the Dell contact centre. Products may only be shipped to UK addresses. You can also buy from the Dell Outlet site.

The offer is only available for the Basic Cardmember. Spending by Additional Cardmembers will generate credit for the Basic Cardmember, up to their £50 limit.

Full terms and conditions are available on the American Express website.

Can new Cardmembers receive the Dell statement credit offer?

Yes.

New applicants for American Express Business Platinum or American Express Business Gold will be able to register for the Dell statement credit offer.

Conclusion

The addition of £150 of Dell statement credit is a generous extra offer for American Express Business Platinum Cardmembers.

It is an especially good deal for American Express Business Gold Cardmembers, with the £100 of credit representing 50% of the annual fee from Year 2 onwards.

Whilst the credit would represent a good discount on a new computer, it is valid against any product bought from the Dell website. You could purchase ink, toner, a docking station, a carry case, a mouse, a keyboard or a new monitor – amongst other things – and receive your statement credit.

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

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

American Express Services Europe Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.

SME? Get 40,000 points with Amex Business Platinum

Rob Burgess — Wed, 01 Nov 2023 03:13:00 +0000

If you have a small business, American Express Business Platinum offers you an easy route to a big Avios boost.

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.

Amex Business Platinum vs personal Platinum – what’s the difference?

Rob Burgess — Tue, 31 Oct 2023 04:11:00 +0000

A regular question I get asked by readers is how American Express Business Platinum differs from The Platinum Card.

With the recent fee increase on The Platinum Card (the personal card) I wanted to update this article.

What benefits are shared between American Express Business Platinum and personal Platinum?

Before we get onto the differences, which are modest, let’s look at the benefits which both cards share.

Note that this list is not comprehensive – I have focused on the travel related benefits – and you should study the Amex Business Platinum website and The Platinum Card website for full details.

You can opt in for most of these benefits via this page of the American Express website. This page is not well promoted by Amex and a lot of Platinum cardholders don’t know it exists.

Airport lounge access

You will receive a free 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 via your free supplementary Platinum card. 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. This means that a family of four can get into a lounge if you give your partner the second card.

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

Hotel status

You will receive Premium status in the Radisson Rewards hotel loyalty scheme. This will give added benefits at Radisson Blu / RED / Individuals, Park Plaza and Park Inn hotels. One key benefit of Premium is the ability to activate ‘Discount Booster’ and receive an additional cash discount of c 10% in return for earning fewer points.

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 (hotels in the US give a cash credit instead towards any F&B spend). You will get benefits at Hilton, Waldorf Astoria, Hampton, Curio etc.

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

Hotel booking benefits

Day to day earning

Both cards earn 1 Membership Rewards point per £1 spent on the card, with a few exceptions.

Both cards receive Amex Offers for making purchases at specific merchants. In my personal experience, I receive slightly more offers on The Platinum Card than Business Platinum. The offers on Business Platinum are slightly more business-driven. It is rare for any of the generous hotel cashback offers we cover on HfP to appear on Business Platinum.

The following benefits are exclusive to American Express Business Platinum

You receive a £200 annual Amex Travel credit. This is awarded per membership year, not per calendar year. You receive £200 off a £200+ transaction at Amex Travel (flight or hotel) which is pre-paid. This is as good as cash to most HfP readers.

You receive a monthly 10,000 points bonus whenever you spend £10,000 in a statement month. If you spent exactly £10,000 per month – which is obviously unlikely – this would mean that you were earning an average of 2 points per £1, the most generous rate of any UK payment card.

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. I have come to value this benefit and would probably continue to pay for it even if I cancelled my Business Platinum card.

You receive £300 credit per year to spend with online recruitment group Indeed. No minimum spend applies. The credit is split into one x £75 cashback for each calendar quarter.

The following benefits are exclusive to The Platinum Card (personal)

You receive £300 per year of dining credit. This is split into two chunks – £150 per calendar year to spend at roughly 160 UK restaurants, and £150 equivalent per calendar year to spend at 1,200+ international restaurants.

You receive £100 per year of Harvey Nichols credit, split into a £50 credit for each half-calendar year. You can order items instore or online.

You receive Eurostar lounge access irrespective of your class of travel. You cannot bring a guest but your partner could accompany you if you issued them with the free supplementary Platinum card. Staff will often allow children in at quiet times but this is not guaranteed and a family may be turned away.

The following benefits differ between Business Platinum and The Platinum Card

Card structure

The Platinum Card (personal) is issued as a credit card.

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

American Express Business Platinum remains a charge card, meaning that you MUST repay your balance in full every month.

In reality, since I doubt many of our readers pay interest on the credit card balances, this is not a key difference.

Annual fee

Both cards have an annual fee of £650 per year.

Annual fees are tax deductible for the percentage of spending which is done for business purposes. This applies to both the personal and business card.

Both cards require a personal minimum income of £35,000 per year. Amex still looks at your personal income even if you are applying for Business Platinum.

The key difference is with fee refunds on card cancellation.

Until at least 29th February 2024, you can cancel The Platinum Card (personal) for a pro-rata fee refund. From some point after this date (TBC), fees will not be refundable if you cancel part-way through the year.

The annual fee on American Express Business Platinum will continue to be refundable at any point.

Sign-up bonus

The Platinum Card (personal) has a bonus of 40,000 Membership Rewards points. Business Platinum also has a bonus of 40,000 Membership Rewards points.

The sign-up bonus rules are different between the two cards even though the bonus is the same:

You receive the bonus on Business Platinum if you have not had any Membership Rewards card, personal or business, in the previous 13 months

You receive the bonus on The Platinum Card if you have not had any personal Membership Rewards card (Business cards are not counted) in the previous 24 months

This means than an existing holder of Business Platinum could get The Platinum Card bonus but an existing holder of The Platinum Card could not get the Business Platinum bonus.

Travel insurance

Both cards come with comprehensive travel insurance. The coverage with Business Platinum is stronger in some areas – you are covered up to the age of 80 (vs 70 for The Platinum Card) and there is no requirement to pay for anything on American Express to receive full coverage.

Even if you are not between 70-80 yourself, remember that you can cover family members by issuing free supplementary cards to them, up to the limits allowed by each card.

I strongly recommend you read the policy documents for each card, available via the application websites here and here, if this is important to you.

Refer a friend bonuses

Both cards allow you to earn up to 90,000 Membership Rewards points per calendar year by referring friends for American Express cards.

Business Platinum cardholders receive a higher bonus of 18,000 points per successful referral, compared to 12,000 points for holders of The Platinum Card. These numbers are often higher during regular promotions.

Conclusion

There is no obvious answer to the question of whether American Express Business Platinum is better than The Platinum Card ……

….. assuming, of course, that you have some sort of business – or are in the process of launching one – and so qualify for Business Platinum.

I have both cards, so I get the best of both worlds. I would find it difficult to choose if I had to, because when I consider the benefits which are unique to each card:

I value the Eurostar lounge access on my personal card, and living in London I ensure I use the £100 of Harvey Nichols credit. It is easy to use the £150 of UK dining credit each calendar year, although using the £150 of international credit requires a little more planning.

I have come to value the free subscription to The Times and The Sunday Times via Business Platinum. It is easy for me to use the £200 of annual Amex Travel credit. I have also ordered the odd Dell item with my free credit.

More information

Please take a look at the official American Express websites if you require additional information about any of these benefits, especially insurance.

The Amex Business Platinum website, which contains full details and the application form, is here.

The Platinum Card website for the personal card, which contains full details and the application form, is here.

100,000 POINTS BONUS: Are the four Amex Platinum hotel status cards worth having?

Rob Burgess — Fri, 27 Oct 2023 04:11:00 +0000

Keep up to date with the latest UK credit card bonuses by signing up for our free daily or weekly newsletters.

American Express is currently running a ‘best ever’ sign-up bonus of 100,000 Membership Rewards points when you take out The Platinum Card.

American Express Platinum comes with FOUR hotel status cards. I thought I would take a closer look at this benefit to help you decide if you should jump on the 100,000 Membership Rewards points sign-up bonus.

What hotel statuses come with The Platinum Card?

American Express Platinum offers the following hotel statuses:

Hilton Honors Gold status

Marriott Bonvoy Gold status

MeliaRewards Gold status

Radisson Rewards Premium status

You will have four shiny cards in your pocket but ….

It is worth looking more closely at each of these statuses to see if they are actually worth anything.

Here is the ground rule for this article. Because I am old and cynical, I do not trust anything unless it has the word ‘guaranteed’ in front of it.

I won’t move my business to a hotel because I may or may not receive a benefit ‘subject to availability’, which can mean anything. The one thing you can be sure of is that ‘subject to availability’ does NOT mean is ‘as long as we can physically manage your request, you can definitely have it’. That isn’t how it works.

As far as I’m concerned, if it’s not guaranteed, I assume I won’t be getting it and I value it at virtually nothing.

You also need to remember that you must book direct to obtain any of these benefits. Bookings via Expedia, Hotels.com etc will not count.

So, if you get yourself an American Express Platinum card primarily for the hotel benefits (although the 100,000 Amex Membership Rewards points – worth 100,000 Avios – that you get for signing up come in handy too!) then what are you certain of getting on your next stay?

Hilton Honors Gold – what is guaranteed?

This is the mid-tier Hilton status. Hilton Honors is generally known for having the best mid-tier benefits in the hotel industry. Gold does not carry a lot of weight in North America, where hotels are overrun with Gold members, but it does often carry respect in Europe and Asia.

The standard requirements for Hilton Gold status are either 20 stays, or 40 nights, or 75,000 Hilton Honors base points in a calendar year.

The key benefit here is free breakfast.

You will receive a free breakfast of some sort at all Hilton Honors brands, including Hilton, Conrad, Curio, Waldorf Astoria and DoubleTree hotels. This is usually but not necessarily full breakfast.

Note that free breakfast at hotels in the USA has been replaced by a cash credit which can be used against any food and beverage purchase. The downside is that the credit rarely covers the full cost of breakfast, but the upside is that it can be used against any food and beverage spend.

You should also receive some sort of space-available upgrade at most brands as Hilton Honors Gold. You shouldn’t expect too much, often just the best room in the category you booked. You will also receive two free bottles of water per stay.

The other main benefits of Hilton Honors Gold are:

80% bonus points – which soon adds up
late check-out (not guaranteed)
2nd guest stays free (only useful in countries which tend to charge more for two people, eg Germany)

You will also qualify for the ‘book 5 nights and pay for 4’ Hilton Honors redemption benefit which is offered to all status members.

Overall, because of the sheer size of the Hilton chain and the guaranteed breakfast, and to a lesser extent the upgrade of some sort, this is the best of the free American Express Platinum hotel statuses.

You can see the official list of Hilton Honors Gold benefits here.

Remember that the special current sign-up bonus of 100,000 American Express Membership Rewards points would convert into 200,000 Hilton Honors points.

Marriott Bonvoy Gold – what is guaranteed?

Marriott Bonvoy is the loyalty scheme for Sheraton, St Regis, Le Meridien, Luxury Collection, Aloft, Westin, W, The Ritz-Carlton, JW Marriott, Marriott, AC Hotels, Delta, Protea, Renaissance, MOXY and various other brands.

Even though Gold Elite status usually requires 25 nights per year, the benefits are modest:

25% bonus points on your stay
2pm late check-out, but ‘subject to availability’
upgrade to an ‘enhanced’ room at check-in
welcome gift of 250 or 500 bonus points, depending on brand

Breakfast is conspicuously missing from this list.

The upgrade benefit is unlikely to deliver you anything noticeable as a Gold member. The late check-out benefit is handy but not guaranteed. The bonus points are welcome but are not hugely valuable given my 0.5p per Bonvoy point valuation.

The full list of Marriott Bonvoy Gold benefits is here.

Remember that the special current sign-up bonus of 100,000 American Express Membership Rewards points would convert into 150,000 Marriott Bonvoy points.

MeliaRewards Gold – what is guaranteed?

Melia is a Spanish-based hotel group. The key brands are Sol, Tryp, Melia, Gran Melia, Paradisius, ME and INNSiDE.

In the UK, they have a number of impressive but not very well known hotels which you may want to try with your new MeliaRewards Gold status. These include:

ME London, the Norman Foster designed hotel on the Strand which has a good reputation. Think of a hotel like The Trafalgar nearby or a more sophisticated W.

Melia White House, a surprisingly pleasant art deco era hotel near Regents Park where we had our 2016 and 2017 HfP Christmas parties

INNSiDE Manchester, which was the first UK outpost for Melia’s four-star business brand. The image above is of the hotel. I reviewed INNSiDE Manchester and was impressed. Rhys recently reviewed the new INNSiDE Newcastle. INNSiDE Liverpool has recently opened.

MeliaRewards Gold offers the following benefits:

30% bonus points
free breakfast for a companion (so basically 2-4-1)
free wi-fi
3 x 20% off vouchers for room bookings
4pm late check-out at city hotels, 2pm at resorts

Late check-out IS guaranteed as long as the hotel is not 100% full. You will also receive free wi-fi. There is no upgrade benefit.

(That said, my brother stayed at ME London on a reward stay booked from my Gold account last Summer and got a very good upgrade. It just isn’t an official benefit.)

Overall, there isn’t much here that is guaranteed to persuade me to move a stay to Melia EXCEPT for the ‘almost guaranteed’ 4pm check-out. That could be important on a short break if you have a late flight back.

However, it is fair to say (and the comments below confirm this) that the 20% discount vouchers can be hugely valuable. In some cases – let’s say you were planning a £3,000 stay at a Melia beach resort in Spain – the 20% discount would cover your entire Amex Platinum membership fee for the year. It is possible that I underestimate this benefit because I have never personally used it.

The full list of MeliaRewards status benefits is here.

Radisson Rewards Premium – what is guaranteed?

Radisson Rewards is the loyalty scheme for Radisson Blu, Radisson Edwardian, Park Plaza and Park Inn plus a few smaller brands.

Premium is laughably easy to earn, requiring just five nights or three stays in a calendar year. It’s not hard to earn and therefore there will be a lot of them in any Radisson hotel on any particular night.

Your Premium status will get you:

27 Radisson Rewards points per $1 spent – a huge increase on the 8 points per $1 earned by base level members
10% off food and drink
room upgrade “when available”
access to ‘Discount Booster’

‘Discount Booster’ is actually the key benefit. In return for earning a lower level of points on your stay, your member discount is increased to up to 20%. Having booked a few stays at a Radisson last Autumn, I can confirm that this is a genuine saving which goes well beyond other discounts on the Radisson website.

I certainly wouldn’t put any value on the room upgrade, given how many Premium members are competing with you, but ‘Discount Booster’ puts genuine cash back into your pocket.

Full details of Radisson Rewards status benefits are here.

Remember that the special current sign-up bonus of 100,000 American Express Membership Rewards points would convert into 300,000 Radisson Rewards points.

Conclusion

You can get four mid-tier hotel status cards in your wallet or purse via The Platinum Card, although it doesn’t mean that your hotel stays are going to be transformed.

That said, if you are a regular guest at participating properties – although not regular enough to earn status in your own right – then you could do nicely.

Over the years I have done OK on Hilton and Radisson stays via my American Express Platinum status, although this was before Radisson made their status laughably easy to get. I have always had a higher Marriott Bonvoy status than Gold due to my own travel. I don’t stay enough with Melia to give a fair opinion except to note my brother’s stunning ME London upgrade last year.

You will retain the hotel status cards until their expiry date if you cancel your Platinum Card for a pro-rata refund.

You can apply for the card here. The special offer of 100,000 Membership Rewards points is now on.

The Platinum Card from American Express

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

Priority Pass adds four London airport restaurant deals – unless you’re an Amex cardholder

Rob Burgess — Fri, 20 Oct 2023 03:11:00 +0000

Priority Pass has unveiled a number of new restaurant deals across London’s airports for its cardholders.

At each, you will receive a £15 credit towards a meal. If your Priority Pass allows a free guest and you arrive with someone else, you will receive a £30 credit between you.

Unfortunately these deals are NOT available to anyone who gets their Priority Pass via American Express, with one exception. It is available to anyone who gets their pass directly from Priority Pass or via another financial partner such as the HSBC Premier World Elite Mastercard or the brand new £15 per month Lloyds Bank World Elite Mastercard.

Here is the list of restaurant benefits that you can now access across the core London airports:

London Heathrow

T2 – Big Smoke Taphouse & Kitchen
T3 – The Oceanic Pub & Kitchen
T5 – The Globe Pub & Kitchen

You can also get free treatments at the two Be Relax Spa sites in Terminal 5.

London Gatwick

North Terminal:

Tortilla (NEW)
Juniper & Co (NEW)
The Breakfast Club (NEW)

South Terminal:

The Grain Store Cafe & Bar

London Stansted

The Camden Bar & Kitchen (NEW)

London Luton

Avalon Crafted Coffee
Big Smoke Taphouse & Kitchen
Nolito

But if your Priority Pass is issued by American Express ….

There are a grand total of TWO restaurant experiences globally that Amex-issued Priority Pass customers can use.

It is also possible that, if it isn’t careful, American Express may find that people who value the Priority Pass benefit move to competing financial products which do allow full access.

You can find out more about these new Priority Pass options by searching for an airport via its website.

How to get FREE airport lounge access via UK credit cards (January 2024)

Here are the four options to get FREE airport lounge access via a UK credit card.

You also get access to Plaza Premium, Delta Air Lines and Eurostar lounges. Our American Express Platinum review is here. You can apply here.

The Platinum Card from American Express

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

If you have a small business, consider American Express Business Platinum instead.

American Express Business Platinum

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

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold is FREE for the first year. It comes with a Priority Pass card loaded with four free visits to any Priority Pass lounge – see the list here.

Additional lounge visits are charged at £24. You get four more free visits for every year you keep the card.

There is no annual fee for Amex Gold in Year 1 and you get a 20,000 points sign-up bonus. Full details are in our American Express Preferred Rewards Gold review here.

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 card has a fee of £195 and there are strict financial requirements to become a HSBC Premier customer. Full details are in my HSBC Premier World Elite Mastercard review.

HSBC Premier World Elite Mastercard

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

PS. You can find all of HfP’s UK airport lounge reviews – and we’ve been to most of them – indexed here.

What is the best American Express strategy if you earn under £35,000?

Rob Burgess — Thu, 19 Oct 2023 04:11:00 +0000

A few months ago, American Express introduced minimum income requirements on its UK credit cards. Here’s our story.

Up to this point, the company had taken a more holistic view. It was interested in household income, and interested in the gap between income and expenditure. There were no stated minimums, which made sense in a world where someone on a low salary living at home has more disposable cash than a couple on average incomes with a mortgage and children.

For whatever reason, potentially linked to the new FCA ‘customer duty’ rules, this strategy was dropped in favour of a cruder minimum income one.

What are the UK American Express salary limits?

There are now two salary limits in place.

the ‘high fee’ cards (British Airways Premium Plus, The Platinum Card) have a mininum income requirement of £35,000

the remaining cards (in our universe these are Preferred Rewards Gold, Nectar, Marriott Bonvoy, free British Airways card, American Express Rewards Credit Card) have a minimum income requirement of £20,000

When it comes to getting bonuses on multiple cards, you MUST have a £35,000 income. This is because only the ‘high fee’ cards unlock the ability to earn multiple sign-up bonuses:

you can get the bonus on The Platinum Card as long as you haven’t had a Membership Rewards card (Gold, Platinum, Amex Rewards Credit Card) in the last 24 months – you are totally OK if you’ve only had a British Airways, Marriott or Nectar card

you can get the bonus on British Airways Premium Plus (currently 25,000 Avios) as long as you haven’t had a British Airways American Express in the last 24 months – you are totally OK if you’ve only had a Gold, Platinum, Marriott, Nectar or American Express Rewards Credit Card

Putting these rules together, someone who earns £35,000+ and hasn’t had any American Express cards for 24 months could get THREE bonuses back to back:

Card 1 – Marriott or Nectar
Card 2 – British Airways Premium Plus or The Platinum Card
Card 3 – whichever of the Card 2 list is left

If you look at the rules above you’ll see that this works out.

But what if you earn under £35,000?

A reader recently asked me for American Express card suggestions for anyone earning between £20,000 and £35,000 per year. After all, the average UK salary falls squarely in the middle of this range.

Your options are limited, I’m afraid.

You can only apply for the following travel rewards cards, and you will only get a bonus on the first one you get (assuming you haven’t had an American Express card for 24 months):

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold (free in year 1, £195 thereafter)
Marriott Bonvoy American Express (£95 per year)
Nectar American Express (free in year 1, £30 thereafter)
free British Airways American Express (free)
American Express Rewards Credit Card (free)

There isn’t a lot to play with here.

However, there is one thing you can do.

Separate out the card you want a bonus on from the card you want to keep long term. These do not need to be the same card.

You then:

apply for the card which has the most attractive bonus

do the necessary spending to earn the bonus

cancel the card and apply for the one you actually want to keep long term (but you won’t get a bonus on it)

Which card has the most attractive bonus?

It is usually Preferred Rewards Gold, reviewed here and apply here. You get 20,000 Membership Rewards points which, if transferred to airline miles (eg into 20,000 Avios), are arguably worth £200.

Even better, Preferred Rewards Gold is free for year 1 and comes with four airport lounge passes and 24 x £5 Deliveroo credits.

The value is debatable after year 1, but for the free first year you’re laughing, I think.

Of the others:

the Marriott Bonvoy card has a bonus of 20,000 Marriott Bonvoy points (which we value at £100) but you have to pay a £95 annual fee

the Nectar card has a bonus of 20,000 Nectar points, which are worth £100 to spend in-store or 12,500 Avios if converted. We’d value the Avios at £125 and the card has no fee in year 1.

the free British Airways card has a bonus of 5,000 Avios, which is the weakest of the lot, although the card is free for life

the American Express Rewards Credit Card has a bonus of 10,000 Membership Rewards points which convert to 10,000 Avios or other miles (which we value at £100) and is free for life

None of these cards has a bonus which beats Preferred Rewards Gold, in my view.

What should be your long term card?

This may not be the answer you are expecting.

The Marriott, Nectar and Preferred Rewards Gold cards carry annual fees from year 2 (the Marriott Bonvoy card has a fee from year 1). If you are earning under £35,000 I don’t think you will be spending enough on your card to justify the fee versus what you will get back.

This leaves two free options – the free British Airways card and the American Express Rewards Credit Card.

If you earn under £35,000 then you are unlikely to be spending £12,000 per year on the free British Airways American Express card. This means that you won’t trigger the annual 2-4-1 companion voucher, which in any event is only valid in Economy. The only value the card has for you is that it earns 1 Avios per £1 spent. You don’t even get an extra bonus for spending at ba.com.

You are better off with the American Express Rewards Credit Card. This is because you earn 1 Membership Rewards points per £1, which converts to 1 Avios. However, you also have the option to convert them to many other travel rewards schemes (airlines, hotels, Eurostar) or indeed for High Street gift cards or statement credit.

In summary ….

If you earn between £20,000 and £35,000 and asked me for advice on the best way to start with American Express, I would say:

get American Express Preferred Rewards Gold, especially given the 20,000 Membership Rewards points bonus currently running (our full review is here, apply here)

keep it for a year to maximise the 24 x £5 Deliveroo credits and the four free airport lounge passes

move to the ‘free for life’ American Express Rewards Credit Card, earning 1 Membership Rewards point per £1 on your spending

However, someone who believes that their income will increase and exceed £35,000 in the next couple of years may want an alternative plan.

You could get either the Marriott Bonvoy or Nectar card initially, leaving yourself able to apply for BOTH The Platinum Card and British Airways Premium Plus – and get both bonuses – once you hit the £35,000 salary threshold.

Interest rate information for the cards discussed above:

All of these cards carry high interest rates. You should only apply if you are certain that you will clear your balance each month and avoid any interest charges.

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.

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.

Learn more about the card benefits +

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

British Airways American Express

Bonus: 5,000 Avios

Read our full review

Other information:

Receive a companion voucher, letting you book two flights for the Avios of one, when you spend £12,000 in a card year
The companion voucher is only valid on Economy flights
It can be used on British Airways, Iberia and Aer Lingus
Annual fee: Free

Representative 31.0% APR variable

Apply here

See if you qualify for the 5,000 Avios sign-up bonus +

You will receive 5,000 Avios as a sign-up bonus on the free British Airways American Express card if you spend £1,000 within 90 days of signing up.

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 British Airways American Express account.

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

Learn more about the card benefits +

The voucher on the free British Airways American Express card can only be used on Economy flights.

The voucher can be used for Avios bookings on British Airways, Iberia and Aer Lingus.

You receive your voucher within a few days of reaching the spending target. You need to fly the outbound leg of your 2-4-1 flight before the expiry date of the voucher.

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

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

Bonus: 25,000 Avios

Read our full review

Other information:

Receive a companion voucher, letting you book two flights for the Avios of one, when you spend £10,000 in a card year
A solo traveller can use it for a 50% discount on the Avios for one ticket
The voucher is valid in any cabin
It can be used on British Airways, Iberia and Aer Lingus
Annual fee: £250

Representative 113.1% APR variable based on an assumed £1,200 credit limit and £250 annual fee. Interest rate on purchases 31.0% APR variable.

Apply here

See if you qualify for the 25,000 Avios sign-up bonus +

You will receive 25,000 Avios as a sign-up bonus on the British Airways American Express Premium Plus card if you spend £3,000 within 90 days of signing up.

To qualify for the bonus, you must not have held the British Airways Premium Plus or the free British Airways American Express cards in the previous 24 months.

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

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

Learn more about the card benefits +

When you spend £10,000 on the British Airways American Express Premium Plus card, you receive a companion voucher entitling you to book two Avios redemption flights for the miles of one.

Alternatively, a solo traveller can use the voucher for a 50% reduction on the Avios required for one ticket,

This voucher is valid for two years. Full taxes and charges need to be paid on both tickets.

You receive your voucher within a few days of reaching the spending target. You need to fly the outbound leg of your 2-4-1 flight before the expiry date of the voucher.

The voucher can be used for flights on British Airways, Iberia and Aer Lingus.

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

Marriott Bonvoy American Express

Bonus: 20,000 points

Read our full review

Other information:

15 elite night credits per year to help you towards higher status
Free night, up to 25,000 points, when you spend £25,000 per year.
Upgrade to Gold Elite status when you spend £15,000 in a card year
Annual fee: £95

Representative 54.8% APR variable based on an assumed £1,200 credit limit and £95 annual fee. Interest rate on purchases 31.0% APR variable.

Apply here

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

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

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.

Learn more about the card benefits +

You will receive 15 elite night credits per year in Marriott Bonvoy. The first batch will arrive within 60 days on applying and then in Spring in each subsequent year.

15 elite nights will automatically get you Silver Elite status in Marriott Bonvoy and put you nearer to Gold Elite and higher tiers.

If you spend £15,000 per card year, you will be upgraded to Gold Elite status in Marriott Bonvoy.

If you spend £25,000 per card year, you will receive a free night voucher, valid at any hotel where reward nights cost up to 25,000 points.

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

Nectar American Express

Bonus: 20,000 points

Read our full review

Other information:

You can convert Nectar points into Avios, and vice versa
Annual fee: Free for the first year, £30 from Year 2

Representative 37.8% 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 Nectar points as a sign-up bonus on the Nectar American Express credit card if you spend £2,000 within 90 days of signing up.

Nectar points are worth 0.5p each if spent in Sainsbury’s, Argos or eBay. They can also be converted to Avios at the rate of 400 : 250. 1 Nectar point gets you 0.625 Avios.

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 Nectar American Express 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 +

The sign-up bonus of 20,000 Nectar points is worth £100 to spend in Sainsbury’s, Argos or eBay.

20,000 Nectar points can also be converted into 12,500 Avios.

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

Get £70 cashback with a new IHG and American Express hotel promotion

Rob Burgess — Sat, 14 Oct 2023 03:03:00 +0000

IHG has launched a new hotel cashback deal with American Express.

If you targetted, you will see this deal under the ‘Offers’ tab for one or more of your Amex cards on the statement page. You need to opt-in. 70,000 registrations will be accepted which is almost triple what we saw when a similar deal ran earlier in the year.

I had it on my British Airways American Express Premium Plus card but not my Platinum card. My wife had it on her Preferred Rewards Gold card but not her British Airways card. Check whatever cards you have …. except Marriott Bonvoy ones, of course!

Here is the deal:

receive £70 back when you spend £300 (cumulative)

spend must be made by 31st December

only valid at selected European hotels

The list of participating hotels is here (PDF).

Note that the list is actually two lists lumped together. The first page lists all of the luxury properties, and then restarts (with ‘A’ for ‘Austria’) for the mass market hotels. At least, this time, the luxury hotels are listed first and not put on the back page where no-one would have seen them.

Participating brands include Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express, Crowne Plaza, Hotel Indigo, voco, Staybridge Suites, InterContinental, Regent and Kimpton.

voco St David’s Cardiff is pictured below. The slightly less enticing Holiday Inn Express London Wandsworth is pictured above and is included – whoever took that photograph deserves an award for making it look good ….

Don’t forget to register for IHG’s autumn bonus points offer too

You can also take part in IHG’s autumn bonus points promotion. It ends on the same day as this cashback offer – 31st December.

IHG One Rewards is offering 2,000 bonus points for every two cash nights you stay before 31st December.

Registration is required which you can do here. Existing bookings DO count. The nights do not need to be consecutive.

Let’s assume that an IHG One Rewards point is worth 0.4p (which we usually say it is). This means that you’d be averaging a £4 bonus per night – not worth getting too excited about, but throw in £70 of American Express cashback on top and you have a decent deal.

Our full article on the autumn IHG One Rewards offer is here. You can register for bonus points here.

The IHG home page for bookings is here.

Both the American Express cashback offer and the autumn bonus points offer run until 31st December. Register now because it will disappear from cards when the 70,000 registrations target is hit.

IHG One Rewards update – January 2024:

Get bonus points: Our article on IHG’s January 2024 bonus promotion is here. You will receive double base points on every cash stay between 1st January and 31st January 2024. Click here to register.

New to IHG One Rewards? Read our overview of IHG One Rewards here and our article on points expiry rules here. Our article on ‘What are IHG One Rewards points worth?’ is here.

Buy points: If you need additional IHG One Rewards points, you can buy them here.

You get a 100% bonus when you buy IHG One Rewards points by 2nd February 2024. Click here.

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

CRAZY: Get a huge 100,000 points (=100,000 Avios) with Amex Platinum

Rob Burgess — Wed, 11 Oct 2023 04:11:00 +0000

American Express has launched its biggest ever sign-up bonus for The Platinum Card.

The standard bonus of 30,000 Membership Rewards points, which converts to 30,000 Avios, was already good.

Until 9th January, however, you will receive up to 100,000 Membership Rewards points. This is worth 100,000 Avios (£1,000-worth on our valuation) or lots of other interesting things, as we will show below.

You can apply for The Platinum Card here.

The card comes with some great travel benefits. It also comes with a chunky fee of £650 per year.

(At some point after 29th February 2024, the exact date to be confirmed, pro-rata fee refunds will no longer be offered on Amex credit cards. You will be tied in for the full year.)

You need a personal income of £35,000 to apply.

The bonus is paid in two parts, so you need to decide on your strategy

In a change from the usual American Express strategy, the bonus will be paid in two parts:

you will receive 75,000 Membership Rewards points if you spend £10,000 within six months

you will receive a further 25,000 Membership Rewards points if you retain your card for 15 months and make a single purchase in month 15

Because you can cancel the card for a pro-rata fee refund until 29th February 2024, but not after that date, you have three options:

take out the card, spend £10,000 to earn 75,000 bonus Membership Rewards points, and then close it for a pro-rata fee refund by 29th February 2024

take out the card, spend £10,000 to earn 75,000 bonus Membership Rewards points, keep the card for the full first year but cancel before the fee for Year 2 is due

take out the card, spend £10,000 to earn 75,000 bonus Membership Rewards points and keep it for the second year, triggering the second bonus of 25,000 points in month 15

Because The Platinum Card comes with a wide range of other valuable benefits, you should make your choice based on a combination of the bonus and the value you get from the card itself.

What can you do with your 75,000 or 100,000 bonus Membership Rewards points?

You will receive 75,000 bonus Membership Rewards points as soon as you have hit £10,000 of spending, as long as you do it within six months of getting the card.

You will receive a further 25,000 bonus points if you retain your card for 15 months and make a single purchase in month 15.

Assuming you earn both parts of the bonus, you would receive 100,000 bonus American Express Membership Rewards points which convert into:

100,000 Avios
100,000 Virgin Points
100,000 Emirates, Etihad, Flying Blue, Asia Miles, Delta, Finnair, Qantas or SAS miles
66,667 Singapore Airlines miles
200,000 Hilton Honors points
150,000 Marriott Bonvoy points
300,000 Radisson Rewards points
6,667 Club Eurostar points

….. and many other non-travel rewards. I wrote this article on the most valuable Membership Rewards redemptions. Of course, you’d also have the base points from your day-to-day spending too.

What are the benefits of American Express Platinum?

Here are the key benefits of The Platinum Card as I see them. However, for clarity, there is no ‘right’ answer about whether The Platinum Card represents good value.

What is the annual fee on The Platinum Card?

The card has an annual fee of £650.

You can cancel the card until 29th February 2024 for a pro-rata fee refund. This reduces the risk considerably if you don’t find it is right for you. From this date, the fee will be non-refundable.

I have had one since 1999, so clearly there is real value to be had.

Here are the American Express Platinum core benefits (for me)

Full travel insurance:

Car hire insurance:

You receive full car hire insurance. As we live in London and don’t own a car, this is very useful for us as we hire 3-4 times per year.

Airport lounge access via Priority Pass:

As you get two Priority Pass cards, each of which allows a free guest, you can get a family of four into a lounge.

Obviously if you do not have airline status then this benefit has substantial value.

Hotel status:

You will also receive permanent – for as long as you hold your Platinum card – status in various hotel schemes:

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

I value these cards highly and usually plan my stays around hotels which will give me additional status benefits.

Eurostar and Delta lounge access:

Exclusive events:

The Platinum events programme is now easier to book as a new app has just been launched.

Exclusive benefits at luxury hotels:

£100 per year of Harvey Nichols credit:

You receive £50 credit to spend at Harvey Nichols, either instore or online, between January and June and a further £50 for July to December.

There is no minimum spend. If you buy exactly £50 of items, or spend exactly £50 in the restaurants, it is genuinely free.

It’s basically £100 of free money as long as you buy the sort of things that Harvey Nichols sell.

£150 per year of UK dining credit:

This is a new benefit added in July 2022. You receive £150 credit per year to spend in 150+ restaurants across the UK. The benefit resets on 1st January each year.

There is no minimum spend and you can earn the credit across multiple meals at different restaurants if you wish.

Again, it’s basically £150 of free money if you regularly spend in higher end UK restaurants.

£150 per year of international dining credit:

This is another new benefit added in July 2022. You will receive £150 credit per year to spend in 1,200+ restaurants outside the UK. The benefit resets on 1st January each year.

This is less of a slam-dunk benefit as it requires you to be travelling to a city where you can use your credit and finding a suitable restaurant. It’s not difficult to use though.

You can find full details of the two new Amex Platinum dining benefits here.

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

To be honest, many people who have the card focus their spending elsewhere – in order, for example, to trigger the 2-4-1 voucher on the British Airways American Express card.

Can I get the sign-up bonus if I have a British Airways American Express card?

What is the target spend to receive the bonus?

In normal times, you need to spend £4,000 within 90 days to receive a bonus of 30,000 points.

During this promotion, you need to spend £10,000 within SIX months to receive a bonus of 75,000 points.

The spend target does not include the annual fee.

To receive the second part of the bonus – a further 25,000 Membership Rewards points – you need to keep The Platinum Card for 15 months and make a single purchase in your 15th month.

Conclusion

This is, easily, the best sign-up offer we’ve ever seen for Amex Platinum.

You should look at it as two separate offers:

you can get a bonus of 75,000 points if you can spend £10,000 in six months and are only interested in keeping the card for a year (remember that pro-rata fee refunds end on 29th February 2024) or

you can get a bonus of 100,000 points if you can spend £10,000 in six months and keep the card for a second year

You would get £1,500 of value in your first year

75,000 Membership Rewards points, which we’d value at £750 if used for Avios or other airline miles

£150 of Harvey Nichols credit (£50 in H2 2023, £50 in H1 2024, £50 in H2 2024)

£600 of dining credit (£150 UK for 2023, £150 International for 2023, £150 UK for 2024, 2024 International for 2024)

The application form for Amex Platinum can be found here. The offer ends on 9th January 2024.

American Express raises the annual fee on many of its cards

Rob Burgess — Wed, 11 Oct 2023 03:11:00 +0000

American Express has announced a sharp rise in annual fees on many of its UK personal and business credit and charge cards.

There will be no compensatory change in any of the benefit packages.

However, there will be some fantastic bonuses available from today to encourage new sign-ups. These cover The Platinum Card (covered today), Preferred Rewards Gold (covered tomorrow) and the Marriott card (covered this Friday).

Which American Express cards are getting fee increases?

Here are the changes which apply from today for new applications:

Personal cards:

The American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card increases from £160 to £195 per year (the first year remains free)

The Platinum Card increases from £575 to £650 per year

The Harrods American Express Card increases from £150 to £195 per year

The Nectar Credit Card increases from £25 to £30 per year (the first year remains free)

The Marriott Bonvoy Credit Card increases from £75 to £95 per year

Business cards:

American Express Business Gold increases from £175 to £195 per year (the first year remains free)

Other cards remain unchanged.

What happens to existing cardholders?

If you currently have any of these cards, you will not pay the new fee immediately.

You pay the new fee from your first billing date after 29th February 2024.

This means that, for example, if your Platinum card renews on 1st January, you will still only pay £575 on 1st January 2024. The new fee will not kick in until 1st January 2025.

Why is Amex increasing fees?

To quote:

American Express strives to deliver industry-leading rewards, value and customer service to all our Cardmembers. In order to continue to provide the same level of benefits, and due to the rising costs of providing these benefits, rewards and services, we are increasing the annual fees on a handful of our Cards. We know that our Cardmembers value the wide range of benefits and services they receive, and are confident our Cards continue to provide great value for money relative to the annual fees.

What is happening with the end of partial fee refunds?

American Express still intends to push ahead with the abolition of pro-rata fee refunds when cards are cancelled mid-year.

The new plan is that pro-rata fee refunds will be available until at least 29th February 2024.

This replaces the original cut-off date of 1st October 2023.

This means there is some good news ….

With pro-rata refunds still available until at least 29th February 2024, you could take out one of the exceptionally good sign-up bonuses launched today and still benefit from a pro-rata refund if you cancel within the next four and a bit months. The exact date for the ending of refunds is still to be confirmed.

The deals are:

The Platinum Card – 100,000 Membership Rewards points bonus (details and application form here, article today)

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold – 30,000 Membership Rewards points bonus (details and application form here, article tomorrow)

Marriott Bonvoy American Express – 40,000 Marriott Bonvoy points bonus (details and application form here, article on Friday)

To work out if you qualify for any of these bonuses, read this HfP article which breaks down Amex’s rules into bitesize chunks. If you have a BA Amex card, the only bonus you MAY qualify for is 100,000 points (=100,000 Avios) on The Platinum Card.

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

What is the best use of American Express points?

Rob Burgess — Sat, 07 Oct 2023 04:33:00 +0000

What are American Express Membership Rewards points worth?

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.

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)

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)

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.

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.

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.

Learn more about the card benefits +

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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 can apply for complimentary Amex business cards for your employees.

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.

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.

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

How to boost your Amex spend by using PayPal for online purchases

Rob Burgess — Sat, 07 Oct 2023 02:03:00 +0000

Trying to buy some trainers for my son from the Decathlon website recently, I was reminded of an interesting trick which you can use at retailers which do not take American Express.

This assumes that you are keen to push up your Amex spend to hit a bonus or voucher target.

Here is the payment page of the Decathlon website:

You will see that American Express is not accepted. However, this doesn’t mean that you cannot use an Amex card.

Look elsewhere on the payment page and you will see the the Paypal logo.

PayPal DOES let you use American Express.

This is what comes up – it opens my Paypal account, which has a BA Amex card linked to it, and I can use it:

You do not even need a PayPal account to pay with PayPal. You can click on the ‘Pay with PayPal’ link and enter your card details directly. That said, it makes sense to open an account and link your American Express card as you do not need to remember your card details when paying in the future.

There are no extra fees for using PayPal with retailers.

Note that some retailers manage to block PayPal from showing the American Express option if they do not accept Amex themselves so this is not always a solution. In the majority of cases, as with Decathlon, it will work just fine.

The only thing worth noting is that you lose some of your consumer protection if the retailer goes bust if you pay with PayPal. This is because you do not have a direct contract with the retailer. PayPal does have its own reimbursement scheme called PayPal Buyer Protection which may cover you but it is not legally enshrined.

Next time you pay a retailer who does not accept Amex but does take PayPal, click through to PayPal instead.

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