Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

New Amex statement credits including £5 back on £5 London transport spend

Links on Head for Points may support the site by paying a commission.  See here for all partner links.

American Express has launched a few more special cardmember offers. You can see if you have been targeted for these deals by logging onto your online account, going into each card you have and clicking on the offers tab at the bottom.

The most interesting is £5 back when you spend £5 on contactless travel in London.

If it is not showing on your online account, you can also register via the cardmemberoffers.co.uk website.

A few weeks ago, Transport for London rolled out contactless payment via debit and credit cards on the tube and overground rail network – it has been in place on buses for a while. If you previously used a ‘pay as you go’ Oyster card, you can throw it away. You can now use any contactless debit or credit card.

All of the same features are available as you got from your Oyster card – you can register your credit card on the TFL website to see a record of past trips, and you still benefit from the daily cap on how much you pay, however many journeys you make. The only downside I see is the fact that you will get an additional 20+ entries a month on your credit or debit card statement!

It is valid until 30th November and for the first 25,000 people to register. What was not clear is whether you get your first £5-worth of transactions refunded or only your first purchase, whether or not it comes to £5 or more – which rarely happens.

There are three other offers which are less interesting but, if I’m honest, not too bad.

Cineworld is offering £5 back when you spend £15. This is valid for the first 30,000 Amex cards to register. You need to make your cinema visit by 30th November.

Esso is offering £10 back when you spend £50. Remember that you earn Clubcard points now on petrol purchases at all Esso garages whether or not they have a Tesco Express attached. You should also be able to trigger the cashback by purchasing a gift card for another retailer at an Esso garage.

The Esso deal is limited to 25,000 people and you must make your purchase by 24th November.

D&D Restaurants, the ex-Conran group, is offering £20 back on a spend of £100. It is valid for the first 5,000 people to register and you must visit before 16th December.

You will also find other offers still available that I have mentioned before. The Ryanair ‘£10 back for any transaction’ deal ends on the 31st if you were targetted for that.


Want to earn more points from credit cards? – April 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 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 card

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 sign-up 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

Huge 30,000 points bonus until 12th May 2024 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 Business Credit Card

1% cashback uncapped* on all your business spending (T&C apply) Read our full review

Comments (87)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Samantha Shillabeer says:

    I got the TFL offer despite not having a contactless card!

  • Mikeact says:

    By the way, has anybody found the Android app for Amex ? I’ve tried searching as they say but no luck so far.

    • Mikeact says:

      Thanks, searched on my Galaxy Note but not supported, but found it on my HTC phone.

  • ee says:

    A bit off topic but if you have a national rail yearly season ticket (aka a gold card) you can show this at a tube ticket office, together with your Oyster card and they then apply a discount to tube payg fares, and also the daily price cap

    • Brian Peers says:

      I was going to raise this point.

      I’ve raised this issue with TFL and it is NOT possible to have your gold card discount applied to a contactless card.

  • andy stock says:

    Don’t throw your oyster card away if you have an network rail gold card or senior rail card loaded on to it as you get a 33% off tube, overground and national rail services off peak. The off peak oyster cap is also 33% lower. I only use my contactless amex card during the peak hours.

    • Will B says:

      Even if your gold card already covers the underground?

      • David says:

        Yes, you would use your gold card in the zones that it covers and then use your Oyster at a discounted rate if traveling outside those zones (although this could get complicated as you’d have to touch in at the boundary).

        • Dave says:

          Those that don’t have an all zones gold card are likely to have it on Oyster anyway, so no need to touch in/out on the boundary.

          • Jo says:

            If you travel in from outside of the zones an have a gold card it’s paper ticket only (isn’t it)? How can you get that into an oyster? My paper ticket wears out every few months

          • andy stock says:

            I have just an point to point national rail only season ticket. So the gold card discount makes tube / overground journeys cheap. Zone 6 to zone 2 for £1 off peak.

          • Will B says:

            Fair enough but no good for peak

  • Mark says:

    I’ll keep my Oyster card – I can top it up with 3V cards!

  • Ken says:

    The only two downsides I see with using a contactless card are: Firstly, you won’t get Avios for the pence part of your ticket. So, if your journey costs £2.80 you will only Avios on £2.00, whereas if you had bought say £20 worth of pay as you go, you get Avios on the whole £20, no matter how you divide it up on your journeys. Secondly, as I have an annual rail card, I get 33% discount on all tube fares that are off-peak. You won’t get that using a contacted credit card.

  • Cheshire Pete says:

    They have also re opened their £5 credit for making a review on trip advisor when linking your account to your Amex. They sent it me again on Friday even though I’d already made my link earlier in the year.

    • mucky says:

      Very useful and on only 1 of my cards. I get the bus but not the train, will it still work as no turnstiles?

  • sqills says:

    Raffles your clock is wrong 😉

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

The UK's biggest frequent flyer website uses cookies, which you can block via your browser settings. Continuing implies your consent to this policy. Our privacy policy is here.