Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Bits: £100 off £500 BA spend, 4000 Miles & More miles with a hotel, Troy Warfield leaves BA

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News in brief:

£100 off a £500 British Airways spend deal with Amex

American Express is offering a very limited number of cardholders a £100 statement credit with their next £500 British Airways purchase.

If you are targetted, it will appear on your American Express online account under ‘Offers’.  It is limited to the first 7,000 people to save the offer to their card and the £500 transaction must be made by 12th June.

Neither my wife or I have this.  If you have put British Airways transactions through one of your Amex cards recently then you will probably be out of luck.   Some – but not all – HfP readers who have contacted Amex Customer Services have managed to get this offer added to their accounts even though they were not targetted.

Helpfully, £500 just covers the taxes and charges on a Club World or First Class long haul Avios redemption.

Get 4,000 Miles & More miles with any hotel booking

Lufthansa is again offering a generous bribe to encourage you to try its new hotel booking website.

It is only valid for first-time bookers via the Miles & More Hotels portal which you can find here.   There is no minimum stay and no minimum spend.  You need to book by 23rd May but the stay can be for a future date.  All bookings must be pre-paid.

The 4,000 miles is the minimum you will earn – this consists of a 3,000 miles bonus and 1,000 base miles.  You may receive more than 1,000 base miles based on the cost of your room.

British Airways BA 777X 777 9X

British Airways loses its second ‘Director of Customer Experience’

British Airways staff were told last week that Troy Warfield, BA’s ‘Director of Customer Experience’ is leaving the company after 18 months.

The announcement:

Troy Warfield, Director Customer Experience, has decided to leave British Airways.  Since joining the airline, Troy has led many customer improvements including the Gatwick and Boston Lounges, First Wing and forthcoming transformation of Club World catering, service and sleep proposition.  The process of finding a successor is now under way and an announcement will be made once an appointment is confirmed.

…. seems to be lacking the usual ‘leaves with our best wishes’, ‘we wish him success in his future career’, ‘I am sad to leave behind such a hard working group of colleagues’ etc platitudes normally found in such wording.

There were raised eyebrows when Warfield was hired, given that his previous employer (Avis Budget) is not exactly known for its outstanding customer service.  His job before Avis was running Andrex, Kleenex, Scottex and Velvet for Kimberley-Clark in Europe ….

That said, Warfield’s departure mirrors that of Frank van der Post.  van der Post was Warfield’s predecessor and the first person to have this role.  He came from a successful stint at Jumeirah Hotels – which does have a good reputation for customer experience – but he did not last too long either, albeit he went on to a senior role at KPM Royal Dutch Telecom.


How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

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

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

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

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

Barclaycard Avios Plus 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

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

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

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

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending £15,000 Read our full review

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

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

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

The Platinum Card from American Express

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

Run your own business?

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

Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa

Huge 30,000 points bonus until 12th May 2024 Read our full review

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

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

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

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

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points 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

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

Comments (189)

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

  • Joan says:

    Ooh update ….Amex just called me back and said sorry for saying I couldn’t have the offer – she had spoken to her manager and they had changed their minds and now I can have it

  • Gareth says:

    Does anyone know if you book using Amex travel you still get status benefits? I’m currently Hilton diamond and about to book the Conrad in London.

    • Alan says:

      Lol see my answer from yesterday… (yes for FHR)

    • Genghis says:

      Contact the hotel directly. You may be surprised with what they offer you.

      • Gareth says:

        I will give it a try…

        • Wivus says:

          Always ask at reception. I am in the States in my third hotel of the trip booked via Kaligo but 2 H[ltons and 1 Marriott have given me full Gold benefits.

          • jamie says:

            Although you havent booked directly, do you still get the points added to your account for your stay?

            I recently booked at the Hilton Garden Inn but via booking.com, I emailed Hilton and as a good will gesture they added 3k points to my Hilton account.

      • Alan says:

        Genghis, Is that just for diamond members or good advice for “low-life” punters like myself?

        • Rob says:

          Yes for Fine Hotels & Resorts bookings. Can go either way otherwise because, if Amex can quietly buy a room for a third party wholesaler and mark it up to full price for you, they will. That would mean no points.

        • Genghis says:

          It’s for everyone. Give it a try.

          It’s also worth emailing IHGs with lounge access in advance saying something along the lines of “I have status in many chains and have plenty of options in (insert city name) but I am considering staying at (insert property name). As a Spire Elite, please can you confirm if I will get lounge access on any booking?”

          • Yuff says:

            I have this dilemma, for London, for beginning of July, so not sure which to go for Conrad on points, Amex offer, IC on points. Nice to have choices 🙂
            All because my son got lucky in the Wimbledon ballot;)

          • Rob says:

            Conrad is next to St James’s Park station which means a direct District Line train to Southfields from outside the door. The lounge is impressive at the Conrad which, if you’re Hilton Diamond, may also swing it for me.

    • C77 says:

      If it’s the travel section when signed in to your Gold Card (or other) on their website, it’s unlikely. These are mostly third party offers. Unless its a hotel collection rate or a FHR rate then you’re unlikely to be eligible for points earning.

  • Kathy says:

    I have the BA offer, annoyingly my flights are all booked already, so I won’t be using it.

    • Fadi says:

      I was just about to post if anyone has the offer and can’t use it I certainly can. Prepared to take the leap of faith and wire the money first.

      • Boi says:

        Fadi….. happy to help you if you are still interested. I have helped another hfp member in the past….Rob connected us

        • Fadi says:

          Sounds great shall Rob make the introduction or how does it work?

          I did this in reverse a couple of years ago for a hfp reader 🙂

  • Chris says:

    What’s the expiry of this new BA/Amex statement credit?

    • Rob says:

      12 June

      • Adam says:

        My wife has this on her BA Amex card but does anyone have this on there BA premium plus card? As ideally I’ll prefer to earn the 3x Avios points if I can get them to switch cards.

  • RTS says:

    No BA offer but got Amex offer. Shame I have no use for it.

  • Nick says:

    It wasnt on either of our gold cards, nor my BA Amex, but it was on my wifes BA Amex. I assuming because it was dormant and not used for a while?

    Also daft question time i assume that it has to hit a £500 spend in order to credit? So for example if i booked a £1000 BA holiday package but only paid the £150 deposit route it wouldnt credit. Is there anyway you can up the initial amount you want to pay if you booked a BA holiday package to hit the £500 spend and get the credit?

    • Sussex Bantam says:

      Yes – the amount outstanding on your booking, after the deposit, can be paid at any time.

      • Stu N says:

        You can pay any amount of the balance early. The card fees are based on minimum deposit so non-issue around paying a larger deposit and no issues in making a number of small payments towards the balance. If you have to cancel the holiday before full payment is due then BA will refund you anything you have paid over and above the deposit.

        I plan to pay off some of the balance on an autumn booking with this offer after my statement date, I used the autumn version of the offer towards a BA holiday booking and went through no problem.

  • BC says:

    Funnily enough was speaking to a friend who works for BA at the weekend. Told me about this guy leaving, said morale absolutely terrible at the company at the moment. Cruz not rated at all from within.

    • Mark says:

      Your not wrong! I was on a flight the other week in F and one of the crew told me that she hasn’t been on a flight in the previous two or three weeks where one of the crew wasn’t leaving withing a few days.

      In fact, I have a friend of a friend who’s leaving at the end of the month.

    • the real harry1 says:

      hmm, the board denying Cruz his bonus for messing things up @ Vueling was a pretty good signal…there must be plenty of doubters at board level & amongst the big institutional shareholders

  • The real nick says:

    Is there any way they can check that the flight departs from the uk?

    Surely if it’s a transaction over £500 via ba.com can an ex eu deal work if pay in sterling?

    • Charlie says:

      Is there a currency conversion for ex eu?

    • czechoslovakia says:

      I only ever book *A, but my Amex statement has a list of segments / routing and classes for each booking, along with ticket number. So, assume yes.

    • John says:

      On ba.com you always pay in the currency of the origin

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

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