Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

An Amex / Foursquare update

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Two days ago I ran this long introductory article to the Amex / Foursquare offers.  It attracted a lot of interest – read the comments as well as the main post.

This was the list of deals we knew about on Thursday:

  • Harvey Nichols – spend £25, get £25 back (ends 31/12)
  • Starbucks – spend £10, get £5 back (ends 13/2/13)
  • Tesco – spend £50, get £10 back (ends 31/12)
  • Argos – spend £20, get £5 back (ends 31/12)
  • Fenwick / Bentalls – spend £50, get £10 back (ends 24/12)
  • HMV – spend £20, get £5 back (ends 31/12)
  • House of Fraser – spend £50, get £10 back (ends 31/12)

Amex sent me an email yesterday which added some new ones.  At the time of writing (yesterday), none of these offers were available on the Foursquare site – hopefully they will appear this morning.

  • Urban Outfitters – spend £50, get £25 back (ends 31/12)
  • Liberty – spend £50, get £25 back (ends 31/12)
  • Nike – spend £50, get £25 back (ends 31/12)

The Amex email also mentioned the Gap deal (spend £10, get £10 back) again.  However, this has been pulled from Foursquare so unless you have already checked in there you won’t be able to get it.  Perhaps it will be back this morning.

Remember that you need to ‘check in’ to each shop via Foursquare before the discount will work!  And you need to repeat this with a new FS account for every Amex card you intend to use.

Liberty is especially interesting.  This weeked they have a massive discount promotion instore with up to 20% off.  This will combine with the Foursquare deal.

I was in Harvey Nichols yesterday, picking up a £27 bottle of wine.  This is by far the most I have ever spent in a shop on a bottle of wine, but as the net cost will only be £2 I thought it was OK!

It is also worth remembering that the Fifth Floor at Harvey Nichols contains a food market, so you could even get £25 of groceries for free.  There is also a lot of cookery books up there, plus (oddly) some Time Out guidebooks to New York, London and Paris. 

Do NOT try to spend your £25 in Yo Sushi, Wagamama or the bar as it may not qualify – it may be possible to buy a £25 HN giftcard at a normal till and use that in the restaurants, though.


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 (42)

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

  • Trickster says:

    Did a single gift voucher purchase for £50 and split this evenly across gold card and BA card. Both tracked in Foursquare almost immediately!

    Now to ramp it up, is it confirmed than companion cards, and also mbna issued Amex cards count?

    Thanks!

    Ps: I also had a Starbucks track when I checked in AFTER the purchase!

    • Trevor says:

      Yup, I can confirm companion cards (I have Lloyds Duo) and MBNA issued Amex do work, and having literally just checked, can confirm that you even earn the points despite the refund on the MBNA cards. In my last billing period I only used my MBNA card for specials, so net statement total was about £7.50 when you add up all the bits over £5, yet I still earned 113 points for my transactions!

      • Trickster says:

        Cheers.

        Interesting about the points because I’ve noticed on the gold card that the credit goes on the statement as from the merchant, and therefore remove points and first year welcome points too. Presumably, also removes from spend towards sign up bonus too.

        • Trevor says:

          I’d already qualified the previous month for the MBNA sign-up which posted yesterday (woohoo) since they wait a statement period to award, but yes, refunds are posted per merchant (tho not with Lloyds), so I’m assuming original spend less refund is all that counts towards sign-up bonus on my Amex plat. I’m going to call Amex to see if they can tell me how much more I need to spend though, do the maths, and see for real.

    • Raffles says:

      I can confirm 100% that Amex supp cards work OK. MBNA cards also reported to work OK but I don’t have one to check. Note that MBNA supplementary cards tend to have the same card number as the main card, so those would not work if you have already signed up the main card.

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

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