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.


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

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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

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American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

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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:

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American Express Business Platinum

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Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa

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Barclaycard Select Cashback Business Credit Card

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Comments (42)

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

  • Andrew says:

    Please can you tell us where you managed to sign up for these e-mail updates? I keep missing out on these offers! Thanks

    • Raffles says:

      You can log in on the Amex website and tweak your marketing preferences. There are various categories of stuff you can ask to receive, tick the lot. Note that you need to do this for every Amex-issued Amex card you have – if you have a BA, SPG and Gold Amex, you need to do the form 3 times.

  • Boddingtons says:

    We I can confirm that Harvey Nic’s worked a treat along with HMV and Starbucks in Manchester.

    Only gripe is that Harvey Nic’s were paper vouchers and not a plastic gift card like the Starbucks one.

  • Boddingtons says:

    Further, Urban Outfitters was showing as a Special, however, what a load of crap they sell. And they ain’t cheap either. Unfortunately, the Nike Store is still not showing anything from my end.

    • Raffles says:

      I’m sure the £225 from Harvey Nichols made up for it! Urban Outfitters is definitely not your thing, I agree!

      • Mummy55 says:

        Is there a time limit between checking in and visiting the store? We have registered several cards and have had “offer loaded to card” for HN but I am not going to Leeds (nearest store to Newcastle) until Friday on our way to Liverpool Airport?……..

        • Raffles says:

          I don’t believe so, as long as you do it before the offer ends (31/12 for Harvey Nicks)

          • Mummy55 says:

            Thank you for that. I will try all cards on Friday and see how I get on!!!
            Hope I can do as well as Boddingtons!

  • Eddie says:

    Just a quick question – If I spend £220 at Liberty with the AMEX/FourSq promo, do I only get £25 back?

    And by the way – cannot find the promo on my Liberty page on FourSq after I check in 🙁

    • Raffles says:

      Yes. If you want to spend more (and you have more Amex cards) then register each card with FS (different email needed), buy a £50 gift voucher with each card and then use those vouchers to make the purchase.

      And, yes, after appearing very briefly on Saturday morning the Liberty offer has vanished!

  • David says:

    Hi.
    If anyone has O2 Priority there are a couple for HMV and House of Fraser that could complement the Foursquare offers nicely.

    The HMV one is £5 gift card for £20 and the House of Fraser one is £15 gift card for a minimum of £40 spend.

    Absolutely love the blog, read every day.

    • James says:

      David, how do I find the HMV and Frasers nmoments. I’ve just signed up for PM but don’t see any of those deals currently listed when I’m signed in (on PC). Thx,

      • James says:

        Just remembered ‘Simply Rewards’ If you are a nationwide building society Flex account or credit card holder you may also be able to combine offers. For example, there is currently 10% off purchases over £20 at HMV. To redeem Simply Rewards you need to pay with Nationwide debit or credit card. Obviously not useful in connection with AMEX but could be used in conjunction with gift cards/vouchers first purchased using your AMEX.

  • David says:

    Hi James, thanks for replying. I believe the Priority Moments on PC are the moments meant for online use (i.e. the ocado offer)

    I am using an iPhone 5 and believe you need a smartphone to access the geographical moments (if you will – similar to foursquare). You don’t have to “check in” but the codes only appear if you live in the vicinity of a HMV or House of Fraser store.

    Though, I believe if you search O2 Priority via your mobile and access it through the mobile site you can gain access to the deals for physical stores. Or, if your mobile has the capacity for applications you may consider downloading the O2 Priority app which is easier.

    These are branded as Xmas moments and I don’t live in London so there may be more O2 moments that I do not see.

    The deals are code based too so if you know anyone that is on O2 and does not take advantage of the offers you could take those; it’s based on one mobile number per registration so unless you have more than one O2 mobile number it is difficult to have more than one account.

    Thanks

  • Johnny5a says:

    Bought £75 Harvey Nics gift vouchers yesterday with my 3 cards. Almost bagged another £25 but they wanted to see the card … it’s my wife’s card

    • Trevor says:

      Nice that you got your £75 (as I did the other day), but a shame about not using your wife’s card, and that’s where our experiences differ. I have used my wife’s card at least 10 times to benefit from the November £5 specials, the HN offer and most recently, the Tesco £10 special. Don’t give – checking cards I thought was a thing of the past since chip-n-pin, specially when you insert your own card.

  • Charlie says:

    GAP has a “secret” deal – spend £10 get £10 back..

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