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My Amex Travel 5,000 bonus points have posted …. for £8.25 spend

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If you read this article from a few days ago, I am pleased to say that the promotion is working exactly as planned.

The deal is that Amex Platinum cardholders can get 5,000 bonus Membership Rewards points for making ANY booking on the Amex Travel website.  A similar offer to Amex Preferred Rewards Gold cardholders is offering 2,500 points.

Well, I booked my £8.25 dorm room in Thailand a couple of days ago and my statement now show:

10/01/2013

Amex Travel Brighton  £8.25

Base points:  8

Bonus points:  5,016

Total points:  5,024

Unlike the Mr Porter, travel insurance and FX promotions, these points are posting immediately – so one less thing to remember to chase up!

The cheapest verified room I’ve heard of is £5.21 …. there was a £4 claim on the site but I haven’t been sent a link to that one!

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:

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 12th May 2024, the Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa card is offering a bonus of 30,000 points, convertible into 30,000 Avios. You must have a Limited Company to apply. Click here to learn more and click here to apply.

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

Category

American Express Gold card, American Express Membership Rewards, American Express Platinum card

Comments (41)

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

  • Scott Nelson says:
    16 Jan16 January 08:09

    it seems Platinum holders get better perks than gold. Yet another reason to get one.

    I’ve gotta cancel my Gold and wait 6 months before applying to Platinum to get the 50k bonus right?

    • Raffles says:
      16 Jan16 January 08:28

      Yes. And as the card is not cancelled officially for a few weeks whilst Amex makes sure there are no outstanding transactions, plus the MR account needs to be closed as well, you are probably looking at 7 months to be sure. Easier if you can get someone else in your family to get it and then pay the £15 fee to transfer all their MR points to you!

      • Scott Nelson says:
        16 Jan16 January 11:50

        eugh, I can imagine how painful the conversation would be with my family. I always come across like I’m trying to sell/ con them when I ask them to help me out with a deal. Thanks for the tip anyway!

        • John says:
          16 Jan16 January 16:21

          just tell your wife you’ll do everything… unless she is the one who manages your bank accounts!

      • Arther says:
        16 Jan16 January 12:23

        Raffles- i received an email from Amex inviting me to upgrade from Gold to Plat for 15,000 MR points. I use my gold for day to day transactions and travels( both business and personal) and last year, i charged about £12k on it. do you think i should accept this deal and is it possible to downgrade after 7 months or so back to gold?

        • Raffles says:
          16 Jan16 January 12:26

          What is the deal on the fee?

          Fundamentally, for you, it would not be worth it unless Plat is being offered fee-free for a period (after which you downgrade yourself). Plat only gives 1 point per £1 on travel, supermarket, petrol and foreign spend whilst Gold gives 2, so the 15k would soon be offset anyway by lower ongoing earnings.

          • Arther says:
            16 Jan16 January 14:15

            There’s no deal on the fee.It remains £450 and that’s a real issue as though i can pay it but i’m not convinced £450 is good value for the plat. Happy to pay £125 for gold to be part of amex MR programme but £450 must be justified and i don’t think the plat as it it currently is worth it!

          • Raffles says:
            16 Jan16 January 14:27

            It is totally pointless then! You’d be better off cancelling Gold, waiting 6 months then applying for Plat from scratch for the 50,000 point bonus!

  • FanofPoints says:
    16 Jan16 January 08:21

    Yay I got my travel bonus too (though mine is the Gold Card so only 2500 points – oh well)

    Got the room in Turkey for £4.92 so 2512 points!

    • James says:
      16 Jan16 January 08:39

      FanofPoints – do you still have the code? I got one in the mail but ignored it and now when i go on the website it doesn’t let me put anything into the box or click on anything 🙁

      • FanofPoints says:
        16 Jan16 January 10:49

        Ah I don’t have the code anymore – but when I tried going to americanexpress.co.uk/goldtravelbonus to try looking for it, it gave me back an error.

        However, if you qualify for the deal (ie you were targetted), you should be able to see something in the link above to register. The box you mention will have some code in it. All you need to do is click on the box – press ‘tab’ then press ‘enter’.
        THat’s how I did it last time

        • Scott Nelson says:
          16 Jan16 January 11:29

          didn’t work for me. Thanks for the link nevertheless.

        • James says:
          16 Jan16 January 19:35

          No worries – thanks for the reply. I phone up the super people in Brighton and the lovely lady told me that I was eligible and would get the bonus points when I booked, and that she would put a note on my account to that effect. Any problems, she has given me her extension number to call.

          So I booked a room in Turkey for about £6.50! Fingers crossed!

  • Jimmy says:
    16 Jan16 January 09:22

    Does anyone have the link to the Gold card rewards at 2500 please

  • Joanna says:
    16 Jan16 January 09:34

    Got the 2500MR from the Gold card – it posted along with the travel spend £4.92 for a hotel in Bodrum!

  • Nav says:
    16 Jan16 January 10:40

    Does this need to be booked via the Platinum service to get the 5k MR points? Or any Amex website is ok?

    Finally which city in Thailand did you get a booking for at such a low price?

    • Raffles says:
      16 Jan16 January 11:21

      Must be booked on the Amex Travel website and paid with your Amex Plat / Gold.

      You need to find your own cheap property. It is unfair to the owners of these places if everyone books a room in the same place and then fails to show, as they lose income from food, drink, tour sales etc.

  • Eshaq Choudhury says:
    16 Jan16 January 10:45

    How can gold card holders get this deal?

  • Sean says:
    16 Jan16 January 10:55

    Does this only work for one booking or can you do multiple ones?

    • Raffles says:
      16 Jan16 January 11:22

      One booking per card. Not sure if it would work on a supplementary card if that card was separately registered with Amex – in theory it shouldn’t.

  • Paul says:
    16 Jan16 January 10:57

    Thanks for this – it jogged my mind that I’d recently received a mailing but hadn’t read it, so just logged in and the code worked so I must have been a target. Just made a booking for May in Turkey for £5.21. Maybe I could have found something cheaper but it seemed like bargain enough!

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