Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

New Amex deal: £50 off £250 spend at Hilton Hotels

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

You may remember last Winter that American Express launched a partnership with TripAdvisor.  They were paying £5 to every Amex cardholder who linked their American Express card to their UK TripAdvisor account and wrote one review.

This partnership seems to be deepening, as American Express and TripAdvisor have launched a number of cashback / ‘statement credit’ deals together.

The best of the first batch is £50 cashback when you spend £250 at a Hilton hotel in the UK.  The beautiful Hilton Leeds is pictured below!

Hilton Leeds

The rules are a bit fiddly but are straightforward:

First, you must link your American Express card to your TripAdvisor account via this page

Secondly, you must visit this page on the TripAdvisor website (log-in required) and click ‘Save To Card’ where it describes the Hilton offer.

That is all you have to do.  Once you make a qualifying booking with Hilton, Amex will credit £50 to your card statement.  The rules on what makes a qualifying booking are stringent:

A charge of £250+ must be made to your Amex card and hit your statement between now and 31 May.

If you have booked a flexible rate (pay on departure) then your check-out must take place before 31 May.

If you book a pre-paid hotel, your stay could be for a date after 31 May.  However, the hotel would need to charge your card before 31 May.  I don’t know how quickly Hilton charges prepaid stays – many IHG properties only charge a week or so before arrival.

Only UK hotels qualify.  There are 70 properties listed which I presume is all of them.

Only Hilton-branded hotels qualify.  Hampton, Doubletree or Waldorf-Astoria properties do not count.

All pre-paid bookings must be made via hilton.com.  It doesn’t matter how you book a ‘pay on departure’ rate.

Only 1 x £50 credit per card – although you can register numerous cards.

It is limited to 15,000 people, although I very much doubt that will be an issue given that they struggled to give away 25,000 £5 ‘money for nothing’ credits last year.

Full details of the offer can be found here – you don’t need to log-in to read the rules.

This offer will stack with any Hilton promotions, including the generous 40% discount rate for anyone who has a public-sector job in the UK.

Don’t forget to sign up for the current Weekend Rewards promotion as well (despite the name, it is valid all week!).

TripAdvisor and Amex also have three other promotions running if you are out in London:

£10 back when you spend £50 at Asia de Cuba

£5 back when you spend £25 at The Light Bar or The Long Bar

£10 back when you spend £50 at Suka

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

18,000 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 Platinum card, British Airways American Express, Hilton Honors, Marriott Bonvoy American Express

Comments (50)

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

  • pazza2000 says:
    19 Mar19 March 10:39

    This could come in handy for a London stay in June, I’m fairly certain Hilton would bill me for an AP rate before May 31st.

    On a side note, are pub sector rates pre-paid?

    • Amy Rideout says:
      19 Mar19 March 10:50

      Yes, they are. Payment is usually taken within 48 hours of the booking- depending on what time you made the booking.

  • Alan says:
    19 Mar19 March 11:36

    Ooh nice spot – it is would be excellent if these counted!!

    • Rob says:
      19 Mar19 March 12:13

      What WOULD make it risk free would be if you could buy the gift cards at a Hilton hotel. Who knows, if you buy online, what text appears on your card statement.

      • pazza2000 says:
        19 Mar19 March 12:17

        Can you buy these giftcards at a Hilton Hotel?

        • Alan says:
          19 Mar19 March 22:10

          Not sure but just looked more closely at the online site and I see you can only buy a card up to a value of £150 anyway so the online site looks like it’s a non-starter.

          • will says:
            21 Mar21 March 18:53

            You can buy multiples, I’ve just put £250 through – will post back if they actually work.
            I think you can only use them to pay at checkout though, which probably means discounted advance purchase rates won’t be possible.

          • Alan says:
            21 Mar21 March 19:12

            Ahh didn’t realise that – do let us know how it goes 🙂

          • Alan says:
            30 Mar30 March 22:33

            @Will – any luck with a credit on those giftcards?

          • Alan says:
            31 Mar31 March 16:47

            OK, as suspected but thanks for trying it out!

  • Rob says:
    19 Mar19 March 12:11

    Won’t be a problem. All that matters is that you credit card statement says Hilton.

  • Coupsta says:
    19 Mar19 March 12:48

    How do you manage to get your trip advisor account to link two cards? Anyone know?

    • pazza2000 says:
      19 Mar19 March 12:53

      You can’t. Multiple TA accounts I assume? Never did receive my £5 statement credit come to think of it…

      • Coupsta says:
        19 Mar19 March 13:02

        Cheers Pazza
        might set up a separate trip advisor account to link another card then, worth it for a few minutes work I think

  • Matthew says:
    19 Mar19 March 19:47

    I know it states UK only hotels but do you think others abroad will qualify as surely it would just state hilton on the statement? Assuming you prepay of course.

    • Rob says:
      19 Mar19 March 21:03

      Good question. If Amex only looks for £ transactions with Hilton in the description then you won’t get it. On the other hand, what do you have to lose?

      • Matthew says:
        20 Mar20 March 04:59

        True – I hadn’t considered it would be in a different currency but like you say no harm in trying!

        • Maximum Power says:
          20 Mar20 March 10:33

          Hello

          may be a silly question- – if booked 3 nightst at the hilton next week and it cost me £200 and £200 was charged to my card say today……….then I stay next week and spend £20 a night in the hotel bar for 3 nights spending £60 and it was charged seperatley to my card – would that mean the £260 would qualify for the for the £50 back or does it need to be £250 in one hit?

          • Andrew (@andrewseftel) says:
            20 Mar20 March 10:49

            T&Cs say it needs to be in one go:

            ‘single purchase of £250+ on your checkout charge’

          • Maximum Power says:
            20 Mar20 March 10:57

            so book flexiable rate say £200 and spend 50 in the bar and the £250 charged on checkout qualifies?

          • Rob says:
            20 Mar20 March 12:37

            Yes, that works fine – all that matters is that Amex sees a charge of over £250 on your statement

          • Rob says:
            20 Mar20 March 12:38

            One hit

          • Coupsta says:
            20 Mar20 March 12:50

            put your bar spend on your room to ensure that you spend over £250 in one hit transaction

  • trumpton says:
    20 Mar20 March 15:33

    I do question the marketing motives of these companies. Why do I have to find out about this stuff from Head For Points? On a separate note, how are these funded? by Amex, Hilton or TripAdvisor? Or all three?

    • Coupsta says:
      20 Mar20 March 15:40

      I’ve often thought that about AMEX. I’m signed to receive promo emails etc but never get this type of activity. I haven’t got the time or inclination to go to amex website every day, I’ll someone else do that eh Raffles!

    • Rob says:
      20 Mar20 March 16:16

      I never got this either, someone sent it across. Best guess is Hilton funds it, Amex benefits from the transaction fee and Amex and TripAd charge a set-up fee on top.

      • David Butcher says:
        20 Mar20 March 22:26

        I absolutely agree.

        As a supposedly valued platinum card holder with Amex why do I have to go searching around the internet to find their best deals?

        Could they not have one all encompassing site showing exactly what is on offer?

        It’s madness that I pay them £450 a year and then have to rely on hearsay and social media etc to tell me about my benefits.

        No disrespect to you, Raffles – your role in this is invaluable but I hope you get my point. I belong to a. club locally where I pay £300 a year for membership and they do tell me everything that’s going on. It’s not drip fed on various sites around the World Wide Web. What on earth is the Amex marketing strategy?

        Without sites like HFP we would be none the wiser on these offers.

        • Rob says:
          20 Mar20 March 22:55

          Agreed. As a Platinum, you are jumping between the Platinum website, Amex Selects / Amex Network, now TripAdvisor plus the special offers which appear on your online statement. And even then you don’t see them all!

          You then get scenarios like the Virgin transfer bonus where it was open to all but only some were emailed about it – I didn’t get it and I have done Virgin transfers in the past.

  • Jason says:
    22 Mar22 March 11:52

    Just about to book a Hilton but when I check my Amex card, the offer isn’t stored like previous offers.
    However when I go into trip advisor the saved offer is showing.
    Do you need to book through trip advisor to take advantage of the credit?

    • Rob says:
      22 Mar22 March 14:08

      The stored offers are only for those that you signed up for on the Amex website. The Foursquare deals don’t show up online either but do still post OK.

  • Andy says:
    24 Mar24 March 18:20

    Brilliant! Just switched to the Hilton for this weeks stay, checked in and got an email from AMEX within minutes saying i had £50 credit!
    Thanks!

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

New to Head for Points?

Welcome!  We’re the UK’s most-read source of business travel, Avios, frequent flyer and hotel loyalty news. Let us improve how you travel. Got any questions? Ask them in our forums.

NEW: Sign-up bonuses boosted to 3,000 and 18,000 points

Latest Forum Posts

Get 40,000 bonus points (worth 40,000 Avios) and £300 dining credit with The Platinum Card

Check reward flight availability instantly for free!

See a whole year of reward seat availability on one page at SeatSpy.com

Get £10 when you spend £150 on your free Currensea card

Booking a luxury hotel?

Our luxury hotel booking service offers you GUARANTEED extra benefits over booking direct. Works with Four Seasons, Mandarin Oriental, The Ritz Carlton, St Regis and more. We've booked £1.7 million of rooms to date. Click for details.

SME? SPECIAL OFFER TO 12TH MAY EARN POINTS WORTH 30,000 AVIOS WITH CAPITAL ON TAP

Get 20,000 bonus points, four airport lounge passes and your first year free with American Express Gold

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.

Got it!