Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Interesting Amex Platinum offer – £50 of free steak!

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

In one of the odder American Express promotions of recent times, all Platinum charge card holders are being offered £50 of free steak!

More precisely, they are being offered a £50 statement credit for eating at MASH in Soho – intriguingly described as “the modern American steakhouse with a Danish twist”.

Don’t ask me what the Danish twist actually is.  I haven’t eaten here myself, although the reviews are excellent.

The offer runs until June 15th.

Here is the small print:

American Express Platinum Cardmembers are eligible to receive a £50 statement credit when they spend £50 or more in one transaction at MASH London, 77 Brewer Street between 15 April – 15 June 2014.  To redeem the offer make a reservation by calling our Platinum Concierge Service on 0845 608 0845.  Offer can only be redeemed once per Platinum Cardmember.  Spend must be billed to your Card account before 15 June 2014 to be eligible for this offer.  Any additional amount over £50 must be settled with your American Express Platinum Card.  Statement credit will be applied after 2-3 days but can take up to 8 weeks.  This offer is not available to supplementary Cardmembers.

The small print is a bit of a nonsense:

Firstly, if you have to book via the Concierge Service, why does the email have ‘book online now’ in two places which links to the MASH website?

Secondly, how would Amex know whether you have charged the full meal to your Amex Platinum card or not?  They will trigger the statement credit when they see MASH appear on your statement.

The terms and conditions above do not suggest that this offer is targeted.  Based on the comments below, however, it seems that it may be.  It also seems from the comments below, however, that Amex can add it to your account if you ring and ask.

I intend to give this a go with a couple of Platinum-holding friends.  We will ask to split the bill (which we will ensure just nudges above £150!) three ways – I can’t see how the restaurant can refuse, as they would do this for anyone else.

It is also worth noting that MASH has a standalone bar.  I wouldn’t want to put money on it, but I am pretty sure that if you spent £50 in the bar then it would also trigger the £50 statement credit.

It is interesting to note that this is the third year running that American Express has run a ‘free steak’ promotion!  For the last two years it was in conjunction with the ‘Palm’ in Belgravia, where they ran the same offer.  We went along in 2012 and it was  …. ok.  Nothing wrong with the food, but knocking off the £50 credit simply brought the price down to what I would have considered reasonable in the first place.

If you were thinking of getting a Platinum card in the next couple of months, think of this offer as an additional £50 off your annual fee.  The offer appears to be open to any personal Platinum cardholder, with no registration required.


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 (81)

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

  • EmilioLargo says:

    Have eaten at MASH in Copenhagen. Highly recommended.

  • andy21 says:

    This offer is targetted. Just rang the concierge and they confirmed that it is NOT open to all Platinum card holders, just ones they have targetted based on a range of factors such as location, spend etc. I was not one of the chosen ones as I didn’t get the email relating to it (read about it on HfP, thanks), however the agent said that she could load it to the card for me. So if you haven’t been sent the email, don’t just go and pay and then expect the £50 credit, contact Amex to make sure it’s loaded to the card.

    • Fenny says:

      Thanks. I’ll ring tonight and get it added.

    • Jenni says:

      I’m surprised that they’re willing to add the offer on like that for people who aren’t targeted! Anyway, thanks for clarifying this.

    • Fenny says:

      I emailed this morning and got a reply saying they’re very sorry and there must have been a technical reason why I didn’t get the email and they have now added the offer to my card.

  • Christoph says:

    This is only for UK cards, isn’t it? So I guess no love for me with my Platinum card from Austria? Well, would have been great as I’m at least 3-4 times a month in London…

  • David Butcher says:

    This targetting really annoys me.

    I did not receive this offer either. My view is that I pay £450 a year for my card and my money is as good as anyone else’s. I believe strongly that we should all receive the same benefits and the same offers. I feel so strongly about this that it could well be the tipping point at some stage in a decision whether to keep the card or not. At present I’d be cutting off my nose to spite my face if I was to cancel but things like this leave a nasty taste in my mouth.

    • oyster says:

      You need to phone Amex and let them know your thoughts as well as us on here. That way, maybe they might take notice. Maybe.

      • Col A-B says:

        Or just use the submit a complaint function on their website – that’s what I’ll be doing.

        • Col A-B says:

          Just to update: I’ve had a reply to my complaint. They are applying a £50 goodwill credit to my account.

          Looks like it’s going to be worth contacting them if you’ve not been targeted.

          • Brendan says:

            No such luck for me!

            Dear Mr xxxxxxxx,

            Thank you for your email regarding promotional offers.

            I am sorry to learn that you believe you are being mistreated.

            Unfortunately, whilst I understand your frustration, American Express reserves the right to provide offers to different demographics. We are not obliged to provide all bonus offers to all of our Cardmembers. We are certainly not unfairly treating our Cardmembers that do not receive certain offers.

            Nevertheless, should you be aware of any offers in future please let me know and, although I am unable to guarantee, I will do my best to for you to take advantage.

            In the meantime, I confirm that you are opted in to receive offers from American Express.

            Kind regards.

            Yours sincerely,
            Sonny Scott
            UK Executive Taskforce

          • Rob says:

            I would go back to Scott and tell him that you know they have been adding this offer to the accounts of others who have called in and tell him you want it too, otherwise you will be cancelling your card.

          • David Butcher says:

            When he says “you believe you are being mistreated” he’s having a laugh.

            We don’t believe we are being mistreated. We KNOW we are being mistreated. We all pay £450. We all expect the same treatment.

            Why is that such a difficult concept for Amex to understand?

        • Fenny says:

          Isn’t there a way to email. Ringing is such a faff and snail mail will take too long, as I’m off to the Smoke on Monday.

          • Col A-B says:

            Yes – login to the website, click on contact us, click on send an email, then select the appropriate card, make a complaint (or similar) and detail your issue.
            That’s exactly what I did, had the reply within 24hours which is fine as I plan to be dining on Monday too!

          • Fenny says:

            Ta. All I could find was a list of what to do with a complaint and there was no email option.

          • Rob says:

            Tube strike from 9pm Monday by the way (plus Tue and Wed all day) – not a great day to be out late in a restaurant.

          • Fenny says:

            Bugger.

            Monday night we’re going up the Shard, but will want to be back to eat and watch GoT fairly early. But a strike on Tues will be a PITA. Does it include DLR?

          • Rob says:

            Don’t think so, rarely does

    • Susan says:

      Agree. It wouldn’t be so bad if they genuinely offered alternatives to e.g. those living outside the M25 but nada.

  • CapnJack says:

    FYI for any ICC platinum’s out there…
    —-
    Dear Mr ******,

    I trust you are well. Further to your website enquiry regarding the reservation at MASH. I have been able to secure you a table on the **th May at **:00 for 2 people. With regards to the credit, this is only available to our UK Platinum cardholders, it is not available to any other market.

    Should you have any further queries, then please do not hesitate to contact me +44 1273 576454.

    Kind regards,

    • CapnJack says:

      Clarification for ICC Plats:

      Dear Mr *****

      Thank you for this. Apologies, the request came through with your USD Platinum Card, if I can obtain your UK Platinum Card Number I can arrange the credit to be applied to that account, once you have dined at MASH.

      The offer is only available to our Cardmembers that are billed in £ sterling.

  • David Butcher says:

    This is the interesting response I got to my complaint to Amex – I see that they are now using the HFP blog to find out what their company is doing!!!

    Response 25/04/2014 09.06 AM
    Dear Mr Butcher,

    I am really sorry to learn about your disappointment. I have checked our records and see that the offer was not rolled out by American Express.

    I located the offer on the below website:
    https://headforpoints.com/2014/04/23/american-express-platinum-promotion-mash-restaurant/

    According to this you are eligible to receive a £50 statement credit when they spend £50 or more in one transaction at Mash London, 77 Brewer Street between 15th April 2014 to 15th June 2014. To redeem the offer you need to make a reservation by calling our Platinum Concierge Service on 0845 608 0845. You can redeem this offer only once and the spend must be billed to your Card account before 15th June 2014 to be eligible for the offer.

    Therefore, I request you to call our Platinum Concierge Service Team who will be able to give you further details regarding the same.

    I hope you find this information useful.

    • Col A-B says:

      Hahahaaaaaa!! That is so bad it’s hilarious! #AMEXfail

      • Alan says:

        Agreed – clearly time for Raffles to create some new extremely generous ‘offers’ that we can all refer Amex to 😉

    • Rob says:

      Lots of very senior people in this business read HFP, especially the credit card guys.

      There is also a VERY senior person in the Avios game who is on our Twitter feed via his personal account, but I still spotted him!

  • David Butcher says:

    Amex have clearly been reading this site because they have now come back to me admitting that it IS their offer and that if I contact Concierge they will enrol my card for it.

  • al says:

    I phoned. I was put on hold. I booked. Just got the text confirming the booking.

    • Alan says:

      I just booked via the MASH website – I couldn’t see any point in calling the Plat Concierge to do it and given the links in the email go through to the MASH website I couldn’t see them enforcing a need to actually book through Amex.

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

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.