Get double Avios – or other airline miles – with Preferred Hotels Group throughout 2015

Preferred Hotels Group is not a hotel chain.  It is, effectively, a marketing consortium made up of a number of independent hotels from around the world.

Whilst it is one of the British Airways Executive Club hotel partners, I have never covered it before.  I thought it was time to correct that.

There are over 650 hotels represented from 85 countries.  The three brands used are ‘Preferred’, ‘Sterling’ and ‘Summit’ although almost all of the hotels trade under their historic names.  The phrase ‘A member of Preferred Hotels / Sterling Hotels / Summit Hotels’ is usually tacked on the end.  Confusingly, some of the hotels are also members of other loyalty schemes!

In London, for example, the group is represented by ME London (also part of Melia Rewards), The Bentley, The Stafford, The Lanesborough (currently closed, was also part of SPG), Lancaster London, The Beaumont, The Mandeville and The Draycott Hotel amongst others.

Preferred Hotels has its own reward scheme called iPrefer.  You can see full details here.  The good news is that you can double-dip by taking both iPrefer points and Avios or other airline miles.

iPrefer is basically a cashback scheme.  For every $1 you spend, exclusive of tax, you earn 1 point.  For every 2,500 points you earn, you receive a $50 gift certificate.

There are two problems here:

You need to spend $2,500 post-tax before you receive anything back

You can only use the vouchers against another stay at a Preferred Hotels Group property.  Hotels may accept the vouchers against meals or spa treatments if you are not a guest but this is purely at their discretion.

Even though the benefits are pretty feeble, you might as well join for two reasons:

All iPrefer members receive free internet just for signing up

You can, as I mentioned above, double-dip with earning miles so you are not sacrificing anything

Earning Avios with Preferred Hotels

You earn Avios points simply by handing over your British Airways Executive Club card at check in.  The standard rate is 500 Avios per stay.

Until 31 March 2016, Preferred is offering double Avios points.  That means 1,000 points per stay.

You need to stay for at least two nights to receive double Avios.  A number of hotels are also not participating.  Further details can be found on the Preferred Hotels site – click on ‘Miles & Points’ and scroll down to ‘Double Miles’.

I am currently updating my master list of all hotel brands which offer Avios points and will publish it soon.

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How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (April 2024)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous 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:

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital on Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios.

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.

You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus.

There are also generous bonuses on the two American Express Business cards, with the points converting at 1:1 into Avios. These cards are open to sole traders as well as limited companies.

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.