Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Jumeirah Sirius returns as an American Express International Dollar Card partner

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

This is probably of interest to only around 10 HfP readers, but those 10 people will be very happy.

Jumeirah, the Dubai-based luxury hotel group, was a UK Amex Membership Rewards hotel partner for a short period.  When that deal ended, it remained a partner with the International Dollar Card (click here for why anyone with a very large pile of Amex points should have one of these).

When the Jumeirah loyalty scheme, Sirius, was relaunched this Summer, the conversion option went away.  It is now back, at 4 IDC Membership Rewards points to 1 Jumeirah Sirius point.  This is a little worse than the old ratio (20:1) adjusted for the 7-ish to 1 revaluation of the scheme.

If you have been to Dubai at peak holiday periods, you will know that beach-front hotel prices are eye watering.  Here is an example using Sirius points:

Cost of an Arabian Summer House room at Dar Al Masyaf at Madinat Jumeirah next week including tax:  £913 per night (welcome to super-luxury beach-front Dubai during UK school holidays ….)

Cost in Sirius points:  11,800 points per night

International Dollar Card Amex points required:  (11,800 x 4 =) 47,200 points per night

UK Amex points required, assuming you transfer them to the International Dollar Card on a day when the exchange rate is $1.53:  30,849 points per night

Value per UK Membership Rewards point:  2.95p

You can’t beat that.  You won’t always get such good value out of Jumeirah Sirius, but it is certainly worth a look if you heading for somewhere where they have a property.  The overall quality of their hotels is high – see my review of Etihad Towers in Abu Dhabi – although the Burj Al Arab in Dubai is very much an acquired taste …..

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 Membership Rewards

Comments (68)

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

  • Bart Lapers says:
    24 Oct24 October 05:03

    Some daytime pics of the Qatar Airways First Class lounge on my blog http://travel.bart.la/2015/10/23/qatar-airways-first-class-lounge-doha-al-safwa-pictures/

    • Rob says:
      24 Oct24 October 08:18

      Saw those last night, looked good!

    • harry says:
      24 Oct24 October 19:15

      Same colour scheme as Travelodge.

      Fine for connections. Don’t go there as a destination (I worked there for 6 months) – horrible in every respect.

      Think awful, & it’s worse.

  • Adam says:
    24 Oct24 October 05:53

    Is it standard Oneworld access rules for the QR F Lounge? BA moving the goal posts somewhat with the recent Concorde trend, and hoping QR not following suit…

    • Rob says:
      24 Oct24 October 08:17

      Rules not yet clear. I imagine it will be like the Concorde Room for F passengers only. They may not even allow BA F in. We will see.

      • M says:
        24 Oct24 October 10:32

        Yes, QR’s F only.

        • Russell Evans says:
          24 Oct24 October 19:05

          https://www.oneworld.com/ffp/lounge-access/-/loungeaccess/DOH

          OW Website is contrary to this. Says “Qatar Airways Al Safwa Lounge opened on 22nd October 2015. This lounge is only available to customers traveling in First Class on Qatar Airways or other oneworld member flights. Guests are not permitted.”

          • Rob says:
            24 Oct24 October 21:00

            In that case, can I recommend you …

            British Airways, First Class, Doha to Bahrain, 15500 Avios (off-peak) + £27.50 one-way!

            Will be interesting to see if Qatar let regional passengers use it. They sell flights as First (18,000 Avios one-way) and Economy (4,500 Avios one-way) around the region. I am doing Abu Dhabi to Doha in December in F.

          • Russell Evans says:
            24 Oct24 October 21:14

            I have DOH to LHR (via BAH) in F with BA at the end of November. Will be making an effort to try this lounge out

  • Leo says:
    24 Oct24 October 09:06

    Is it just me or does it look a bit ho-hum? Call me jaded….or just expectations raised too high with the waiting.

  • George says:
    24 Oct24 October 09:24

    I wonder if the new lounge will allow access to regional First passengers?

  • Brian says:
    24 Oct24 October 09:49

    Don’t forget that you are only actually getting 2.95p per point IF you would be prepared to pay 913 GBP per night for the room. Surely only crazy people would be and surely there are no crazy people on HfP…

    • Rob says:
      24 Oct24 October 11:06

      This is the irony of the hobby though! If you usually stay in five star hotels or fly First / Business then your miles are worth more, because using them for such things is a genuine cash saving.

      • Brian says:
        24 Oct24 October 11:40

        True – but you’d still have to be somebody who stays at particular hotels and flies particular airlines, regardless of cost. Most of us on here tend to take advantage of special offers and deals that bring the cash price right down, like ex-EU flights. Anybody who would be happy to spend 913GBP per room per night at a hotel would be very unlikely to go to the hassle of flying to Copenhagen or Dublin to save 500-1000 pounds on a business class flight.

        • Tom C says:
          24 Oct24 October 14:00

          I’ve had this discussion on FlyerTalk before and I just don’t agree with you, as I fall into the exact category of who you’re talking about. My next trip is in 3 weeks time to Miami in paid F on BA, which I’m going via Dublin as it was nearly 50% cheaper than directly from LHR. I’m then staying in a £800/n room whilst in Miami. Just because I can afford £1000/n+ on a hotel room doesn’t mean I don’t want to get get the best deal available. Besides, I still have a holiday budget and the more I save in one area means the more I can spend in another, or the more nights away I can spend at better hotels.

          • Brian says:
            24 Oct24 October 14:11

            Good for you, Tom, but I think you are very much in the minority on HfP – not that it matters one way or the other, really! :))

          • Callum says:
            24 Oct24 October 15:53

            If you think there is a significant number of people in this category then quite frankly you’re deluded!

          • Rob says:
            24 Oct24 October 17:34

            Not significant, but a substantially higher percentage compared to the general population, which was the point.

            You need to remember that, to someone on the average £25k salaey and about to lose £2,000 of tax credits, pretty much everything on HFP would be seen as irrelevant.

          • Tom C says:
            24 Oct24 October 17:37

            I never said there was a significant amount of people in this category. I’m saying that people whom Brian describe do exist, as I’m one of them. A lot of people seem to think that when you earn a high income that suddenly everything is affordable.

  • whiskerxx says:
    24 Oct24 October 09:51

    You would have to be barking mad or have more money than sense to pay £913 per night for an Arabian Summer House room at Dar Al Masyaf at Madinat Jumeirah at any time of year!!

    • Werner says:
      24 Oct24 October 09:54

      You would have to be barking mad and/or have more money than sense to pay £913 per night for any room anywhere in the world! But particularly in Dubai…

      • Rob says:
        24 Oct24 October 11:04

        Get some kids, try finding a good October half term holiday and then come back to me.

        If you’re on £500k+ household income it is not a massive strain. I would say that about half of the HFP readers I meet fall into this category, although this is a self selecting group as I gravitate around the City or Mayfair ….

        • Erico1875 says:
          24 Oct24 October 11:17

          A lot of the Gold Crown timeshare apartments featured on Apartments4you on Costa del Sol or Canaries come in around 100 a night, many far less. Every bit as good as a 5 star hotel.You can get discount thru Tesco CC boost too.

          • Erico1875 says:
            24 Oct24 October 19:11

            Thanks. Very interesting.. Resortcerts.com are using the same search engine as Apartments4you so it will be interesting to find out the difference in cost between them both..
            Remember you can convert Tesco CCpoints @ £30 = £100 voucher

          • xcalx says:
            25 Oct25 October 10:35

            Just looked at the apartments4you site and noticed that the prices are way higher than using a resort cert, the certs cost £182 for a week I checked two hotels for the same room type and date, the cert costing £182 was £303 cheaper for one hotel and £163 for the other.

        • Brian says:
          24 Oct24 October 11:36

          I agree that it may not be a ‘massive strain’ if you’re earning 500K or more. But if you’ve got two kids and so need two rooms at a total of 1826GBP per night, you’re looking at about 10,000 pounds for 5 nights. Add on the business class flights, food, taxis etc and you’re spending 20-25K for a 5 night holiday in Dubai. That’s a year’s school fees at a good private school. Somebody earning 500K is paying half of that back in taxes and probably has an expensive house and car. Would they really want to spend 25,000 pounds in cash for their 5-night holiday in Dubai? Somehow, I doubt it.

          Clearly, you are in a special position because you can use the points, so the ‘real’ cost for you is much lower. Most people would, I suspect, prefer to get a room costing a fraction of that, but still a very good one at a very good hotel. Obviously, if you are earning millions, then it is a different matter.

        • Leo says:
          24 Oct24 October 12:03

          Jesus you can go off someone you know!…..

        • harry says:
          24 Oct24 October 18:31

          Bit of an exaggeration there, Raffles – though the point is sound.

          There are also some (like myself) who left the top echelons of the FTSE100 world for various reasons – lots of us happily – and understand the various luxuries etc of lounges, status, club/ first through experience.

          Nice to get it back for peanuts & a hobby.

    • xcalx says:
      24 Oct24 October 10:46

      Or have millions of airline miles, a rather large Amex balance and a conveyor belt of people looking for a referral for the Plat card.
      At 18,000 Amex per referral that’s less than 2 referrals a night for the £913 room makes it look a lot cheaper and better value than some other non airmile routes.
      I could see our esteemed leader consider this as an option and if so good on you Raffles you deserve it.

      • Rob says:
        24 Oct24 October 10:56

        I would bet that this site has a higher percentage of Amex Centurion cardholders / £500k+ readers than almost any other UK site.

        • Leo says:
          24 Oct24 October 12:04

          Are they the same ones collecting Tesco Club Card points?

          • Brian says:
            24 Oct24 October 13:08

            Yep – on their way home from their 500K-a-year jobs, they would take a detour for the local Tesco and buy a load of okra for the bonus points, plus 3V cards in the good old days. Then sit at home activating said cards and using them to prepay their electricity bills.

            Or not, as the case may be – if you earn enough money, your time is far too valuable to waste on such a relatively low return.

      • Brian says:
        24 Oct24 October 10:58

        That’s a good point and clearly Raffles is in an exalted position here – and bully for him. I do think that it needs to be stressed, however, that you are only getting a particular value per point if you are happy to spend the cash.

        • Erico1875 says:
          24 Oct24 October 12:32

          I think there is more value getting flights/hotels etc that I otherwise couldn’t afford

          • xcalx says:
            24 Oct24 October 12:54

            I would say that’s the case for most of us on here.

          • Brian says:
            24 Oct24 October 13:05

            That’s the point – and that’s what the value of sites like this are for – not saving us money that we would have spent anyway, but getting us experiences that we wouldn’t otherwise have wanted to pay the going rate for.

          • Waribai says:
            24 Oct24 October 16:55

            That’s definitely the case for me. Our household income is way above the national average but doesn’t reach six figures. However, thanks to HFP we always fly business and can stay at 5* hotels. I thought that was the majority of people here. Maybe not?!

          • Rob says:
            24 Oct24 October 17:28

            Majority, definitely – never suggested otherwise!

  • Liz says:
    24 Oct24 October 12:23

    OT: Is there anywhere to find out quickly which flights leave from which terminals at different airports. Our flights back from Houston next year don’t show the terminal on the ticket. Trying to work out if their lounge is covered under Lounge Club – probably not knowing our luck!

  • oyster says:
    24 Oct24 October 13:38

    Not convinced that there’s many £500k plus households here. When you’re earning £500 per hour for your day job, you’re not going to spend hours queueing at the Tesco tills with your till spit to get a few pounds worth of points and then spend more hours cashing the giftcards in!
    And never forget those of us who only earn a fifth of that are still in the top 1% in a country which is in the top 1%.

    • Tom C says:
      24 Oct24 October 14:13

      It is not compulsory to read every single article and follow all of the advice on it.

      • Rob says:
        24 Oct24 October 14:31

        15,000 people read HfP daily, either by visiting the site or getting the emails. Probably 50 people provide the bulk of the comments – it is not representative,

        I can search the 4,500+ name email list easily and I know how many Goldman Sachs etc names are on it. It is a lot. People working 15 hours per day in the City don’t have much free time to comment though! They are running up the air miles and come here for advice on how to use them.

        The other thing to remember is that City boys like a game, like a challenge, like to show how cunning they are. This game suits them.

        • oyster says:
          24 Oct24 October 15:48

          We all love the game!

          • Janeyferr says:
            24 Oct24 October 22:02

            I earn under £16k and pointsing is now my main hobby; I’ve done no cross stitch since discovering this blog.

          • CV3V says:
            24 Oct24 October 22:41

            and my attendance at the gym has dropped off ever since getting into points collecting!

        • GaryC says:
          24 Oct24 October 17:41

          I agree with the “city boys like a challenge” piece, and fall into that camp myself…points collection is definitely a game to me.

          I don’t work at Goldman’s but you need to be pretty senior even there to be bringing in over £500k – MD level I think whose hallowed ranks they only admit to every other year, though it’s a while since I spoke to anyone I know there about comp.

          And even in the ranks of city people earning £500k I don’t know any who would drop £1000/night on a hotel for a half term break. Maybe it’s the ~40 year old demographic I know, but people often have houses, school fees to pay etc.

        • harry says:
          24 Oct24 October 18:24

          Indeed.

        • Brian says:
          25 Oct25 October 00:28

          I’m struggling to understand where the challenge lies. Once you know about excellent sites like this with all the tips and deals they publish, it’s pretty easy – you just read them and follow whatever advice is valid for you. No challenge there! Fun and rewarding, though!

    • Volker says:
      24 Oct24 October 14:35

      So much guessing going on here. Rob, maybe you should get a market research company involved. Their anonymous survey among us all would give you and soon after, all of us a fantastic picture of the HFP community, their financial situation, CC collection, travel preferences etc.
      I have not (yet) reached an annual income of 500k+ but thanks to HFP I sit in the same chairs like high-level earners on the plane, in the lounges and luxury hotels. Being a bit smart and of course well informed can get you some perks usually only a considerable amount of money can buy. I find this very satisfying.

    • Zoe says:
      24 Oct24 October 15:34

      My household income is above the top 1% but well below the 500k mark. Head for Points allows us to pay less than economy prices and mostly travel business class. There is not a chance we would have paid real money for business class tickets for the 4 of us to KL to get us to Vietnam this summer. In our house I tell my husband which credit card he needs to apply for / use this month, he sees this as a hobby for me which upgrades all our travel experiences.
      Slightly OT I have a daughter who will be doing a year abroad at an American college starting next August, its really painful not being able to book any travel as I don’t know exactly where she will be or when it will start. I’ve got used to booking stuff 355 days out so this feels all wrong.
      I have always been happy to ask Raffles for credit card referrals as needed, even before this site as he was really helpful on Paidtoshop.

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!