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Bits: new American Express cashback deals, how HfP helped Paul see South America

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News in brief:

New American Express statement credit deals launched

A new wave of Amex cashback offers launched yesterday.

Some, all or none of these will be available for registration under the ‘Offers’ tab of your online statement.  Unfortunately, if they are not showing, you cannot register for them on the cardmemberoffers.co.uk website.

These offers do appear on the Amex Connect site where you can register MBNA, Lloyds or Barclays-issued American Express cards.

The three new offers are:

Argos – £10 back on a £100 purchase, expires 10th January, 14000 registrations allowed

Eurostar – £20 back on a £100 purchase, expires 10th January, 14000 registrations allowed

World Duty Free – £10 back on a £70 purchase, expires 10th January, 10500 registrations allowed

These deals were added a week or so ago.  They are not on the Amex Connect site:

Costco – £10 back on a £100 purchase, expires 31st December, 10000 registrations allowed

Paul Smith – £65 back on a £350 purchase, expires 21st December, no limit on registrations but only valid in Paul Smith own-brand stores excluding factory outlets (Heathrow seem OK)

The World Duty Free offer is especially valuable as it will double-up with any £5 off coupon you may have been sent, as long as your spend after discounts is still £70 or more.  It would also tie in with the ‘3000 Avios for spending £100 at Heathrow’ offer being run by Heathrow Rewards at the moment.

The Argos deal would be triggered by gift card purchases, although for just £10 back it probably isn’t worth the bother unless you are walking past a quiet store.

How Head for Points helped Paul in South America

Reader Paul dropped me a line over the weekend after a successful two week trip which saw him visit Argentina, Chile, Brazil and Uruguay.  He listed out everything that he had done which he had learned from reading Head for Points:

Flights:

  • Booked a low tax Iberia Avios redemption from Madrid to Santiago
  • Booked a low tax (as no fuel surcharges from Brazil) Avios redemption on BA from São Paulo to Heathrow
  • Booked a low tax LAN Avios redemption for an internal Brazil flight
  • Used an American Express £50 travel statement credit against another internal flight
  • Got a status match from Cathay Pacific (which he got for free from Amex Platinum) to Qantas Gold to allow him to continue to access oneworld benefits

Hotels:

  • Used Hilton points to book a hotel in Madrid, with an upgrade because of the status he gained from spending on the Hilton credit card
  • Booked the Pullman hotel in São Paulo during a sale featured on HfP, and gained extra benefits via his Accor Platinum status which came free with Amex Platinum

Other:

  • Used Azimo to transfer money to himself in Argentina at close to the dollar blue rate, rather than the artificial official rate

New Head for Points readers may not recognise some of the deals above, such as free Cathay status with Amex Platinum (now stopped).  However, I hope it gives a good impression of what can be achieved using the ideas and offers I highlight.

Comments (116)

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

  • Simon says:

    I’ve also got

    Pizza Express – Spend £30 or more, get £10 back
    Post Office – Spend £10 or more, get £5 back

    • Brian says:

      I got the post office on all my cards but not the Pizza Express

      Got a random £50 off £250 at Hilton on one card.

      • Mike says:

        Is that Hilton credit offer just recent ? I know it was on a few weeks ago but I missed it

        • Brian says:

          Hi, this is a recent one. Expires 31st Jan. Only on one card. I got the other one a couple months back on a different card.

      • Jim says:

        Is the Hilton offer likely to show on the cardmemberoffers site? It’s not appeared on my Amex cards and I have 3 hilton rooms booked towards the end of December.

        • Brian says:

          I’m sure if it will appear on the site. We have seven Amex (main & supp) and last time it only appeared on one (Gold main) and this time it has randomly appeared on a different one (BA main).

          Hilton
          Spend £250 or more, get £50 back
          Save to Card to get a £50 statement credit on a transaction of £250+ on all spend at checkout, when paying and staying at participating Hilton Hotels by 31/01/16. Valid once for the first 10K Cardmembers to save. Terms apply

          • Brian says:

            Sorry that should have said I’m *not* sure if it will appear on the site.

    • Andy says:

      I have £5 back for 10 spend at the post office on both my cards.

      For Pizza Express however I have £10 back for £30 spend on my BA Amex but £10 back for £40 on my plat.

  • Louise says:

    Also got £50 off £250 at Davys Wine

  • harry says:

    I’ve got Post Office as well, it wasn’t there last night

  • harry says:

    Don’t forget you can buy the £10 Post Office giftcard, eg credit to Amazon .

    Worth noting that supps with online login set up are also getting the full range of offers these days, so worth setting your supps up if you haven’t done so already.

    • mark2 says:

      Thanks Harry; do you mean create a new login for the sup cards please?

      • TimS says:

        Yes, create a new login for the Supp cardholder and they should get their own version of most (if not all) offers.

    • Gavin says:

      Post Office ‘one for all gift cards’ could be stackable with the Pizza Express offer, e.g. £50 bill, pay £30 on Amex, £20 with 2 separate gift cards.

      Total outlay £30 for a £50 meal

      • Brian says:

        Even better would be to make sure you use tastecard or some similar offer!

        • Gavin says:

          Actually detailed ts and cs seem to exclude gift cards but no harm in trying and the gift cards can at least be used easily

  • Alex says:

    The Costco £10 off £100 is online only and not in store

  • Danksy says:

    O/T but he Hyatt platinum status match worked when I used IHG spire elite! 😀

    • Waribai says:

      Contain yourself. Platinum won’t get you much. Diamond’s where it’s at….

      • Danksy says:

        Oh yes… silly me 🙁 that will teach me to get over excited!

        • James67 says:

          They were giving out diamond first few days then seemed to backpedal on it.

    • James67 says:

      Hi Danksey, I recall you asking to let you know if virgin-ihg for spire still works. It did two weeks ago but note my transfer took 12 days, not the one week usually reported.

  • Neil says:

    Am guessing that you can’t use the Post Office one for purchse of stamps?

    • harry says:

      Stamps are fine. PO counter services work but the giftcard is most flexible if you don’t need the stamps etc

    • Nori says:

      Yes you can. I bought some stamps earlier this year and paid by Amex.

  • Dominic says:

    I don’t have the Eurostar on my BA Amex.

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

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