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Get 30% to 50% off some avios.com ‘non flight’ redemptions

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News in brief:

Hilton status matches working OK

I wrote about Hilton HHonors offering to match your status in another existing hotel programme last week.

The good news is that Hilton is now processing the matches successfully.  I sent in a screenshot of my IHG Spire Elite status and my account was upgrading to Diamond.  This is the first time that I have ever had top tier Hilton status, albeit that the extra benefits over Gold are not huge.

The main one, apart from better upgrades, is guaranteed club lounge access.  Click here to see Hilton status benefits in full.

I also sent over my wife’s Accor Platinum status.  This account shows no stay activity.  She got a slightly bizarre response that said a) she could have a match if she verified the telephone number on her account (?) and then said b) she can’t have a match but if she sent a statement showing stay activity with a competitor she would get a ‘fast track’ offer.  I have no interest in a Fast Track challenge for her – I may well wait until nearer the 11th January deadline for matches and simply re-apply.

Hyatt, on the other hand, has had an about-turn on its own status match.  After offering Diamond to anyone who showed top tier status with a competitor, they are now restricting it to SPG Platinum members only.  Everyone else will only receive Hyatt Platinum which only requires five stays to earn anyway – the list of Hyatt Platinum benefits is here.

Hyatt hasn’t even processed this for me yet, despite sending me an acknowledgement of receiving my match request.  This will cost them some business as I would have moved my upcoming Istanbul trip to the Park Hyatt if I had been able to use a guaranteed Diamond suite upgrade.

Get 30% to 50% off some avios.com ‘non flight’ redemptions

If you move your Avios points from British Airways Executive Club to avios.com, using ‘Combine My Avios‘, you can advantage of some interesting non-flight bargains.

Full details are here.

There are some wine selections reduced by 30%, quite a few ‘experience’ or ‘pampering day’ vouchers and a few annual memberships.  These include the RHS, English Heritage, Tastecard, the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust and the National Trust for Scotland.

The biggest discounts are on spa days, helicopter rides, indoor karting, indoor skydiving and supercar driving, all reduced by roughly 50%.

These offers run to 14th December.

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

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:

Barclaycard Avios Plus card

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Barclaycard Avios card

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

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

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British Airways American Express

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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.

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

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.

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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.

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

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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.

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

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

Category

Hilton Honors

Comments (97)

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

  • Sandgrounder says:
    6 Dec6 December 04:53

    My advice for anyone else with status but little or no activity would be not to send evidence of no activity! I snapped my lightly used (two stays 5 nights) Spire membership card on my mobile phone camera and sent that across, I am now Diamond.

    • Susan says:
      6 Dec6 December 06:32

      Received same fast track offer following submission of accord platinum. Will just wait until Amex HH gold is available.

      • Susan says:
        6 Dec6 December 06:33

        Ruddy auto-correct. Accor!

      • xcalx says:
        6 Dec6 December 11:04

        Raffles wife, mrs xcalx and screen name Susan all offered the Fast Track challenge. Is there a pattern here. Just a thought.

      • Brendan says:
        7 Dec7 December 00:16

        Also received the potential fast track offer with submission of Accor Plat and BW Diamond. Disappointing! Will try again in January as Rob suggests.

      • Elucity says:
        11 Dec11 December 10:21

        I sent in my unused Accor plat and was also requested to send in my statement to “fast-track”. However a bit of a push email and they folded like a deck chair. Now have the Diamond. Worth giving it a shot now while it’s fresh as giving up status costs them nothing, but gets you in the door.

    • Nick says:
      6 Dec6 December 07:52

      Hi Soundgrounder, what hilton status were you already?

      • Sandgrounder says:
        6 Dec6 December 09:00

        I was a Silver, earned though not through the CC. Not too many stays this year.

      • Boi says:
        6 Dec6 December 09:02

        I also got matched to diamond. I sent my accor platinum card-I had no activity on Accor but they don’t know that. I was hilton silver through their credit card

    • Colin J says:
      6 Dec6 December 09:32

      I also cropped my screenshot just above the stay activity on my IHG Spire Elite membership page, as it was earned with the credit card bonus and a Virgin points transfer (thanks for the tip Raffles). Very surprised and delighted yesterday to receive a Hilton platinum upgrade from current Gold to March 2017!
      My first email received an auto reply asking for screenshots in JPEG, Word or PDF format. So I sent a new screenshot using JPEG, cropped as if the stay activity was off the bottom of the screen.
      I noticed that they also say they accept scans of a membership card.
      Even if you’ve been rejected once it might be worth another try. Who knows if they keep any records of rejections?!

  • Chris L says:
    6 Dec6 December 06:54

    I was slightly surprised that the Hilton status match worked. I sent in my Accor Platinum with a recent stay showing and have received Diamond. Pretty happy with that!

    • BeThatGuy says:
      7 Dec7 December 15:15

      Hmm, I did the same and only got Gold, I’ve emailed back and asked them to reconsider and change that to Diamond (on the basis of 10+ years as an Accor Plat) so we shall see…

  • TimS says:
    6 Dec6 December 06:54

    I got status match to Hilton Diamond from Best Western Diamond, even though I’ve had zero stays at BW.

    I just sent a screenshot of my BW member webpage but cropped to avoid showing the 0 points.

  • Globetrotter7 says:
    6 Dec6 December 07:59

    I was sent an email asking me to verify my phone number. I’m waiting to see if they’ll do next. Hopefully I’ll get a mach too

  • Kevin says:
    6 Dec6 December 08:07

    Anybody care to share what the fast track offer was? I am currently Hilton Gold but nothing in any other programme. Know I won’t get a status match but if I can get them to offer fast track might be worth a try as have already got 8 stays lined up over next three months. Thanks

    • Scott says:
      6 Dec6 December 08:59

      Its usually 21 nights in 90 days

      • Kevin says:
        6 Dec6 December 10:22

        Thanks. Have 8 nights at present, with prospect of another 5 , so going to fall some way short of 21 within the 90 days.

  • Danksy says:
    6 Dec6 December 08:24

    I just got matched from spire elite to HHdiamond … I’ve been gold for about 8years now. BTW There is some risk that status matches only work once in a lifetime!

    Gutted about Hyatt diamond, that would have been great for me next year, they only matched my spire elite to platinum.

  • Flyoff says:
    6 Dec6 December 08:27

    My wife and I both got rejected sending in Amex Plat saying are hadn’t sent in the request red info, which was untrue. Not a lot of thought had been put in the response as I am already Hilton gold, through to 2017, and Hilton said I couldn’t have gold either without a status challenge if I sent in my stay history from another hotel chain.

  • Christian says:
    6 Dec6 December 08:34

    Ive got Accor platinum from Amex and IHG platinum, from the credit card. I am also Hilton gold already, which I got from a credit card too. I only stayed there a couple of times.

    I will be IHG Spire at the end of December, when this months credit card points are applied to my account.

    Do you think I should send in an application with my Accor platinum and IHG platinum now? Or wait until end of Dec, early Jan when I am Spire Elite? I would be gutted if the offer got pulled in that time!

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

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