Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Bits: did you win our IHG competition?, M&S off Gate 365, Amex / Harvey Nichols promo

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UPDATE – JULY 2025:  This is an old article, and the credit card information given is likely to be out of date.

To learn about current credit card bonuses, benefits, terms and interest rate information, take a look at our directory of the top UK travel credit card offers – please click HERE or use the ‘Credit Cards’ menu above.  Thank you.

Keep up to date with new UK credit card bonuses by signing up for our free daily or weekly newsletters.

News in brief:

Did you win our IHG Rewards Club competition?

Thank you to everyone who entered our IHG Rewards Club competition last week.  There was a fantastic response and IHG was very impressed by the level of interest.

The winner was Jean H.  Well done Jean.  I have the codes you need to add the 50,000 points to your IHG account and I will be emailing them to you later.

Don’t forget that the IHG Winter Sale continues until 7th February.

You can save up to 30% on stays at 600 InterContinental, Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express, Crowne Plaza and Hotel Indigo hotels across Europe.  The sale rates are valid for sale until 29th February 2016 and full details of the IHG Winter Sale can be found at this special website.

Marks & Spencer leaves Gate 365 and the Avios e-store

M&S is no longer available on the British Airways shopping portal, Gate 365, or the Avios e-store.  This means that you can no longer earn Avios points for starting your M&S shopping at one of those site.

Oddly, M&S is still available on TopCashback albeit with a minimum non-food spend of £100.  Remember that TopCashback is still offering a bonus of 500 Avios if you sign up this week.

Get £20 cashback when you spend £100 at Harvey Nichols

Finally, Harvey Nichols is offering £20 cashback on a £100 American Express spend.

You need to go into the ‘Offers’ tab of your online Amex statement to register, where it should hopefully be showing.  It is NOT on the cardmemberoffers.co.uk site yet so you cannot register via that route.

Lloyds, MBNA, TSB and Barclays Amex cardholders can register via the Amex Connect site.

The offer runs until 6th March and is restricted to the first 15,000 to sign up.

A less glamorous but more practical offer for ASK pizza restaurants is also available to most people!

PS. If you are not a regular Head for Points visitor, why not sign up for our FREE weekly or daily newsletters? They are full of the latest Avios, airline, hotel and credit card points news and will help you travel better. To join our 70,000 free subscribers, click the button below or visit this page of the site to find out more. Thank you.

earns points from credit cards

Want to earn more points from credit cards? – July 2025 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 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

Get 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.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 15th July 2025, the sign-up bonus on the Marriott Bonvoy American Express Card is TRIPLED to 60,000 Marriott Bonvoy points. This would convert into 25,000 Avios or into 40 other airline schemes. It would also get you at least £300 of Marriott hotel stays based on our 0.5p per point low-end valuation. Other T&C apply and remain unchanged. Click here for our full card review and click here to apply.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 14th August 2025, the sign-up bonus on the Hilton Honors Plus debit card is TRIPLED to 30,000 Hilton Honors points. You will also receive Gold Elite status in Hilton Honors for as long as you hold the card. Click here for our full card review and click here to apply.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold Credit Card

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

British Airways American Express Premium Plus Card

30,000 Avios and the famous annual Companion Voucher voucher Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

50,000 bonus points and great travel benefits – for a large 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:

The American Express Business Platinum Card

50,000 points when you sign-up and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

The American Express Business Gold Card

20,000 points sign-up bonus and FREE for a year Read our full review

Capital on Tap Pro Visa

10,500 points (=10,500 Avios) plus good benefits Read our full review

Capital on Tap Visa

NO annual fee, NO FX fees and points worth 0.8 Avios per £1 Read our full review

British Airways American Express Accelerating Business Card

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

Category

British Airways and Avios, IHG One Rewards

Comments (27)

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

  • Matt says:
    27 Jan27 January 05:28

    Any sign of the QR A380 F trip report? Or did I miss it?

    • Raffles says:
      27 Jan27 January 08:40

      Sorry ….. Still in process. I got massively backlogged over Christmas and tax and VAT returns are not helping! However, I need to do it in the next week or it will cross with my Turkish business class review flights!

      • Matt says:
        27 Jan27 January 09:08

        We await with eager expectation! Enjoy the Turkish lounge, it’s a great place.

  • Liz says:
    27 Jan27 January 07:23

    I had several thousand paid out then removed as I used the M&S 20% discount code !

  • Danksy says:
    27 Jan27 January 07:23

    Well done jean !

  • Tracy says:
    27 Jan27 January 07:29

    I’m sure most of you know this but you can now buy M&S giftcards in Tescos with 150 Tesco CC points per £50 so there is still a way to collect some Avios.

  • Geoggy says:
    27 Jan27 January 08:42

    Well done to the winner.

    (Ungrits teeth)

  • Peter K says:
    27 Jan27 January 10:46

    Well done Jean H. Thank you for the chance Rob and IHG !

  • Liz says:
    27 Jan27 January 19:57

    How long does the email normally take to come through – I am holding back my spend on this card as I want to be able to use it in Chicago on 21/8 – and is it still definitely only valid for 6 months? Is it dated from the day you trigger the £750 spend or from the date the certificate is actually issued?

    • Alan says:
      27 Jan27 January 21:49

      Hi Liz – the cert is valid for six months from when issued. I found it can take a few weeks after hitting the spend target before the voucher is triggered. I’ve churned this card a few times and found I also don’t always receive an email! If it’s been a few weeks you can call HHonors and see if they can see the certificate sitting in your account. If not there then worth contacting Barclaycard – you can try the phone or just email them at their Web relations address (wr at Barclaycard dot Co dot uk)

      • Liz says:
        27 Jan27 January 22:01

        Thanks Alan – don’t want to hit the spend too early – Sod’s law the certificate would come through early and I couldn’t use it on 21/8 !

        • Alan says:
          27 Jan27 January 22:16

          Haha yep – that would be VERY annoying! I’ve had to do the same with my Lloyds Avios card but almost left it too late as I’d left it in the drawer! Thank goodness for a last minute cancellable Expedia booking 😉

      • Liz says:
        27 Jan27 January 22:06

        I like your Route 66 logo – we are going to drive it next year – got all the travel books and maps – just got to start planning it – hoping to take 3-4 wks doing it plus a fair bit away from the road as well!

        • Alan says:
          27 Jan27 January 22:44

          Route 66 is fantastic, really enjoyed it. We only had about 10 days to do it which meant some long driving days, 3-4 weeks sounds fantastic. I did a bit of a Hilton run along the way (in a lot of small towns a Hampton Inn is a decent option anyway) and got plenty of points although learnt the hard way about the cut off times for changing points vs miles earning preferences!

          Feel free to drop Rob an email to forward on to me and I can send you our itinerary.

    • Rob says:
      27 Jan27 January 22:31

      They are batched, can be 2 weeks, can be 4 weeks. 6 months runs from the date of issue.

      Definitely hold back your spend, there is no point putting anything at risk.

  • Sohan says:
    27 Jan27 January 20:16

    OT but related to the Amex offers:

    My £50 rebate did not trigger as my 4 flights (total £400) was split by Amex Travel into 4 transactions!

    Did this happen to anyone else?…

    • harry says:
      27 Jan27 January 20:22

      That happens with BA. I think you have grounds for claiming the £50 as you just made 1 transaction & complied with the offer.

      A phone call should do it, honestly their Customer Services are excellent.

      They made good about £80 for me on Shop Small where they let me down.

    • Rob says:
      27 Jan27 January 22:30

      Email Amex, they will give you the credit.

      • Sohan says:
        28 Jan28 January 16:50

        Thanks Harry & Rob,

        You were right! They gave it to me straight away. Excellent customer service. No comparison with any other card provider.

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

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