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Bits: £20 Pizza Express Amex cashback, more uses for Avios as Alaska buys Virgin America

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News in brief:

Get £20 Pizza Express cashback with Amex cards

A few new American Express cashback deals have appeared – you can see what you have been targetted for by going to your online statement page for each card and clicking the ‘Offers’ tag.

The most useful one is £20 cashback on a £50 Pizza Express spend.  This is valid until the end of June, but you only get the cashback once per card.

It doesn’t even matter if you aren’t targetted for it.  This particular offer has crossed over to the Amex ‘cardmember offers’ website.  You can register any Amex-issued personal Amex card there irrespective of whether it shows on your statement page.

If you have a Lloyds, MBNA or Barclays Amex-branded card, you can register at the Amex Connect website.

Alaska.4330.GH.tif

BA partner Alaska Airlines buys Virgin America

Alaska Airlines announced yesterday that it is buying Virgin America, the US regional airline which operates primarily on the West Coast.

I reviewed Virgin America in late 2014 and was impressed.  Even their safety videos were a substantial improvement on the usual turgid fare.

Alaska Airlines is a partner with British Airways Executive Club.  I wrote in this article how you can use your Avios points to redeem for their flights.

It is not yet fully clear what will happen to the Virgin America brand but Alaska is hinting that it will disappear, even if some elements of the Virgin service and approach live on.  The Elevate loyalty scheme seems likely to go, to be replaced by Mileage Plan.

Once the airline is fully integrated, which is likely to take two years because of the regulatory approvals needed, you should be able to redeem Avios for ex-Virgin America routes.  Until then, you will still be able to redeem Virgin Atlantic Flying Club miles for Virgin America flights.

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How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (April 2025)

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

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

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

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

30,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending £15,000 Read our full review

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.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on the ‘free for a year’ American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card is increased from 20,000 Membership Rewards points to 30,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (30,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on American Express Platinum is increased from 50,000 Membership Rewards points to a huge 80,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (80,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 30,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

80,000 bonus points and great travel benefits – for a large 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, and the standard card is FREE. Capital on Tap cards also have no FX fees.

Capital on Tap Visa

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

Capital on Tap Pro Visa

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

There is also a British Airways American Express card for small businesses:

British Airways American Express Accelerating Business

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

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

50,000 points when you sign-up 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

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

Category

American Express Gold card, American Express Platinum card, British Airways American Express, British Airways and Avios, Marriott Bonvoy American Express, Virgin Atlantic and Flying Club

Comments (76)

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

  • Peaceful Waters says:
    5 Apr5 April 06:10

    Now to find a way to spend over £50 at Pizza Express, after utilising my son’s 40% student discount.

    Won’t be easy!

  • Daniel says:
    5 Apr5 April 06:54

    Or TasteCard deal..

  • James says:
    5 Apr5 April 07:23

    Interesting as Alaska is ‘proudly all Boeing’ and VX is 100% airbus.

    • RIccati says:
      5 Apr5 April 16:40

      I actually would like to comment about Alaska taking over Virgin America —

      This is what airlines do these days, optimise yields, employ algos attempting to sell the commuter flight commodity for as much as possible, get every penny of revenue and then… spend it all at killing (strike that) ‘acquiring’ the competition.

      The shareholders of Virgin America are the winners, but not sure if customers will benefit from transferring the routes and planes to AlaskaAir.

  • Alan says:
    5 Apr5 April 08:24

    £20 off first UK Uber ride for new customers, code AMEX2016 (listed in offers on my Plat)

  • Adam M says:
    5 Apr5 April 08:43

    Is it me or is that the weirdest looking plane?

    • Susan says:
      5 Apr5 April 10:31

      Agreed. Someone’s been mixing gin and photoshop again.

      • Frenske says:
        5 Apr5 April 11:55

        More like mixing absinthe and photoshop!

        • Fenny says:
          5 Apr5 April 21:40

          Ooooh, thanks for reminding me. Someone gave me some absinthe the other day in a cocktail kit. Must check it out.

    • Mark says:
      5 Apr5 April 15:29

      Yes, it’s the new Airbus Boeing hybrid!

  • Brian says:
    5 Apr5 April 08:44

    The Pizza Express deal is also on the AMEX Connect page for those with non-Amex-issued cards.

  • Jonathan says:
    5 Apr5 April 08:49

    Why are the amex offers so poor ?

    there used to be decent offers on mainstream shops or large discounts, now it seems to be token discounts on very niche retailers

    • Rob says:
      5 Apr5 April 08:56

      You get a feeling that the big retailers who were interested gave it a go and decided the cost / benefit analysis was not worth it.

      I am, however, surprised that they are bothering to target some of the incredibly niche businesses that I now see on there which, with the best will in the world, will be redeemed by a handful of people at best.

      • The_Real_A says:
        5 Apr5 April 09:22

        Its not particularly helped that the only way we find out about new offers is to read it in the comments here. At least with Nationwide i receive a mail listing the new offers as they launch.

        • Raymond Hennessy says:
          5 Apr5 April 17:04

          I get the occasional e-mail from Amex about the offers, not regularly though.

    • Frenske says:
      5 Apr5 April 09:20

      Well not surprising. I got a £75 discount on a £169 espresso machine at Argos when they were doing £25 when spend £50. Argos nor AmEx did not make any single profit on that sale.

      In the case of Pizza Express the profit margins are much higher so they might still make a little profit on it. They are of course banking on the fact that bill might end up much higher than £50 (people tend to spend more when they get a discount). Most of the current AmEx offers are for shops with high margings e.g. what are true costs of making a piece of cothing.

    • Andrew says:
      5 Apr5 April 09:33

      That should be obvious. The early offers were tantamount to giving money away (spend £50, get £50 back). Great for us, not so great for Amex and the retailer.

    • Sussex Bantam says:
      5 Apr5 April 10:31

      I’ve made a small fortune out of booking airport parking through the recent Holiday Extras offer !

      • Kipto says:
        5 Apr5 April 20:42

        I found the parking prices at holiday extras more expensive than rivals even with the Amex discount. I found http://www.moneysavingexpert.com by far the cheapest

        • Wally1976 says:
          6 Apr6 April 09:18

          You could combine the MSE prices with the Amex discount. I did this myself. Not sure how Sussex Bantam made a small fortune though!

  • Joe says:
    5 Apr5 April 09:14

    Does anyone know if you can buy a £50 gift card through pizza express? Would this work?

    • Rob says:
      5 Apr5 April 09:37

      If you bought it in a restaurant it work work, assuming the restaurants sell them. Online sales inc takeaway do not count for this offer.

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

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