Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Bits: new Radisson UK sale, a good IHG London redemption, double Avios with Avis

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News in brief:

Radisson launches its UK Summer Sale – with free breakfast

Radisson Blu and Radisson Edwardian have launched their Summer Sale.  This covers all of their properties in the UK and Ireland, with savings of 10% to 25% off regular rates.

You need to book before 31st August for stays until 4th September, or 30th October for weekend stays.

If you book direct via the Radisson website here you will also receive free breakfast at all hotels except for Cardiff.  Not sure what the problem is with Cardiff but there you are!  This is probably a more valuable benefit than the cash discount you receive.

For those readers with children, remember that children under 16 stay free when sharing their parents room and children under 12 eat free when a parent buys a meal.

You can find full details of the Radisson sale here.

Remember that American Express Platinum cardholders can benefit from their Club Carlson Gold status when staying at Radisson properties.  If you stay for 2+ nights before the end of July you can also earn bonus points with the Club Carlson spring promotion.

Another interesting IHG Rewards Club redemption in London

If you are looking at redeeming your IHG Rewards Club points for a room in London, here is an interesting option I spotted yesterday.

The Holiday Inn Camden Lock is offering its Penthouse Studio for redemption.  This is a b-i-g room.  It also has a balcony.  At just 40,000 IHG points per night, this room offers excellent value compared to many other IHG options in London.

Note that the maximum capacity allowed is two people, presumably due to fire regulations, despite the room being huge.  The balcony may also not be good for kids.

I have visited this hotel when family have stayed there and found it OK.  It directly overlooks Camden Lock and the market.  The general rooms are a little dated but the lobby has recently had an impressive makeover including a small takeaway cafe.  

Whatever you think of Camden Market, there is a lot to be said for being able to walk across the canal to the market in about 30 seconds and take advantage of the huge range of eating options, even if the range of goods on sale is not to your taste.

The Penthouse Studio may have been listed in error, so if you are interested in booking it I would jump in ASAP at ihg.com.  You can always cancel your redemption without penalty at any point.  The hotel website is here if you want to find out more.

Avis Avios partnership

Double Avios with Avis

Finally, you can earn double Avios (10 per £1 spent) when you book Avis car rentals via avios.com.

You need to book by 7th July and you must book at this page of avios.com.

You will NOT get the exclusive British Airways / Avis benefits, such as a free second driver, if you book this way.  Those benefits are only available via the special BA / Avis website.  You might want to get a price from both sites and weigh up the combinations of price, Avios and benefits from each.

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (December 2023)

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

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

25,000 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 £12,000 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 9th January 2024, you will receive 30,000 Membership Rewards points (convertible to 30,000 Avios) with American Express Preferred Rewards Gold. You receive 25,000 points if you spend £3,000 in three months and a further 5,000 points if you hold the card for 15 months. You can apply here.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 9th January 2024, you will receive a huge 100,000 Membership Rewards points (convertible to 100,000 Avios) with The Platinum Card. You receive 75,000 points if you spend £10,000 in six months and a further 25,000 points if you hold the card for 15 months. You can apply here.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 30,000 points (TO 9th JANUARY), FREE for a year & four airport ….. Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

Crazy 100,000 points (TO 9th JANUARY) 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.

Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa

Get a 10,000 points bonus plus an extra 500 points for our readers Read our full review

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

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

40,000 points 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

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

Category

Avis and Avis Preferred, IHG One Rewards, Radisson Rewards

Comments (22)

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

  • WilliamPH says:
    30 Jun30 June 05:53

    Here’s a tip for Avis Avios. Take and keep the paperwork from the car when you return the vehicle.

    I booked via BAEC in the deal earlier this year and pre- paid. Picked up at LHR T5, returned it 5 days later , left the paperwork in the and when the clerk asked did I want to go to the office or get the email I said email, as I wanted to dive into the lounge.

    Never got an email, 3 months later no Avios and although I have the BA booking ref, no idea what my Avis agreement number is, and they won’t let me claim without it.

  • Zoe says:
    30 Jun30 June 07:41

    OT but has anyone who got their new Supercard yesterday tested it to see if it still has the same uses at home as the old one did? Surely we have to get some good news this week 🙂

    • RichT says:
      30 Jun30 June 08:09

      Got mine yesterday, haven’t ventured put with it yet. Website says you can use in the UK just the charges for ATM withdrawals are £1 + 1%.

      There’s also supposedly a yearly limit of 500 ATM withdrawals on the card so it’s isn’t a bottomless pit for manufactured spend 🙁 but it’s a good start….

      • Alan says:
        30 Jun30 June 08:56

        It also £1+1% for UK charges too – I suspect they’ll actually charge them this time too, unlike during the beta! The handy thing here though would be if it worked as a debit card – if so then for a lot of online stores (esp low cost airlines) you’d be cheaper paying the Supercard fees than using a credit card. Given the switch to underlying payment processor to Wirecard (same as Curve) I’m not too hopeful though…

      • harry says:
        30 Jun30 June 10:49

        MF on your ‘twin’ Visa/MC card? [No good for Amex cards so won’t work on 241s.] The only possible MF use I can see is for Lloyds/TSB upgrades/ companion tickets – even then, the MF will cost you money, but might be worth it to hit your spend target, I guess.

        • Genghis says:
          30 Jun30 June 13:27

          Even on the Lloyds upgrade voucher, it’s still an expensive process for manufactured spend.

          On a £250 cash withdrawal, it costs £3.50 (1% @ £2.50 +£1) and this is only for 50 avios (costing 7ppa) and getting £250 closer to spend target. There are much cheaper ways to achieve such a manufactured spend.

          Would only be reasonable value for MS to the true legacy 2.5 avios / £ on Diamond Club MC IMO

          • harry says:
            30 Jun30 June 13:35

            You’re right: £7000 = (28x£250) = £98 so a cheap companion ticket on occasion but why bother when there are other ways?

            Even with my BMI Visa (£1=1) it means 10,000 Avios cost £140, so 1.4p, not worth it

    • The_Real_A says:
      30 Jun30 June 10:10

      I can confirm it is charging the £1 and 1% in the place your are referring to 🙁

      • rams1981 says:
        30 Jun30 June 11:19

        is that at a website? So basically Supercard is applying all fees now unlike the trial. The only use for it is for foreign spend or for an ATM withdrawal if short of cash

        • The_Real_A says:
          30 Jun30 June 11:38

          Correct. All webspend in sterling is being charged the 1% + £1 fee

      • Alan says:
        30 Jun30 June 11:33

        Got my Supercard today too, activated fine and linked to my bmi Mastercard fine

        Trying to clarify re changing PIN – previously you could do it at an ATM but seems some question as to whether this is still possible?

        Agree main use now is foreign purchases (if not using Lloyds/Halifax card) or withdrawals (but I’ll use my fee-free Number26 card for those)

        • roberto says:
          30 Jun30 June 18:11

          No longer possible to change supercard PIN.

          • Alan says:
            30 Jun30 June 23:48

            Yeah they finally confirmed this on Twitter. How totally stupid of them! 🙁

          • TimS says:
            1 Jul1 July 06:55

            I can’t understand why they decided to make this change at full launch rather than trialling it during the pilot scheme, especially as it is such a change to industry norm.

            It also goes against their T&Cs:

            7.3 – If you suspect that someone else knows your Supercard PIN or your username and Supercard App password, you should tell us as soon as possible using one of the Contact Methods so that we can give you information on how to change these details.

            )

  • Pierre says:
    30 Jun30 June 08:56

    BA benefits can also be used on the Avis website if you book with the correct AWDs, I’ve never used the BA website and always had the extra perks 🙂

  • john says:
    30 Jun30 June 09:14

    BA Avis benefits also available if you book a flight+car hire direct through the BA site (or so it claims in the booking!)

  • Rob says:
    30 Jun30 June 11:16

    I didn’t spot that. It is very definitely on a side street to your left if you walk up from the tube station.

  • harry says:
    30 Jun30 June 11:43

    O/T from Telegraph (and I thought Cameron wanted this chance to have a pop at Boris!):
    Heathrow decision to be made by next PM
    David Cameron is today expected announce the decision on Heathrow expansion will have to be taken by his successor.
    According to the The Times the decision has been delayed again and will be made by whoever is elected Tory leader on 9 September.
    Downing Street have reportedly said there was not much point making the decision for it to be overturned by David Cameron’s successor.

  • Tony says:
    30 Jun30 June 19:59

    OT (but IHG related)
    I’m trying to renew my Ambassador membership but the website won’t let me input my county. Every time I enter the county name and hit submit the renewal page reappears with the box clear. Anybody got any ideas as to what I should enter to make the damn thing work?

  • Relaxo says:
    1 Jul1 July 16:17

    The Radisson links do not work, and the summer sale code does not work either. Is it not live yet?

    • Rob says:
      1 Jul1 July 16:46

      Yes, it should work ok – it was fine last week.

      • Relaxo says:
        2 Jul2 July 12:43

        No it does not work. Says promotional code is invalid for this city when you try clicking through the summer sale banner on the radisson page. Tried for multiple cities. Weird.

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

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