Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Bits: Hilton APAC Flash Sale, Amex Platinum Cashback promo, Clubcard to Avios competitions

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News in brief:

Hilton running a ‘40% off’ 4-day APAC flash sale

Hilton is due to launch a 96-hour flash sale at 8am today.  Discounts are expected to be up to 40% off Best Available Rate, although the sale rooms will be non refundable and require pre-payment.

This will focus exclusively on countries in the APAC region – Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Korea, Maldives, India, Sri Lanka and South East Asia.  The Millennium Hilton Bangkok is pictured below.

Note that China, Hong Kong and Taiwan are excluded.

Full details should be available from 8am via the Asia Pacific Hilton website here.  I will do a further article later in the week looking at pricing examples.

Millennium Hilton Bangkok

Special promotion on the American Express Platinum Cashback cards

We tend not to focus on the two American Express Platinum Cashback cards much on Head for Points because they do not offer miles or points.

They are decent products, however, offering cashback on all of your spending.  You can find details of the Platinum Cashback card here and the Platinum Cashback Everyday card here.

If you apply between today and 31st January, you will receive 3% additional cashback on all of your purchases at amazon.co.uk in your first three months of membership, up to a maximum of £15.

Note that the cashback is not added to your account immediately but is credited in your card anniversary month, which is the one month period each year following the date on which your account was opened.

If you were planning to do a lot of your Christmas shopping at Amazon this year – or are planning a major purchase such as a new laptop – it is worth taking a look at this deal.  You are eligible for this deal irrespective of what other Amex cards you hold, unless you have previously had either of the Platinum Cashback cards in the past six months.

Do not apply until the offer is showing on the Amex website – I am told it will appear during the course of today.

Two competitions for transferring your Clubcard points to Avios

It is looking like a total washout for anyone looking for a conversion bonus, to either Avios or Virgin Flying Club, with their October Tesco Clubcard points vouchers.

Both avios.com and British Airways Executive Club have launched competitions for converting via their respective portals.  If you are going to convert, you need to decide which competition to go for.


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

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 £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.

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.

Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa

Huge 30,000 points bonus until 12th May 2024 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 sign-up 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.

Comments (75)

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

  • rewardscollector says:

    OT/ Anyone know when the 1000 bonus points will arrive from Accor’s meeting planner promotion?

    • Natalia S says:

      I asked Accor about it a couple of weeks ago and was requested to send the invoice from my first event – only then they would credit.

  • JP says:

    OT – Just got an email from Avios for 1000 Avios for paying with a card linked to the Bink app (?) and an ongoing 3 Avios per £ before the 21st November.

    • Nate1309 says:

      I just saw this on facebook (avios), that if Bink is used in Pizza express you will get a bonus 1000 avios, nowhere in the T&Cs is the bonus 1000 avios mentioned. Rob mentioned this app a few weeks ago and that something was in the pipeline for HfP readers. Is that still happening Rob?

      • Rob says:

        Still under discussion, they are slow people ……

      • the real harry says:

        the bonus 1000 is for using a new method of collecting Avios

        you can only get that 1000 bonus once per a/c

        so if you got it already, you won’t get it a second time thru Bink/ PE

        • Alan says:

          Yes – bit misleading on Avios’ part – you need to spot the asterisk then click through to the T&Cs on the website and then realise it’s the same promo! 6 per GBP for much of the week isn’t too bad though!

    • Nate1309 says:

      It’s not clear if the 1000 points are from the new partner offer. But as I have already done that (as I’m sure others have) I’m not sure I would get this 1000.

    • the real harry says:

      any purchase that earns you Avios @ the 3 per £ rate – provided you have not got the 1000 Avios bonus already

  • RTS says:

    FYI – seems like there is no longer an upgrade bonus from Gold to Platinum. Rang up twice to confirm. 🙁

    • JP says:

      That is not good news, just got one in before the old page went for 20K. Someone did manage to get an offer of 15K points on the phone or email a couple of weeks ago that was posted on the comment s here. The T&C’s for referring from PRG seem to have changed also, it doesn’t say you can refer to Platinum from Gold anymore like it used to. Although going to the link still offers the Plat at 35K and not the normal 30K. Looks like the referrer gets 9K whether they go for the Gold or Plat (I think it was more for the Plat).

    • Rob says:

      Ok. Thanks for the update.

  • Canuck says:

    O/T: RBC offering 50% Transfer Bonus to Exec Club until 17th Dec. Minimum transfer 10,000 avios at 1:1 per RBC point.

  • Genghis says:

    Didn’t think you were a hotel points fan, harry, given your place in the sun? 🙂

    • the real harry says:

      I guess a few of you might think – is that harry having a laugh? is harry a bit schizo? Doppelganger? poor harry – silly sod.

      nope – it’s not me – it’s some joker/ moron imitating & irritating/ trolling me & I think I saw the same thing happening with Alan at the weekend

      one person can see the ip addresses & the email addresses & that’s Raffles

      • Alan says:

        LOL I don’t think it happened to me – that was just someone else that happens to share my name – the Gravatar shows the real comments though, one of these days you might go for it? 😉 😀

      • the real harry says:

        Alan, I have such an elephant hide – but I have to be polite here and not say I couldn’t give a wotsit but just say it’s like a wee drop of mist rain on a Scottish morning, all this trolling lol

        http://www.montypython.net/scripts/oscar.php

        Of course I don’t like people to think I am being a complete w@ when I’m not – it lessens the impact when I am actually being a complete w@ 🙂

        • Alan says:

          Hahaha love it 😀

          #squillsforpres 😉

        • Rob says:

          On my iPhone I cannot see the email address linked to comments. I am back in the office tomorrow for the first time in 2 weeks so I will be able to kill off fake harry comments more quickly!

  • the real harry says:

    O/T remember how Sainsbury’s Travel Money (or whatever it’s called) was caught out by the Brexit result? Still offering yesterday’s rates @ 7am – despite being a Travelex operation.

    Just wondering if the Clinton/ Trump result will lead to another opportunity.

    Those who got 10% on the $ that morning – remember it was old harry 🙂

    I should have bought max £6000 USD but just went for a couple £K European, still quite lucrative, though.

    • Mr Dee says:

      I don’t think the elections are going to have as much impact compared to the brex it vote and I can’t see it getting stronger than it has recently against the pound based on the vote, as it would not be clear how the economy will change.

  • Anon says:

    Conrad Rangali Maldivesown from $1050 to only $690/ night in the sale!

    Whooop so only +$10,000 USD for 12 nights instead of $14,000 USD…

    Or rather back in my real world, I’m staying on points & free night certs instead.
    #Smug #ThanksHfPs!

  • Graeme says:

    Completely OT – I need to buy around £1000 worth of Chinese Yuan ahead of a trip to North Korea. I noticed on an old ‘Holiday Tips’ post that someone had had success reserving currency online at Tesco and paying in-store using their Curve. This was a few months ago – has anyone managed this since?

    • Johnnycl says:

      Not Tesco, but I’ve used Curve at Moneycorp before (dependent upon the cashier, not till system).

      Would love to visit DPRK someday, bet it’ll be a fascinating trip.

    • Genghis says:

      How long will you be in China for? Spreads are rather wide in U.K. so my advice would be to withdraw from ATMs when you’re in China.

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

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