Bits: Avios / Caffe Nero deal tweak, Flying Blue / PointsHound bonus, AA hotel bonus

News in brief:

Tweak to the Avios / Caffe Nero in-store cashback deal

As we wrote back in December, you can now earn Avios when you buy coffee or a snack at Caffe Nero.

This is an in-store cashback deal organised by avios.com and requires you to register your credit card details.  You currently earn 5 Avios per £1 spent although this number has moved around over the weeks.

As of last week, Nero has changed the rules of this promotion.  Purchases made on a Visa card no longer earn Avios from 27th April.  If you have registered a Visa card to take advantage of this deal then you need to switch it to a MasterCard or American Express.

There is also 10% cashback on Caffe Nero purchases available to most Amex cardholders until 25th May – check your online Amex statement.

3,000 Flying Blue miles with PointsHound

Flying Blue, the KLM / Air France programme, is running a new promotion with hotel booking site PointsHound.

If you book a two night stay via this special PointsHound page before 31st May, you will receive 3,000 bonus Flying Blue miles.  This is on top of the standard miles you will receive from the stay.

Existing PointsHound customers CAN take part.  You are only allowed to earn the bonus once however.

Hotels booked via PointsHound will not give you any points in their own loyalty programme and will probably not honour any status benefits you have, so it is best used when staying at an independent property or at a chain you rarely use.

25% bonus on hotel point transfers into American Airlines

American Airlines is offering a 25% bonus when you transfer your hotel loyalty points into their AAdvantage programme.

Whilst AA miles are not so easy to earn in the UK, there are some good things you can do with them:

AA is a partner with Etihad – you can book their flights for fewer AA miles than you would need Etihad Guest miles AND AA won’t add on the fuel surcharge

AA does not add fuel surcharges on its long-haul flights, so using them for transatlantic travel from the UK is a lot cheaper (in taxes and charges) than using Avios

AA charges for redemptions by total distance and NOT by segment, so a trip which involves changing aircraft – such as a Qatar Airways redemption – can end up cheaper using AA miles than using Avios

On the dowside, American has some complex and unpublished routing routes which can throw up issues when trying to book certain routes.  They are also bad value when redeeming for domestic US flights where, oddly, Avios can be a lot cheaper in terms of miles needed.

You can get the bonus on conversions from:

• Best Western
• Club Carlson
• Choice Privileges
• Hilton Honors
• IHG Rewards Club
• Marriott Rewards
• Starwood Preferred Guest
• World of Hyatt
• Wyndham Rewards

The deal runs until 15th June.  Full details are here.

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Hotel offers update – April 2024:

Want to earn more hotel points?  Click here to see our complete list of promotions from the major hotel chains or use the ‘Hotel Offers’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.

Want to buy hotel points?

• Hilton Honors is offering a 100% bonus when you buy points by 14th May 2024. Click here.