Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

BACK AGAIN: Buy discounted MeliaRewards points on Amazon and get cheap hotel stays

Links on Head for Points may support the site by paying a commission.  See here for all partner links.

Over Black Friday, I wrote about the good deal available by buying MeliaRewards gift cards on Amazon.

It usually costs €330 for 55,000 Melia Rewards points.  On Black Friday, it was just €165.  This was a deal I couldn’t resist.  I bought 55,000 points and booked two nights for my brother at the new Melia in Kensington for July, when it is selling for £300 per night.

At the moment, the deal is back.  The price is not as generous:

buying off Amazon UK – click here – you will pay £205 for 55,000 Melia Rewards points

buying off Amazon Spain – click here – you will pay €214 (£192) for 55,000 Melia Rewards points

The Spanish site is cheaper although delivery is an extra €4.  Oddly, it is also faster if you choose Express Delivery (€6) than buying from the UK site, probably because Amazon UK ships from Spain using Standard Delivery.  If you bought yesterday, the UK site was promising delivery by ‘9th-11th January’ whilst the Spanish site, with Express Delivery, would deliver by 3rd January.

This is what you get:

Melia Rewards Amazon points offer

Whilst the card itself is credit card sized, the leaflet it is stuck to is A5:

MeliaRewards Amazon points offer

The instructions were simple enough that even my rudimentary (ie non existent) Spanish could follow them:

You log into the Melia website and head to ‘My Points’

Filter the earning and spending options by ‘Shopping’

Click on Amazon.  As well as explaining how to redeem your points for amazon.co.uk gift cards, there is a box to deposit your gift card.  I typed in the number and the 55,000 points immediately appeared as you can see below.

Melia Rewards Amazon points offer

Can you get value paying £205 for 55,000 MeliaRewards points?

Oh yes.

Having spent more time now exploring the MeliaRewards redemption chart, it is not as random as it first seemed.  It is simply that hotels have totally weird redemption values which makes them appear random.

INNSiDE New York, which we reviewed here, is 23,098 points per night.  Where this number comes from I have no idea.  There is real value here – I found dates in May 2019 where cash rates are over £350 per night, whilst you would be paying under £100 if you redeemed gift card points here, assuming you paid £205 for 55,000 points.

In London, the Melia White House is 24,286 points per night.  Again, on a peak date this is a bargain at under £100.  Melia has also taken over a hotel in Kensington which is due to be refurbished in the Spring and should be looking good for Summer stays.

What you CAN’T do is transfer these points to Avios or to anything else.  They are ringfenced for hotel stays.   You also need to note that the hotel only offers a few rooms per night at the points prices above – once those have gone, rather like the way Hilton Honors works, redemptions are priced off a revenue based system which is much less attractive.

I would not necessarily buy speculatively at £205.  However, if you have any stays planned where Melia could be an option it is worth a look.

The offer is here on the Amazon UK site and here on the Amazon Spain site.


How to get MeliaRewards Gold status from American Express

How to get MeliaRewards Gold status from American Express (April 2024)

Do you know that holders of The Platinum Card from American Express receive FREE MeliaRewards Gold status for as long as they hold the card?  It also comes with Marriott Bonvoy Gold, Hilton Honors Gold and Radisson Rewards Premium status.

We reviewed American Express Platinum in detail here and you can apply here.

You can discover the benefits of MeliaRewards Gold status on the Melia website here. It includes three vouchers per year worth 20% off any booking.

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Small business owners may want to consider American Express Business Platinum instead:

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points sign-up bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

(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.)

Comments (51)

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

  • paulm says:

    One thing to note with Meliá is that not all points bookings can be cancelled, there is usually a few different point rates with different cancellation policies.

    Also, just checked in to my first Meliá stay at the innside Manchester, 1st impressions are good.

  • Idrive says:

    Can you buy the points with your amazon gift card balance?

    • Shoestring says:

      hope so – that’s be another 12.5% discount 🙂

      • Brighton Belle says:

        What method gets 12.5% on Amazon gift cards? I loaded up with the 10% off using the current Morrison’s Amex offer.

        • Shoestring says:

          Several ways incl a better Morrisons GC promo that comes back from time to time, not current though. What is current is the Tesco MOCs, eg £15 off £100, obvs that’s 15% (or better given your MR points on top) but it’s only £15 off on the first one, followed by 2x £10 off £100. So I made that 12.5%.

        • Alan says:

          Same here – actually works out at 10.5% with More points – would have been 11.5% under the old 15 points per GC rates but still a damn good deal.

          Had a nice Tesco HH coupon today, that’s my Netflix sub paid through to 2021 lol

        • Shoestring says:

          My worry is cashflow, too easy to stick a couple of £thou into Amazon credit just to save 12.5% (or better) on everything you buy on Amazon.

          If I’d used every opp to save 12.5% or better over the last ***2*** years, I’d have about £10K credit sitting there with Amazon.

          Good business model – for them not me obvs 🙂

          • Alan says:

            Yep agree not great for cashflow, Harry, but with ISAs already maxxed out for the year and poor interest rates it’s not a bad tax-free return 🙂

    • Rob says:

      Yes, if you’ve got Amazon UK credit.

  • Yuval says:

    What is their redemption availability like? How likely is it that there will be nights available for Easter when I receive the points mid Jan?

    • Rob says:

      You can check with an empty account what the points price is now. You’re obviously gambling that the ‘standard priced’ redemptions don’t disappear and they start using ‘revenue based’ points pricing. No idea how you could ever know if they were down to the last room at standard pricing though.

      • Matt B says:

        When I first looked at availability it said 2 rooms left, then a few days later when making my booking it actually said 1 left at this price (the standard price) and afterwards when I went back to check there were only revenue based prices available.

  • kim says:

    Hi, I am feeling really dumb at the moment but can someone explain how i get the discounted Amazon gift cards? I don’t have a Morrisons More card but no doubt could get one. I do have Amex, Tesco etc but cant fully understand these comments – What is current is the Tesco MOCs, eg £15 off £100, obvs that’s 15% (or better given your MR points on top) but it’s only £15 off on the first one, followed by 2x £10 off £100. So I made that 12.5%.
    Also where will I find the current Morrisons/Amex offer?

    • Alan says:

      There’s been an Amex Offer for 10% back on all Morrison’s spend to 31/12 – you need to check your Amex online account to see if you have it.
      More card is free, 5 points per £ on gift cards, used to be 15. £5 voucher for every 5000 pts.
      MOC = money-off coupons (also known as helping hand) – I get these in the post from Tesco from time to time.

      • kim says:

        Thanks Alan, I was almost there but thought I was missing something- Sadly no Morrisons offer on any of our Amex cards and annoyingly I’ve not had any offers from Tesco for gift cards.

        • Alan says:

          No worries 🙂 The Tesco vouchers aren’t specifically for gift cards, but if you put them through with normal shopping there’s not normally an issue.

  • Alexey says:

    What is procedure to use these points for food in melia properties ? do i need to add the points to melia account first and request some voucher in exchange to points ? or just can give gift card at th moment of payment ?

    • Rob says:

      The gift card won’t do it, that is just a code (you can’t swipe it). You’d give to give them your MeliaRewards account number but whether you need a plastic card or not I don’t know.

      • Nick says:

        Add the points to your MR account, then at the restaurant tell them you want to pay with points, show your card (on the melia app is fine) they will work out the number of points needed and deduct from your account. Make sure you ask before reserving/sitting, some 3rd party owned restaurants in the properties will obviously not accept MR points as payment.

  • Kim says:

    Hi my gift cards have arrived today but I am unable to find where to enter the code on the Melia site. Has anyone else had any problems? I have had an account for almost a year but just have the 2000 introductory points. These show when I click on my points but the ‘Filter the earning and spending options by ‘Shopping’ is not showing. Help!

    • Kim says:

      Cancel the above- the UK site wasn’t working properly but I have done it through the Spanish site and all points loaded. Only downside the dates I wanted in New York have gone up!

  • Yen says:

    Anyone able to redeem the gift card if they have 0 points in their account?

    Under “What do you want to do with your points”, I am presented with 0 options and can’t filter..

    • Yen says:

      Just the comment above!! Works by going through the spanish site! Thank you!

  • K Murphy says:

    I bought a 55k and 35k gift card but can’t add them to my Melia account (I have gold via AMEX platinum). Despite calling Melia Rewards it’s dtill not resolved…it turns out the option I need to redeem is not displaying on ‘my points’ section of the website. Any help would be much appreciated!

    • Rob says:

      Use the Spanish version of the Melia site – couple of readers said last week that worked for them.

      UK site worked fine for me back in December though.

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

The UK's biggest frequent flyer website uses cookies, which you can block via your browser settings. Continuing implies your consent to this policy. Our privacy policy is here.