Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Join an Amex-sponsored charity dinner at Hotel Cafe Royal

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

If you were unlucky in getting a spot at the Head for Points reader dinner next week, you may be interested in a charity dinner at the Hotel Cafe Royal on Regent Street on Saturday 26th October.

This is an annual charity event organised by luxury travel consultancy Driven2travel, who I know, and sponsored by American Express.  For out-of-towners there are other events going on over the weekend around the dinner, but there is enough space at the venue to add additional guests (like you!) just for the meal and the charity auction.

The gala dinner will be held in the Domino room at Hotel Cafe Royal.  Following a ludicrously huge investment over recent years, Cafe Royal now looks gorgeous and is well worth a visit.  As you can see, it is a lovely room (click to enlarge):

Hotel Cafe Royal domino room

The event is organised on a fully non-profit basis and has raised over $25,000 for HUSK Cambodia over the past three years alone. This year, the money raised will be shared between HUSK Cambodia and the Shinta Mani Foundation, two charities that support needy families living near Siem Reap with education, housing and hope for a sustainable future.  A photo of a project supported by the event in previous years is below.

The evening costs just £60 per person.  This is exceptional value for a welcome champagne reception and a three-course dinner with wine in such a venue.  The price is so low because American Express is fully sponsoring the dinner.  Your £60 fee does not pay for your meal (Amex is paying) but covers a donation to HUSK and is also valid as a credit during the charity auction after the dinner.

Here are the highlights of the current auction list.  There is an opportunity to bid on a stay at some great hotels and all income from the auction is donated to charity.

  • 3 nights at Shinta Mani Wild, a member of the Bensley Collection, including transfers, all-inclusive dining (including as much champagne as you like!), all activities, spa treatments and use of the hotel’s zip-line!
  • 2 nights at the Park Hyatt New York, including breakfast
  • 2 nights at Capri Palace, including breakfast
  • 3 nights at any Myconian Collection property, including breakfast
  • 2 nights at the Park Hyatt Mallorca, including breakfast
  • 2 nights at the Chedi Muscat, including breakfast
  • 2 nights at the Park Hyatt Vienna, including breakfast
  • 2 nights at Canaves Oia Suites, including breakfast
  • 2 nights at the Fairmont San Francisco, including breakfast

Many of the fellow guests are Flyertalk users and, whilst not all conversation at the event may be focused on miles and points, everyone will be a passionate traveller.  The organisers will seat HfP readers on the same table where feasible.  Attendance is limited and the remaining seats are available on a first come, first served basis.

For full clarity, I have attended this dinner in the past and it is a very pleasant evening with a fascinating bunch of people.  I also know Jenny who organises it and who I know is very committed to the evening and indeed to the HUSK charity.  However, neither myself or Rhys will be attending – I am on holiday as it is half term, and Rhys will be in Israel with Sir Richard Branson, as you do.  Anika’s baby is due the same week so she’s not going either.

If you would like to attend (and you won’t find a better value Saturday night in the West End), you need to register here and pay the £60 per person fee.

If you want to spend the night at the Hotel Cafe Royal, Jenny can book you in and get you the added Virtuoso benefits on top.  A lot of HfP readers will have a ‘£100 cashback on £400 Cafe Royal spend’ offer on one of their American Express cards at the moment, but this expires on 24th October so you’d need a pre-paid room.  Contact jenny.price@driven2travel.co.uk for more information.


best travel rewards credit cards

Want to earn more points from credit cards? – February 2025 update

If you are looking to apply for a new credit card, here are our top recommendations based on the current 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

You can see our full directory of all UK cards which earn airline or hotel points here. Here are the best of the other deals currently available.

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

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

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

The Platinum Card from American Express

50,000 bonus points and great travel benefits – for a large fee Read our full review

Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard

18,000 bonus points and 1.5 points for every £1 you spend Read our full review

Earning miles and points from small business cards

If you are a sole trader or run a small company, you may also want to check out these offers:

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

Capital on Tap Pro Visa

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

Capital on Tap Visa

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

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

For a non-American Express option, we also recommend the Barclaycard Select Cashback card for sole traders and small businesses. It is FREE and you receive 1% cashback when you spend at least £2,000 per month.

Barclaycard Select Cashback Business Credit Card

Get 1% cashback when you spend at least £2,000 per month* Read our full review

Comments (114)

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

  • The Original Nick says:

    O.T, Marriott Bonvoy OFFER @ american express, spend £200 get £50 back.
    Emirates OFFER, First and business class spend £1800 get £200 back.

    • Dave says:

      I’ve got the same offer on my BAPP and my Platinum!
      Do you know anything about it Rob?
      Only thing I wasn’t sure about – it says Spend £200, get £50 back. And then below it says Book, stay and pay by 31/12/2019. I can certainly book a prepaid rate and so pay by then but doubt I’ll be able to squeeze a stay in until next year. Will that invalidate the offer or would it just be based on when the £200 spend hits my account?

      • BJ says:

        Fine as long as it is paid. Note that it is select hotels only, not all hotels.

      • n_g says:

        This could suck me into paying for that over priced breakfast and The Langley now.

      • Rob says:

        Highly likely to be ‘book and pay’ only.

    • BJ says:

      I was surprised to see the Marriott offer on 4 out of my 5 cards. Still don’t see me using it though.

      • meta says:

        Yes interesting that it is on all my cards, both main and supp. Usually 2-3 don’t have same offers.

        • TGLoyalty says:

          On all of mine except 3x Gold credit, hopefully it will appear as i can make good use of this.

  • BJ says:

    Good job Emirates sponsored Arsenal and not Spurs!

  • memesweeper says:

    Marriott to Emirates transfers —does anyone know is this as quick as MR?

  • The Original Nick says:

    O:T, Earning Avios on Figi Airlines? Does anyone know if it’s possible because it’s not shown on the BA Avios Tier/Avios calculator

  • Harry T says:

    Presumably a general investment account is eligible for tax?

    • Genghis says:

      Taxable, yes. Options here are then go into a bond fund (make sure to select income funds as acc funds in taxable accounts are much more complicated), the income then goes towards your £1k / £500 interest income tax free allowance (if eligible) and any capital gains would certainly be under your annual allowance.

  • Andy S says:

    Is there any point having an ISA now that normal savings interest isn’t taxed ?

    • Genghis says:

      Of course! Don’t bother with cash ISAs. Remember that its almost certain the value of cash over the long term will be eroded by inflation.

      • TGLoyalty says:

        Best spend it all now then 🙂

      • Rob says:

        If the rate is decent why NOT use an ISA wrapper?

        1. Government could scrap the £1k tax free interest band
        2. It is only 12 years since you could get 7% bank interest – if we got back to that, even as little as £15k in the bank would wipe out your tax free band
        3. Even if rates stay at 2% medium term, after a few years you could hit £50k of cash savings which wipes out your £1k allowance

        • Alex W says:

          “As little as” £15k here, £50k there, how the other half live!!

          • Rob says:

            If a couple use their full ISA allowance each year then, given a realistic annual growth rate, you’d hit £1m of tax free assets within 12-15 years.

            In some ways it is better than a pension – pension gets tax relief on the way in but is taxed on the way out, ISA gets no tax relief on the way in but the gains are tax free when you spend them. ISA obviously has no issues over drawdown limits or inheritance.

        • Genghis says:

          Point being that using your £20k pp pa ISA allowance is much better used as stocks and shares held long term than cash.

        • TGLoyalty says:

          In the past when the ISA limit was £5-6k I made a point of using it all every year I think with a £20k limit you could build up a decent balance over a small number of years even if interest rates were to return to pre-2008 levels.

        • Shoestring says:

          yep & you wouldn’t want to invest £20K in an ISA with an unknown entity – no problems with Wealthify but DYOR – whereas going for the general investment trust (which isn’t an ISA) keeps your future freedom with ISAs.

          £40 bonus was limited to 1500 applicants in theory, they said something similar last time but kept it open more than a week.

        • Genghis says:

          I’d urge a bit of balance and for people to do some modelling (get advice if they can’t) for their own circumstances.

          Remember that as it stands, pensions are a powerful vehicle for retirement:
          a) for quite a lot of people, money going into a pension gets relief at 40% whereas tax is then paid on drawdown at 20%.
          b) There’s the 25% lump sum allowance
          c) Pensions are outside the scope of IHT up until 75.

          However, pensions are an easy target for future governments so how long the above will remain in place and annual and lifetime allowances continue to be fiddled with, who knows.

          Personally at this stage in my career and earnings, I pay into my pension to match employer contributions and then to stay under the 62% marginal tax rate (even more once take into account tax free childcare lost if go over) and max out ISAs for myself and wife (so can access money before 58 currently for me).

        • EwanG says:

          To expand on @Rob’s comment of 11:03 about ISAs and Inheritance.
          Another benefit of ISAs for married/civil partnership couples is, since April 2018, upon death of one party the surviving spouse can inherit a one-off additional ISA allowance equivalent to the value of the deceased’s ISA at the time of death or value at the time the deceased’s ISA is closed (whichever is higher). This is using something called the Additional Permitted Subscription (APS).

          Put simply, if the deceased has an ISA of £50k say, the spouse could have an ISA allowance of £70k that year (being their standard £20k plus the £50k transferred). This is not automatic – it needs to be requested.

        • Nick M says:

          Genghis – monies in pensions are still outside of your Estate for IHT post 75, but if you are over 75 when you die, the beneficiaries will taxed at their marginal rate when they take an income

  • Andy S says:

    OT. I can’t seem to post new comment, only replies to comments??

    • Andy S says:

      odd, what i want to post doesn’t work as reply either. I’ll try rewording. must be triggering some sort of filter!

  • Andy S says:

    OT cash on curve.
    I was wondering in the supermarket yesterday, if paying with curve card which is marked debit can you also request cash-back and have the whole transaction appear as groceries as far as the underlying card is concerned? Or does it get split between groceries and cash?

    • Shoestring says:

      It’s going to depend on the supermarket but eg @Morrisons £1 milk + £50 cash = £51 groceries (or at least it was, last time I checked)

      • Polly says:

        Handy workaround if so, with various current offers of 7%/ 5%. Have not had 10% since Xmas on any card. Good question.

        • BJ says:

          Presume you are talking Halifax etc and not amex.

        • Shoestring says:

          try getting cash at the till with Amex 🙂

          you can use the vouchers though, sure

          • Polly says:

            Current offer 7% back at Morrison’s, so yep, paper vouchers perfect, using them rapidly on petrol and food. Better than Tesco atm. However we never get MOC from Tesco anymore. How do you swing so many H?
            But cash back on curve good option too. Get our Waitrose GCs, Curry’s, and WH Smith’s there too. So, on the whole, not a bad return. Hoping for 10% cb on one of our cards this Xmas tho.

          • Don says:

            Does it not work with Amex?

    • aDifferentSimon says:

      I tried it once at waitrose and it it was declined, the groceries went through fine. Can’t remember which card was behind it tho, sorry.

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.