Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Generous 40% or £100 cashback deal launched by American Express and FREE NOW / mytaxi

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Of all the pointless rebrands I’ve seen recently, the clear winner is FREE NOW.  For some reason, the mytaxi black cab app – owned by BMW and Daimler – decided that being called mytaxi was clearly too obvious and easy to remember, so switched to FREE NOW …..

I know this is now a pan-European brand, but I’m not sure that FREE NOW necessarily works better in multiple European languages than mytaxi.  I didn’t even have a problem with Hailo, the original UK name.

It looks like the bodged rebrand has an upside, however.  In an attempt to win your business from taxi apps with more sensible names, FREE NOW is offering many Amex customers either 40% cashback on all rides OR £100 for taking 10 rides until 14th December.

FREE NOW 40% american express discount

You need to see if either of these offers is showing on the ‘Offers’ tab of your online statement page, and save it to your card.

I have both versions.  My Platinum card has ‘40% cashback on an unlimited number of rides’ and my British Airways Premium Plus card has ‘£100 back when you take 10 rides’.  The latter is better for us as we do a lot of £10 – the minimum fare – rides to school and back.

With two months to take advantage, this could work out very nicely indeed.  It could even swing regular Uber X users over to black cabs.

If you don’t already have a FREE NOW account, using Rhys’ promo code of ‘rhys.jon’ after downloading the app will earn you £5 credit.

PS.  If you missed it, take a look at our recent article on the 10 best reasons to get the free American Express Preferred Rewards Gold credit card.

Want to earn more points from credit cards? – April 2024 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

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.

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

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

Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard

15,000 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:

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 12th May 2024, the Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa card is offering a bonus of 30,000 points, convertible into 30,000 Avios. You must have a Limited Company to apply. Click here to learn more and click here to apply.

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

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

Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa

Huge 30,000 points bonus until 12th May 2024 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 on your spending.

Barclaycard Select Cashback Business Credit Card

1% cashback uncapped* on all your business spending (T&C apply) Read our full review

Category

American Express Gold card, American Express Platinum card, British Airways American Express, Marriott Bonvoy American Express

Comments (108)

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

  • Ben says:
    9 Oct9 October 12:22

    Alternatively, a good way to offset some of your carbon footprint from all that flying 😉 is to choose a respectable renewable energy supplier like Ecotricity or Good Energy.

  • Also says:
    9 Oct9 October 13:08

    Received an email from IHG offering to double my Accelerate bonus points if I complete all of my offers. Is this new or did I miss something?

    • Andrew says:
      9 Oct9 October 13:17

      My bonus is equal to the sum of the individual offers.

      Would be nice if it were doubled again!

    • BJ says:
      9 Oct9 October 15:08

      Nice, no such luck here; probably doesn’t pay to lock in reservations required to complete accelerate before we have to.

  • Kai says:
    9 Oct9 October 13:42

    OT: Amex Marriott offer is cumulative. I have two transactions at the same hotel summing up to £200+ and the offer now says “redeemed” in the app.

  • Grant says:
    9 Oct9 October 14:11

    OT – IHG Accelerate. Do accelerate bonus points count towards Spire target? Seperately, if I have booked two rooms for the same night will this count as two nights for accelerate targets? Thanks

    • John says:
      9 Oct9 October 14:31

      No

      • Grant says:
        9 Oct9 October 14:32

        To both questions?

        • BJ says:
          9 Oct9 October 15:01

          No to the first. The second is more interesting and complex (see https://headforpoints.com/2019/09/23/ihg-rewards-club-multiple-rooms-credit/) but in connection with accelerate I would say No.

          • Grant says:
            9 Oct9 October 15:05

            Thanks – will see how it plays out. Stayed last night with a colleague hence the two rooms. Welcome points credited already for both rooms (and drinks vouchers received at check-in) Shows as effectively two reservations in my online account and two lots of base points and elite points to be credited. Will keep an eye on Accelerate as it would mean hitting 3 of the targets and triggering 10K bonus points.

          • BJ says:
            9 Oct9 October 15:12

            Interesting, please report back on this Grant. Accelerate targets now updating remarkably well on same day as stay points post so I guess you will know as soon as tomorrow.

    • Lee says:
      9 Oct9 October 16:01

      No to both questions, had two rooms last week, got welcome bonus and Spire bonus for both rooms but only one Accelerate night. Overlapping stay that what they call it.

  • Shoestring says:
    9 Oct9 October 15:21

    Gatwick-Antalya (Turkey) just added to the BA summer 2020 schedule

    great availability on Avios bookings though there are some noticeable gaps esp May half term 23-31 May, unless you pinch a day (these dates are not available for cash either, so I think they are genuine gaps)

    or pay cash from £64 EW, including peak summer if you get in quick

  • Shoestring says:
    9 Oct9 October 15:42

    and spring comes a month earlier in Cornwall compared to (say) the Midlands up, so the same price in March looks a steal, it can be very pleasant weather most years and all the great houses & NT properties will be in full spring flower by w/c 16th March

  • Robert says:
    9 Oct9 October 15:51

    O/T: Did we have a winner of 1M Avios in the Monese competition?

    • Rhys says:
      9 Oct9 October 15:59

      We don’t know yet! It’s in Monese’s hands. They said 14 days….

      • BJ says:
        9 Oct9 October 16:13

        Any chance of them providing HFP readers with a free trial of the premium plan?

  • Nixk says:
    9 Oct9 October 16:18

    Can you use an Argos gift card in a Argos store to purchase other gift cards?

    Also, can this be done with a boots gift card in a boots store?

    • Charlieface says:
      10 Oct10 October 01:07

      Boots definitely not (who remembers 3V??). Argos probably not but not tried.
      Would love to know about the supermarkets though.

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

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