Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Good new American Express cashback deals: TFL, Harrods, John Lewis, Fenwick etc

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American Express has launched a number of new cashback deals to help cut the cost of your Christmas shopping.

These are a very generous group of offers.  However, if my own family cards are anything to go by, it seems that they are not appearing to everyone.

This is what I had across my cards:

Transport for London – 10% off contactless travel 

The offer runs to 31st December.  It does not include Heathrow Express or Heathrow Connect / TFL Rail when paid via contactless payment.

John Lewis – £10 cashback when you spend £50

Expires 29th December. Waitrose shoppers may want to buy a £50 John Lewis gift card instore which can then be used in a Waitrose.  Excludes John Lewis Opticians.

American Express Harrods cashback deal

Harrods – £30 cashback when you spend £100 (expires 24th December)

Debenhams – £10 cashback when you spend £50 (expires 31st December, so it can be used during the sale too)

Fenwick and Bentalls – £5 cashback when you spend £20 (expires 24th December)

If you’re a big fan of tuna baguettes, Upper Crust also offered me £2 back when I spend £5 before Christmas Eve!

And …..

Pullman Berlin cashback deal

There is also a new Accor hotels deal available.

It is offering £50 cashback when you spend £350 at selected luxury hotels in Europe before 28th February.

It is very select group of hotels included.  The only countries covered are the UK, Netherlands, France, Austria, Germany and Switzerland.

If you were planning to stay at a Sofitel, Pullman or MGallery then your luck may be in.  Sofitel Heathrow and Pullman London (Kings Cross) are excluded, however.

Pullman Berlin, which I reviewed earlier this year (our Pullman Berlin review is here and see the photo above) and liked a lot, IS included.

Remember that Amex charges a 3% FX fee when you use your card abroad so, if you have a card from another provider with 0% FX fees, remember to factor in the FX fee when working out how much you will save.

The rules do not say if cumulative spend counts.  It usually does with American Express hotel promotions, but until we get feedback from other readers you shouldn’t rely on it.

The Accor website is here if you want to scope out your options.  If you don’t want to earn Le Club AccorHotels points, you can take Avios directly instead.  Credit to Iberia Plus and not British Airways Executive Club as the rate is twice as high – you can use ‘Combine My Avios’ to move them across to BA afterwards.

PS.  If you missed it, take a look at our recent article on the top 10 reasons to apply for the free (in year 1) 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:

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

Comments (168)

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

  • Lloyd says:

    I got the following offer that I seemed to be automatically signed up to on my BA PP.

    Get 1 Extra Avios on every transaction of £4 anywhere until 27 December 2019. Terms and payment restrictions apply.

    • Harry T says:

      Are you seeing that in an email or in the app?

    • K123 says:

      I also have this ‘1 Avios with every £4 spent’ on my BA AMEX too, as well as my AMEX Avios balance being credited today with 3908 Avios under ‘AviosOffer’

    • Secret Squirrel says:

      I just saw this in my saved offers, I never saved this type of offer?

      • Secret Squirrel says:

        Got a nice bonus of 4.5k avios. This needs its own article tomorrow!

  • Shoestring says:

    Got a cheeky £100 Amazon & yep instant success email & shows pending online a/c, so today is still fine

    giftcard racks heaving with John Lewis cards! whereas I had to get my Amazons in £20s

  • Mike says:

    Still never get any offers from Amex, and just get told hard luck when I complain 🙁

    • Shoestring says:

      check your marketing preferences/ settings – have you turned everything off?

    • Charlieface says:

      Seems to be some sort of bug with Amex that some cards just don’t get any offers at all. Sometimes fixed by removing the card from Online Services then re-adding

      • Mike says:

        Tried that, everything enabled, raised official complaint, told “it’s not part of the benefits so we don’t have to give you any offers, ever.”

    • Sina says:

      I’ve got the same issue with all 6 of my cards! wish Rob run an article about this, and force amex to fix this instead of giving us the don’t care not my problem!

  • Shoestring says:

    *Free fiver on Curve*

    Not got Curve but apparently there’s an account specific free fiver getting sent to some/ many a/cs

    you can get the offer in an email or just see it as a message on your phone in the app/ make any purchase to get it

    As noted by a poster [Icewhite: If you get it spend it before they go bust.]

  • Bookish says:

    I’ve had mine, but it is taking awhile and I’m finding they’re often doubled up.

  • GRIMZ says:

    OT, Anyone else having delays getting ‘shop small’ added to there sup cards?

    • Peter K says:

      My main card took about 2-3 weeks to have shop small offer added. I had a different offer about a week before so it wasn’t just I hadn’t had the card long enough. I got the card after the initial shop small offer appeared on other cards so that might well have been the issue.

    • Gringo says:

      Yes, very frustrating…

      • GRIMZ says:

        Just chased CS again today and I started to see emails coming through of being enrolled in Shop Small

    • MinR says:

      I raised it with Amex CS, and the offer was manually added 5 days later. They send a note to a ‘department’ that looks into it may take up to 10 days.

  • Spaghetti Town says:

    OT: My two uncles will be travelling to Las Vegas together from Heathrow Terminal 5 (no lounge access).

    Anyone have a deal/cheap price for the Aspire lounge (or the other pay one) in T5?

    • The Original Nick says:

      Google DP Telegraph offer. £20/person for Plaza Premium.

    • Shoestring says:

      1. tough one, Aspire takes Priority Pass but no other lounge cards

      2. you can get into Plaza Premium by buying Dragonpass £18 each https://salaryextras.dragonpassuk.com – but no reservation included

      £17.33 if you can find the RCI discount code! (I didn’t look, normally easy enough to find it then put it into standard Dragonpass ordering page/ codes & vouchers)

      • fivebobbill says:

        Has Aspire changed the rules? I haven’t been in there for years, well since I got the Amex Plat and Plaza Premium access, however I’m sure I was getting into Aspire before that with a Lounge Club pass via Amex Pref Gold?
        Not that I miss it mind…

        • Shoestring says:

          that’s what it said online, mind you this is Aspire T5 and I know for sure you can get into Club Aspire T3 with all the lounge cards

  • John says:

    About 5 days for me

    • Sloth says:

      Thanks all. All my previous Morrison’s have paid promptly so I just find this one a bit strange that hasn’t paid after 10days and the app doesn’t even show this particular offer redeemed. Raised with Amex cs, fingers crossed it doubles up as above!

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

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