Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

American Express Platinum card giving DOUBLE points on all spending until 20th July

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The Platinum Card from American Express is offering double Membership Rewards points – 2 per £1 – on ALL spending until 20th July!

These means that, if you have Amex Platinum, it is now THE most valuable card in your wallet.

I had expected this offer to appear, because it has been offered to Platinum cardholders in other countries.  For some reason no-one has yet been emailed by American Express about it.

It DOES work though, and applies to all transactions from 21st April.

Amex Platinum giving DOUBLE points on ALL spending until 20th July!

Does this apply to all Membership Rewards cards?

No.

It only applies to personal American Express Platinum cards.  If you have the International Dollar / Euro Platinum Card, it also applies to that.  Centurion cardholders can also take part.

It does NOT apply to Business Platinum or the personal versions of Preferred Rewards Gold, Green or the American Express Rewards Credit Card.

How many miles and points will I now earn?

Two Membership Rewards points per £1 means you are earning:

2 Avios per £1

2 Virgin Flying Club miles per £1

4 Hilton Honors points per £1

6 Radisson Rewards points per £1

3 Marriott Bonvoy points per £1

….. and much more.

The full list of Membership Rewards airline partners is here and the full list of hotel partners is here.

Or get 1.8% cashback instead

Alternatively, you can take 1.8% cashback instead.

As we wrote the other day, Amex Platinum cardholders now receive 0.9p per Membership Rewards points when they redeem for statement credit.

This means that, as you are now earning 2 Membership Rewards points per £1, you could immediately redeem these for 1.8% off your bill.

Is it worth getting American Express Platinum to take advantage of this deal?

I will do a separate article on this topic over the weekend.  The issue is that, whilst the rewards are clearly excellent now, you won’t be able to benefit from most of the travel benefits which come with the card.

My full review of the American Express Platinum card is here if you want to find out more now.  Our ‘quick read’ ‘Top 10 Reasons for getting American Express Platinum’ is here.

You can apply for The Platinum Card here.


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

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:

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 (107)

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

  • Nick says:

    Anyone else tempted to buy a £10k fully flex airline ticket, bank the points, cancel the card and transfer the eventual refund elsewhere? £20k Avios (or equivalent) for a £15 admin fee…

    • J says:

      No. I would not enjoy sweating for that £10k refund. It also is not impossible that rules and rights are retrospectively watered down so the airlines can get away with giving you a voucher.

    • mickytake says:

      Yes, people do it all the time

    • Gavin says:

      Probably won’t go down too well with Amex – they could close down your existing cards if they don’t like it.

    • Mike says:

      Yes – I have done twice in last 5 years to trigger a BA241 on the BA Prem card

    • Crafty says:

      Not in the current climate. Too high a risk for too small a reward.

  • Voltron says:

    Might have tempted me to stay but AMEX have been too slow I’m afraid in retention deals or am even giving a heads up they might bring out offers such as this.
    I downgraded to gold so will probably upgrade back up to platinum once travel resumes (who knows when that will be…)

  • Tim says:

    Is there any advantage in transferring to BA miles as opposed to Virgin?

    • mark2 says:

      much more choice of routes and frequency; 241 possible in all classes …..

    • The Urbanite says:

      Better to collect both Avios and Virgin Flying Club points. You get the best of both worlds when it comes to availability.

      If you can make use of schemes like Membership Rewards and Tesco Clubcard you can hold your points until you decide which you wish to travel with.

      • mark2 says:

        That depends on how many you can collect. If you split a fairly small number you can end up not being able to make a booking on either.

  • Tim says:

    A further question, if I transfer to Bonvoy, then to Avios, is that better?

    • mark2 says:

      1 MR = 1.5 Bonvoy; 3 Bonvoy = 1 Avios. Do the maths.

      • Genghis says:

        There’s the bonus at 60k Bonvoy
        40k MR = 40k avios
        40k MR = 60k Bonvoy = 25k avios

        When there’s a 35% hotel->BA bonus on
        40k MR = 60k Bonvoy = 33,750 avios

  • Jason Hindle says:

    Just received the email from Amex. Paint me cheered up a little. Living with two 70+ parents, I’m the designated shopper and it’s been working wonders for my domestic spend.

  • happeemonkee says:

    They have give me back a free night voucher that expired in March (Had used it for a IC Hong Kong stay for Sep this year but it’s closed for 2 years now). Extended to December 20 now which i’m happy about.

  • n_g says:

    I finally got the email with the comms on this today. It’s probably enough to keep me until I convert my existing MR balance to cash at least.

  • Sundar says:

    Ignoring annual fees as sunk cost, presumably 2MR rate is better than the Gold 1 + 0.67 for 15K spend bonus rate ?
    Adding in the opportunity to use points for statement money off, this seems a Win-Win ?

    • Lady London says:

      @sundar annual fee is not a sunk cost. It’s a marginal cost because Alex’s current practice is to regud annual fees pro rata for unused days or months if you cancel.

      • Sundar says:

        Yes, for serial churners 🙂
        For few others, it may be a sunk cost, just the price for playing the game 🙂

        • Tariq says:

          Agree, I’m not bothered about rushing to cancel and refund, happy for them to keep the fee. Especially since I need to retain the travel insurance benefit for a booked trip in July!

        • Crafty says:

          Well it’s not a sunk cost though is it. It’s afloat, sure, but it can readily be called back to shore.

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

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