Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Good Amex offers with B&Q, Rimowa and top UK independent hotels

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Two new American Express cashback offers turned up yesterday which are well worth flagging.

You need to see if you are targetted by looking at the ‘Offers’ page in the Amex app, or on the website, for each card you own.

Before we get into the travel offers, I want to flag a B&Q offer which was scheduled to launch overnight.

As we covered last week, B&Q is now accepting American Express cards. To promote the partnership, you should see a cashback offer of £5 back on a £40 spend showing on all of your Amex cards. It runs until 4th July.

A good return with Rimowa luggage

If you are in the market for some upmarket luggage, there is an interesting deal with Rimowa.

You can take a look at what they offer on the Rimowa website here.

  • on Gold and Platinum cards, and potential some others, you receive 10,000 bonus Membership Rewards points if you spend £500 at Rimowa by 31st July
  • on British Airways American Express cards, you receive 10,000 bonus Avios if you spend £500 at Rimowa by 31st July

If you have access to both offers, take the Membership Rewards version. You can convert the 10,000 points into 10,000 Avios if you wish, but you also have flexibility to use them for another partner if you prefer. This flexibility is worth having.

As well as their classic range of suitcases – see image below – Rimowa also sells:

Rimowa American Express offer

£100 cashback at top independent hotels

If you need somewhere to show off with your new suitcase, American Express has also launched an offer with the Relais & Chateaux hotel group.

You will receive £100 cashback on a spend of £400+ by 31st August.

A lot of top independent hotels in the UK are part of Relais & Chateaux. The offer is valid across Europe, however, and is especially strong in France.

Whilst you are asked to book via the Relais & Chateaux website, the offer is triggered by checkout spend.

This means that you could book via American Express Fine Hotels & Resorts (if you have The Platinum Card) for the extra benefit it brings. I would also strongly recommend asking our luxury hotel booking partner Emyr Thomas (click here) for a quote as he can usually get you extra benefits on your stay.

From the UK list, I would highlight:

  • Chewton Glen
  • The Vineyard at Stockcross
  • Lucknam Park
  • Gidleigh Park
  • Longueville Manor (for anyone heading to Jersey)
  • Cliveden
  • 11 Cadogan Gardens
  • Grantley Hall

…… but there are plenty more to choose too. My wife also had it on her supplementary Platinum card, so we would save £200 if we spent £800 and split the bill into two at check-out.


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 (67)

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

  • Andrew says:

    Now Block & Quayle* are accepting Amex, wouldn’t it be great if Billington & Mayman started accepting too?

    Lots of “Travel Exclusive” confectionery bags were back on the shelves at B&M at the weekend.

    *My dad still calls them “Dodge City”

    • Andrew says:

      I never knew that’s what B&Q stood for. Every day‘s a school day.

    • KBuffett says:

      It’s not unusual for World Duty Free to ‘trade’ on the grey market. They buy and sell. Given sales of travel exclusives are quite likely to have fallen off a cliff over the last year, it’s not surprising.

  • Tom says:

    Shame that Longueville Manor do not appear to accept Amex which seems bizarre as it’s listed on the offer?

    • Sloth says:

      Not sure about booking online as I booked through Amex travel in the past as a better deal at the time but I paid for lunch in the restaurant using Amex

  • Etk says:

    No sign of the R&C one on my card yet, have others seen it live yet?

  • Froggitt says:

    If youre planning to use the B&Q Amex offer, and are anywhere near St Albans, they have 15% off everything this weekend.

    • BSI1978 says:

      Cheers for this heads up, with the Amex offer, plus the B&Q club sign up offer, I am hoping to pick up a reasonable firepit – stock permitting!

  • planeconcorde says:

    Last summer we went to Longueville Manor for lunch. They very strongly resisted accepting AMEX to pay the bill. Their attitude left a bitter taste, from other changes too. We haven’t been back since. Beware it not as good as it used to be.

  • AndyS says:

    Again the t&c are ambiguous as to whether this is a single transaction or cumulative, as it does state “£40+ transaction in participating store(s)” the optional plural does suggest you can spread this over 2 or more spends. Not that it’s hard to spend 40 quid in one hit!

  • Aston100 says:

    I defy any suitcase to withstand the Istanbul luggage handlers

    • Thywillbedone says:

      Sounds personal…

      • Aston100 says:

        It would be a great certification.
        “Ataturk Approved”.

    • Phillip says:

      That’s if they make it onto the belt in the first place!…

      • Russ says:

        And there’s the problem. I’ve always used cheap and cheerful carry on bags and made sure it’s stowed in an overhead locker where I can see who goes in and out there.

    • Susan says:

      IGA-FCO for the real test.

  • George1976 says:

    “ If you need somewhere to show off with your new suitcase” 🤣

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

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