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.

  • Mike says:

    Ditto – not on my BAPP 74 offers !!! – More Sweaty Betty offers – they must be in financial trouble to feature so often begging for customers

    • KBuffett says:

      Why do Sweaty Betty get such a hard time on here? Perhaps because this is a male dominated environment? For anyone that’s interested, the offer stacks with NHS discount.

      Tordoffs, Look Fantastic, Feel Unique, Brighton & Hove, Harvey Nichols and many others keep reappearing!

  • TeesTraveller says:

    Finally two brands that I heave heard of and could actually make some use of. Of the two, B&Q gets the match ball as it completes the hat-trick by also being a “normal” shop that most people have in their town.

  • HV says:

    Rob – do you know if the R&C discount works on spend direct with the hotels in advance? i.e. can we take advantage of this offer for stays beyond August with an advanced booking discount if it is charged at the point of booking?

    • Rob says:

      It all goes through the same credit card machine, although many hotels like this don’t do ‘pay in advance’. They will take your card number but won’t charge it unless you fail to arrive. In the current environment a lot don’t bother charging the card as it just creates work if the hotel shuts again.

  • flyforfun says:

    Re Rimowa offer, when I click past the 10,000 offer on the main link and go to the T&Cs it says 5000 points only.

    Have taken a screenshot so I’m not going mad!!

    • Andrew says:

      Yes the Avios variant seems to have the incorrect points listed in the T&C whereas the MR variant correctly lists 10k in the T&C

  • CarpalTravel says:

    I looked up Rimowa when I saw the offer on my card yesterday. At those prices I would want a bag to put my case in! When flying I always use something that I quite prepared not to see again. Can’t imagine making an insurance claim where the majority would be for the bag/case itself.

    • Andrew says:

      They do come with a dust bag to put your case in. So I guess you do get what you pay for!

    • BuilBackBetter says:

      That’s why get it for hand baggage that you know only you’ll be handling.

  • RussellH says:

    I am surprised that I have seen no mention on HfP of the Sainsbury’s Amex offer I have: until 9 June, three extra MR points on every shop at Sainsbury’s (lots of exclusions, but I imagine it is like Morrison’s – no way that Amex can tell.
    According to the e-mail I got yesterday it has been available for some time, though I had to phone to get it added to my Gold card.
    Also finally got the Hilton offer added to my BA Amex on the same call.

  • a9504477 says:

    do B&Q sell (non-B&Q) gift cards in their stores?

  • Froggitt says:

    Would be nice if Amex fixed the welcome for email signups for offers. Instead of
    – “Oops, our records show that you’ve already enrolled in this offer. We limit the number of times that a Cardmember can enroll in each offer”,

    how about
    – “We have registered you for this offer – thank you”

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

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