News: Turnberry to leave Marriott, £300 easyJet Holidays and £100 Mandarin Oriental cashback

News in brief:

Trump Turnberry to leave Marriott

The Turnberry resort in Scotland is, unfortunately, leaving Marriott Bonvoy.

A reader with an existing reservation received a note to say that the hotel is leaving Marriott on 15th January. In fact, if you look at marriott.com, you cannot book the hotel for any dates after 3rd January.

It isn’t clear if the hotel, currently part of The Luxury Collection, will be joining another brand or will be trying to survive as an independent.

The loss of Turnberry will be a blow for Marriott, since it offered one of the very few premium redemption options in the UK. With Turnberry gone, The Langley near Iver will become the most ‘aspirational’ Bonvoy hotel outside London.

The hotel page on marriott.com is here.

Anika’s 2017 review of Trump Turnberry is here.

Save £300 on an easyJet Holiday with American Express

American Express has launched a new cashback offer with easyJet Holidays.

If you are targetted for this offer it will show under the ‘Offers’ tab on your online statement page or in the Amex app. You need to click ‘Save to Card’ to activate.

The deal gets you £300 cashback on a £1,250+ booking with easyJet Holidays. Your payment needs to be processed by 31st December.

The offer is limited to the first 20,000 people to save it to their card. Flights must depart from UK airports, but apart from that there is no onerous small print.

A Mandarin Oriental deal too ….

I’m not sure if this is new but we haven’t covered it before.

If targetted, Amex is offering £100 cashback on a £500 spend at Mandarin Oriental hotels in London, Paris, Munich, Barcelona, Geneva or Madrid.

The deadline is 28th February which gives you a bit of time to plan a Winter break.

If booking, get a quote from our hotel booking partner Emyr Thomas first. He can access additional benefits, for the same price as the online Best Flexible Rate, as he is a Mandarin Oriental Fan Club appointed agent.

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Want to earn more points from credit cards? – September 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.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 26th September 2024, sign up for FREE Barclaycard Avios Mastercard and you will receive a sign-up bonus of 10,000 Avios. This is double the usual bonus! You only need to spend £1,000 within 90 days. Our full review is here. Click here to apply.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

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.

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 22nd October 2024, the bonus on American Express Business Platinum is increased to up to 80,000 Membership Rewards points, worth 80,000 Avios. You will receive 8 points per £1 spent for the first three months, on up to £10,000 of spending. Click here to read our full card review. Click here to apply.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 22nd October 2024, the bonus on American Express Business Gold is increased to up to 40,000 Membership Rewards points, worth 40,000 Avios. You will receive 4 points per £1 spent for the first three months, on up to £10,000 of spending. The card is FREE for your first year. Click here to read our full card review. Click here to apply.

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.