Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Generous £250 American Express cashback on £500 United Airlines spend

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Quite a few new American Express cashback offers have appeared in the last couple of days.

A few of the more relevant ones include:

  • £100 back on £500 spent at selected European Mandarin Oriental hotels by 31st August
£250 American Express cashback United Airlines
  • £150 back on £1,000 spent at Plum Guide on luxury home rentals by 30th September

However, the standout deal is £250 back when you spend £500 with United Airlines.

The rules say that you need to book a flight by 15th July which is departing from the UK. I am guessing that non-UK departures may divert you a different version of the United website which is why this rule is in place.

Remember that you can earn Avios on United Airlines flights when you credit them to an Aer Lingus AerClub account. You can then use the ‘Combine My Avios’ functionality online to move them to your British Airways Executive Club account. You will not earn any tier points, however.

£500 should be enough to get you an economy flight to the US this Summer – albeit in ‘Basic Economy’ which is frill-free – and £250 would represent a chunky saving.

As usual, you need to check the ‘Offers’ section on the Amex website or in the app for each American Express card you own, and then click ‘Save To Card’ to register if you can see the deal. Only 10,000 registrations will be allowed.


Want to earn more points from credit cards? – March 2023 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: Successfully apply for either of the Barclaycard Avios credit cards by 2nd April 2023 and you will be entered into a free draw to win ONE MILLION AVIOS! Full details are on the application forms here (free) and here (paid). This competition is exclusive to Head for Points readers. T&C apply.

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

25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher for spending £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios card

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher for spending £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

30,000 points and unbeatable travel benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard

15,000 points bonus 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:

Until 30th March 2023, the sign up bonus on American Express Business Platinum is increased to 120,000 Membership Rewards points – click here. The bonus on American Express Business Gold is increased to 60,000 Membership Rewards points – click here. T&C apply, see the application forms for details.

American Express Business Platinum

Crazy 120,000 points bonus (to 30th March) and a £200 Amex Travel credit every year Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

60,000 points sign-up bonus (to 30th March) and free for a year Read our full review

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

Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa

Get a 10,000 points bonus plus an extra 500 points for our readers 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 credit card

1% cashback (3% for 3 months if you apply by 31st March) and no annual fee Read our full review

Comments (56)

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

  • ankomonkey says:

    I was hoping to be able to buy Star Alliance partner flights on the United site to trigger the statement credit. I tried UK-Germany (Lufthansa), UK-Portugal (TAP) and UK-Turkey (Turkish) but couldn’t get any flights to show. No interest in long haul right now. Damn!

    • Blair Waldorf Salad says:

      It’s highly frustrating as it was possible up to about a year ago. Especially frustrating when you are at an airport and see the United codeshare flight number at the boarding gate screen but still can’t buy that route anymore. I am thankful I still had the codeshare partner flights option when I had United credit to spend.

    • Blair Waldorf Salad says:

      I’ve also tried calling United to see if they can see partner availability but apparently not. So the phone option isn’t viable either.

    • vol says:

      I was trying the same. Occasionally it gives you a glimmer of hope and shows prices, but when you click on it, the eternal spinning timer, and then it just times out and says ‘nothing available’. Sometimes it kicks you out and even gives you an ‘access denied’.

      🙁

  • monsieurcurt says:

    Presumably you could book a £500 fare then cancel it into an eCredit? From there you could book whichever flights you like…

    • Rob says:

      If they are still offering those, yes.

      • Blair Waldorf Salad says:

        They’re not. That was my dastardly first stop at 1am a few days ago when I saw that offer appear. But it has been gone quite a few months now.

  • Adam says:

    Does anyone have experience using an IDC in a market where local currency is pegged to USD? Trying to work out whether it’s worthwhile opening an account from Qatar.

  • Florian says:

    Hi,
    I have 5 Amex and supplementary, and I haven’t got the offer in any of them, did this happened to anyone?
    Does it worth talking to Amex?
    Thanks for your help!

    • Rob says:

      It was limited to 10,000 registrations and, frankly, HfP readers could have done that many on their own within a few hours.

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

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