Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

New American Express cashback deal launched with Pride of Britain Hotels

Links on Head for Points may support the site by paying a commission.  See here for all partner links.

American Express has launched a cashback deal with a partner we haven’t seen featured before – Pride of Britain Hotels.

This is a low profile marketing group – it is not a chain, it is more like ‘Small Luxury Hotels’ or ‘Leading Hotels of the World’.

I’d only vaguely heard of it before I saw a lot of branding at Grantley Hall in Ripon when I was there last week.

Grantley Hall

(A photo of Grantley Hall is below. It is genuinely excellent and good value – to the extent that £600 per night can be good value – compared to similar places nearer London, especially as there are only 47 rooms sharing the facilities.)

The offer is slightly different to the usual Amex hotel cashback deal.

You will receive £50 cashback when you spend £500 on gift cards, in one transaction, for Pride of Britain Hotels before 5th July.

You do NOT need to use your gift card by 5th July, which gives you more flexibility than usual over when you stay. Gift cards are valid for two years.

Vouchers are also valid for meals or spa treatments at participating hotels. You don’t necessarily need to stay overnight.

There are some good properties in Pride of Britain Hotels. Highlights include The Atlantic in Jersey, Cromlix, The Goring, The Fife Arms, Lucknam Park, Whatley Manor and The Royal Crescent Hotel.

Many of these are also in Small Luxury Hotels of the World which is also running an American Express cashback offer at the moment. This is worth £100 back on a £300 spend. If you were planning to spend £800 you could combine both, paying partly in Pride of Britain Hotels vouchers and partly with an Amex.

As usual, you need to opt in to this offer on the Amex website, assuming you are targetted. Oddly I had it on my Marriott Bonvoy American Express card, which usually blocks non-Marriott hotel promotions.


earns points from credit cards

Want to earn more points from credit cards? – May 2025 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 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

Get 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.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold Credit Card

Your best beginner’s card – 30,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

British Airways American Express Premium Plus Card

30,000 Avios and the famous annual Companion Voucher voucher Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

80,000 bonus points and great travel benefits – for a large 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:

The American Express Business Platinum Card

50,000 points when you sign-up and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

The American Express Business Gold Card

20,000 points sign-up bonus and FREE for a year Read our full review

Capital on Tap Pro Visa

10,500 points (=10,500 Avios) plus good benefits Read our full review

Capital on Tap Visa

NO annual fee, NO FX fees and points worth 1 Avios per £1 Read our full review

British Airways American Express Accelerating Business Card

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

Comments (28)

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

  • Mike Hunt says:

    Is there a Grantley Hall review to follow at some stage – great for us Northerner’s to read about a northern hotel

    • Rob says:

      No. Too big, too much happening to do it justice without running to 3 parts. Might do a summary. Very much worth it though.

      • The Savage Squirrel says:

        Sounds like an ideal bank holiday weekend piece then. Just sayin’…

    • yorkieflyer says:

      Nah we all just go to Benidorm or Blackpool don’t we?

      • Rob says:

        To do it justice (which I can’t, because we didn’t use half of it) would require a review of epic length and would also have required considerable messing out during my stay. I’ve got enough to do a short (ie normal length) review though.

    • GeoffreyB says:

      Us Northerner’s what?

    • NorthernLass says:

      Like us Northerners would pay that much for a hotel 😂

  • David S says:

    Speaking of buying IHG points, are there any thoughts on the US Daily Getaway points purchases rolling out next week. IHG selling at $500 for 100,000 points. IHG on 12th June, Hilton on 13th, etc

    • Rob says:

      IHG is usually same price as in a 100% bonus sale BUT these deals don’t count towards your annual ‘buy points’ cap so – for someone who really knows how to maximise bought points – its worth doing.

      I bought Choice points last year which I used for my Oslo trip if you remember.

      • Julia says:

        Rob, do you know the name of the holding company which owns both the Hilton Arts Hotels Tapestry brand and Marriott’s Four Points brand? I was wondering if it was possible to buy points in that company which would then cover stays at either properties.

        I was in the newly opened Hilton Arts Hotel Tapestry collection in Porto last week and the receptionist recognised me from our stay the previous week at the Four Points Portugal She said they were owned by the same group.

        • Rob says:

          It’s relatively standard for hotel ownership or management groups to run different brands. Look at Cycas for example, which has 45 hotels inc Hyatt Place in East London and HIX Bridgewater. You just pick and choose depending on the location.

          It may not actually be common ownership, may just be common management.

          A big growth area in hotels at the moment is professional management of independently owned hotels. Whilst IHG will manage an InterContinental, a HIX is a pure franchise and the property owner is expected to fully manage it. Groups like Cycas fill the gap.

          • Julia says:

            Thanks Rob. Really thought I was onto something useful there but looks like back to the grind saving the hard way.

  • Bervious says:

    Managed to snag 2 tickets, think there was an issue with the seatspy redirection link but a quick edit, paste and copy seemed to do the trick.

    • Jerry says:

      The broken link tripped up my purchase and by time paypal connected all sold I think. There’s always tomorrow.

    • Chas says:

      Yup – the SeatSpy error was frustrating and meant that I missed out. Hopefully I can get one tomorrow.

  • Kelvin K says:

    same here, broken links and very slow. Then all the tickets had gone.

    • Rhys says:

      SeatSpy tripled their instances – they think they probably had 1 instance go under a bit.

  • Marlene says:

    it was sold out after 2min 🙁

  • Richard says:

    There was an issue with the redirection link from SeatSpy to Eventbrite…it failed just after 12 noon and the page produced said that it was no longer available. When I managed to reload the page at 12:03 all the tickets had been sold!!! Worse than trying to book Peter Kay at the O2! I hope that I have better luck tomorrow.

    • Rhys says:

      Many more tickets available tomorrow!

      • MD says:

        Hopefully with the correct link posted this time!

      • Chas says:

        @Rhys – will SeatSpy subscribers who get tickets through the normal process tomorrow also get the extra raffle ticket?

  • S says:

    We had a night at Grantley booked between lockdowns a few years ago for 350 quid, which we ended up cancelling in all the covid uncertainty. Incidentally the staff were initially unreachable, and then completely unhelpful when I tried calling about something, which didn’t help. Looking at the pricing now I rather wish I’d gone!

    • Rob says:

      Could not have been more helpful to us – they rang me a week before arrival, talked through any requests, explained the restaurants, booked us in for breakfast (they ask you to set a time) etc.

      • S says:

        Yes restaurants etc is mainly what I was trying to pin them down on, but I ought to give them the benefit of the doubt given the madness of that period

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

The UK's biggest frequent flyer website uses cookies, which you can block via your browser settings. Continuing implies your consent to this policy. Our privacy policy is here.