Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

New Amex £1,000+ cashback flood – IHG, Marriott, SLH, Minor, Virgin, AF-KLM, Singapore

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

I take back everything we wrote about American Express cashback deals apparently disappearing for good.

A flood of deals has emerged in the last 24 hours, for both airlines and hotels.

I suspect many of us may be rethinking our upcoming travel plans ….

American Express hotel and airline cashback offers

Let’s start with the hotel offers. As always, some, all or none of these deals will show under the ‘Offers’ tab on one or more of your American Express cards. You need to click ‘Save to card’ to register before making your transaction.

Hilton

To keep the discussion in one place, I want to start by reminding you that Hilton has already launched a ‘get £50 back on £200 spend’ offer which we wrote about here.

Marriott

Marriott is offering £100 cashback when you spend £400 before 3rd July. Cumulative spending is OK.

I suspect a more generous version will emerge for holders of the Marriott Bonvoy American Express card in the next few days.

The list of participating hotels is here. It covers most of Europe.

This will double up with the current Marriott Bonvoy promotion. You will receive 1,000 bonus points per night, plus double elite night credits, on every stay between 13th February and 29th April.  Registration closes on 15th April. Our full article is here and you can register here.

IHG

IHG is offering £75 cashback when you spend £300 before 11th August. Cumulative spending is OK.

The list of participating hotels is here. It covers much of Europe.

This will double up with the current IHG One Rewards promotion. You will earn 2,000 bonus points for every two cash nights you stay between 1st April and 31st May.  Nights do not need to be consecutive. Our full article is here and you can register here.

Small Luxury Hotels of the World

SLH is leaving World of Hyatt on 15th May and will join Hilton Honors as a partner soon after. These offers will credit either via a direct hotel booking or if you go via Hyatt or Hilton.

SLH is offering £100 cashback when you spend £300 before 3rd July. Cumulative spending is OK.

The list of participating hotels is here. This is a global list, not just Europe.

Minor Hotels (Anantara, NH, nhow, Avani, Tivoli)

This is the first time that Minor Hotels has run an American Express cashback offer across all of its brands. We usually just see NH Hotels and nhow included.

Minor is offering £50 cashback when you spend £150 before 3rd July. Cumulative spending is OK.

The list of participating hotels is here. This is a global list, not just Europe.

Most (all?) of these hotels are part of Global Hotel Alliance. You can learn about how GHA works, and its generous GHA DISCOVERY loyalty scheme, in this article.

New American Express cashback on flights

Let’s move on to the airline deals

Remember that you need to be targetted for these deals under the ‘Offers’ tab of your Amex card, in the app or online. Don’t waste your time looking under your British Airways American Express card ….

Save £250 with Virgin Atlantic

Well …. this could be the first ever Virgin Atlantic cashback deal we’ve seen.

You will get £250 cashback when you spend £1,500 with Virgin Atlantic.

You must book by 22nd May and depart from a UK airport. Cumulative spend is OK.

I am fairly certain that taxes and charges on Virgin Atlantic redemption flights WILL trigger the cashback as long as you hit the £1,500 threshold. They go through your credit card in the usual way. American Express will get details of the underlying flight but is it smart enough to weed out redemptions? The T&C don’t even explicitly block redemptions.

The cashback will NOT trigger on the purchase of Virgin Points because this is handled by a third party intermediary.

You can check prices on the Virgin Atlantic website here.

Save £400 with Singapore Airlines

The second offer is worth £400 cashback when you spend £2,500 with Singapore Airlines.

You must book by 22nd May and depart from a UK airport. Cumulative spend is OK. Remember that Singapore Airlines is restarting Gatwick flights in June, alongside the Heathrow services – Rhys will be on the inaugural flight to report back on the business class seat and service.

You can check prices and times on the Singapore Airlines website here.

Save £150 with Air France / KLM

The third offer is worth £150 cashback when you spend £1,500 across Air France or KLM.

There are TWO versions of the offer. One is branded Air France, one is branded KLM. The version you register for is the airline website you need to use.

Irrespective of which version you have, the Air France and KLM websites are identical and carry each others flights. They also carry Virgin Atlantic transatlantic flights under AF/KLM flight numbers.

All flights need to depart from UK airports.

You must book by 22nd May.

The Air France website is here. The KLM website is here.

PS. If you are not a regular Head for Points visitor, why not sign up for our FREE weekly or daily newsletters? They are full of the latest Avios, airline, hotel and credit card points news and will help you travel better. To join our 65,000 free subscribers, click the button below or visit this page of the site to find out more. Thank you.

earns points from credit cards

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

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on the ‘free for a year’ American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card is increased from 20,000 Membership Rewards points to 30,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (30,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on American Express Platinum is increased from 50,000 Membership Rewards points to a huge 80,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (80,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

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

30,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 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:

American Express Business Platinum

50,000 points when you sign-up 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 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

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

Category

Air France KLM and Flying Blue, Hilton Honors, IHG One Rewards, Marriott Bonvoy, Virgin Atlantic and Flying Club

Comments (97)

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

  • Jim says:
    11 Apr11 April 06:52

    The T&C’s of these hotel offers are very confusing.

    Does ‘checkout spend’ literally mean what is charged to your card when you check out? So any bookings made online and paid in advance will not count?

    And what is meant by ‘settled in GBP’? Obviously, if you stay at one of the non UK hotels, they will charge in local currency (unless you opt for the notorious rip off that is dynamic currency conversion) and then it is translated into GBP by AMEX. If it just means that your card account is in GBP, then why have it as an extra requirement, as *any* transaction you make will be converted to GBP by AMEX?

    • Paul says:
      11 Apr11 April 07:11

      It means a U.K. £ card. It doesn’t matter what currency the transaction is in so long as you settle the account in £. Twas ever thus!
      What is important is that the hotel is in the list.

      • Jim says:
        11 Apr11 April 07:45

        Thanks. That makes sense. But it does add unnecessary confusion. Presumably, this offer is only being made available to UK issued GBP cards anyway, so why add it as an additional requirement?

  • Ian says:
    11 Apr11 April 06:53

    I note with Minor Hotels that they include hotels in countries where Amex does not have a card.

    E.g. Portugal (and others)

    Yet we are told that Portugal doesn’t feature for say Hilton because Amex does not have a card there.

    This can’t be true, if another chain includes these locations.

    So I am wondering why we see Amex exclude them from say Hilton?

    • TGLoyalty says:
      11 Apr11 April 09:54

      It was an assumption (I always thought it wasn’t just they don’t issue cards but rather not harming revenue is certain markets)

      But in any case It’s not Amex that decide it’s the hotel chain.

  • Tom says:
    11 Apr11 April 07:03

    The number of travel offers here is crazy and some of the airline ones are quite generous. I think this is a definite sign airlines are starting to see forward long haul bookings trail off finally. I won’t be booking any non-refundable flights for later than mid-2024 now.

    • BJ says:
      11 Apr11 April 07:29

      I hope so because I’ll run out of miles at some point in 25 with little chance of major replenishment so I’m looking at mostly revenue flight 2026 onwards. In this respect amex airline offers will always be welcome although chances of using them are always slim for various reasons.

  • rob(staaaar) says:
    11 Apr11 April 07:07

    Ah Amex. Yesterday, stick; Today, carrot. And there’s not even a succulent Chinese meal in sight!

  • Paul says:
    11 Apr11 April 07:08

    It is a testament to how ludicrously expensive U.K. departures have become, (and I don’t blame APD!) that all the airline deals preclude departing from anywhere else!

    Nothing for Accor on the hotel front!

    • Qrfan says:
      11 Apr11 April 07:22

      Isn’t it more the case that these airlines have local sales offices that agree these offers with amex and the UK sales team can’t/won’t agree to offers that impact sales of other offices?

  • Alex says:
    11 Apr11 April 07:13

    I know the Hilton one will usually work with prepaid bookings but what about the Marriott one?

  • Erico1875 says:
    11 Apr11 April 07:17

    I also have MacDonald Hotels , on BAPP spend £175 get £30 back

  • Rob says:
    11 Apr11 April 07:38

    Ignore the checkout spend nonsense. Or book direct if you really have no faith.

    • PM says:
      11 Apr11 April 08:36

      I had an untracked offer under the same circumstances, escalated first, no response for a long time, told to wait full 90 day period, escalated as a complaint and payment refused citing the check-out payment rule.

      • TGLoyalty says:
        11 Apr11 April 09:49

        And how could they tell? Or did you offer up that info?

        • PM says:
          11 Apr11 April 10:33

          They gave it as a reason, I kept quiet. The booking was made online but payment taken a few days later so I assumed that it is charged at the hotel but must have been a head office or some web payment indication in the description of the merchant.

          It was only £50 but Amex lack of flexibility, understanding, the whole complaint process really put me off using these offers. I got a 10000 retention gift to get some justice later on but the whole thing left a bitter taste.

        • JDB says:
          11 Apr11 April 10:40

          @TGLoyalty – Amex can tell from the date of the charge and whether that pre-dates or coincides with your stay. I think that in the case of SLH, they may bill centrally for prepayments so not triggering these offers.

        • TGLoyalty says:
          11 Apr11 April 16:26

          @JDB How do they know the dates of your stay if you didn’t tell them?

          Honestly I’ve never had an issue with pre-payment but perhaps SLH hotels are booked differently I’ve booked mine via FHR/Emyr/Hyatt before

        • JDB says:
          11 Apr11 April 19:12

          @TGLoyalty – Amex finds out the dates because as soon as there’s a stewards inquiry, you need to produce the evidence to support your eligibility for the offer.

        • TGLoyalty says:
          11 Apr11 April 23:32

          Oh come on! Never been asked for a bill or receipt anytime I’ve ever raised a claim for a missing credit for the last 10 years. it’s as simple as I spent before the deadline at a qualifying location and that’s that.

          When have they ever asked you for 1?

    • PM says:
      11 Apr11 April 19:35

      Fair comment. I was lucky multiple times until I wasn’t and Amex shows zero flexibility despite chat agents confirming transaction “definitely” qualifies.

      • Rob says:
        11 Apr11 April 20:00

        It’s more likely that it hasn’t triggered for some other weird reason. Why would Amex even know you hadn’t stayed?

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

New to Head for Points?

Welcome!  We’re the UK’s most-read source of business travel, Avios, frequent flyer and hotel loyalty news. Let us improve how you travel. Got any questions? Ask them in our forums.

Get 25,000 Avios with the Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

GET A SIGN-UP BONUS OF 18,000 VIRGIN POINTS!

Latest Forum Posts

Get 80,000 bonus points (worth 80,000 Avios) and £400 of dining credit with The Platinum Card (Offer ends 27th May)

Check reward flight availability instantly for free!

See a whole year of reward seat availability on one page at SeatSpy.com

Get up to 10,000 bonus Hilton Honors points

Booking a luxury hotel?

Our luxury hotel booking service offers you GUARANTEED extra benefits over booking direct. Works with Four Seasons, Mandarin Oriental, The Ritz Carlton, St Regis and more. We've booked £1.7 million of rooms to date. Click for details.

SME? GET THE ONLY FREE SMALL BUSINESS CREDIT CARD WHICH CAN EARN AVIOS

Get points worth 30,000 Avios with 'first year free' American Express Gold (ends 27th May)

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.

Got it!