Use your Amex Platinum dining credit for an Ivy gift card and get a free bottle of Cuvée

A valuable benefit that comes with The Platinum Card from American Express is £300 of annual dining credit, increasing to £400 on 1st January 2025. It makes a big dint in the annual membership fee.

For 2024, you receive:

• £150 to spend in 170 or so UK restaurants

• £150 to spend in 1,000+ international restaurants

For 2025, you receive:

• £200 to spend in 170 or so UK restaurants, split into £100 between January and June and £100 between July and December

• £200 to spend in 1,000+ international restaurants, split into £100 between January and June and £100 between July and December

You can spend the money over multiple visits to multiple restaurants if you wish. It doesn’t need to be spent in one go.

One of the most common questions asked in our forum is whether the £150 UK Platinum Dining credit can be used for a restaurant gift card. This is a handy way of using your credit if you don’t think you can make it to a participating restaurant before 31st December.

If you mean ‘a restaurant gift card’ you can order online then the answer is No.

However, if you want to use your £150 of UK Platinum Dining credit for a meal to enjoy next year, the most popular option is a gift card for ‘The Ivy’ group of restaurants.

You must buy ‘The Ivy’ gift cards in person to trigger the £150 Platinum dining credit. Do not buy them online because the dining credit won’t trigger.

Get a free bottle of sparking Cuvée

The Ivy has brought back the ‘free booze’ offer it ran last year.

Buy a £100 gift card and you will receive a free bottle of The Ivy Sparkling Cuvée. See the website here.

The offer works for online or in-restaurant gift card purchases, but the American Express Platinum cashback offer only applies if you buy a gift card in a restaurant.

Check the list of participating restaurants first to ensure that your local branch of The Ivy is included in the Amex cashback deal. You need to avoid The Ivy Belfast because it is not offering the Cuvée due to local licensing restrictions.

To maximise the £150 restaurant credit, you can buy a £100 gift card – to trigger the Cuvée – and a separate £50 card to get to £150 and receive the full cashback.

Remember that Amex Platinum has an 80,000 points bonus

If you had been thinking about getting The Platinum Card from American Express, now is a great time.

The sign-up bonus is increased to 80,000 Membership Rewards points, which converts to 80,000 Avios, if you can spend £10,000 in six months.

In terms of sign-up points, dining and Harvey Nichols credits, you would receive in your first year:

• 80,000 Membership Rewards points
• £300 of annual dining credit (£150 UK, £150 international) to use by 31st December 2024
• £400 of annual dining credit (£200 UK, £200 international) on 1st January 2025 to use during the year
• £50 of Harvey Nichols credit to use by 31st December 2024 and a further £50 to spend between 1st January and 30th June 2025, when the offer ends

You can, for now, cancel the card at any point for a pro-rata fee refund.

Full details of the 80,000 points bonus offer are in this HfP article.

You can apply for the card here.

PS. Reader Tim has created an interactive map of restaurants where the Amex Platinum £150 dining credit can be used. Check it out here.

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Want to earn more points from credit cards? – December 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:

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 14th January 2025, the sign-up bonus on ‘free for a year’ American Express Preferred Rewards Gold is increased to 30,000 Membership Rewards points. This converts into 30,000 Avios. Click here to apply.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 14th January 2025, the sign-up bonus on The Platinum Card from American Express is increased to 80,000 Membership Rewards points. This converts into 80,000 Avios! The spend requirement is changed to £10,000 in six months for this offer. Click here to apply.

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 9th December 2024, there are EXCLUSIVE sign-up offers for our readers on the two Capital on Tap small business Visa cards. You can earn 20,000 points on the Business Rewards card and 30,000 points on the new Pro card. 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 when you spend at least £2,000 per month.