Get some cheap Avios with the Amex & Mr Porter ‘bonus Membership Rewards’ promo

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American Express has been emailing selected cardholders this week with an offer from online male fashion website mrporter.com

This is what I got as a Platinum cardholder:

And here’s one more reason to shop: as an American Express Platinum Cardmember you can earn 1,000 Membership Rewards points at mrporter.com on your first purchase between 15 October and 20 November 2012 whilst also enjoying complementary shipping. Simply enter the promotional code AMEXMRPUK at checkout to redeem.

(If you are a Gold card holder, you may have had a similar deal offering 750 points.)

Now, to a points hunter like me, I want to know if I can exploit this promo to get myself some cheap Avios. And, it seems, I can!

The cheapest thing I can find on mrporter.com are some socks, eg these socks for £8.

mrporter.com is on the British Airways e-store paying 4 Avios per £1, which is currently doubled to 8 Avios per £1. So, for £8 including free postage I will receive 1,008 Membership Rewards points, 64 Avios from the e-store and a pair of loafer socks!

My guide to Membership Rewards shows that 1,008 is good for 1,008 Avios points or Virgin miles, or a range of hotel points – plus 64 e-store Avios.

It seems a decent deal for £8 to me, and my socks are already somewhere with DHL on their way to me! Note that Mr Porter sends everything by DHL, so – even for a pair of socks – they need an address where someone can sign for the package.

How to earn Avios points from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (December 2021)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards. Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways BA Amex American Express card

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up, no annual fee and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending ….. Read our full review

British Airways BA Premium Plus American Express Amex credit card

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the UK’s most valuable credit card perk – the 2-4-1 companion voucher Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points, such as:

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & two airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

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

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital On Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios:

Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa

The most generous Avios Visa or Mastercard for a limited company Read our full review

You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus:

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

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.

(Want to earn more Avios? Click here to visit our home page for our latest articles on earning and spending your Avios points and click here to see how to earn more Avios this month from offers and promotions.)

Category

American Express Membership Rewards

This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.

pazza2000 says:

17 Oct17 October 08:10

I received a lesser offer for double avios on card spend with the BA Premium Plus.
- Phil says:
  
  17 Oct17 October 09:53
  
  Hi Pazza,
  I never received this. Do you know if have activated an email box somewhere on the Amex siteI dont seem to get these offers.
  - Raffles says:
    
    17 Oct17 October 10:02
    
    Log in at americanexpress.co.uk
    
    Click ‘Profile and Preferences’ and look under ‘Marketing Preferences’. For my Plat, I see this:
    
    You are currently receiving 6 of 8 marketing communications:
    Improvements to your Card
    Restaurant offers
    Cardmember events
    Shopping offers
    Competitions
    Travel offers
    
    There are also boxes to accept email, postal and phone offers (I have phone set to No).
    
    The key is – YOU MUST SET THIS UP FOR EACH CARD SEPARATELY. If you get BA Amex offers, you still don’t get Plat offers unless you opt in.
Roger says:

17 Oct17 October 09:10

Thanks for this, Raffles. Suddenly two orders are on their way to us.

Interesting that the AmEx promo knocks off the £5 post & packing fee otherwise chargeable.
Richard says:

17 Oct17 October 09:24

Any idea what the Gold Amex promo code is?
- David says:
  
  17 Oct17 October 10:58
  
  I’m not sure that there was a gold code for free delivery.
Mummy55 says:

17 Oct17 October 10:20

Thanks Raffels, ordered socks, clicked named day delivery(£8) and it still was taken off with code. Now know that my socks will arrive friday so can make sure someone is in to sign for them!
- Mr Bridge says:
  
  17 Oct17 October 11:37
  
  just the standard £5 delivery is free
ups says:

17 Oct17 October 11:12

There’s a lot of variations of this mentioned on FT. Annoyingly I didn’t get anything for my gold!
Mummy55 says:

17 Oct17 October 11:53

Have checked my invoice, “nominated day delivery £0”.
Trevor says:

17 Oct17 October 12:08

Seems Mr Porter is aptly named to carry off your money! The prices are silly and anyone who normally shops here certainly has more money than sense and clearly has no need for points anyway. As it is, this “offer” nets you 1,072 Avios at a cost of around 0.75p/point, so hardly a bargain since that’s their value anyway. Seems it’s just needlessly swapping money for points. Enjoy your (half) socks 🙂
- David says:
  
  17 Oct17 October 12:37
  
  Value of an Avios point (or any other) is something personal. You should always know your own value.
  
  As far as I am aware, 0.75p is what Raffles uses for his minimum value – as he knows he can get that value or more out of them. (also Vs. the quantity held, etc ractoring in devaulation risk, etc).
  
  Personally, I know I can easily get 0.8p or 0.9p minimum value out of them without stress, in fact often 1p or much more.
  
  As such, I will happily buy them at this price – the socks are a side benefit (well, wait an see if they are any benefit at all).
  
  While I agree with you about Mr Porter – it is certainly not for me, I would howver say if you are puting a MAXIMUM value on them of 0.75p (rather than it being a minimum – at which it makes sense to buy), then I don’t think you should be going out of your way to collect them!
  
  Know your personal value of an Avios point.
  - Trevor says:
    
    18 Oct18 October 11:40
    
    Thanks, David and Raffles, for your good advice and feedback. Even though not taking part in the offer, I am glad I got involved in this post with a possibly controversial comment, opening the door to some out-the-box thinking with some different perspectives.
    
    As you rightly say, the value of points are a personal thing (more so than I originally thought), and I’ve worked out the value for Reward Flight Savers to be 1p/point while long haul value sinks to about 0.6p/point, hence a 0.75p/point average seems fair, certainly for any average points spender.
    
    Therefore in my case, without 241’s or other (known) benefits, I can’t get much more value currently and hence swapping cash for points at the same value doesn’t seem worthwhile (or even for a meagre increase considering I recently applied for Amex Platinum, valuing the card charge at about 0.18p/point, hence a great investment).
    
    What I didn’t consider in this instance is the possible future value of the points as pointed out by Raffles, if/when MR have a transfer bonus, or if I do get a 241 (though that won’t be for at least a year).
    
    I’m new to playing this game seriously, so I am certainly eager to learn all the tricks and grateful for the education I am already receiving here.
    
    My questions now are, how often does MR do transfer bonuses, and when I cancel the Amex Platinum after initial spend and referral bonuses have posted, do I have to close my MR a/c as well, i.e. most likely transferring the points out at a standard 1:1? In a previous post, Raffles replied to my comment with “…wait 6 months from closing your Membership Rewards account from the Plat before you can apply for Gold.” Does that therefore mean that both the card and MR a/c must be closed simultaneously, or can the MR a/c be kept indefinitely, but it will prevent you from gaining the next card’s bonus?
    - Raffles says:
      
      18 Oct18 October 12:26
      
      The rules about closing MR accounts are complex and I have been guilty of misstating the policy before. As I understand it, this is the deal. If you have NO other Amex-issued Amex cards, you need to empty your MR account when you close the card. However, if you have another Amex-issued Amex which does NOT give MR points (eg BA Amex), they will let you keep your MR account open for 6 months, during which time you need to get another MR points issuing card (eg Gold, Green) or spend them.
      
      Plat and Gold Avios conversion bonuses seem to come along once a year, but are targetted – there is no guarantee you will be given the chance to take part every time. I didn’t get the one that just finished.
      - Trevor says:
        
        18 Oct18 October 16:04
        
        I appreciate your response and honesty – even if it is possibly misstated, at least I have a much better idea of where I stand:
        
        – Will have to transfer points out as I have no other card, and getting one would mean no joining bonus as no 6 month gap. And even if I did…
        
        – Will very likely not get a transfer bonus – specially in the next 4 months if they’re generally annual and one has just been.
Mummy55 says:

17 Oct17 October 12:45

Collecting points is maybe the way we save money on travel in order to shop on net-a-porter for handbags and maybe buy Mr Mummy55 some socks?(it is almost Christmas!)