Spend £50, get £25 back with Amex / London Restaurant Festival – and how to exploit it

The London Restaurant Festival is back this year, running from 3rd to 21st October.

American Express is again sponsoring the festival, and is offering £25 cashback on your statement when you make 2 x £25 purchases at participating restaurants.

You need to register your card in advance at this site.  It seems that only Amex-issued cards are accepted, not MBNA or Lloyds cards.

The list of ‘participating restaurants’ is unfortunately nowhere to be found at that link but we can live in hope that it appears before the 3rd.  It may or not be the full list of all 400 restaurants participating in the festival.

I was a bit dismissive of this offer when it was first announced.  You won’t get much for £25 at any of the participating sites, even if you eat alone, so it will be £25 back on a far larger spend than £50!

However, the more I thought about, the more I thought that you can ‘play a game’ here:

If you and your partner each have an Amex card, you should both register for the offer and split your bill as long as each payment is over £25.

If you were very aggressive, you could ask to pay the bill over three or four cards, even for just two people.  (A cash tip may help here!).  Keep each payment over £25.

You could even ask to split the bill and then pay both bills with the same card!  That would trigger the £25 statement credit immediately.  However, if you do this I would make two unequal payments.  Amex may think it is an error if two identical charges are made on the same card within a minute of each other.

If you can find any participating restaurant that sells gift cards, this would also be an interesting option. 

 Any more ideas?

Want to earn more points from credit cards? – December 2021 update

If you are looking to apply for a new credit or charge card, here are our November 2021 recommendations based on the current sign-up bonus. 

You can see our full directory of all UK cards which earn airline or hotel points here. Here are the top current deals:

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 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

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

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 Gold

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

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points sign-up bonus and a long list of travel benefits 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

The most generous Avios Visa or Mastercard for a limited company 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 and no annual fee Read our full review