Bits: Luxury Travel Diary auctions, Amex Travel cashback deal

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News in brief:

Luxury Travel Diary auctions

The Luxury Travel Diary site dropped me a line about another wave of its auctions closing soon.

Interesting options closing in the next 48 hours include four nights at the Sofitel in Essaouira, Morrocco and two nights at the Four Seasons Nile Plaza in Cairo. If you are near Batley, there is a £100 voucher for the Potting Shed Spa currently at £3. Not everything will work for you, either in terms of location, length or dates, but you’ll probably find something of interest if you poke around.

New American Express cashback travel deal

American Express Travel is currently offering £50 back on a £200 spend. This should show as an offer on your online statement page and needs to be ‘saved’ to your card in order to activate it.

The transaction must be made online, which limits you to simple transactions which do not require a telephone call, and before 28th February. This could be attractive for some prepaid hotel bookings and cheaper flight bookings although you would need to weigh up the risk of any hotel stay being non-qualifying.

Annoyingly, a generous offer of £200 back on a £1,000 Trailfinders booking seems to have reached its cap of 4,000 registered cards very quickly. I can no longer find it against any of our six family cards.

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 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

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

Category

American Airlines and AAdvantage, American Express Gold card, American Express Platinum card, Hilton Honors, Marriott Bonvoy

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

Andrew Burns says:

3 Jan3 January 04:33

Thanks for the heads up about the AmEx travel credit. However, I can’t see it on either of my cards’ statement pages nor on the AmEx connect website, which is annoying as I was just about to book a flight through them!
- Brian says:
  
  3 Jan3 January 08:07
  
  Are you just looking on the statement page or on the offers part of your statement page??
Jen says:

3 Jan3 January 06:15

Got the offer from Amex Travel on one of our platinum cards, but not the other account. Turns out to be useful, but you need to do your research first: one of our flights was £100 more expensive on Amex travel compared to booking direct. Hertz bookings seem excellent value however – cheaper than the direct booking with the Amex Platinum code, still get the platinum benefits and an extra £50 off.
- John says:
  
  3 Jan3 January 09:16
  
  Amex Travel probably didn’t have the lowest booking class. It is pretty good at selling GDS fares if you put in the right times.
  - RIcatti says:
    
    3 Jan3 January 16:32
    
    Or they are not configured to sell the lowest classes — being “the premium segment”.
    
    I had cases where I called Amex Travel and was able to find and book comparable fare (to the cheapest online) over the phone. This was QR (Qatar Airways).
    
    There is one more advantage that travel agents get fare variations with better cancellation terms.
- Mike says:
  
  3 Jan3 January 23:12
  
  Just done a costing for Malaga and strangely, it’s showing a decent price for a Corsa at £176 but then jumps to the next car priced at £367 – nothing in between. £50 saving obviously can’t be used for the £176 car. Does anyone know the insurance excess charges via Hertz ?
Trev says:

3 Jan3 January 06:58

Re: Hilton, there have been a run of bonus point promotions recently so maybe another devaluation? Or possibly improvements to diamond/reduction of gold benefits?
- James67 says:
  
  3 Jan3 January 08:51
  
  It’s hard to see them devaluing the high end as that would result in ridiculous standard redemotion rates close to or exceeding six figures. I could see big devaluations in the 5-30k properties though. My guess is that the benefits might take a big hit across the board and 5for4 may go.
Anon says:

3 Jan3 January 07:01

Re Hilton, any clues?

How do they intend to make it more about me?

Discounted HHonor redemptions at hotels I’ve stayed at previously?

Would be nice if they asked what “enhancements” I’d like, ie a return of welcome snacks & drinks vouchers for HH Golds at UK properties..
BigDave says:

3 Jan3 January 07:48

amex travel offer is annoying as we already paid for flights for next year through them last month….
having said that waiting until now would mean the flights would go up more than £50 anyway
Jason says:

3 Jan3 January 07:55

I sent Amex a secure email and they added to my cards
- Wayne Phillips says:
  
  3 Jan3 January 09:22
  
  Me too
  - Sorrelle says:
    
    3 Jan3 January 14:09
    
    How long did it take for you to get a response from American Express?
    - Wayne Phillips says:
      
      3 Jan3 January 14:11
      
      < 24 hours.
      They didn't know the offer at first and requested the exact text which someone on here kindly sent to me for forwarding on
      - Sorrelle says:
        
        3 Jan3 January 14:18
        
        Thanks. I sent an e-mail to Amex this morning so will hopefully get a quick response.
N says:

3 Jan3 January 07:57

OT 300 free Accor points available in my eRewards account. No clue why. Annoying because it now means I have 1997 points and need to make a booking in the next week that I could do with 40eur off!
- the real harry says:
  
  3 Jan3 January 08:01
  
  the Accor auto convert option is still working if you search for it – auto convert any amount to IB Avios – tricky to get it working but I & many others here have done exactly that, somebody reported success just a couple of months ago
  
  somebody with an under-2000 points total should give it a go
  
  understandably I don’t want to mess with our Accor a/cs now it is working!
- Brian says:
  
  3 Jan3 January 08:09
  
  If it’s the same as with my e-rewards account, those 300 points are your ‘sign-up bonus’ for completing your first survey.
Rob says:

3 Jan3 January 08:09

Making some assumptions that 1) HfP is a Diamond Hilton Hhoners member and 2) The reason I haven’t recieved it is because I am ony a Gold member (and not due to a delay) I guess it is only going to be good news for Diamonds.
- Rob says:
  
  3 Jan3 January 08:16
  
  I am Diamond but I won’t be by the time anything happens!
  - James67 says:
    
    3 Jan3 January 08:59
    
    So you are not diamond through 18 or you think the changes are that far off? The former seems more likeky so why not request a renewal challenge and achieve in by ‘slumming’ it in the Conrad as oppised to Hyatt on your forthcoming trip to Japan?
    - Genghis says:
      
      3 Jan3 January 10:56
      
      My previous status match ended March 17. I emailed them saying I’ll make a cash booking at Conrad Bali (April 17) and provided Accor Plat Diamond membership screen print and they matched me to March 18. This was about 6 months ago now mind…
- Gus says:
  
  3 Jan3 January 08:21
  
  I’m a HH Gold and also got the same email. Another ‘enhancement’ on the way I’d say (enjoying the same level of pessimism as Rob B).
- Chris says:
  
  3 Jan3 January 08:22
  
  They are going out to everyone (in batches by the look of it), I know a couple of golds and my Dad has also had one – he is a mere blue member.
  
  My email has only arrived in the last couple of hours so they are still going out.
  
  They did allude a while back (end of 2015?) that the promos were going to switch to two worldwide and two personalised ones per year but it has never happened.
  
  Hilton Accelerate anyone?
- Alan says:
  
  3 Jan3 January 09:38
  
  Don’t think so, lots of Diamonds (incl Lifetime Diamonds) received it. Hilton emails are very hit and miss, I almost never receive them.
  
  I’m hoping at worst they’re just planning a more targeted promo like IHG although their IT is similarly useless so doubt this would be in any way decent!