Bits: last call for £15 Amazon / Amex discount, no SPG points from Uber, Madrid BA lounge

News in brief:

£15 Amazon discount code ending soon

For the last 10 months or so, Amazon has been offering an exclusive £15 discount code for Amex Gold, Green and Platinum cardholders when they spend £25 or more.  Holders of the Amex Rewards Credit Card should also be able to take part.

This offer expires on 31st October.  If you haven’t taken advantage of it yet – probably because you didn’t have an Amex Gold or Amex Platinum when it launched last Christmas – this is your last chance.

You will save £15 on your next Amazon order of £25 or more as long as you part-pay with Membership Rewards points from your Amex Gold or Platinum card.  This is what to do:

If you have not already done so, link your Membership Rewards account with your Amazon account by visiting this page on the Amazon website

Buy £25 of items on amazon.co.uk (these MUST all be sold by Amazon and not third party merchants, and excludes digital content and gift cards)

Enter code AMEX16SWP at check out

You MUST select your Membership Rewards-earning Amex card as your payment card (you cannot use gift cards or any other payment source)

Part-pay for your order using Membership Rewards points.  The sneaky option is to redeem just 2 points for a 1p discount.  This saves you ‘wasting’ MR points on a low value redemption.  You will only get 0.45p per point and you shouldn’t waste more than 2 of your valuable points on such a poor deal!

The Amazon link above (and here) pays HFP a small commission if you use it – thank you.

This offer is open to all UK American Express Gold, Green, Platinum and presumably American Express Rewards cardholders.  It will NOT work on brand new Amazon accounts, however.  It isn’t clear when the cut off was, but if you don’t already have an existing Amazon account don’t bother opening one just for this deal.

No more Starwood Preferred Guest points from Uber

Starwood Preferred Guest has announced that it is ending its Uber partnership on 17th December.

This is a shame, as it was a very easy way to rack up SPG points.  You would earn 1 SPG point for every $2 equivalent spent with Uber, up to a maximum of 10,000 Starwood points per year.  Given that I value a Starwood point at 1.5p, this was a rebate worth having.  You even earned points on rides taken with Uber credit from Tesco Clubcard.

If you never registered for this promotion, you can still sign up and earn a few points during the final seven weeks.  This Head for Points article explains how to link your Uber and Starwood accounts and the registration page is here.

Fully refurbished lounge in Madrid Terminal 4S now open

The Sala VIP Velázquez lounge in Terminal 4S at Madrid Airport is now open again after a major refurbishment.

The reason for mentioning this is that, if you are flying British Airways, you are likely to find yourself in the 4S satellite terminal and in this lounge.  Some Iberia flights also use it as I found recently.

There are a couple of pictures on Flyertalk here – it looks very impressive.

Refurbishment work will now start on the Dali lounge in the main terminal, which you are more likely to use if flying on Iberia to the UK.

How to get FREE airport lounge access via UK credit cards (December 2021)

As a reminder, here are the three options to get FREE airport lounge access via a credit or charge card:

The Platinum Card from American Express

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

The Platinum Card from American Express comes with two free Priority Pass cards, one for you and one for a supplementary cardholder. Each card admits two so a family of four gets in free. You get access to all 1,300 lounges in the Priority Pass network – search it here. 

You also get access to Plaza Premium, Delta and Eurostar lounges.  Our American Express Platinum review is here. You can apply here.

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

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold is FREE for the first year. It comes with a Priority Pass card loaded with two free visits to any Priority Pass lounge – see the list here. 

Additional lounge visits are charged at £20.  You get two more free visits for every year you keep the card.  

There is no annual fee for Amex Gold in Year 1 and you get a 20,000 points sign-up bonus.  Full details are in our American Express Preferred Rewards Gold review here.

HSBC Premier World Elite Mastercard

A huge bonus, but only available to HSBC Premier clients Read our full review

HSBC Premier World Elite Mastercard gets you get a free LoungeKey card, allowing you access to the LoungeKey network.  Guests are charged at £20 although it may be cheaper to pay £60 for a supplementary credit card for your partner.

The card has a fee of £195 and there are strict financial requirements to become a HSBC Premier customer.  Full details are in my HSBC Premier World Elite Mastercard review.

PS. You can find all of HfP’s UK airport lounge reviews – and we’ve been to most of them – indexed here.