Buy 1,000 Amex Membership Rewards points for £6 with Boris Bikes – even if you’re not in London

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Transport for London really wants you to give its Santander Cycles / Boris Bikes a go!

1,000 American Express Membership Rewards points are on offer when you use the cycle network three times by 24th September 2020.

This appears to be a targetted offer. I had it on my American Express Rewards Card (reviewed here). Rob has it on his Platinum card. You will only find it on cards offering Membership Rewards points.

This is an excellent offer, as it effectively allows you to buy 1,000 Membership Rewards points for 0.6p each. These can be turned into Avios, Virgin Flying Club miles and much more.

Here is how it works. To receive the 1,000 Membership Rewards points bonus you must make three transactions with Santander Cycles.

Here is the pricing information from the TfL website:

“Hiring a Santander Cycle costs £2 for unlimited journeys up to 30 minutes, within a 24 hour period. For journeys longer than 30 minutes, you pay £2 for each additional 30 minutes.“

That means that you only need to spend £2 x three times to trigger the bonus, which means a total outlay of £6.

That’s 0.6p per Membership Reward point

This is a good offer even if you don’t plan to cycle at all! 0.6p per point is an exceptional price. The highest ever ‘Buy Avios’ offer in May, for example, still cost around 0.9p per Avios.

Even better is that you get to avoid public transport and enjoy pootling about London on a bike!

Don’t cycle or don’t live in London? No problem

If, on the other hand, you don’t want to cycle but still want to avail of the bonus points you can simply ‘book’ three 24 hour periods and never actually pick up a bike.

The easiest way to do this is via the Santander Cycles app, which lets you book and pay £2 for 24 hours of bike access online. You can also do this in person at a docking station.

Be aware that you can book for multiple people at the same time (generating multiple release codes) but that this is likely to hit your American Express statement as just one purchase.

Doing this three times in three separate 24 hour periods should be enough to trigger the offer.

There is no minimum spend or other requirements set out in the terms and conditions. The rules do say “Available at participating Santander Cycle docking stations.” but this only seems to rule out any stations which don’t take American Express for some reason.

We’ll give this a test via the app and report back on whether we received our 1,000 points in a few days.

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 Express Membership Rewards

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

Jamie says:

25 Aug25 August 05:06

Please please don’t call them Boris Bikes. Please don’t.
- Rob says:
  
  25 Aug25 August 09:19
  
  Can’t fit the proper name in the headline!
  - ChrisBCN says:
    
    25 Aug25 August 09:33
    
    TfL bikes? I even saved you 2 characters.
    Cycle hire? Saves 1 character.
    London cycles?
- Josh says:
  
  25 Aug25 August 09:41
  
  Like it or not, they were popularly christened that in the Mainstream Media and it helps readers immediately identify what they are…
- TGLoyalty says:
  
  25 Aug25 August 09:47
  
  Why? That’s a commonly used term weather you personally like it or not.
  - J says:
    
    25 Aug25 August 10:32
    
    Countries that name infrastructure projects after incumbent leaders don’t tend to have the best long term track records…
    - Rhys says:
      
      25 Aug25 August 10:47
      
      Countries that *officially* name infrastructure projects….the Santander Cycles have never been called that officially!
    - Save East Coast Rewards says:
      
      25 Aug25 August 10:55
      
      I’m no fan of Boris and the initial work of the cycle hire scheme was started under Ken Livingstone, but even so I tend to use the term Boris Bikes too.
      
      It has never been their official name so blame the press. Also the original name “Barclays Cycle Hire” and the current official name “Santander Cycles” was never going to catch on.
      
      As Boris achieved little as Mayor except for some expensive vanity projects then he can have some credit for the bikes as at least they’re useful.
      - cinereus says:
        
        25 Aug25 August 11:22
        
        There are two issues. It was Mr Livingstone’s project not Mr Johnson’s. And I know of no other Prime Minister who’s successful convinced the mainstream press to predominantly use their chummy first name.
      - Josh says:
        
        25 Aug25 August 14:25
        
        Since when were the press convinced and cajoled into using the PM’s name? It all comes down to him having a fairly unusual name. That’s all.
      - Mark says:
        
        25 Aug25 August 15:16
        
        Choosing things beginning with B also help them being named after him- giving us the Boris Bus.
        
        Unfortunatley Brexit also begins with a B!
      - Crafty says:
        
        25 Aug25 August 22:41
        
        Not his first name.
Andrew says:

25 Aug25 August 06:20

A couple of months ago we were excited to be able to sell our MR for £9 per 1000 – imagine the excitement of being able to turn a £3 profit on this!!
- Jane says:
  
  25 Aug25 August 09:33
  
  Exactly. Email subscription deleted. This blog appears to be now well on the downside of its peak and peddling Amex. Gain £6? Muppets.
  - Peter K says:
    
    25 Aug25 August 10:53
    
    Bye Jane.
  - dezbez says:
    
    25 Aug25 August 11:47
    
    Blimey. Slightly excessive reaction perhaps…
  - Lady London says:
    
    25 Aug25 August 12:25
    
    “[Get] On your bike, @Jane !!
    
    It’s a good reminder to those who might actually *use* it
  - Josh says:
    
    25 Aug25 August 14:26
    
    Are you going to ask for a refund on your subscription fee? Haha
Riccatti says:

25 Aug25 August 06:34

Santander Cycle TfL actually never offered to extend membership period due to Covid non-use.
- Andrew says:
  
  25 Aug25 August 12:05
  
  In fairness, they never stopped providing the service. Frustrating for us commuters, but I suspect they probably still get a lot more use by those who live in London than commuters. It’s nothing compared to the value lost from refunding my season ticket.
  - Rhys says:
    
    25 Aug25 August 12:13
    
    25p a day isn’t exactly a big loss!
  - Lady London says:
    
    25 Aug25 August 12:27
    
    My railcard discount card has not been extended and that’s a bit mean as for 5 months or so it was impossible to use it
- Brian Stevens says:
  
  25 Aug25 August 14:09
  
  I emailed them on this very point and they came back fairly quickly with an offer to extend my membership year by 12 weeks. When I accepted their offer, it came through on the app within a couple of weeks.
mr_jetlag says:

25 Aug25 August 06:53

Great promo especially as they’ve finally installed a cycle dock near our station. Not a fan of the ridiculous green Lime bikes – £1 to unlock then more expensive than a Zipcar per minute…
BJ says:

25 Aug25 August 07:53

Too much hassle for £4ish, nice offer if you use the bikes though.
- Andrew says:
  
  25 Aug25 August 08:01
  
  Agree! Wouldn’t have described this as an “exceptional deal” – but if you’re planning to use the bikes anyway it’s better than nothing. We are in the world of every little helps to get through the day after all.
  - cinereus says:
    
    25 Aug25 August 11:23
    
    Not even worth the time of reading the email header deal for pennies.
    - BJ says:
      
      25 Aug25 August 12:28
      
      Depends on circumstances though. If you need 900 avios or 1850 Hilton points for example then it looks very different from it does if you are sitting on a mountain of points and miles.
      - meta says:
        
        25 Aug25 August 15:56
        
        And people then complain how they can’t earn enough Avios/points anymore because of no Amex churning. However, some of us still amass a substantial amounts precisely because we meticulously take part in almost every opportunity.
      - BJ says:
        
        25 Aug25 August 17:49
        
        I’ve actually earned more since amex changed the rules, took it as a challenge and that motivated me. In recent years I’ve largely avoided the small things like this though as I can afford the luxury but sometimes I’ll still have a go.
Jay says:

25 Aug25 August 08:17

Thanks for hilighting this.
Ba says:

25 Aug25 August 08:57

Not on my card
Greg says:

25 Aug25 August 09:57

Great deal, but only if it’s on your cards. Unfortunately not on mine nor my wife’s