Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

The HfP chat thread – Monday 5th October

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We have decided to run this daily chat thread on Head for Points during the coronavirus outbreak.

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The comments under this article are where you should post questions about travel and, indeed, anything else on your mind.  At this tricky time, and given that many of you are at home, we want the HfP community to have a place to chat.

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Comments (181)

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

  • Baji Nahid says:

    Hello Everyone, a quick question. I had a mac makeup offer saved on my gold card where i would get 12% back every time on the mac website. I clicked on the link given in the terms and conditions and shopped from there. I done 4 transactions but i didn’t get an email from amex that i used the offer (i normally do get them) so im concerned that maybe I’ve done something wrong here.

    Would Appreciate any help

    • Andrew says:

      Emails are hit and miss, so don’t read too much into that. How long ago did you make the transactions? 99% of the time it works fine and the credit will appear a few days after the transaction appears on your account.

      • Baji Nahid says:

        I made the 4 transactions yesterday, thank you so much that is reassuring!

    • AJA says:

      Does anything show up on the savings tab of the offers page on your Amex account? It should show the £ amount you saved if you were successful.

      • Baji Nahid says:

        I shall have a look, i had no idea that was a thing haha! thank you x

  • Andrew says:

    A timely offer to go with Rob’s banner advert for Bicester Village – spend £300, get £40 back appeared on Platinum and supps. Seems to suggest cumulative spend of smaller amounts across multiple shops count.

    • Vit says:

      RE — triple avios, do we have to do anything else beside register and claiming the avios accordingly? Will the awarded avios be triple for any purchases during the special sale event?

      • Rob says:

        No. For clarity, you don’t even need to be registered for the private sale to get triple Avios – everyone gets triple Avios, as long as the receipts you email in are dated October.

        • Vit says:

          Thanks for the clarification, Rob. 🙂

        • Andrew says:

          But also note that Bicester are VERY particular with you using the same card for all transactions you want to claim the Avios on so don’t expect to be able to use multiple Amex offers on different cards and claim Avios for them all. Even if you go with your partner they won’t let you claim Avios for their spend on your BA account – when we go we put it all on my card and sort out later.

    • TGLoyalty says:

      Can buy a gift card at the visitor centre worked last time I had this offer

  • Claire says:

    I should hit spire elite when my ihg credit card points transfer later this month. Hoping they do as will coincide with stay at the indigo in bath ( thanks to hfp). However depending on timing oct half term trip to lanzarote with tui will result in a refund and not sure how this affects reaching spire. If my points are negative do they transfer and result in me being further away from spire? If I do reach spire but have negative points next month do I drop back down in status. Anyone had any experience of this?

    • Andrew says:

      The negative points will just sit on your credit card account so if you are say negative 1000 points on your credit card you’ll need to spend that amount to get back to zero before starting to see points transferred over to IHG again – Creation can’t take back points from IHG.

    • Anna says:

      I don’t think they would deduct points from your IHG account, it’s more likely that your credit card will show a minus balance until you’ve spent the money again.

      • BP says:

        I’ve played with this in the past to see what happened. They can and do take the points from your IHG account.

  • Anna says:

    We had a great stay at the Kimpton Clocktower this weekend, staff were really attentive, we were upgraded to a deluxe room and given 2 x £10 raid the bar coupons. The public areas are gorgeous, and F & B excellent, you could have a great night without actually leaving the hotel (especially with everything closing at 10 pm). Social hour was oddly quiet – there were two families with young children and us! Staff kept us well supplied with large glasses of decent Italian red and white, and I noticed they brought hot chocolate and cupcakes for the children which was a nice touch. There are Elemis toiletries in the bathrooms and masks and mini bottles of hand sanitiser in the lobby for anyone who needs them. Hopefully the stay will trigger the Ambassador renewal extra free night as the card charges are still showing as The Principal! I can thoroughly recommend the place for an outstanding value stay.

    • Andrew says:

      Is Elemis standard across Kimpton? I’m surprised they use such a midrange brand, although slightly better than Molton Brown I guess.

      • Anna says:

        Elemis is considered very posh in these parts Andrew! It was my first Kimpton stay, actually, so I don’t know what they provide in other hotels.

        • Anna says:

          Just noticed I got 500 welcome points as well. I hope the service standards manage to stay that high as I think the hotel is going to become really popular. We saw the manager towelling down another guest’s rain-soaked dog at one point!

      • TGLoyalty says:

        Was a local brand in the Kimpton Edinburgh

    • Crafty says:

      Did you have breakfast? Any good?

    • BrianW says:

      We stayed here on Thursday evening Anna, its first day opened since it closed for Covid and were similarly impressed with the hotel and also the staff. The fitness suite was also impressive. We will return for sure. They upgraded us too as Spire 🙂

  • Michael C says:

    All international schools indefinitely closed in Sri Lanka from tomorrow, airport also indefinitely closed, now also for remodelling works.

  • Sandra says:

    Fortnum & Mason – 10% cash back appeared on gold Amex this morning and 5% cash back on BA (free) until 15/11 and limited to first 7000 to save on their card

    • Andrew says:

      10% back also on Platinum. As is Harvey Nics spend £150, get £30 which would stack nicely with the Platinum spend £100 get £100 back also available at Harvey Nics.

      • Anna says:

        Jo Malone products are always a good deal with these offers as they are never discounted.

        • Michael C says:

          Oh, good catch, Anna – might splash out on an overpriced candle!

          • Anna says:

            Lol, I got one of those candles for my birthday and I’m not sure I will ever be able to bring myself to light it (even with the special Jo Malone matches they send you) 🤣

        • MinR says:

          Yes! Or Creed, or Parfums De Marly, or Maison Francis Kurkdjian 🙂

          • Andrew says:

            Although all those brands you can get at 10% off at Harrods when they have a Rewards weekend. Jo Malone is the one brand that always excludes itself, despite the rest of the Estée Lauder group brands participating in such promotions.

      • Sam says:

        How do you stack offers over more than 1 card?

        • Rob says:

          You can’t (unless your purchase is so big you split the bill) – in this case Andrew will have both offers on the same card.

      • MinR says:

        +1

    • Pid says:

      Fortnum & Mason is on the BAPP too. No point saving though as the version on Plat is better at 10%.

      • Andrew says:

        I’ve got 10% on BAPP. It’s nice to see some retail offers coming online, the hotel offer overload needed some balancing up.

    • Michael C says:

      Thanks for that! Will start ordering the corporate Xmas gift…

  • Sandra says:

    Sorry first 7000 on gold card, first 5000 on BA!

  • Symo says:

    Has there been a HfP review of the Amazon Business American Express Card?

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