Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

The HfP chat thread – Monday 23rd November

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Comments (313)

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

  • DodgyDCF says:

    Dear Diary,

    Day 30 of no new amex offers being populated across all my cards including platinum charge and ARCC, no £250 off Etihad, no £30 back on £100 spend Selfridges, no £5 back on a £30 spend at Esso, no earn 2 additional Membership Rewards points for every £1 spent at Amazon

    Zilch, nada

    Offers came through in September but have since stopped..

    • TGLoyalty says:

      I’d remove all the cards wait a couple days then add them back.

      • meta says:

        Didn’t work for me. I added this morning after 3 days and nothing! Maybe they’ll appear later, but I am doubtful. It didn’t happen last time I tried this.

        • DodgyDCF says:

          I ordered a new card for my lost card, doubt this will help but worth a try

    • Lev441 says:

      Speak to the Brighton team. I had this on my cards who raised this with a tech team behind the scenes who after about a week fixed the issue. If you get fobbed off, HAACA

      • meta says:

        Good to know that they are doing this now.

      • Lady London says:

        Why would you keep the card(s) if this was not fixed rapidly?

        Amex will get the message if you cancel cards and say this is the reason. Until then it’s just talk. But a closed card gets their attention.

        If a few people do it then perhaps they’ll re-enable agets to add offers manually

        • meta says:

          It doesn’t unfortunately. Last time it happened, I cancelled the card. They didn’t seem to care. I reapplied two weeks later and the offers started appearing normally. This was of course pre-pandemic, so now they might be more willing to do something about it.

          • Alex M says:

            Mentioned no offers in the last 3 weeks to CS rep yesterday – he said it was strange and that I should have received at least some offers. He promised to send feedback to the IT dept.

          • DB2020 says:

            Don’t bank on it. I’ve been told twice in recent weeks that my marketing preferences were set to ‘No’ but I could see online that was not the case.

            They claimed to have reset it for me, but there have not been any offers since the last chat with them about two or three weeks ago.

      • Manny_D says:

        Gave CS a call earlier today, and was just told offers are targeted and that they appear in drips and drabs. Basically told to hold out until there are new offers available.

    • BuildTheWall says:

      Are you spending on all these cards? Try to put some spend regularly at different merchants.

      • BuildTheWall says:

        I recently got an Amex gold as a supplementary to my wife’s. Spent regularly for 3 weeks and then offers started trickling in.

        • meta says:

          I’ve had the cards for years. I’m spending on all of them regularly. It happened to me about 2 years ago. Have done so many things to get them flowing at the time. Removing/Adding, new online accounts, complaints. I then complained formally and got some compo from Amex at the time with a promise they’ll look into it. Offers didn’t appear. Then I cancelled just one card (Plat) and reapplied after 2-3 weeks. Offers started appearing a week after on all of the cards. It is clearly an IT issue and I am 90% certain it’s to do with the removal of some of the offers due to lockdown despite the fact that everyone has the same message. It started a few days before this message appeared. This is probably because of some weird IT setup on the account and possibly linked to my postcode as my partner stopped receiving offers as well. I’m thinking they might look at it after lockdown again, but I doubt it.

  • Tony says:

    Esso fuel offer on Amex Plat Bus £5 for £30 spend

    • Charlieface says:

      Got it on my BA free also.
      Once per card this time 🙁
      Who remembers the unlimited £10 one a couple years back? I think I got £150 out of it…

    • Yuff says:

      Is the offer limited to one use per card?
      Have just received a card and no offers yet but would contact Amex if it was not limited to a single use per card.

    • Brighton Belle says:

      £30 if fuel will now last me to 2022 I fear.

      • BJ says:

        Yeah, we’ve only clocked up 2700 miles this year. All the petrol paid with Morrisons funny money too so running at sub 80p/L all in.

        • Scott says:

          My local Esso charges at least 9p/litre (£1.17 Vs £1.08) more than the supermarkets and 4p more than the near by Jet Station.
          Had a few Sainsbury’s offers a while ago for this, but didn’t want to spend something like £6-£8 more to get £5 back.

          • Sandgrounder says:

            Well at the prices you quoted Scott, put £30 in and you should save a net £2.70. I’ve got two Essos with Tesco Expresses near me, they are pretty competitive. Saving about £4.50 won’t change my life though!

          • Crafty says:

            A just over 25L top-up will result in a net profit then, assuming your local Esso is convenient to you.

      • Craig says:

        Getting about 3 months to the gallon at the moment!

        • Number9 says:

          I’m the same, I filled up in March still got quarter of a tank left. New car next March I’m thinking top up with £20 and that should see me through till I get new car 😁

      • Charlieface says:

        Although I have a car, I didn’t buy any fuel, let’s just say I paid some utility bills for effectively free money… 🙂

    • Harrier25 says:

      On my Gold card I have earn 2 additional points for every £1 spent at Amazon until 23rd December.

      • KBuffett says:

        It’s a shame that I’m so heavily invested in Amazon Gift Cards via various routes

        • Super Secret Stuff says:

          I assume you got them for a heavy discount? If so you could Yardy them for the same price and take advantage of this as well

          • Wollhouse says:

            Hi, posted this the other day, but an old thread.
            Hi, looked at the cy site- is this the correct place? If you want max value, it looks as though they pay credit into an account on their site to allow you to buy other gift vouchers. Amazon seems to pay the most back, but still only approx 94% of face value. If you want cash, 90%. So based on the 10% Morrison’s offer, you can maybe make a few quid if you accept a different voucher, or net out if you want cash? assuming I’m looking at the correct site to resell vouchers, I assume this GC resale strategy is purely MS?? So, 1) am I on the correct resale site 2) do they pay out timely? I can see the attraction for my personally buying Amazon vouchers under the Morrison’s deal as I spend a ton on books anyway, just not sure the time/risk spent on the above resale strategy pays off UNLESS the process is seamless or you’re buying a LOT of vouchers. Genuine question as I’m not familiar with CY! Or where are you selling to her same price back?. TIA

          • Super Secret Stuff says:

            As yet I have not sold one on Yardy, mainly because I can’t drive so haven’t got to the nearest Morrison’s yet! But yes you are correct. It would be purely MS unless you can find a way to stack another discount and make a profit. You can stack it with the virgin offer of 8 points per £. So £1000 = 8,000 v points and 1000 MR points. Remember to account for postage, their is a slight cost to doing this.

            WRT your questions, yes and yes. They give lots of indications on how quickly things sell, exactly when to expect your money if it sold same day etc. Timely, up for debate. You have to wait 2 weeks so timing might be key. You could try and sell them yourself but I think that is adding more risk as Yardy take all the risk for you.

          • KBuffett says:

            Can you do this once they are in my Amazon account?

          • Super Secret Stuff says:

            Probably not and to be honest I wouldn’t. If they are in your account you must have a need for them so you’ll effectively be paying 10% for 3 avios per point. For me who hardly buys anything from Amazon out of spite and general lack of interest, it is worth it.

          • Sam says:

            I’ve figured the other codenames used but not yardy..any hints or clues as to what you are referring to please..?

          • Sam says:

            I have figured out other codenames used but not yardy…any hints or clues as to which site you are referring to please?

          • sam says:

            Figured it out!

    • Craig says:

      This should stack quite nicely with various Nectar offers if you use the Esso App?

  • Frankie says:

    Advise please. If you use the Amex £50 off £200 Hilton spend offer (or any of the hotel offers) and book via hotels.com, but choose to ‘pay at property’ instead of ‘pay now’ does the offer still work ok?

    • Crafty says:

      Should do.

    • Tony says:

      But is the Hotel dot com night worth the loss of free breakfast and possibility of room upgrade with the Amex status ? ( presume you have Plat so get Gold at Hilton )

      • Anna says:

        OP might not have status at all, the Hilton offer seems to be on most Amex – we have it on BA x 2 and gold. Hoping to be able to use it once in December!

      • Frankie says:

        I have no status. Offer is on my BA Amex.

        • Anna says:

          Sounds like you’ve nothing to lose by booking via hotels.com then.

        • The real John says:

          Depends on whether you want to get status. 20 (or 30) nights over all of 2020 and 2021 gets you Gold (Diamond) plus each night for the rest of 2020 counts as 2 nights; however 10 (or 15) different stays in 2021 only would also work.

  • Andrew says:

    Car Hire this Christmas – on the basis that the 4 nations might be United.

    Once I’ve discounted all the car hire places that are closed, then reviewed prices, Enterprise are cheapest for two one way trips.

    Any points benefits available?

    • Super Secret Stuff says:

      TaCo Bell or avios portal might be your only option

      • Super Secret Stuff says:

        Assuming you meant air miles. There is always their Enterprise Plus scheme, but not that good by the looks of it.

    • Charlieface says:

      Have you tried Europcar one way deals?

  • Super Secret Stuff says:

    New Amex offer day!

    2 additional points per £ at Amazon.
    Esso £5 back for £30 spend as already mentioned.

    • BuildTheWall says:

      Offer says valid once per card. But offer terms say ‘every time until 23rd Dec’

      • BuildTheWall says:

        This is for amazon offer

        • Harrier25 says:

          I also can’t make out from the T&C’s whether it includes funding your Amazon account?

          • Super Secret Stuff says:

            I am assuming it is like the 2 additional points one we just had, valid multiple times. Otherwise it seems a bit silly.

            Plus, one would assume they are doing it to get you into the habit of regularly using your Amex for Amazon, so every time makes more sense

        • meta says:

          Nothing here. And now more than 3 weeks since we received no offers on Amex in our household. Removing and adding offers didn’t work. I’ll wait a bit more, but I think it’s either cancel all cards or have a fight with Amex.

          • Manny_D says:

            Which cards do you hold? I seem to be seeing that most of these new offers appear on the Platinum or Gold. I’m in the same boat, no new offers for about a month now.

          • Super Secret Stuff says:

            Tbh they have been pretty bad recently. I would still ring up Amex and get them to look into it

    • Olly says:

      Both my Platinum and wife’s Gold has the Esso offer but neither of us have the Amazon one.

  • DJ says:

    2 additional points per £ on Amazon is only showing on my Gold Charge Card.

  • Anna says:

    Is there any way of checking the expiry date of an IHG/Creation free night once it’s been booked? We’ve used one for an Easter booking which may not go ahead (but don’t want to cancel yet), the original certificate was valid. Is it likely to have been extended like unused certificates seem to have been?

    • Anna says:

      Sorry, original certificate was valid until July.

    • Doug M says:

      In the app on android. On the main page mine says 2 free nights, tap it and it gives the individual dates.

      • Anna says:

        Is that even when you’ve booked the free night? On a computer it disappears from your account once you’ve used it.

        • Doug M says:

          No sorry, I thought I replied ‘ignore me’ after I reread and noticed the after booking.

    • Peter K says:

      I don’t think there is a way to check once booked (unless you cancel!) but the voucher Mrs K had that was valid until July this year was extended until 31st Dec this year due to COVID. I imagine they all were.

  • The real John says:

    So is going abroad from England for non-reasonable excuses likely to be OK from 3 Dec?

    • Number9 says:

      Find out at 3.30pm when Doris does his blah blah statement.

      • Anna says:

        It’s infuriating that the main focus seems to be on how late pubs can stay open when some of us haven’t been able to visit family since March!

        • Brian says:

          Have you not been able to meet people outdoors (parks etc) over the summer, for example?

          • Anna says:

            On a very limited basis but most of our family live too far away to be able to do that.

        • Super Secret Stuff says:

          You’ve been doing it wrong, you meet them in the pub for a good old catch up and Covid roulette!

          I agree tho, makes me worry about the state of the contry that half of them are focused on pubs and the other half split between holidays and family…

        • Number9 says:

          Anna my house has so many different people visiting it,care team, district nurse team, other people helping me. I’ve also said if anyone wants to come and see mum, nana, aunt friend In the last few months of her life they can come. No government is keeping people away from seeing my Mum in the last few months of her life. I’ll take whatever consequences come my way. I’ve only been out 8 times since March 6 of those times were for medical treatment, which I’ve had to pay for privately.

          • Anna says:

            Yes, bonkers that you can have nurses, cleaners, nannies whatever in but we can’t meet more than one person outside! I was really getting at the focus all the press seems to have on whether pubs can re-open and till what time when it’s way down most people’s list of priorities.

    • Charlieface says:

      You can already do that. You just need an excuse to be in the airport. For that, a careful reading of legislation indicates that a reasonable excuse to be out the house is to do shopping, there is no indication the shopping has to be reasonable. So you could be going to the airport to do your duty free shopping…

      • Super Secret Stuff says:

        A Tesco or WHSmiths meal deal technically counts but doesn’t mean it is sensible…

      • Anna says:

        I suppose your family might all want a giant toblerone and a double pack of Johnny Walker for Xmas …

        • The Savage Squirrel says:

          I’d take a giant Toblerone any day over the presents I actually get :D.

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