I mentioned last week that 2018 is my year to start dabbling in travel hacking a little more seriously. I’ve got big travel plans and a modest budget, so I’m looking for ways to stretch it using free air miles.
After some initial research I signed up for the Amex Preferred Rewards Gold card, which is (I believe) the best card for bonus free air miles in the UK at the moment.
Here’s the deal:
The hook
You get 20,000 bonus points (which can be converted to free air miles with a few different carriers, or hotel stays with certain schemes) when you sign up for the Amex Preferred Rewards Gold card and spend over £2,000 in the first 3 months.
You can get an extra 2,000 points if you sign up via a referral from a friend (if you need a referral just email me – I’m happy to send you one!).
You also get
On top of the bonus points you also get:
- 1 Membership Rewards point for every £1 you spend using the card.
- 2 Membership Rewards points for every £1 spent directly with airlines or in a foreign currency.
- 3 Membership Rewards points for every £1 spent at American Express Travel.
- 10,000 bonus points after each year of cardmembership when you spend at least £15,000 per year.
- Access to two airport lounges per year.
- Hotel room upgrades at certain hotels.
- Travel protection.
- 24/7 Global assist.
- Car rental discounts and upgrades
- Additional local offers to earn bonus points/cashback.
Points can be converted into…
1 Membership Rewards point is worth:
- 1 Avios
- 1 Alitalia mile
- 1 Asia mile
- 1 Etihad mile
- 1 Emirates mile
- 1 Finnair mile
- 1 Flying Blue mile
- 1 SAS mile
- 1 Singapore Airlines mile
- 1 Virgin Atlantic mile
- 3 Club Carlson points
- 2 Hilton HHonors points
- 0.5 Starwood Preferred Guest point
Remember it is a charge card
This Amex is a charge card, not a credit card, which means there is no spend limit but you HAVE to clear your balance every month.
If you don’t clear your balance you will be stung with penalties which completely defeat the point of using the card.
Don’t sign up if you can’t clear your balance each month – you’d be better off with a low rate credit card instead.
It’s free for the first year
The normal charge for owning the card is £140 annually, which probably isn’t really worth it for the benefits.
However, it’s completely free for the first year. So you can sign up, take the bonus points and other benefits, then cancel before you get to the anniversary.
If you needed to keep it longer (e.g. to gain a specific number of points for something) the charge is pro-rated, so you’ll only pay the full year charge if you get to the end of year two.
My experience with the Amex Preferred Rewards Gold Card
I signed up last month and so far so good. I’ve been using it instead of my debit card for all of my normal spending.
I’m a long way off of achieving the £2,000 spend necessary to receive the bonus points, but I’m planning on booking a trip which should get me there in time.
I like the app
Amex have a really handy app for your iPhone which I like a lot.
You can set the app to notify you of spend on the card (I like this as a security feature, just in case).
The app shows a statement and running total of your spend on the card, so I’m finding it a lot easier to keep a tab on my spending than with my normal debit card.
It shows you a running total of points you’ve earned, and also how much more you need to spend in order to receive the bonus points.
The app also shows you the current local offers available to you. So far I’ve seen cashback offers for spend at small local shops, as well as for buying shoes from a well-known brand. So I’m planning to keep checking because the deals do seem relevant to me.
Ready to sign up for free air miles?
I’ll just mention once again that you shouldn’t get this card if you can’t be sure to clear your balance each and every month.
If that’s ok with you, I’m happy to give you a referral so that you can get the full 22,000 bonus points (which you can convert to free air miles). Just send me an email and ask 🙂