Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Back tomorrow: Free London tube, bus and train travel with Mastercard contactless

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Don’t forget that tomorrow Mastercard is repeating its promotion which will get you free travel to work and back if you live or work in London

Mastercard has announced that this Friday is again ‘Fare Free Friday’. To promote the new contact-less travel service on London buses, train and tube services, Mastercard will refund 100% of the contact-less charges you incur on Friday.

You must, of course, use a contact-less Mastercard credit or debit card when making your trip and pay via contact-less travel.

Full details can be found here on the Mastercard Priceless London website.  No registration is required. The maximum refund is stated as £21 which would allow you to go or from Zone 9!

I took advantage of this offer using my old BMI Mastercard when it ran two weeks ago.  It worked fine and the £4.40 credit is already showing on my online statement.


earns points from credit cards

Want to earn more points from credit cards? – April 2025 update

If you are looking to apply for a new credit card, here are our top recommendations based on the current sign-up bonuses.

In 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus card

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios card

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

Get 5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

You can see our full directory of all UK cards which earn airline or hotel points here. Here are the best of the other deals currently available.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 30,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

30,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

80,000 bonus points and great travel benefits – for a large fee Read our full review

Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard

18,000 bonus points and 1.5 points for every £1 you spend 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 Platinum

50,000 points when you sign-up and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and FREE for a year Read our full review

Capital on Tap Pro Visa

10,500 points (=10,500 Avios) plus good benefits Read our full review

Capital on Tap Visa

NO annual fee, NO FX fees and points worth 1 Avios per £1 Read our full review

British Airways American Express Accelerating Business

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

Comments (8)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Freebies says:

    I used it to make some short bus trips to save me walking up to some shops when I only have 30 mins spare. Worked a treat and racked up £12 worth of charges…(which they refunded).

    • JQ says:

      How did you spend £12 on buses? The max you can spend on buses in a day is £4.40

  • Froggitt says:

    MC wasn’t accepted at a few north London stations, so had to use Oyster at those, probably negating any saving.

  • Mikeact says:

    Don’t forget, long term, if you have an Oyster card with the Senior card loaded, then you won’t get the Senior discount using any other Bank wifi card.

  • oyster says:

    All my Amex cards, all my visa cards and none of my Mastercards are contactless. No wonder they can afford the promotion and the advertising – they’ll not pay many fares!

  • sbo says:

    I want to go at least once in lives.

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

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