New Amex cashback offers with Macdonald Hotels, Melia Hotels, Avis and Harrods

Four interesting new American Express cashback offers have popped up.

As usual, you may be targetted for all, some or none of these offers on all, some or none of your Amex cards. You need to opt-in to each offer via the Amex app or website before making your purchase.

Get £30 cashback at Macdonald Hotels

We haven’t covered Macdonald Hotels much since they closed their ‘The Club’ loyalty programme. The chain appears to have been wobbling, with the Manchester and Edinburgh hotels recently joining Marriott.

It still has 30 hotels left, although generally smaller than the two which joined Marriott. The best known are probably the Bath Spa Hotel, image above, and the Compleat Angler in Marlow.

The last time I stayed at the Bath Spa Hotel I left my shoes outside my room for the evening shoe shine service and they were stolen. Just saying ….

You will get £30 cashback on a £175 spend by 24th July. Cumulative spend does NOT count.

You can check out hotels and pricing on the Macdonald website here.

Get £75 cashback at Melia Hotels & Resorts

Melia Hotels & Resorts is offering £75 cashback on a £300+ transaction by 31st August. Cumulative spend is OK.

The list of participating hotels is surprisingly small – given the size of the chain – but includes properties in Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Spain (lots in Spain, unsurprisingly) and the UK.

Only two of the UK hotels are included. These are ME London on the Strand, image above, and Melia London Kensington, a townhouse hotel which is 30 seconds walk from Gloucester Road tube station.

If you have American Express Platinum you can get free Gold status in MeliaRewards.

One of the benefits of Gold status is a number of ‘20% off’ vouchers for cash bookings which are deposited in your MeliaRewards account each year. These discounts would stack with the cashback.

Get Avios or cash with a UK Avis rental

Avis and American Express have launched a surprisingly generous cashback deal. There is also an Avios alternative.

On British Airways American Express cards you will see, if targetted, an offer for 5,000 Avios if you spend £300+ by 23rd July. This offer can only be used once.

On other cards, you will see, if targetted, an offer for 25% cashback – with a £50 cap – by 23rd July. This offer can be used multiple times and the £50 cap is per transaction, not in total.

The offer is only valid on UK rentals which are pre-paid.

The rules contradict themselves as to whether you need to rent or pay by 23rd July. One rule says:

“Book and pay by offer end date”

and another says:

“Rental must be completed and paid for by offer end date”

I would guess that paying is enough.

If you want to get the British Airways / Avis benefits, including a free additional driver, I would avoid the carhire-ba.com page and book directly at avis.co.uk instead to ensure the cashback triggers. You need to manually add the British Airways AWD:

• Gold N744400
• Silver N744300
• Bronze N284300
• Blue N744100

…. based on your Executive Club tier level.

Harrods double dip opportunity

We don’t normally mention Harrods cashback offers, but there is an interesting double dip opportunity this weekend.

Until Sunday evening, Harrods is having one of its occasional ‘10% off almost everything’ promotions. This applies to instore and online purchases.

Instore purchases would double-up with the new American Express offer.

On British Airways American Express cards, the offer is ‘spend £175, collect 3,000 Avios’. This expires on 14th July. It is only available instore, either at Brompton Road or a regional ‘H Beauty’ store.

On other cards, the offer is ‘spend £175, get £30 cashback’.

Combine the two cash offers and you’d be getting £50 off a £200 instore purchase.

Remember to sign up for Harrods Rewards too – you have no choice, actually, if you want the extra 10% instore discount this weekend. You earn points equivalent to 1% cashback and you can redeem them at the till in multiples of 500 points (£5) against a future purchase. You will receive 500 bonus points, worth £5, on your first £50+ purchase if you use my refer-a-friend link here.

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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:

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.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on the ‘free for a year’ American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card is increased from 20,000 Membership Rewards points to 30,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (30,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on American Express Platinum is increased from 50,000 Membership Rewards points to a huge 80,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (80,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

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: