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Use your Amex Platinum dining credit for an Ivy gift card and get a free bottle of Cuvée

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A valuable benefit that comes with The Platinum Card from American Express is £300 of annual dining credit, increasing to £400 on 1st January 2025. It makes a big dint in the annual membership fee.

For 2024, you receive:

  • £150 to spend in 170 or so UK restaurants
  • £150 to spend in 1,000+ international restaurants
Use your American Express Platinum dining credit for an Ivy gift card

For 2025, you receive:

  • £200 to spend in 170 or so UK restaurants, split into £100 between January and June and £100 between July and December
  • £200 to spend in 1,000+ international restaurants, split into £100 between January and June and £100 between July and December

You can spend the money over multiple visits to multiple restaurants if you wish. It doesn’t need to be spent in one go.

One of the most common questions asked in our forum is whether the £150 UK Platinum Dining credit can be used for a restaurant gift card. This is a handy way of using your credit if you don’t think you can make it to a participating restaurant before 31st December.

If you mean ‘a restaurant gift card’ you can order online then the answer is No.

However, if you want to use your £150 of UK Platinum Dining credit for a meal to enjoy next year, the most popular option is a gift card for ‘The Ivy’ group of restaurants.

You must buy ‘The Ivy’ gift cards in person to trigger the £150 Platinum dining credit. Do not buy them online because the dining credit won’t trigger.

Get a free bottle of sparking Cuvée

The Ivy has brought back the ‘free booze’ offer it ran last year.

Buy a £100 gift card and you will receive a free bottle of The Ivy Sparkling Cuvée. See the website here.

Use your American Express Platinum dining credit for an Ivy gift card

The offer works for online or in-restaurant gift card purchases, but the American Express Platinum cashback offer only applies if you buy a gift card in a restaurant.

Check the list of participating restaurants first to ensure that your local branch of The Ivy is included in the Amex cashback deal. You need to avoid The Ivy Belfast because it is not offering the Cuvée due to local licensing restrictions.

To maximise the £150 restaurant credit, you can buy a £100 gift card – to trigger the Cuvée – and a separate £50 card to get to £150 and receive the full cashback.

Remember that Amex Platinum has an 80,000 points bonus

If you had been thinking about getting The Platinum Card from American Express, now is a great time.

The sign-up bonus is increased to 80,000 Membership Rewards points, which converts to 80,000 Avios, if you can spend £10,000 in six months.

In terms of sign-up points, dining and Harvey Nichols credits, you would receive in your first year:

  • 80,000 Membership Rewards points
  • £300 of annual dining credit (£150 UK, £150 international) to use by 31st December 2024
  • £400 of annual dining credit (£200 UK, £200 international) on 1st January 2025 to use during the year
  • £50 of Harvey Nichols credit to use by 31st December 2024 and a further £50 to spend between 1st January and 30th June 2025, when the offer ends

You can, for now, cancel the card at any point for a pro-rata fee refund.

Full details of the 80,000 points bonus offer are in this HfP article.

You can apply for the card here.

PS. Reader Tim has created an interactive map of restaurants where the Amex Platinum £150 dining credit can be used. Check it out here.

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Comments (84)

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

  • Fella says:
    19 Nov19 November 03:35

    This is great. Actually planning to go to the Ivy for this benefit in a couple of weeks, now will pop in a bit earlier for the voucher!

    My question is, how do I sign up for the UK dining benefit. I have had the card a week. The “Abroad Dining Benefit” has appeared and I’ve signed up for that, but I’ve not seen anything about a Local benefit…??

    A related Dining Benefit question/observation – planning to use the Abroad H1 2025 benefit on 2nd of January… (which will actually be breakfast time on the 2nd in the UK). I assume we will see the H1 2025 benefit sign up come through in December…?

    • Tariq says:
      19 Nov19 November 05:33

      Note that the terms state that gift cards require 24hours to activate – so buy it a few days in advance!

    • Gareth says:
      19 Nov19 November 07:48

      I’ve had the card a week, too. Messaged Amex on the app and they added the dining benefit manually to my account, as I couldn’t see an option.

    • phantomchickenz says:
      19 Nov19 November 12:35

      I’m in the same position. I asked the question on the forums yesterday and someone suggested you don’t need to ‘opt in’ to the local dining credit, it is just applied. I’d much rather have it showing on my card though!

    • Simon says:
      19 Nov19 November 15:24

      Had the same issue with offers not showing up. Either phone them or get on the chat and they will manually add both domestic and international dining credit, also ask to add the harvey nichols credit too.

      • Fella says:
        19 Nov19 November 19:49

        Thanks – chatted to them and they are “requesting to have it manually enrolled by our back office team”. Should be there in 1-2 days apparently.

  • Ian says:
    19 Nov19 November 04:23

    Ivy Exeter isn’t on the list, so don’t buy there

  • R2 says:
    19 Nov19 November 05:20

    Credit timescale datapoint – 1 working day after transaction posted.

    Saturday 16th November
    Midday – £100 + £50 gift cards bought at The Ivy, West Street branch (+ Free Ivy bottle).
    18:37 – AMEX confirmation email received “Great news, you’ve redeemed your Local Dining Platinum Benefit”.

    Monday 18th
    Transaction posted

    Tuesday 19th
    £150 credit posted

  • Ams56 says:
    19 Nov19 November 06:14

    If your new card year starts end of November, do you get a new dining credit allowance that needs to be used by 31st December?

    • ken says:
      19 Nov19 November 09:32

      Dining credit are calender year not card year, so if you have used 2024 credits then next one from 1st Jan

  • mradey says:
    19 Nov19 November 06:22

    I’ve bought a few of these gift cards with the free Cuvée. Not tried drinking it so no idea if it’s even drinkable.

    Also note that you will not earn Ivy points on the restaurant bill, not even on any excess beyond the gift token(s) redeemed. I haven’t tried splitting the bill between people so this may garner some points.

  • Dave says:
    19 Nov19 November 06:36

    You mention The Ivy Belfast not participating in the cuvée offer. It’s also not on the list of restaurants for the dining credit, unless it has changed very recently. I’ve been watching the list like a hawk since it opened and it’s still not there.

    • Philip says:
      20 Nov20 November 09:36

      Same here. I love in Belfast and when Ivy Belfast opened a few months ago I thought I would finally have somewhere to use my credit. I phoned Amex in Sep and asked could Ivy Belfast be added. Nothing happened. Phoned again last week and got very helpful person in Brighton who said she would put it onto their internal chat and update me if any progress, but nothing heard. Pretty much given up on this now. Premium product but basics like updating the list partway through the year don’t seem to be possible.

  • cin4 says:
    19 Nov19 November 06:40

    The Ivy is so bad you could get a crate of cuvée and this wouldn’t be a good deal.

    • JDB says:
      19 Nov19 November 07:13

      Yes, this is a historically bad day for any HfP reader who is even vaguely epicurean. WF and The Ivy in one day! The latter will even sell you delicious wines like Picpoul for £50 (€6 at Auchan) or the lovely Whispering Angel for £71 (£20.99 at WF or £16.50 at Tesco)… plus service.

      • Jimmy6 says:
        19 Nov19 November 09:00

        Indeed, well described as a middle class Wetherspoons, however I think the food in ‘Spoons is better, and the beer much better.

        • Panda Mick says:
          19 Nov19 November 09:07

          I was afraid in these circles to voice my dislike of The Ivy. Good to know I’m not alone.

        • ken says:
          19 Nov19 November 09:40

          Ouch !

        • Dave says:
          19 Nov19 November 10:05

          At least with Wetherspoons people are usually aware it’s all made offsite!

          • Lumma says:
            19 Nov19 November 14:21

            There’s a difference between making something off site, which can actually be good for consistency for a chain and having an external company make you microwave meals

    • Numpty says:
      19 Nov19 November 08:30

      I’ve got the Amex Plat credit, wouldn’t use it at The Ivy for anything other than a breakfast.

      • Rob says:
        19 Nov19 November 08:35

        Actually breakfast is the thing I rate least there, purely in terms of food and ignoring atmosphere etc. I’m quite pro the lunch / dinner food for the price.

        (I paid £380 for dinner for 4 on Sunday in a non-Ivy restaurant in London, only 3 glasses of wine and 1 dessert in that total, so The Ivy price to food to environment ratio is very good by comparison.)

        • Numpty says:
          19 Nov19 November 08:57

          I am not of a fan of the food at The Ivy Glasgow, the mains are over rated, so had thought a brekkie might be a good alternative.

          • Techno says:
            19 Nov19 November 09:19

            I haven’t had a bad meal at the Ivy Marlow, breakfast, lunch or dinner, I think it’s great, not too overpriced, really good service, and really nice atmosphere to be in. Nice and comfortable without feeling like you have to stand on ceremony. I don’t really drink alcohol so can’t really comment on that but I’ve used all my Plat credit there and have many reward points to use for more free meals.

          • BP says:
            19 Nov19 November 15:40

            I also dislike the Glasgow branch. Style over substance.

        • JDB says:
          19 Nov19 November 09:43

          I never recommend restaurants, but you would get out for an awful lot less than £380 inc service, puddings for all and much more alcohol at Ognisko in Exhibition Road! The food is good, the menu changes regularly, service is very professional, a nice dining room in a lovely old building, plus in warmer weather a terrace overlooking Prince’s Gardens.

          • ukpolak says:
            19 Nov19 November 10:36

            +1 for Ognisko. What was once perhaps the only Polish restaurant in the UK but of course comes a close second / third to the cooking of my own mother and grandmothers 🙂

            Glad to hear it is still highly rated.

        • ken says:
          19 Nov19 November 09:57

          I’d be worried about and chefs who couldn’t do a decent breakfast.
          How hard is it these days to get decent sausages, bacon, viennoiserie etc in a large city ?

          I know going out is not all about the food but all the money at the Ivy is spent on the nicely tarted up grand buildings, and not so much on the food or chefs.

          As it happens they have opened last week in Liverpools old Bank of England building which has been out of use for at least 20 years, so fair play to them.
          I hope its a success.

          • Nick says:
            19 Nov19 November 12:22

            The point about the Ivy is that there are no chefs. The food is prepared offsite by a food prep company, then heated in a microwave. Exactly the same as Wetherspoons, only double the price.

        • Erico1875 says:
          19 Nov19 November 20:41

          The No1 (traveller ranked) uk restaurant, 9th worldwide on TA, Makars Mash bar in Edinburgh will do mains in the £20 region
          That visitors to the Ivy could only dream of

      • Fella says:
        19 Nov19 November 19:58

        Thanks for the tip, might go for breakfast instead. Going to Ivy as it is the only one local enough for us to squeeze in before Christmas given our busy schedule and travel. My wife is not a fan of the Ivy either, (but she is a fan of a “free” meal out), and I’ve never been before, so going to do it the once while it makes sense for us.

  • James says:
    19 Nov19 November 06:51

    Is there a specified end date for how long this promotion runs for? Unfortunately I don’t live near one and may not be able to use the £150 before the end of the year, although go a couple of times throughout the year to a city with one, and having just got the Platinum card it’d be good to take advantage of this whilst I can (a free bottle is always nice to have after all!)

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

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