American Express - ways of increasing usage

[Almostthere1]

I’m collecting Avios through Amex and this year I might be quite close to getting a companion travel voucher. I’ve been looking at putting all my necessary payments through this card but it’s not accepted everywhere (I can’t pay the mortgage or utilities on it). Has anyone found ways of using the card outside the obvious options? Any ideas welcome!

You get extra avios if you refer a friend and they apply for a card.

I don’t know if they will give you points for spending on items you then return? Eg a large clothes order? If so then that could be a way of getting extra points without spending extra money. Not great for the retailers though I imagine.

@minipie thank you! Yes Id rather avoid buying & returning. I’ve looked into gift cards (Amazon, boots etc, so places I buy from anyway) and travel cards but I’m running out of ideas…

Ive had so many places reject my new shiny Amex!

EDF energy do - used it yesterday

I pay for my subscriptions to Netflix, Disney plus and Prime on my American Express.

add it to your paypal account and you can use it online in a lot more places that dont specifically take amex
i got one in Jan for the same reason and have just earned the companion voucher

The PayPal idea is a good shout. Groceries are also a chunky spend for us on the Amex.
Do you have a specific use for the companion voucher..? They’ve recently changed the terms for them so they’re less attractive; but even before that they were quite restrictive - finding the destination you want at the time you want (esp. if school hols) can be a real chore. And there’s a technique for booking to ensure you get the outward and return trips you want (there’s bound to be a thread on here somewhere about it, it involves staying up til 1am and booking the outward part as soon as the flights open, then the same again to book the return part later when those flights open…) Anyway, point being: it’s all a massive ballache, not the “easy free flights” they promote it as, and so you might want to look into it a bit before you get too deeply into diverting spending to your Amex! (But you may already be well aware of all this so sorry if it’s not helpful!)

If you return items they take the points back so that won't work.
We currently have 4 vouchers that are almost impossible to use so I wouldn't stress too much about getting it!

If you're running out of ideas, I'd go for something like a refundable hotel stay. Once you've got the companion voucher safely in your BA account it can't be removed, so then you can get your hotel refunded.

If you're not on there already, Head for Points is an extremely useful website which has a number of articles telling you everything you could ever want to know and more about Avios and companion vouchers.

For those having difficulties using them, have you earnt them on the free card or the paid for card?

The ones on the free card can only be used in economy and have a year date, so difficult to use. The ones with the paid card are any class and two years expiry, so much easier.

Thank you all, this is so helpful. PayPal is a great area. I’m aware of the limitations of use of the companion voucher so I’m not desperate, just thought if I’m spending money anyway I may as well get sth extra. Will check refundable hotel stay & Head for points.

We have this Amex card and love it. We try to do a business class long haul trip every 2-3 years as a result - got one coming up to South America, last time was Japan and before that was Vancouver. We have managed to find the flights we wanted using the voucher and got flights that would have been around £8k for £1.4k (you still have to pay taxes and fees which are higher in business). It is worth the £250 annual fee IMO. For this reason we don't need to earn the companion voucher annually, just every other year is fine, for us getting sufficient miles for the trip takes longer to earn than the CV.

We find it works just putting all our groceries, household shopping, holidays and every day spends on it. We don't use it overseas - it doesn't have a good exchange rate. Holidays is pretty key - especially if you book through BA, we like to cruise and that can be paid on our Amex. I paid the balance of a car on it once too!

Have you logged on and looked at the specific shops which earn extra miles? There regularly are offers like that which sometimes need to be 'added' to your card.