One of the simplest ways to say money on almost all your travel other than by having a points card, is to use cashback and Avios portals. Both work in a similar way by allowing you to click through to your usual booking portal for flights, hotels, parking and more. Then you receive a bonus percentage back as cash or so many Avios or miles per £1 back. I will have a look at the hotel booking sites that allow you to earn miles in a later article.
In this article I’ll look at the different cashback and shopping portal sites and what the current offers are. It is always worth checking both cashback sites as often they do special flash offers that are much higher than usual.
You need to be careful that you don’t use any vouchers that are not displayed on the cashback site as they can stop you getting the cashback. But the good news is that you can stack them with credit card offers such as Amex, Curve or Virgin spend offers. You also would get the normal points and loyalty discounts if you are a member of the hotel’s loyalty scheme and booking through their own website via the cashback site.
TopCashback
This is my preferred choice of cashback site since it offers a good range options to take your cash out including Avios which comes with a 5% bonus (occasionally they offer a higher bonus up to 25%).
Here are some of the current offers for TopCashback plus members (you pay £5 a year to get a better rate of cashback which is well worth a fiver!)
- Sofitel, Pullman, MGallery, Grand Mercure Completed Bookings 10%
- Booking.com 4%
- Hotels.com 11% (for bookings for stays after 31 Dec 21)
- IHG hotels – 3 %
- Expedia and Ebookers 8.4%
- BA 1.1%
- Marriott 5%
- Radisson 8.4%
- Malmaison 7.26%
- Hotel du Vin up to 13%
- Sandals 4%
- Anantara 3.1%
- Plum Guide 4%
- Manchester airports group up to 15.75% on parking
- Gatwick 4.72%
- Heathrow 7.87%
- Emirates 2.5%
- Singapore Airline 2.1%
- Priority Pass 11%
You can join Topcashback here.
Quidco
Quidco doesn’t have an Avios cashing out option. As I use Uber a lot, I normally take mine as Uber vouchers as you get an extra 4% or you could also get 5% bonus with Hotels.com for withdrawing your cash as a voucher. I have a premium account which costs £1 per month and gives you 10% cashback top-up and better bonuses for withdrawals. They only charge £1 when you account is active, i.e. you have made a transaction within 30 days.
Here are some of their travel-related deals for premium members:
- Sofitel, Pullman, MGallery, Grand Mercure Completed Bookings 10%
- Hotels.com 11% (for bookings for stays after 31 Dec 21)
- Expedia or Ebookers hotels – 8%
- IHG – Flash offer 6.05% cashback for all bookings of 3 or more night stays (excluding Kimpton in North and South America)
- IHG – Flash offer 3.72% cashback for all bookings of 2 or more night stays (excluding Kimpton in North and South America)
- Heathrow Official Parking 7.5%
- Marriott 5%
- Radisson Blu 9%
- Radisson 6%
- Citizen M 7.2%
- Malmaison 6%
- Hotel du Vin 4.8%
- Air Canada £20
- No 1 Lounges 8%
- Montcalm hotels up to 12%
- Corinthia 4%
- Plaza Premium lounges 4.8%
- British Airways 1%
- Virgin Atlantic 1%
You can get £5 when you join with this link and earn £5 of cashback.
Virgin Red
Virgin Red is like the Virgin Shops Away portal but has a slightly different range of products.
There is currently a 500 point bonus on the purchase of certain Virgin Wines advent products:
The range of Virgin Wines advent calendars that are eligible for a 500 points bonus on Virgin Red are as follows:
Mixed Wine Advent Calendar – £89.99
This advent calendar boasts 25 reds, whites, rosé and bubbly…with a full-size bottle for you to enjoy on Christmas Day. Expect customer favourites and best-selling wines from around the world including exclusive and limited-edition bottles.
- 21 x 187ml bottles of red, white and rosé wine
- 2 x 20cl bottles of Prosecco
- 1 x 20cl bottle of port
- 1 x 75 cl Prodezza Prosecco Brut
Red Wine Advent Calendar – £89.99
An all-red version of the wine advent calendar. Enjoy a glass of red wine every day on the run-up to Christmas, with a full-size 25th bottle for you to enjoy on Christmas Day!
- 23 x 187ml bottles of red wine
- 1 x 20cl bottle of port
- 1 x 75 cl Prodezza Prosecco Brut
White Wine Advent Calendar – £89.99
The white version of the wine advent calendar is jam-packed with award-winning wines from around the globe. Countdown to Christmas with a refreshing glass of white wine and open up a full-size 25th bottle on Christmas Day itself.
- 22 x 187ml bottles of white wine
- 2 x 20cl bottles of Prosecco
- 1 x 75 cl Prodezza Prosecco Brut
Beer Advent Calendar – £79.99
Sourced from top British breweries, this selection includes 24 full-size beers. There’s a mixture of IPA, pale ale, lager, and traditional UK ales all from top-notch brewers!
- 24 x 33cl cans of beer
Gin Advent Calendar – £99.99
This boutique selection of gins has to be the ultimate advent for any gin lover – perfect for kicking off to the big day in style. You’ll discover a selection of Old Tom, London Dry, Navy and flavoured gins.
- 24 x 5cl bottles of gin
Other current good offers are:
- Booking.com 8 points per £1
- Virgin Experiences 10 points per £1
- Apple 2 points per £1
- Made.com 6 points per £1
- Disney Store 6 points per £1
- Selfridges 8 points per £1
There’s also a 500 bonus when you join Virgin Red. You can find out more here.
Virgin Atlantic Shops away
This has a similar range to BA with a lot more travel brands if you collect both airline’s miles.
- Booking.com 6 Points per £1
- Hotels.com up to 9 Points per £1
- IHG 4 Points per £1
- Marriott 3 Points per £1
- Trainline 2 Points per £1
- Expedia 4 Points per £1
- Manchester Airport Parking 6 Points per £1
- Avis 6 Points per £1
- Accor up to 6 Points per £1
- Radisson 4 Points per £1
- Hotel du Vin 4 Points per £1
- Heathrow Express 9 Points per £1
- Go Compare Car Insurance 2240 points
- Groupon to 13 Avios per £1
- iRobot 10 Points per £1
- Lounge pass 8 Points per £1
- Rimowa 4 Points per £1
- Briggs and Riley 7 Points per £1
You can find Virgin’s Shops Away portal here.
BA e -store
There are quite a few stores that currently have an enhanced rate of Avios:
- Booking.com 7 Avios per £1
- Just East up to 25 Avios per £1 for new customers
- Hotels.com up to 12 Avios per £1
- IHG 6 Avios per £1
- Selfridges up to 12 Avios per £1
- Go Compare Car Insurance 2800 Avios
- Groupon to 13 Avios per £1
- Viator (travel experiences, transfers and tours) 12 Avios per £1
- Clinique 10 Avios per £1
- Matalan up to 10 Avios per £1
- Seasalt Cornwall up to 12 Avios per £1
- Coach 10 Avios per £1
