I went the American Express route instead. That way I can throw my points at whichever airline's loyalty scheme is flavour of the month. You can also often transfer between loyalty schemes, so if you're really lucky, you'll get a favourable Amex to airline points exchange rate, then a favourable airline points to other airlines points exchange rate and actually end up with more than you started with. Or you can just use the points with Amex Travel directly.
Is it worth getting an avios credit card for daily spending?
To add. I also have a "pay with rewards" card for cashback and an amex for amex points.Is it worth getting an avios credit card for daily spending?
Although of course it's trivial to extend the expiry date of Avios nowadays - you can sign up to Avios for Thoughts, buy literally anything through BA Shopping, boost a handful of Avios through Avios Booster, buy a £1 train ticket through a linked Uber account and so forth.Another thing to consider is that a monthly credit of Avios from a credit card will extend the validity of any Avios in the account.
Can be useful if you aren't flying regularly and getting near the expiry date.
Avios are often valued at a 'rule of thumb' figure of 1p each - which would make those points worth £1500. It's certainly possible to achieve more than 1p in value, and it's rarely worthwhile redeeming if you're getting less than 1p when compared to the cash alternative.I’ve no idea what that will actually get me!
Avios are often valued at a 'rule of thumb' figure of 1p each - which would make those points worth £1500. It's certainly possible to achieve more than 1p in value, and it's rarely worthwhile redeeming if you're getting less than 1p when compared to the cash alternative.
With a companion voucher, 150,000 Avios will let you book a long-haul business class return for 2 people on most routes. You can use varying amounts of Avios and cash nowadays, so it's pretty flexible.
Some years back I switched to BA Amex Premium Plus which works best for my situation. Focused spend usually ensures I can collect a companion voucher within 6 - 8 months of the collection year and the flexibility of the newer companion vouchers is a real bonus.
I'd be keen to learn if there are some Visa or MC-based options to supplement the Amex.
At the 'default' rate that involves using the maximum amount of Avios, yes. But it's also possible to book using fewer Avios and more cash. You can also use Avios Booster to buy some extra Avios at an attractive rate (0.92p each).Short haul routes maybe, long haul routes only so far! To cover “most” routes in business, more like 250k is needed!
And on the same principle if the OP *really* cares, they can get a Barclays Premier Avios account for £12 per month which gives you 1,500 Avios per month plus after 1 year you get the choice between an Upgrade voucher for redemption with an Avios booking in Premium Economy or Business, or 7,000 further Avios. This is a better cash rate per Avios, but obviously nowhere near as many as you get with the higher level subscriptions. If you combine this with the paid for Avios Barclaycard they will return £5 per month to your current account.There is also the Avios subscription, if you really care for it: https://pgt.shopping.ba.com/subscription
I subscribe to the top rate, and 16,667 Avios a month is enough for an out and back to Europe every month.
Yes, you need the HSBC Premier account, but the current account also has the advantage of offering free travel insurance for your household. The paid for card RJ mentions also confers a Priority Pass with free lounge access for one.Thanks @RJ . I believe the HSBC Premier option has a reliance on an HSBC Premier account? Will investigate the Barclays option, tbh I'm not too concerned about a cap..for bills and everyday spend this may work just fine.
That's their value (or at least, used to be until recently) when 'cashed out' as Nectar points or other cash equivalents. They're worth significantly more than that when redeemed well. I've achieved an average of nearly 4p in value over my last 600,000!The avios are worth about 140:£1 I think
As above, that would be a pessimistic, worst-case valuation. It would almost never be worthwhile redeeming at such poor rates.which means only £107 back for £15k spend
That's the one restriction on it all - you get the most value by redeeming on flights. Redeeming on most other things isn't worth it.and that can only be spent on avios stuff
It depends entirely on the cash prices, since the Avios redemption rates are fixed, varying only depending on whether it's a peak or off-peak day in the relevant airline's redemption calendar.I also found that straight reward flights are a bit of a ripoff; you can save more avios by part spending cash, but its still not that great a saving.
Reward flights are indeed not available in unlimited quantities - the trick is to book far in advance. For popular destinations that means ideally 355 days ahead when the seats get released (at midnight if it's a super-high-demand destination like Sydney, Tokyo, Maldives etc.).The paid avios cards look better value, especially if you get a good bonus on joining (recently they had a 50,000 avios promo), and you get the companion voucher, but given I can only travel with my wife in school holidays as she's a teacher, reward flights are hard to come by, so it works out better value to shop around anyway.
OTOH they pay much higher interchange fees and many places add on credit card fees - whereas here, they're illegal.It's a pity we don't get the great credit card deals you can get in the US, where it really is worth playing the game to get airline points, but its just a bit too overregulated for that to happen over here.
At the 'default' rate that involves using the maximum amount of Avios, yes. But it's also possible to book using fewer Avios and more cash. You can also use Avios Booster to buy some extra Avios at an attractive rate (0.92p each).
Not necessarily so. Taking the Zone 8 (6,501 to 7,000 mile) band as an example, the default off-peak rate is 110k Avios + £300. The next step down is 92k + £365. At 1p per Avios those work out at £1400 and £1285, respectively.If you reduce the number of Avios used then the value of return on the Avios gets worse and you might as well just pay cash outright.
There’s bad news for those who hold a BA Amex Premium Plus card today as a price increase along with a large rise in the requirements for a minimum spend are introduced.
..the Avios earning rate is only equalled by the Barclaycard Avios Plus card, which has several other drawbacks (not least the much less valuable voucher, plus half the earnings on BA spend).
So realistically speaking they could probably have hiked both the fee and spend target even higher and still kept a lot of customers.