£300 US Biz Class Return on British Airways discussion

Brittanic

I wanted to get the Amex Card but my income wont be suitable for a while... however I found Tesco gave me a card instantly so I use them instead for all my spending and pay off in full.

Slowly accruing BA miles so one day I too will fly human class...

Touching wood - I haven't paid any interest on it...

meester

MSE_Martin wrote: »

Hi Meester - all good but you're forgetting the companion voucher from Amex spend

Ah touche.

You get one per year if you spend £20k a year (which is not that much, although with Amex, I might struggle). At that level of spending though, you're only earning 20,000 miles and the vouchers are use it or lose it, so I bet a lot of them go unredeemed.

Plus my experience tends to be that the fees on these things are very high, so there's no guarantee they are worth using for economy travel (because instead of say 15,000 miles plus fees (I'm guessing £80?) to Spain, you could just book flights for £100-£150 instead, so in this case the miles aren't worth that much....).

More informed comment is interesting though.

MSE_Martin

meester wrote: »

Ah touche.

You get one per year if you spend £20k a year (which is not that much, although with Amex, I might struggle). At that level of spending though, you're only earning 20,000 miles and the vouchers are use it or lose it, so I bet a lot of them go unredeemed.

Plus my experience tends to be that the fees on these things are very high, so there's no guarantee they are worth using for economy travel (because instead of say 15,000 miles plus fees (I'm guessing £80?) to Spain, you could just book flights for £100-£150 instead, so in this case the miles aren't worth that much....).

More informed comment is interesting though.

Thats the reason why they've never rated that high before. The return at Biz level is better and I think that needs factoring in. Of course the perfect scenario is a Amex which you spend up to £20,000 then switch to a Tesco card for the remainder to earn more points which are then redeamed using the companion voucher. Though the extra card needs to be weighed against the credit score impact.

Tojo_Ralph

MSE_Martin wrote: »

Thats the reason why they've never rated that high before. The return at Biz level is better and I think that needs factoring in. Of course the perfect scenario is a Amex which you spend up to £20,000 then switch to a Tesco card for the remainder to earn more points which are then redeamed using the companion voucher. Though the extra card needs to be weighed against the credit score impact.

Based on one paying off ones CC in full monthly, when doing a comparison, don't forget to crunch the numbers on the BA Amex Premium Plus card to see how it shapes up. It has an up front fee of £150, but the spend required for the companion ticket is only £10,000. Additionally there are extra air miles earned per £1 spend, Double Miles on BA flights and elevated levels of travel insurance.

meester

MSE_Martin wrote: »

Thats the reason why they've never rated that high before. The return at Biz level is better and I think that needs factoring in. Of course the perfect scenario is a Amex which you spend up to £20,000 then switch to a Tesco card for the remainder to earn more points which are then redeamed using the companion voucher. Though the extra card needs to be weighed against the credit score impact.

Actually the premium Amex scores 1.5 miles per £1 against the Tesco one that scores 1.2 per £1. Worth the £150 if you spend enough.

The issue is your deal was rather exceptional and may not be repeated.

BA has redemptions at:
9,000 (Netherlands, UK, Ireland, etc.)
15,000 (Spain, Austria, etc.)
20,000 (Algeria, Libya, Russia, Turkey)
40,000 (Egypt, the Gulf, Ghana, Nigeria)
50,000 (N America, Southern Africa, India)
70,000 (S America)
80,000 (SE/E Asia)
100,000 (Australia)

Premium economy costs 50% more, Club double, and First triple.

Clearly business class at the 15,000 level is a waste. At the 20,000 level you've got some 4 hour flights. Not bad, but still not a great use. Move up to 40,000 and you've got 7 hour flights to Dubai. Much better.

And at 50,000 you've got 12 hour flights to West Coast USA, Cape Town, etc.

So realistically forget 20,000, you need to earn 80,000 miles, preferably 100,000, to get good use out of this (companion voucher expires after 1 year) - on a long flight in Club.

That's £66k/year, £5.5k/month, very hefty spending.

So as a sole source of miles without the surprise bonus of the 50% off 'sale', the card is not enough for all but the most profligate.... If you already earn good miles, e.g. on business, though, the companion voucher is a great deal, and attainable at £20k/year of spending.

Another limitation of it is that the companion voucher only really works well for couples. Familes will need to cough up for the kids too, and then you are looking at moon-mileages.

I'd say this card is very specialised, and most people will end up not using it to its full use (do miles expire after a period?) or making short, poor-value redemptions like trips to Malaga.

Having said that, it's not possible to recommend the Tesco card any more, because the current one is only half as good - 1 point for £4 - as the old, 1 point for £2. The card I have is the Tesco Platinum - but it seems you can't apply for it, they just push the comparatively rubbish 'Bonus' card.

Raffles99

Get the BMI Amex card - the most under-appreciated piece of plastic in Britain if not the world!

Sign up for the premium card (£60 fee) and you get 24,000 BMI Diamond Club miles. You get 2 miles per £1 spent. When you get to 37,500 miles (so just £6,750 of spending needed) you ALREADY have enough miles to redeem for a business class ticket to the US, South Africa, Caribbean etc.

The only catch is that you need to pay £255 in addition to the taxes - see 'cash and miles' on the BMI website for details. And, of course, because BMI don't fly to many places you are likely to be travelling on Lufthansa, Swiss, United, Air Canada or one of BMI's other partners. I have just booked a First Class ticket to Tokyo for May on Swiss with my BMI miles and am off to Dubai on Lufthansa (First Class) in January.

Raffles99

With the BA card, you MUST get the Premium Plus version. Getting the basic card (the one that needs £20k of spend to get the voucher) is stupid.

Why? The Premium Plus card gives 1.5 miles per £1 spent. The basic card gives 1 mile per £1 spent. If you're spending £20,000 per year, you would earn 10,000 extra miles on the Premium Plus card which offsets the £150 fee. The more you spend (Martin mentioned £50,000) the more blinkin' obvious it is to pay the £150 for the Premium Plus.

If you're interested in any of this, its worth spending some time on the BA Executive Club and BMI Diamond Club sections of https://www.flyertalk.com

arealhighlander

As soon as read the tip in the Email, I went to BA website and got my wife and I 2 Business class returns from Heathrow to San Francisco for next May.

We were there last year at the same time, I used Miles For Upgrade and it cost 50k miles plus £1900. This time, I used 100k miles and it cost us £760!

Cheers for the tip, otherwise I would have missed out on it

Its funny because we leave London and fly back over my house on the Isle of Skye on the way out - though its a tad small when you're 38,000 ft up :L

Raffles99

sdooley wrote: »

do you have to pay tax on the benefit derived from your job by using the points scheme from work expenses?

No - this is official Revenue policy

meester

Raffles99 wrote: »

With the BA card, you MUST get the Premium Plus version. Getting the basic card (the one that needs £20k of spend to get the voucher) is stupid.

Why? The Premium Plus card gives 1.5 miles per £1 spent. The basic card gives 1 mile per £1 spent. If you're spending £20,000 per year, you would earn 10,000 extra miles on the Premium Plus card which offsets the £150 fee. The more you spend (Martin mentioned £50,000) the more blinkin' obvious it is to pay the £150 for the Premium Plus.

If you're interested in any of this, its worth spending some time on the BA Executive Club and BMI Diamond Club sections of www.flyertalk.com

Flyertalk is a bit FF-focused. I think a proper analysis of the BA and BMI cards from a purely 'I want the best credit card' approach, and compare it with others is better.