airmiles, BA miles and Natwest Your points

westiea

Hi

I have accumulated

• 3584 Airmiles
• 16 326 BA miles
• 71 033 Natwest Your Points

Now the holiday season is nearly upon us i want to use them. Can anyone advise if there is a way to merge or spend these all together?
Is one better than the other? i am currently converting all my tesco vouchers to airmiles - are BA miles better ?

many thanks from a confused and befuddled shopper!:undecided

sjpkgp

Can't give you a tip re: merging, but we booked easyjet flights on natwest points on our flight to paris 10 days ago, and we have been stranded due to Volcanic ash. As a result our flights do not show on the easyjet website, and we had some probs getting home (those who booked direct had first choice) We phoned natwest yourpoints telephone line and they were great putting us straight through to easyjet even when all easyjet's phone lines were down - all I would advise is take their phone no with you. Sal xx

milan_ns

You could try selling these on ebay & use cash to pay for the holiday

malkie76

No you can't - Natwest points and BA Miles cannot be sold. Airmiles can, but you'll need to have paper miles, not electronic ones. 16k BA Miles aren't too much I'm afraid, but 4k Airmiles is a healthy balance - use their online calculator to see where you can go. There are pros and cons to BA Miles vs Airmiles, for example you can use airmiles to pay taxes if you want. I don't think Natwest points are worth very much, but again their online system will help.

neas

Can someone provide a rough conversion guide... when i saw 16k ba miles i was like 'wow' but as it seems from above post its less oO.

Also how much is 71k natwest miles? and how do you get them?

richardw

https://www.natwestyourpoints.com/Spend/Default.aspx

westiea

Thanks for all the info - well will keep transferring my Tesco points for airmiles then and will disregard BA miles i guess, feel its such a waste!

richardw

BA Miles required

Paris 7500 per person
other France 9000 per person

blackeberg

I've always been an Airmiles fan as I only tend to use miles for short haul stuff in Europe. However, the recent ash incident provided an example where BA miles can actually be very good value. Here's afew pros and cons as I see it.

Airmiles

All in fare i.e. no taxes and charges on top. My most regular return flight is London to Stockholm. 1500 miles with Airmiles and nothing else to pay. 15000 miles with BA Miles but £75 in taxes and charges as well. Given that the economy return starts at about £120 this makes BA miles seem like very poor value.

On the downside you can only use Airmiles for return fares departing from the UK which limits their flexibility if you want to do anything other than a there and back trip.

BA Miles

Can be used for one way trips departing any country so much more flexible than Airmiles.

This proved to be exceptional value last week when I wanted to be in Stockholm and was having trouble rebooking a flight with another airline. When the ash cloud was starting to look long-term on the Friday I was able to book a one way BA Miles flight for the Monday (7500 miles +£48.50 tax and charges). At this point the equivalent one way flight on the BA website was £300 so 7500 miles = £250. The ease of rebooking was also very good. If I hadn't needed the flight I could have cancelled up until 24 hours before and got the cash and miles back for a £15 admin fee. When the ash cloud was still there on the Sunday I was able to change the ticket to the Wednesday for no fee (online). Changing the ticket that I had with the other airline required numerous attempts to get through and then a one hour queue.

Based on this I'm going to keep collecting Airmiles as my main scheme but always keep a few BA Miles in reserve.

happyinflorida

I've got over 18,000 VA airmiles and don't plan on using them, can anyone tell me if I can transfer them or sell them to someone else?

Thanks!

WestHamDaz

No you cant.