Air Mile Rewards

brianh54

Hi

Can anyone help, which is the best card for Airmiles rewards? we are very green at this we have looked at the BA card which gives 3,000 bonus miles when the card is applied for, but is this the best deal?

Thanks

Brian

thumshie

when you say airmiles, i take it you mean this as a generic 'points which can be used for flights' not https://www.airmiles.co.uk??

If you're a member of any frequent flyer programme already, thats probably the one to join.

Do you spend over 20k in a year on credit cards? - BA do a companion ticket where as the other one I'm aware of - BMI - do not.

BMI - give 20,000 miles on application-enough for a flight to Turkey I beleive, where as the 3000 from BA won't actually get you a flight by itself.

*edit* Found this:

according to the 'credit card-> credit card reward schemes: find the best payers' on this site:

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cgi-bin/viewnews.cgi?newsid1095802071,3353,

BMI Classic Mastercard*: Flight Rewards at £1.19 per £100 plus free points on sign-up
BA Amex Card*: 70p per £100 on flights, however spend over £20,000 and you get a free partner flight to the same destination, making it £1.40 per £100 when you top that level of spending

eagle

I think you've not taken the BA Amex Premium Plus card into account (this is black in colour), whereas you're referring to the basic BA Amex credit card. The Premium Plus card is the one that (unfortunately) has an annual fee, but pays out more points (1.5 per £1 spent) than the free BA Amex card. Plus it gives a free companion ticket after £10,000 annual spend.

thumshie

BA Premium Fee is £120.

I also failed to mention the BMI Mastercard - not the classic Mastercard - which gets you 2 miles per £1 - 1.5miles for the classic card- with an annual fee of £60.

eagle

thumshie wrote:

BA Premium Fee is £120.

Yep, but this can be dropped to £30/annum (first year free) if you have another Amex card open on the account (e.g. Blue or Platinum), which you may not need to spend that minimum £500 now, under Amex's revised T&Cs which don't charge you a £15 admin fee for too low spend.

thumshie

Interesting.

From http://www10.americanexpress.com/sif/cda/page/0,1641,12712,00.asp

Can I have the British Airways American Express Card with my existing American Express Card?
Yes, if you are an existing American Express Cardmember then you can obtain the British Airways American Express Card at a preferential fee.

Credit Card
For the Credit Card, no annual fee will be payable

Premium Card
£20 for Personal Green Charge, Small Business and Credit Cardmembers

Premium Plus Card
No annual fee for Platinum and Centurion Charge Cardmembers
£30 for Gold and Green Charge, Small Business and Credit Cardmembers

Take it 'Credit Cardmembers' mean any of their other credit cards - Red, Platinum moneyback -cards without fees themselves?? If I hadn't just got a GE Money-3% on fuel, and a stoozing card in the last month I'd be applying for two AMEX cards myself :rotfl:

eagle

thumshie wrote:

Interesting.

From http://www10.americanexpress.com/sif/cda/page/0,1641,12712,00.asp

Take it 'Credit Cardmembers' mean any of their other credit cards - Red, Platinum moneyback -cards without fees themselves?? If I hadn't just got a GE Money-3% on fuel, and a stoozing card in the last month I'd be applying for two AMEX cards myself :rotfl:

Ah, that's it! Well done, thumshie, I think that's the page I got it from as well.

Yes, you are right. Credit cardmembers are those of us with standard Amex credit cards. It would be just plain rude to charge Centurion or Platinum charge cardmembers, given the annual fees some of them fork out!!

Interesting why they mention the 'Premium card'. Haven't they axed that one or is it "ringfenced"?

Still, I would give it a few months (maybe even as little as six weeks), then you can always apply for the other cards. Unless you have outstanding debts or have been naughty in the past, you should get those cards fairly easily.

thumshie

Cheers eagle, might just do that. Take it they havn't dropped your credit limit like the others to £1??

Sorry Brianh54 for hijacking this thread a bit. Should point out I have BMI credit card, but have always been member of both Frequent Flyer programmes, with a fair few miles in both. Its the companion ticket that interests me as its is in the same class, which would allow me to get two club tickets for the 'points' of one club ticket.

eagle

thumshie wrote:

Cheers eagle, might just do that. Take it they havn't dropped your credit limit like the others to £1??

You're welcome, anytime .

They haven't dropped my limit directly, but I have switched cards recently and in the process of changing again. When I've switched cards in the past, they've moved available credit at my request from one card to the other. This time round, it has not been the case so when a card got closed, the "credit" it had available got 'lost' into the ether!!

Anyway, I'm going for a charge card now so hopefully if I'm accepted, I won't have to be concerned too much about Amex limits.

Sorry Brianh54 for hijacking this thread a bit. Should point out I have BMI credit card, but have always been member of both Frequent Flyer programmes, with a fair few miles in both. Its the companion ticket that interests me as its is in the same class, which would allow me to get two club tickets for the 'points' of one club ticket.

My aplogies too.
If it's any help, I know someone who used a BA Amex card for years and recently flew BA first class to Argentina with the companion ticket offer. Total points used: 300,000 I think for both of them. And now he tells me he has around 900,000 or so left!!