Reward miles?

heronbommie

Hi,

I've been trawling the forum to find advice on the best AMEX card miles reward scheme. I've dabbled with schemes in the past but have failed to actually get anything from them. There was a thread from Jan which covered the benefits of AA versus BA miles.

BA offer 18000 miles on their premium card (with an annual fee) v's 3000 miles on their standard card (without a fee), both dependant on money spent in 3 months.

Any tips or directions to the best 'One World' offers and how best to actually get a flight out of them.

Thanks

richardw

The best website for this is https://www.flyertalk.com

malkie76

The sticky threads in the BA forum on Flyertalk (linked above) is the place to start and read to work out if it's the thing for you.

I have a BA Amex Premium Plus, and the important part is if you spend over £10k in a calendar year you get a 2-4-1 voucher for redemption flights (ie when you use miles only) thus doubling the value of your miles (but importantly you pay tax on both tickets).

That is an important point as you always pay the taxes on BA miles flights, making redemptions in economy somewhat worthless. It's better to use the miles to upgrade your class flight, with the best use being economy plus to business (these are called miles-for-upgrades; MFUs).

However, one potential good use of a small amount of miles are last minute domestic or european flights as there is usually availability, and you could instantly save yourself hundreds of pounds for 9000 miles.

The BA Amex PP has a £150 fee, but a better earning rate and lower threshold for the 2-4-1 voucher. I recently burnt 150k miles for two First class tickets to north america, with a face value of £10k, so suddenly the £150 fee seems very much worth it

heronbommie

Thanks for the link to Flyertalk, lots and lots of info!

In reality I'm not a frequent flyer with only 2 to 3 long hauls and a couple of europe/domestic a year.

But if I can get 18000 miles plus miles spent on the long haul flights I might just build up enough for the domestic/europe routes. Can't see me reaching 150K miles!

richardw

There are the airmiles cards http://www.airmiles.co.uk/collect/lloydstsb/lloydstsb-airmiles-duo

But don't forget all of these 'free' miles flights are subject to availability and may not be available when you want to fly.

malkie76

heronbommie wrote: »

Thanks for the link to Flyertalk, lots and lots of info!

In reality I'm not a frequent flyer with only 2 to 3 long hauls and a couple of europe/domestic a year.

But if I can get 18000 miles plus miles spent on the long haul flights I might just build up enough for the domestic/europe routes. Can't see me reaching 150K miles!

BA have recently changed their rules so that even discounted economy fares earn full miles on the route. With a few long hauls and short hauls in a year you'll quickly earn quite a few miles.

Also consider making online purchases via the BA eStore (often 12miles per pound, and sometimes double miles offers). The other easy win is converting Tesco Clubcard points into BA Miles.

You also earn miles if you book hotels and car hire through BA's website. Make the payment using your BA Amex and get double miles on the spend.

I only do a few long hauls myself each year (but in business), and have managed to earn enough for holidays in business or first each year.

heronbommie

malkie76 wrote: »

BA have recently changed their rules so that even discounted economy fares earn full miles on the route. With a few long hauls and short hauls in a year you'll quickly earn quite a few miles.

Also consider making online purchases via the BA eStore (often 12miles per pound, and sometimes double miles offers). The other easy win is converting Tesco Clubcard points into BA Miles.

You also earn miles if you book hotels and car hire through BA's website. Make the payment using your BA Amex and get double miles on the spend.

I only do a few long hauls myself each year (but in business), and have managed to earn enough for holidays in business or first each year.

That was the route I was thinking of, Tesco clubcard points and channel normal expenditure through the BA AMEX to accrue miles, its good to know that discounted tickets count.

malkie76

Back in the day you had to buy a full fare ticket just to join the scheme! These days they let any riffraff in