Spill the beans ... on your Avios points boosting successes

sjcollett

I had many miles which Avios which I didn't get a chance to use before the change, which i was really annoyed about. Anyway, my friend recommended to me in the meantime to get the BA Amex as he reckoned I could continue to get good points with it (I currently have a cashback amex) and that could add to my balance.

So I started looking into in...

I have now also checked out Virgin (as they are also now with Tesco) and I believe this may be a better deal and so have signed up with them for the CC

I already have an AMEX card (cashback style) and can tell you it's getting harder and harder to spend money on it as less retailers are accepting it. So the clincher for me:

Virgin White card: free you get 3000 bonus intro miles, need to spend £15k to get a free companion ticket or 10k for upgrade

Virgin black card: £140 per annum. 6,000 bonus intro miles, need to spend 7.5k for free companion ticket

On top of this virgin also have a promotion on right now where you can get a "buy one seat get one free" promotion - that means its 29,500 miles for TWO of you to go to USA. To be honest I am gutted that i can't take advantage - only reason why we not going it that OH is on a contract and no holiday or sick pay so we'll have to pass on this.

IMHO I think this Virgin cc deal looks good and maybe even better than BA?

malkie76

What's that got to do with earning Avois ?

richardw

Don't forget the Reward Flight Saver is only available to active accounts

http://www.avios.com/about-us/terms-and-conditions?from=zonemap#partm

so don't let the account become dormant.

davecullen86

I agree with all of the above, combining the BA Amex and other reward clubsis a great way to double or even triple you Avios earnings as stated above.Another you can do this with is the Shell drives club, you can swap 2 driversclub points for 1 BA air mile, it’s not amazing but still helps when you needto fuel your car anyway..
Another thing I find valuable in the quest for maximising collection ofAvios is the e-rewards survey website. A Link to this is available on the "Collect" tab on the Avios website.

I get a mail a few times a month and if I feel like it I will complete itand after a few months I can swap my points for Avios. I would guess that Iusually earn 500 Avios per quarter by doing this.

I have the BA Amex standard card and have done for just over one year. WhenI signed up they were offering a companion voucher when you spend 10k and notthe 20k that’s they are offering now. As I use my cards regularly for businessexpenses I managed to receive the voucher last August.

During business flights I managed to rack up around 60k air miles with BA.

A few months back I set my sights on spending the companion voucher on tworeturn club world / business flights for my partner and myself but I needed 80kAvios to do so.

I spoke to a few friends and they agreed to sign up for the BA Amex classiccard so I get 4k Avios per person. My friends didn’t even need to activate thecard and I got the bonus miles applied within a couple of days from theirapplication being accepted online.

This coupled with my own Amex spend brought me up to around 76.something kAvios, so I needed to purchase an additional 4k Avios. Upon purchasing theextra points I saw that they are offering an extra 25% so I only had topurchase 3k to bring me just over the require 80k miles!

Oh and another thing, make sure you sign up for a household account ifanyone else in your home has a BA Exec club account! You can share your mileswhich is really handy when cashing them in!!

So all in all, 2 x Club World Business return flights to New York inNovember for a little over £1000.
Bargain!
Lets hope I do plenty of business flying this year to enable me to aim forthe same again next year!!

kipperman

This is one of the best sources (IMO) of how to earn Avios ( and tier points ) from BA

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/british-airways-executive-club/1046882-read-first-ultimate-guide-all-things-british-airways.html#post14978123

Bouncy_2

Since the switch to Avios, and changing my CCard to a BA Amex, the rate I earn points has shot up. I have got, since November, about the same number as I had collected in 4 years!

the double-or-tripple dipping option is a great boost - as posted above, Tesco for example.

finally, the "maths" of the new points being based on per £1, rather than £10 or £5 is a big bonus - explanation begins

Tonight, I bought some books from Waterstones. £14.08 worth.

Under airmiles it would have been

2 airmiles from the airmiles website
1 Airmile for using a Lloyds TSB Airmiles Amex
Total: 3
now, it's
28 Avios
14 Avios from BA amex
Total: 42

Now, on the conversion of 10 avios = 1 airmile, that's still about a 40% increase in the ammount being earned. It particularly hits big with the number of things that are £x9.99. now, obviously this boost is bigger on small purchases, but it does add up!

From the maths, BTW, you get a better rate from your clubcard than 2 Avios for every £1, but only just. the double-dip effect takes it to equivalent to abuit 5 avios per £1. (i'm not including what you get from the Amex, as that's the same over all the spending)

It is a bit dodgy when buying things on reserve and collect though - some of the stores in the Avoid shopping bit dson't make it clear if you get Avoid from collect-in-store or not. PC world, J'accuse

Roger1

sjcollett wrote: »

Virgin White card: free you get 3000 bonus intro miles, need to spend £15k to get a free companion ticket or 10k for upgrade

Virgin black card: £140 per annum. 6,000 bonus intro miles, need to spend 7.5k for free companion ticket

Be careful to compare like with like!

With the BA AmEx PP, you get a companion ticket when you REDEEM, i.e. use Avios, and otherwise qualify.

With the Virgin AmEx, you get a companion ticket when you BUY a qualifying ticket, and a qualifying ticket is in the more expensive brackets. Often, buying 2x cheap tickets costs less than buying an expensive ticket and getting a 'free' companion ticket (which still costs £££ for taxes, fuel surcharge etc). Upgrades work the same way.

On top of this virgin also have a promotion on right now where you can get a "buy one seat get one free" promotion - that means its 29,500 miles for TWO of you to go to USA.

I think this price is for New York only. Other US destinations cost more. And of course you still have to pay the taxes, fuel surcharges etc on both tickets.

Economy tickets are generally not the best way to redeem miles. This offer does help to spread the cost if you have the miles.

IMHO I think this Virgin cc deal looks good and maybe even better than BA?

It really does depend on what you want, what you've got and how you plan future purchases. And try to make sure you read all the terms and conditions while making your decision.

mrs_lds

Does anyone know where the link to change £22.50 cc vouchers for a return trip to Paris via Eurostar please any help appreciated

gigi

Copied from the BA exec club website- for those who collect BA Avios.

NB the next quarter ends on 29/2 so a good time to cash in some clubcard vouchers- I certainly will!:j
Start collecting Avios with Tesco


From BA Exec club website:
If you haven’t exchanged your Tesco Clubcard vouchers into Avios in the last 12 months you may be eligible to collect a quarterly bonus of 2,000 Avios.
From 1 December 2011, collect at least the minimum amount of 1,500 Avios with Tesco every quarter and you can qualify for 2,000 bonus Avios. That means you can collect an extra 8,000 Avios across the year.The set quarters are:
Quarter 1 1 December 2011 – 29 February 2012
Quarter 2 1 March – 31 May 2012
Quarter 3 1 June – 31 August 2012

Quarter 41 September – 30 November 2012

1. To collect Avios with Tesco, simply do your shopping at Tesco using your Clubcard and when you get your Tesco Clubcard vouchers in your Tesco Clubcard statement, go to tesco.com and redeem them for BA Executive Club Avios.
2. To collect Avios with Shell, fill up at a Shell pump, use your Shell Drivers Clubcard and register BA Executive Club as your preferred redemption method (online or over the phone).
3. To qualify for the offer, you must collect the minimum amounts of Avios within the set quarters as follows:
   Tesco - a minimum of 1,500 Avios must be collected each quarter
   Shell - a minimum of 75 Avios collected each quarter

In relation to the current Tesco extra 400 Avios for each £2,50 exchanged the T & C's state:
This promotion can be used in conjunction with other promotions but Avios awarded from this offer cannot contribute to minimum amounts of Avios required for other offers.

I take this to mean that the extra 400 Avios per £2.50 voucher does not count towards your 1,500 total,( which will earn you a bonus) but the 600 base Avios does? So trade in £2.50 x 3 to earn the 1,500

Roger1

gigi wrote: »

NB the next quarter ends on 29/2 so a good time to cash in some clubcard vouchers

Thanks for pointing out this promotion.

Just in case anybody takes this out of context, it refers specifically to the New Partners promotion. You will need to convert existing vouchers to benefit.

For normal Clubcard collectors, the next quarter ends on 5 May 2012.

tesco.com wrote:

Current collection period 29/01/12 - 05/05/12
The final date for collecting any points is 05/05/12 for the May statement