Avios Credit Card

MrsExcited

Hiya,

I am now debt free and I am looking at ways of getting rewards from credit card spending.

I am keen to collect Avios (airmiles) points as my husband and I travel to South Africa every 2 years to visit family.

If i open a Lloyds card and spend more than £15k on it a year I will be eligible for a companion flight. Which means that I can get an additional ticket for free when I buy a ticket with points.

I am trying to think of ways to spend £15k a year and was wondering if it would be ok to use the card to pay my mortgage and other household bills.
(paying the card off in full every month obviously!)

Does anyone know if this is possible?

Thanks in advance

CLAPTON

you need to look at each bill and see what methods of payment are allowed

I'ld be very surprised if the mortgage could be paid by CC
and you need to be careful with other bills as they may charge a fee for CC payment

MrsExcited

Hi Clapton,

Thanks very much for your reply.

I will check the bills when I get home.

Cheers

OllyM

Be aware that the companion voucher you get with the Lloyds TSB Avios Duo Premier card isn't very good - it's only valid on Economy bookings, and you still have to pay taxes and charges, which on cheap Economy fares make up the majority of the cost anyway.

The only time it would make sense is if you use it on a Reward Flight Saver in Europe that caps the taxes and charges at £27 per person.

Generally the only way to get good value from Avios is to use them for Business/First long haul redemptions.

MrsExcited

OllyM wrote: »

Be aware that the companion voucher you get with the Lloyds TSB Avios Duo Premier card isn't very good - it's only valid on Economy bookings, and you still have to pay taxes and charges, which on cheap Economy fares make up the majority of the cost anyway.

The only time it would make sense is if you use it on a Reward Flight Saver in Europe that caps the taxes and charges at £27 per person.

Generally the only way to get good value from Avios is to use them for Business/First long haul redemptions.

Thanks Olly. So you don't think that economy long haul is any good? Specifically Johannesburg?

Cheers

callum9999

MrsExcited wrote: »

Thanks Olly. So you don't think that economy long haul is any good? Specifically Johannesburg?

Cheers

Economy long haul is adequate - they are talking about the cost. Most of the fare on an economy ticket consists of tax - which you have to pay in cash. The tax on a business class seat however takes up a lot less of the ticket price as a proportion. You therefore save much more money by redeeming business class fares compared to economy class fares.

I don't know if that was very clear so just as an example:

BA economy fare to Johannesburg this month: £279 + £395 taxes = £674. If you redeem airmiles then you will pay £395 cash (well over half the cost of buying the ticket outright without them).

BA business fare to Johannesburg this month: £5045 + £595 taxes = £5640. If you redeem airmiles then you will pay £595 cash (almost 90% less than the cost of buying the ticket outright without them).

Using airmiles, you will therefore save £279 by flying economy, or £5,045 by flying business. So redeeming it on the economy flights are comparatively poor value (even factoring in the extra miles business class costs).

Despite it being much less of a saving, I'd still personally always go for economy on that basis as I couldn't care less about Business so wouldn't pay the £200 + miles extra - regardless of the better saving. Some routes - particularly to New York etc. - can be so cheap that the economy fare is only a few pounds when you strip the tax away, making it a complete waste of miles. Johannesburg is more expensive though so not so bad.

MrsExcited

Thanks Callum for takinig the time to explain that to me so well!

Much appreciated.

AmandaGrifin

There's really no one "best" card for Rewards Travel - just different ones. You have to decide which one works best for YOUR particular situation.

lazytravler

Hi, very interested to read your thread regarding Avios and Lloyds credit card. I have recently started collecting Avios in the hope of flying to either NY or Las Vegas in approx 15 months 1st class with BA. I started the ball rolling by converting existing Tesco Clubcard Vouchers into Avios while there was a special deal: then I applied for the BA American Express Credit Card to gain extra points quickly as they were offering new customers 1000 bonus avios points if you are approved as a customer and your spends on the card are a minimum of £500 in the first 3 months. You also gain a complimentary companion voucher if you spend £20,000 in the first year. I have no chance of spending that amount on the card and wish I had applied instead, for the BA American Express Premium Plus Card . I booked a holiday last minute which would have taken my spends to over £3000 in the first 3 months and allowed me to gain 30,000 bonus Avios points, and I'm sure, with the help of family spends, I can get my spends over £10,000 to get my Companion Voucher. Much better than the basic BA card. Once I realised I would be better off with the Premium + card, I upgraded my original card to this, although there is an annual fee of £150 which I will off-set against my flights. Hope this all makes sense. What I want to know, if anyone can help is, because I upgraded my original card after only 2 months of usage to the premium card, will I now get the 30,000 bonus points, or just the 1000. And, after the first 12 months of usage, if I spend just over £10,000 on the card, will I still get the companion voucher? Help.:huh: