Airline CC

M0ney

Hi

Just looking for a little advice, I've just been looking at articles on airline credit cards and looking at what they offer, I'm thinking it could be 10 years before I was able to get enough points to have enough for a flight. What is everyone's experience of these?

If I were to get one I'd be after a card with no fee, and would probably spend on average ~£500/month, maybe a little more if I got absolutely all regular outgoings on it.

I have relatives in the states and would love to visit them more regularly than I do now, last time I was out there - 2005! :-(

Also any advice on which one would be best for me would be appreciated.

YorkshireBoy

Have you read the "Airline Credit Cards" article?...


http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/credit-cards/airline-credit-cards

M0ney

I have yeah and it left me feeling like it could take forever to get enough points for a flight so I thought I might be able to hear about peoples experiences of these types of credit cards.

MPH80

Ok - so at £500 a month ...

Let's work an example using Avios.

London To New York is 20,000 avios in economy one way. So 40k for a return + taxes.

Sometimes the taxes/charges can end up being almost as much as an economy ticket - but let's put that to one side.

Get the Lloyds avios cards and us the amex card for all that spend - get 1.25 points per £1.

So you'd earn 625 points per month. So it'd take you 64 months - or 5 years - to get enough points.

blindman

M0ney wrote: »

I have yeah and it left me feeling like it could take forever to get enough points for a flight so I thought I might be able to hear about peoples experiences of these types of credit cards.

Have a look at Head for points "Best credit cards"

You need a good credit score and be able to meet minimum spends.
Then sign up when there's a big promotion and refer your partner for their own card if necessary.

Basically the best are the Amex Charge cards but you usually need to spend £2000 in 3 months on an Amex card that is not accepted everywhere.

Mrs B and I have just accrued nearly 100,000 Amex reward points in 3 months which can be converted to BA Avios, Virgin miles etc.

PeacefulWaters

Most airline reward schemes are not good value for purchasing long haul economy flights out of Great Britain,

Avios are a particularly good example of this, in part because BA have high "taxes" on flights out of Britain.

So I'd suggest you would be better off focusing on saving up the air fare rather than expecting magic points to get you across the pond.

Where Avios come into their own are:

1. Shorthaul flights to Europe.
2. Upgrading a class on long haul flights.
3. Internal flights within the USA via BA partners.

There are one or two oddities as well like flying Aer Lingus from Ireland to Boston or using Air Berlin where paying in Avios can be cheap.

Don't forget you can top up Avios with Tesco points, TopCashback and Shell.

Extra Avios available from filling in surveys too. Google eRewards.

M0ney

Thanks very much for the input folks, one way or another I'll get us a wee holiday in the states within the next year or 2.

InsideInsurance

Also check the non-airline cards that allow you to transfer points/rewards to airlines as these can sometimes actually give you more points.

For example if I or another AmEx cardholder referred you for an AmEx Gold charge card you would get 22,000 MR points bonus if you spend £2,000 in the first 3 months plus the normal MR points for your purchases which range from 1-3 pts per £1 spend.

MR can be transfered 1-1 for Avios but once or twice a year there is often a bonus of 25% or more so for your £2k spend you'd could get 30,000 Avios or more

blindman

InsideInsurance wrote: »

Also check the non-airline cards that allow you to transfer points/rewards to airlines as these can sometimes actually give you more points.

For example if I or another AmEx cardholder referred you for an AmEx Gold charge card you would get 22,000 MR points bonus if you spend £2,000 in the first 3 months plus the normal MR points for your purchases which range from 1-3 pts per £1 spend.

MR can be transfered 1-1 for Avios but once or twice a year there is often a bonus of 25% or more so for your £2k spend you'd could get 30,000 Avios or more

Almost exactly what I said in post #5 :cool:

guesswho2000

M0ney wrote: »

I have yeah and it left me feeling like it could take forever to get enough points for a flight so I thought I might be able to hear about peoples experiences of these types of credit cards.

My experience with American Airlines AAdvantage is this (I'd concentrated solely on Avios with BA/Iberia before this);

I got the AA credit card last May, when they were offering 35,000 miles for £5k spend in six months (this offer is gone, but keep an eye out for timed promos on cards for airlines you may use). This alone is almost enough for a return economy flight for one person to the US, when you take into account the base points accrued by the spending (based on using the Amex).

However, it doesn't stop there. I had flights to/from China & Hong Kong in Oct with Finnair, who are a Oneworld airline - I was planning to credit to BA at 25% miles flown (as in a 10k mile flight would credit 2,500 miles), yet Finnair credit to AA at 1:1 - 10k is 10k miles, so I switched over. A few more flights and more spending on the cards, I hit over 100k AA miles in Jan, 7 months after joining the programme.

For comparison, this would allow me to fly to Australia on Qantas for 90,000 miles and £175 taxes. This saves a fortune compared to Avios (and indeed was on flights I'd paid £1100 for early Jan).

Must admit I'm a bit of a points addict, but basically, you'll need to decide which airline (or alliance, Oneworld/Skyteam/Star Alliance) you're likely to fly with and which programme is best for your needs, but BA/Avios is definitely poor value for long haul economy class flights originating in the UK.

zerog

Airline miles are "Frequent Flyer schemes". If you don't fly frequently, they are not meant to be of much use to you.

Airline CCs help you to boost the number of miles you would get from a paid flight. If you can afford to pay the cash fares for BA's premium economy, you would get enough miles to upgrade to business class on every flight.