Free business/premium eco upgrade using credit cards?

CakeIsALie

Initially I was tempted to get one of those Avios credit cards but a lot of people are saying available seats are near impossible to get.

I know there's one for Virgin Atlantic airlines but they don't go to where I usually go. I always travel within Europe and occasionally to Dubai and East Africa.

Any suggestions? I spend less than £15k per year, so, not really suitable for trying to build up points.

Also is it possible to be approved for those CC without me being on an electoral roll even though I have really good credit history?

Caz3121

being on the electoral roll is a pretty important part of the credit search so you will probably have difficulty for being accepted for most cards if you are not listed

InsideInsurance

VS do go to Dubai but not europe or east africa, which is always the problem for me as I massively prefer them to BA esp if you compare UC to CW but their destinations are limited.

BA has much more options in comparison but you really need to go First to get a similar experience to UC. BA also has their Reward Flights which actually arent bad for short european hops.

If you plan ahead you can get availability with both providers. If you expect to go onto their website today to spend miles on the bank holiday in a fortnights time or so then you aint going to get anything.

BA I would say is slightly better availability than VS but thats probably a proxy of the number of places they go to. They also have more partners which you can use the mile on though with VS having just joined up with Delta then things may be improving.

Personally, I use American Express which allows me to collect MR points that I can then convert near instantly into VS or BA miles as required plus there are often bonus windows.

Of cause you can also get the bonus (22,000 if you get a referral for a Gold card) for taking the card up which can make a good start if you have a relatively low annual spend

CakeIsALie

Caz3121 wrote: »

being on the electoral roll is a pretty important part of the credit search so you will probably have difficulty for being accepted for most cards if you are not listed

That's disappointing

vns

CakeIsALie wrote: »

That's disappointing

Any particular reason why you're not on the Electoral Roll?

CakeIsALie

It's for personal reasons. Large part of it is to do with my desire to live a private life and not wanting to be identified easily. Once you're in the full register, you can never opt out.

InsideInsurance

CakeIsALie wrote: »

It's for personal reasons. Large part of it is to do with my desire to live a private life and not wanting to be identified easily. Once you're in the full register, you can never opt out.

Remember its a £1,000 fine for not being on it.... hope the personal reasons are sufficiently high for the risk

Ironically many others have fought and died to gain the right to be on it

CakeIsALie

InsideInsurance wrote: »

Remember its a £1,000 fine for not being on it.... hope the personal reasons are sufficiently high for the risk

Ironically many others have fought and died to gain the right to be on it

I can't seem to find a law that says £1000 fine is given for not being in the register. However I did find one that says £1000 fine is for providing false information to the register.

InsideInsurance

Under the current system, failure to respond to a household canvass or not provide information to an Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) is a criminal offence punishable by a £1000 fine and which leaves you with a criminal record.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-introduces-legislation-for-individual-electoral-registration

Not only a fine but a criminal record.

Be thankful, in some countries its also a criminal offence not to vote

CakeIsALie

Thanks. Registration for new system will become compulsory in 2015 along with lesser civil offence for not being in new register. I'll take risk and hide under a rock until then.

InsideInsurance

CakeIsALie wrote: »

Thanks. Registration for new system will become compulsory in 2015 along with lesser civil offence for not being in new register. I'll take risk and hide under a rock until then.

As per the link, they arent changing the penalty for not registering, IE whilst the process is changing the penalty remains at £1k + criminal record.

At the end of the day your choice, if you are a victim of domestic violence/ abuse etc there is a fully confidential electoral roll. Doesnt help with credit rating as it doesnt get reported to the CRAs at all but does remove the chance of the criminal offense.