Best avios credit card

Mark_P

I'm looking to holiday somewhere in America (poss east coast of NA, or somewhere in South America) in two years - will be family of four with both kids counting as adults. I'm wondering which credit card to get to start collecting air miles / avios points.

British Airways American Express offers 18000 avios points after £3000 spend. Lloyds have a joint card (Amex and Mastercard), but no bonus avios points for first £X spend. If I get both BA and Lloyds, can I combine the avios points from BA Amex and Lloyds Mastercard?

Are there any catches I need to look out for? Are there any good loopholes anyone has found?

davetrousers

BA Avios points are best for short haul, not long haul. Have you worked out what you need and what it will cost?

I think you may need to reconsider your idea.

Fruit_and_Nut_Case

There's a useful MSE article HERE.

Thesingularity

Head for Points is a great site about collecting Avios.

http://www.headforpoints.com/best-uk-avios-airline-hotel-credit-cards/

callum9999

davetrousers wrote: »

BA Avios points are best for short haul, not long haul. Have you worked out what you need and what it will cost?

I think you may need to reconsider your idea.

No. BA Avios are great for some long haul - such as Dublin to Boston and to a slightly lesser extent, London to Brazil - two possible locations that the OP listed.

Avios is also the only realistic airmiles scheme in the UK for a non-flyer to earn enough points to take a family anywhere - let alone to the Americas! But even then you'd be severely pushing it in just 2 years and will need to exploit every Tesco earning opportunity you can find.

Also, you may find it difficult to find 4 seats on the same plane if you're wanting to go during school holidays.

As to the OP's question - you're going to need 100,000 avios at the very least for what you want to do. It therefore isn't a case of getting the best avios bonus etc. - you need to get all of them! What's your credit report like? Assuming good, I think your best strategy would be to get the Amex Rewards Gold card and spend enough to get the 20,000 bonus, then at some point within the next year or so, get the best card at the time from either BA or Lloyds (watch out for bonuses - I got a 15,000 avios bonus on the Lloyds card last year).

The biggest bonus tends to be with the BA premium card but you have to pay a £150 annual fee. However, the 2 for 1 voucher you get after spending £20,000 could make the £150 fee more than worth it, if you can spend that much.

msallen

Echoing whats already been said really...

Do your homework to check that Avios work for you before collecting them. In the vast majority of cases they are not good for long haul economy (but are for short haul or for long haul premium cabins). Don't become the next person who naively collects a large pile of them with the intention of using them for long haul economy only to later find that they don't offer much value used that way.

The BA Amex will credit Avios to a BAEC account, whilst the Lloyds card will credit Avios to an avios.com account. However these can be combined easily enough.

Definitely check out the headforpoints site as mentioned. Also check out http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/british-airways-executive-club/1540695-your-guide-spending-avios-2014-a.html. This is from the BAEC section of flyertalk.com, so further exploring there will lead to lots more info. Be aware though that if you are new to the "game" this may be quite "advanced".

Note: You can also get a few extra Avios if referred for BA Amex by an existing cardholder (and they also get some Avios for doing so). I'd be happy to refer you, as I'm sure would anyone else on here who has this card. Drop me a PM if you want me to.

Mark_P

Thanks for all the advice.... I've got some homework to do.

Somebody else has suggested that although Virgin have more limited choice of destinations, their scheme is better for long haul.

zerog

Mark_P wrote: »

Thanks for all the advice.... I've got some homework to do.

Somebody else has suggested that although Virgin have more limited choice of destinations, their scheme is better for long haul.

Both schemes are rubbish for economy long haul booked in advance, although Virgin is slightly less rubbish.

However if you want to travel tomorrow then there may occasionally be very good deals with avios prices compared to the last minute fares

Both schemes are fine for premium long haul but you will need to be flexible with your plans

Penelopa.Pitstop

zerog wrote: »

Both schemes are rubbish for economy long haul booked in advance, although Virgin is slightly less rubbish.

However if you want to travel tomorrow then there may occasionally be very good deals with avios prices compared to the last minute fares

Both schemes are fine for premium long haul but you will need to be flexible with your plans

I think BA shorthaul saver fares are very good. Sometimes I "buy" reward tickets one day before flights or even on the same day. This year I already flew 5 times for airmlies on shorthaul flights. Sometimes economy seats are not available but club is not that bad in terms of airmiles cost.

Last weekend I saved myself around £350 (cheapest ticket on EasyJet) or maybe I should say £650 as I flew in Club to Germany for weekend. No economy available but club was only 18K airmiles. Last minute decision due to nice weather forecast in my destination.

However I wouldn't use airmiles for longhaul. Fare is cheap, taxes are high so it wouldn't save me a lot in terms of money, it's better to buy tickets cheaply in advance and pay cash.

battyboimatt

"However I wouldn't use airmiles for longhaul. Fare is cheap, taxes are high so it wouldn't save me a lot in terms of money"

I can't see how that is accurate, infact I soon fly on a Avois reward from LHR to LAX in first class, 75'000 Avois and £378 in taxs and fees. If I were to buy this ticket it would of cost me just under £10'000

Penelopa.Pitstop

battyboimatt wrote: »

"However I wouldn't use airmiles for longhaul. Fare is cheap, taxes are high so it wouldn't save me a lot in terms of money"

I can't see how that is accurate, infact I soon fly on a Avois reward from LHR to LAX in first class, 75'000 Avois and £378 in taxs and fees. If I were to buy this ticket it would of cost me just under £10'000

That confirms what is stated in MSE article, Avios are good for longhaul for higher class of travel but not economy. I should have added that I mean economy in my previous post.

I would prefer to use 75K avios for 5-8 return flights in Europe. I don't fly longhaul too often and when I do, I just pay for economy tickets.