Best way to buy flights now for discount next year

Cars_2

Just about to buy 4 return tickets to Koh Samui via BA at a cost of £1,850. Travellers are my wife, 2 children (1 & 8) and myself.

We intend to make the same trip next year.

What is the best way of purchasing these tickets now (via BA credit card/Tesco points or otherwise) in order that we might bag ourselves some cheap first class tickets for next years hols?

Wishful thinking perhaps but interested to hear people's thoughts.

Cheers:beer:

blindman

Cars wrote: »

Just about to buy 4 return tickets to Koh Samui via BA at a cost of £1,850. Travellers are my wife, 2 children (1 & 8) and myself.

We intend to make the same trip next year.

What is the best way of purchasing these tickets now (via BA credit card/Tesco points or otherwise) in order that we might bag ourselves some cheap first class tickets for next years hols?

Wishful thinking perhaps but interested to hear people's thoughts.

Cheers:beer:

Are you hoping to get a discount on your First class tickets because you will be buying these ?

Good luck with that

Or are you saying that you will use the AVIOS earned on these tickets to buy (cheaper) First class tickets next year?

Look at Headforpoints about AVIOS collecting and also Credit cards and FF miles.

BTW
BA FIrst class is not that good compared to others :cool:

Caz3121

Cars wrote: »

What is the best way of purchasing these tickets now (via BA credit card/Tesco points or otherwise) in order that we might bag ourselves some cheap first class tickets for next years hols?

Wishful thinking perhaps but interested to hear people's thoughts.

I reckon it may take a long time to build up the points required for 4 x First Class tickets
You would need 952,000 Avios and £2k to pay for the tickets if looking at redemptions (based on LHR-SIN...SIN to USM will be additional)
Alternatively you could look at buying business class tickets and using Avios to upgrade
neither option will be cheap...

If you go for the free BA Amex you would get 9,000 for spending £1k in the first 3 months and 1,850 for buying the tickets so a total of 10,850
You will likely earn between 7,400 to 14,800 total (4 people depending on fare code) on this years flights so, assuming the higher number, you would have a total of 25,650...with 925,350 still required for F flights to SIN
If you plan to earn purely from CC spend, you would need to spend £77k per month for a year!!!!

blindman

Caz3121 wrote: »

assuming the higher number, you would have a total of 25,650...with 925,350 still required for F flights to SIN
If you plan to earn purely from CC spend, you would need to spend £77k per month for a year!!!!

Of which there has to be availability

Cars_2

Caz3121 wrote: »

I reckon it may take a long time to build up the points required for 4 x First Class tickets
You would need 952,000 Avios and £2k to pay for the tickets if looking at redemptions (based on LHR-SIN...SIN to USM will be additional)
Alternatively you could look at buying business class tickets and using Avios to upgrade
neither option will be cheap...

If you go for the free BA Amex you would get 9,000 for spending £1k in the first 3 months and 1,850 for buying the tickets so a total of 10,850
You will likely earn between 7,400 to 14,800 total (4 people depending on fare code) on this years flights so, assuming the higher number, you would have a total of 25,650...with 925,350 still required for F flights to SIN
If you plan to earn purely from CC spend, you would need to spend £77k per month for a year!!!!

Thank you. This puts things into perspective.

From what I can see the best CC option is the BAA Express Premium Plus Card which requires a £150 sign up. It'll give me 26,000 Avios (with referral) if I spend £3k in the first 3 months. Not a problem. Let's say I er on your higher estimate for this year's flights at 15,000. I am then at 41,000.

In your estimate, how much will I need to spend over the following 12 months to get the wife and I return business class tickets to BKK?

Thanks in advance.

blindman

Cars wrote: »

Thank you. This puts things into perspective.

From what I can see the best CC option is the BAA Express Premium Plus Card which requires a £150 sign up. It'll give me 26,000 Avios (with referral) if I spend £3k in the first 3 months. Not a problem. Let's say I er on your higher estimate for this year's flights at 15,000. I am then at 41,000.

In your estimate, how much will I need to spend over the following 12 months to get the wife and I return business class tickets to BKK?

Thanks in advance.

You can get one card for your sole use then once the spend has been reached you could refer your Mrs for her sole card.

Look at Headforpoints re Avios earning and credit card churning.

I find churning CC's is a quicker way than actual spending, though YMMV.

As I mentioned earlier, there has to be availability of reward seats for this plan to work

Caz3121

Cars wrote: »

In your estimate, how much will I need to spend over the following 12 months to get the wife and I return business class tickets to BKK?

CW will require 150,000 avios plus £510 for off peak dates and 180,000 plus £510 for peak dates....that is per person
If 1 avios per £ spend, you would need to spend just under £7k per month for 12 months for the peak date flights
As ever availability can be a real challenge, for popular times of the year you need be prepared to jump on availability on the date it is released as T-355

Cars_2

Thanks again guys, really helpful.

My total monthly spend is a fraction of £7k per month and that includes petrol which is currently all paid for via a company petrol card.

My conclusion is that it isn't worth the hassle or the £150 spend taking out the BAA CC and that I should simply buy this year's flights with my current account debit card and concentrate on earning more money at work for those business class seats ;-)

The feedback has been invaluable. Thanks again...

Cars_2

Another thought, is there any significant air mileage to be made from using supermarket loyalty cards for weekly Petrol and grocery shopping?

blindman

Cars wrote: »

Another thought, is there any significant air mileage to be made from using supermarket loyalty cards for weekly Petrol and grocery shopping?

Look at Headforpoints re Avios earning and credit card churning. Also for using Tesco Clubards to get Avios

richardw

Cars wrote: »

Another thought, is there any significant air mileage to be made from using supermarket loyalty cards for weekly Petrol and grocery shopping?

On supermarket petrol yes. Groceries yes if you won't go to Aldi or Lidl and save real cash to spend on flights on any airline.