'We used Avios points to fly first-class to California for the price of economy'

malkie76

The bit you highlighted suggested that Amex spend didn't reach half of the required avois, so I'm correct in what I'm saying.

PeacefulWaters

Years of shopping at Tesco and a couple of ex-Dublin business class flights have got me a first class Boston redemption for two.

I'd have saved a fortune if the ex had let me shop at Aldi!

Pincher

And another one.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/travel_news/article-3511354/Sam-Huang-posts-pictures-trip-Etihad-class-Residence.html

I seem to be doing it wrong. I tend to fly so cheap that they don't even give me miles some times.

budgetflyer

Up until last year it was very easy to amass hundreds of thousands of Avios via churning/ referring various Amex cards, 3V visa gift cards bought from Tesco and rinsed thru National Savings, Pre order video games was another massive earner. I accumulated 250K+ Avios about 3 or 4 years ago and Im not a massive earner.
Burnt them on Qatar Business Class flights to India and quite a few European flights.
It is a bit harder with non Amex earning these days but I think with a bit of effort 100K a year for a couple is achievable (and with the BA 2 4 1 , thats as good as 200K0

stoneman

JuicyJesus wrote: »

Well done to them finding a car dealership willing to pay Amex's interchange fees! :rotfl:



Unfortunately the article doesn't really specify that they burned and churned at all - the most we got is that they spent money on the cards to get their flights. I'm going to assume that they're just obscenely wealthy (or repeatedly consolidating debt...?) until proven otherwise.

Jesus wept the main site of this place is crap sometimes.

I have just spent over 480,000 yes that's right 480K Avios. 2 x F BA seats to Vegas, 8 nights in the 4 Seasons, some connectiong flights, Tenerife hotel for 5 nights, and an overnight hotel before a flight.

Only about £10K spent on an Amex card. Some were accumulation of Tesco CC points in the good old days of Dongles, mobile phones, deposits on games, and assorted fruit and veg:D

Some Avios churning cards for bonuses.

Also subscriptions to travel mags, buying Avios at cheap prices, and assorted promotions. (3V cards)

The remainder are points gained by flying, going up in status gets you bonus points, sitting in a higher cabin, bonus points.

So although the story of the aforementioned couple might be extreme, it is quite easy (well not easy, you have to be dedicated) to accumulate points without spending a kings ransom on a credit card.

budgetflyer

JuicyJesus wrote: »

I looked it up. Even on Amex's premium BA card, they would be earning 1.5 Avios per full pound of spend. Thus, at least, they spent £133k on the card in order to get their flights. At most, £200k. That's over eight times the average yearly salary. It's still a good rate of return (about 7.4%), but it's hardly typical or even achievable for 99% of people.

So in other words, the sort of people who can afford to spend £200k over a few years and are therefore much better off than the average can get free-ish flights. Pardon me if I don't get too cheerful about how savvy they are.

Thats not how it works.

A typical strategy would be Get Amex Gold (25K points bonus on spending £3K. 2 points per £1 spent in supermarkets Refer Partner for 9K bonus points. They also get 25K bonus.

We want a £6000 B+Q kitchen. B+Q dont take Amex. Tesco do though and up until last year you got 150 bonus Club Card points for every £50 of branded gift cards i.e B+Q cards. buy 6K worth.
so 120 lots of £50.
Then apply for BA premium card, 25K Bonus + refer + 25 bonus

So the maths
25K bonus x 4 = 100K
9K x2 refer bonus = 18K

120 (£50 gift cards) x 150 CC points= 18K CCpoints
2.4 Avios per CCpoint so 18K x 2.4= 43200 Avios

Total 161200K Avios

The £10K qualifying spend on BA card for the 2 4 1 voucher will earn at least another 15K avios

Adding the qualifying spend , the 2 4 1 voucher gives the equivalent of

352400 Avios

silvercar

We aim for one long haul business class trip a year. Using a 2-4-1 voucher and OH puts all his business expenses on the Amex card. He does fly a lot for work so that boosts the points considerably.

peachyprice

JuicyJesus wrote: »

I looked it up. Even on Amex's premium BA card, they would be earning 1.5 Avios per full pound of spend. Thus, at least, they spent £133k on the card in order to get their flights. At most, £200k. That's over eight times the average yearly salary. It's still a good rate of return (about 7.4%), but it's hardly typical or even achievable for 99% of people.

So in other words, the sort of people who can afford to spend £200k over a few years and are therefore much better off than the average can get free-ish flights. Pardon me if I don't get too cheerful about how savvy they are.

I think also a lot of people with company credit cards collect Avios point for themselves, obviously if they're running up £1000's of expenses a month travelling they're going to boost their points a lot quicker than they would with just domestic spends.

Doshwaster

peachyprice wrote: »

I think also a lot of people with company credit cards collect Avios point for themselves, obviously if they're running up £1000's of expenses a month travelling they're going to boost their points a lot quicker than they would with just domestic spends.

A few years ago when I travelled a lot more on business and before our expenses policy was "modernised" (i.e. made far less generous), I used to do really well out of cash back credit cards and airline/hotel rewards schemes. Used wisely I pretty much got a free long haul holiday, flying business class each year. It was fair compensation for all of those days and evenings spend hanging around dull European hotels and airports on work trips.

[Deleted User]

JuicyJesus wrote: »

So... how much did the people in the article spend on their Amex cards over what period of time?

Because something tells me that this is going to be well out of the reach of most people.

THIS.

The only people I know that 'save' from using airmiles ect are those that spend an absolute fortune on other stuff. It's just rich people saving money on rich people stuff.