Advice on Points Schemes please

zisoregondo

Thanks all so far!


So is the AVIOS scheme better than FlyingBlue? I've heard people often have issues securing seats when attempting to book using AVIOS - any truth to that?

AVIOS, FlyingBlue, any others?

Is it better to align with Airline Alliances e.g. Oneworld, SkyTea, Star Alliance, Alaska..?

I found an article (search "shifting airline alliances" by thepointsguy on your favorite search engine) - any relevance?



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@blindman - I don't fly frequently at all; I would like to see if there is a way I can channel my current daily expenditure into points that I can then use to discount flights in the future...

blindman

zisoregondo wrote: »

Thanks all so far!


So is the AVIOS scheme better than FlyingBlue? I've heard people often have issues securing seats when attempting to book using AVIOS - any truth to that?

AVIOS, FlyingBlue, any others?

Is it better to align with Airline Alliances e.g. Oneworld, SkyTea, Star Alliance, Alaska..?

I found an article (search "shifting airline alliances" by thepointsguy on your favorite search engine) - any relevance?



===


@blindman - I don't fly frequently at all; I would like to see if there is a way I can channel my current daily expenditure into points that I can then use to discount flights in the future...

I suggest you read headforpoints as I said earlier.

Picking a scheme is dependent on many factors mainly how easy is it to earn points and then how easy to spend-and where you can go IMHO.

Any reward scheme will have limitations as to seat availability-No airline gives away "free" seats if they have to!

Personnally
I rarely fly for work-and even then it was short haul stuff, so I have churned over many years various credit and Amex charge cards.

I now have a mixture of AAdvantage points, Avios and have just spent all my Virgin FF miles.

Example of where I have flown using FF miles.
I am not as expert as the guys on Flyertalk but have had some good trip.



All have their pros\cons, depends how you want to use them.

stevie11

OP, I get where you are coming from but if you don't travel much it will take a lot of expenditure on a CC to get rewards/free flights. I personally have an MBNA AA Advantage affiliated card, which I got on a promo a couple of years ago with 15000 free points, which as a n AA member was a good deal at the time.

Now from experience as an example the cheapest return AA transatlantic reward flight as an Advantage member is 40000 points plus applicable taxes to fly via UK (London) which can be a few £000. That would take between £30k and £40k spend to achieve.

So unless you are expecting major spend to accumulate points on a card the best way to get benefits such as lounge access is buy a subscription to a lounge (£200 ish) or look for deals on business class flights which if you check on Flyertalk deals can be had.

Good luck.

PeacefulWaters

Avios can be used to discount standard BA fares.

But it's much more effective to use them to buy business class long haul (which costs 50,000 points per person per leg or more) or economy short haul flights under the Reward Flight Saver scheme which start at 8,000 points plus £35 return.

Ideally you will have a target journey to spend your Avios on and build towards that.

Just applying savings to standard fares is rarely good use of points, especially if budget airlines can reach the same destination for a lot less than British Airways.

Yes, other miles schemes exist. BA Avios will give you broadest choice out of the U.K.

Seat availability isn't guaranteed. If you want to get to Australia or west coast USA you would, in my limited experience, need to book 355 days ahead for availability more often than not. East coast USA and Europe much easier. As far as I'm aware all reward schemes have availability restrictions.

Headforpoints and Flyertalk are excellent resources where you can learn a lot more.

phatbear

Some other variables include are you traveling alone.

So for example if you got a Lloyds Avios card and spent £7000 with in a year you would get an upgrade voucher which would allow you to upgrade either a return flight or two one way flights, but you both have to be travelling on the same flight.

Mix that up with getting yourself an amex gold reward card and spend £2000 in three months and then get 20000 miles then refer your other half for a card you will get 9000 miles for the referral and then you your other half would get 22000 miles when they spend £2000 in three months.

So you've spent £11000 and got an upgrade voucher and 51000 miles in the pot which you can either use with BA, especially if you want to use your upgrade voucher, or virgin

You could also take out a virgin ISA each and get 8000 miles each, you need to pay in £100 a month for this.

PeacefulWaters wrote: »

If you want to get to Australia or west coast USA you would need to book 355 days ahead for availability.

Just booked a return for me and the better half from LA, using avios points and an upgrade voucher, in June in business with BA and there was plenty of availability.

PeacefulWaters

phatbear wrote: »

Just booked a return for me and the better half from LA, using avios points and an upgrade voucher, in June in business with BA and there was plenty of availability.

Nice one. I'll add the words "in my limited experience"!

zisoregondo

Thanks all for the advice - I'll read up on what you've suggested and hopefully get onto a scheme that gives me best bang for the buck..

I'm not even fussed about exchanging points for the whole flight, though it sounds like part-points part-cash isn't very effective

zisoregondo

If I narrowed it down to, say, free/discounted flights to the Caribbean..?

zisoregondo

PeacefulWaters wrote: »

...Ideally you will have a target journey to spend your Avios on and build towards that....

If I was targeting Dominican Republic as an example, what would you advise?

PeacefulWaters

zisoregondo wrote: »

If I was targeting Dominican Republic as an example, what would you advise?

Paying a cash fare to TUI.

Here's a redemption chart for BA.
http://www.headforpoints.com/2015/07/27/british-airways-avios-redemption-pricing-by-route/

125,000 Avios buys you a return business class ticket to Barbados or Antigua. Spending £10,000 on a BA AMEX card with a £195 fee will get you a BOGOF enabling two to travel, subject to availability and paying cash for "taxes".

AMEX cards, Tesco Clubcard points and business class flying (often from cheaper departure points such as Dublin) are ways to build up such a points stash.

There's a dark art to getting genuine value out of airline mileage schemes.