Rewards schemes: Where to go now to generate Avoid now Lloyds rate is so poor?

nLdn

I've held the Lloyds Avoid card which gives you an Amex and a MasterCard for a few years now and it's serves me pretty well in that I've amassed a lot of avios (now managed in BA Executive club) and they've been really useful for discounts off hotels and travel.

Typically I put between £1-2k a month as I use it for work expenses.

Seeing that Lloyds might wind down this particular rewards card I've recently got an Amex Gold card to trial using the amex rewards system for the first time.

Last week I received a letter saying Lloyds was reducing the amount of avios awarded for spending to 2points for every £5 spent whereas it uses to be 1 for every £1.

Having the Lloyds joint Amex and MC was really useful though with the avios and no fees for overseas use.

Is there an alternative MasterCard I could get that's good for travel and has Avios / BA rewards?

As an alternative can Amex rewards be used to exchange to Avios. Is the rate terrible?

[Deleted User]

Yes you can exchange Amex rewards to Avios and they exchange at a 1:1 rate.

https://catalogue.membershiprewards.co.uk/partner/British-Airways-Executive-Club/BA-0001

Have a look here for alternative cards:

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/credit-cards/airline-credit-cards/

dont_use_vistaprint

If you can use VA instead of BA - personally I prefer them, the VA card (the one with the fee) is worth it with that spend and if frequently doing long haul I think you will get 2 free flights anywhere in the world year 1 , 1 companion flight or upgrade per year and shed loads of extra miles. You will still need to earn tier points through flying though to keep your Gold. I've used for 6 months and have enough for two premium return flights to India already , and the clubhouse at Heathrow ...wow...way way better than BA , free massage every flight and they treat you like royalty in the air, can be a bit embarrassing! 2 x 23kg and 2 large hand luggage too all free

On AMEX I just use the Nectar - each £1k spend makes £25 reward.

callum9999

dont_use_vistaprint wrote: »

If you can use VA instead of BA - personally I prefer them, the VA card (the one with the fee) is worth it with that spend and if frequently doing long haul I think you will get 2 free flights anywhere in the world year 1 , 1 companion flight or upgrade per year and shed loads of extra miles. You will still need to earn tier points through flying though to keep your Gold. I've used for 6 months and have enough for two premium return flights to India already , and the clubhouse at Heathrow ...wow...way way better than BA , free massage every flight and they treat you like royalty in the air, can be a bit embarrassing! 2 x 23kg and 2 large hand luggage too all free

On AMEX I just use the Nectar - each £1k spend makes £25 reward.

It does not give "two free flights anywhere".

And maybe you got some big signup bonuses, but you need to spend almost £37k to get enough for two premium flights to India.

Nick_C

The reward rate on the Lloyds Mastercard is actually improving - from 0.25 Avios/£ to 0.4 Avios/£, or 0.5 Avios/£ if you have a Club Lloyds current account. I would advise keeping the Lloyds card for places that don't take Amex.

The Amex Gold Credit Card is free for a year, and is a good way to earn Avios (by exchanging Membership Rewards). If you are planning to travel with a companion, then I would suggest also looking at the BA Premium Plus (Amex) card. Although this has a fee of £195, you will earn a "two for one" voucher by spending £10k (within a year). You also can earn a sign up bonus of 26000 Avios. Refer yourself (yes, refer yourself) and you will also get a 9000 MR referral bonus. Also refer as many other people as you can, you can earn up to 90000 MRs each calendar year.

To properly understand earning Avios, have a look at https://www.HeadForPoints.com

Marchitiello

The Lloyds Avios Amex actually earn 1.25 Avios per £1 spent. Is the MasterCard that has poor earning ratio. Also good is that currently there are no forex fees applied, which will also end.

As per my other post in the original thread, I too have recently received the letter, but other then an end date for the upgrade voucher earning eligibility, the rest is only a pre warning of the upcoming changes as there is no set date for the Amex withdrawal,

You may have jumped the gun too early to be honest, especially now that Amex stopped the churning of cards by customer that allowed them to earn repeated sign up bonuses.

I would also consider the BA Amex or the BA Amex Premium once you get your current bonus.

dont_use_vistaprint

callum9999 wrote: »

It does not give "two free flights anywhere".

And maybe you got some big signup bonuses, but you need to spend almost £37k to get enough for two premium flights to India.

Last time I checked you get one free companion flight (per year) plus for signing up an extra 15k miles, to qualify for the higher paid card, you would spend enough to earn another 30K miles, which would give you a minimum of 45K miles in year one so easily covers two free flights they start from 30k.

Ive been using six month and already have 132k miles, as gold you get extra miles and can cash in flights on several other airlines

2ilent8cho

I heavily collect the Avios points. I use the British Airways Amex Premium so i get 1.5 points per £ and get a 2 for 1 voucher, that one is paid off in full each month. I also have a Tesco credit card (Mastercard) for everywhere i cannot use Amex, you get 1 point per £8 spent outside Tesco and 250 points converts to 600 Avios. I do have the Amex Low APR reward card too which is 9.9% and i use this for purchases i may want to spread over a few months and they convert to Avios at a 1:1 ratio, but has a minimum of 1000 points to make a transfer to BA.