Amex vs virgin

Cam93

Hi all,

I recently took out the Amex BA Cc and have accumulated a good amount of Avois points etc however I’m still finding a lot of places don’t take Amex so I’m missing out on points! This has led me into looking at new CCs at the virgin stands out, it seems to be the exact deal as the AMex BA black card which is what I’m using.

Is there anyway I can convert my Avois across to virgin miles instead?
As I understand the virgin card is a MasterCard and therefore accepted just about everywhere.
Is there anything else out there that’s better or that I should be looking at instead ? - I’m after rewards only. I have no debt, no need to transfer etc and pay off in full each month so I’m only after the goodies!

stevenhp1987

Avios cannot be converted to flying club miles. They are run by two competing Airlines (BA and Virgin Atlantic).

The cards are similar but not the same. The paid BA card will give you a 2-4-1 voucher after £10k spend each year. This voucher can be used in any class. To cover the fee it's best used in a long haul business redemption which requires 100k+ points.

The Virgin paid card offers a 2-4-1 economy voucher which isn't worth anything given economy flights are usually cheaper in money than the 'taxes' of a redemption ticket. The voucher is better for a solo traveler as you can get a premium seat for the miles of an economy seat for 1 person.

If you compare the free cards then it's 0.75 flying club miles vs. 1 Avios.

In terms of usage, it's very hard to use flying club miles at the moment due to Virgin Atlantic being a long haul airline. This means you need 35k points + ~£600 tax for premium off peak to New York for a 'maybe worth it' redemption.

BA on the other hand only requires 8k plus £35 tax to go to Paris in economy.

You could potentially earn more miles with the Virgin card but unless you can earn 100k plus you won't really be using them for anything.

Personally I have the BA card as my main one and the Virgin as my backup.

https://www.headforpoints.com/ is a good resource for frequent flyer miles!

2ilent8cho

You could always get the Tesco Credit Card (Mastercard) for places that do not take Amex and then transfer the club card points (1 Tesco point for every £8 spent) to Avios, 250 Tesco points = 600 Avios.

Where are you finding that does not take Amex? Almost my entire monthly spend goes through my Amex, its rare i have to use Mastercard/Visa now.

Cam93

In the last week I’ve paid 500 on car insurance which didn’t accept Amex, and then another 529 on a holiday gone in Cornwall for a week which also didn’t accept. I know it’s not much but it’s still points that I begrudgingly missed out on!

Might look into the Tesco CC, thanks.

LobsterMemory

2ilent8cho wrote: »

Where are you finding that does not take Amex? Almost my entire monthly spend goes through my Amex, its rare i have to use Mastercard/Visa now.

Specsavers, Greggs and the National Archives bookshop are some I've come across recently