Fancy Free Flights? Quality airlines to boot!

cougar_3

OK, first post, hope this is useful.
I've done some searches and can't find this promotion although it has been running for a while:

The airline, BMI are offering 20,000 of their frequent flyer miles when you sign up and use their Mastercard credit card for the first time. This is enough points for a flight anywhere in Europe and almost enough for two flights in the following destinations: UK, Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Republic of Ireland, Switzerland (these need 12,000 for each flight - you'd be just 4,000 short)

BMI Mastercard offer

You must take advantage of this before the end of the month.

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The second offer I've noticed recently is with Virgin Atlantic. You get 20,000 miles, but these are worth more - enough for a single flight to the US for you or a return for someone accompanying you.
The credit card to get the offer with them is an AMEX, which means that there's a £95 fee and you can't already have a card. I'm sure you'll agree that that's not bad for a single or return flight to the US.

Virgin AMEX

You will need to be a member to access this link. If you do travel with them and aren't a member, then let us know (prob best by PM so as not to clog up the post) - they have a generous referral program.

There may be hidden drawbacks I've missed, so please post if you spot anything!

rizla01

Great first post truscott.

Well i for one wasn't aware of this and i am now considering getting my partner to apply as well.

That way we will both get to spain for free.

And I thought my free watch (from a credit card application)was a good find!!

Riz

stratford_2

Thanks for posting and welcoime to the boards - there are a few caveats as you thought though. With the BMI offer, you have to pay taxes on the flights that you are redeeming:

"For flight redemption, any taxes, fees and charges must be paid for in pounds sterling at the time of booking."

Still could save some money though! On the virgin side of things, it's the same:

"4.1.6 Reward flights do not include any applicable passenger taxes, fees, charges and surcharges, which will be charged to and payable by each passenger. The amount of these is subject to change"

You can sometimes get in fare sales a rtn to NYC from around £200 including taxes of approx £95, for travel during the off-season. Therefore paying £95 for the amex card and then approx £95 in taxes for the companion fare rtn is not much cheaper.

Most (if not all) frequent flyer programmes require you to pay taxes etc. on reward flights and the offers for miles with credit cards are designed to boost frequent flier mileage accounts, rather than give away 'free' flights initially to everyone!

pin

With any frequent flyer mile rewards you always have to pay for taxes and other charges (whatever that means). The BMI one has been running for ages, they just keep renewing the offer deadline!

However the Virgin Amex one does sound interesting. However you have to fork out £95 for the Gold Charge card.

jo_b_2

Thanks for posting the details and welcome to MSE!

I've moved this over to the 'Travel' Board, as I'm sure that this will be useful for people planning trips abroad.

As with all these offers, there are always extra taxes and surcharges so the offer will be better suited to this board. Seems like a very good deal though! Well spotted.

cougar_3

I assumed that people would realise that you have to pay taxes on the reward bookings - you always do in my experience.

I think that the Virgin deal is worth it if you are looking to travel further - flights to San Francisco, Los Angeles and Las Vegas are usually more expensive than the East Coast but taxes remain the same.

Also, it depends on when you're planning on travelling. Taxes don't increase in school holidays, but ticket prices would. Yes, you might get an offer in the sales, but they're never useful dates... Kelkoos best price for a long weekend in August in NYC was £565. The offer is £175...

jo_b_2

truscott_uk wrote:

I assumed that people would realise that you have to pay taxes on the reward bookings - you always do in my experience

Yes, as far as I know you always have to pay taxes.

Nobody was criticising the offer or your posting. The Freebies board is usually kept to those offers that are totally free, that's all! People are very tight on that board!

cougar_3

Lol, that's fine!

pin

truscott_uk wrote:

I assumed that people would realise that you have to pay taxes on the reward bookings - you always do in my experience.

I think that the Virgin deal is worth it if you are looking to travel further - flights to San Francisco, Los Angeles and Las Vegas are usually more expensive than the East Coast but taxes remain the same.

Also, it depends on when you're planning on travelling. Taxes don't increase in school holidays, but ticket prices would. Yes, you might get an offer in the sales, but they're never useful dates... Kelkoos best price for a long weekend in August in NYC was £565. The offer is £175...

You have to remember with all these reward flights they are subject to avaiability. You will find that the reward flights are are normally blacked out during popular travel periods, i.e christmas and school holiday. However the offer is still interesting.

cougar_3

Another offer for flights or Eurostar (to Paris only this time) with What to Wear Magazine: £20 fees + £1.80 cost of the magazine

What to Wear Magazine

I might use this one but I only need a single on Eurostar - if I booked an outbound and didn't use it, would the inbound still be valid?

sjpkgp

it would be well worth checking - with a some of the airlines, if you don't turn up for the outbound, they cancel your inbound !! nice of them !!