Amex Avios BA Card

paulpaulpaul

hi, does anybody use this card for collecting point to redeem against travel ?

I was wondering if 2 flight tickets can be booked with 1 cardholders points ?

I spend around 40K a year on my Barclaycard and get nothing in return so am thinking a first class flight for 2 to somewhere exotic in maybe 5 years or so time.

Secondly if not enough points gained at time of wanting to book can the balance be paid in cash and or points purchased ?

Thanks 
 

jpsartre

Yes, you can book flights for anyone with your Avios. There's no downside to getting a card that gives you Avios for your spend over one that gives you nothing although a couple of things to keep in mind:

• 2 First class longhaul return flights to places like LA, Male or South Africa is 400k Avios during peak times (300k in Business class) so even with 40k spend you won't have enough Avios for two flights after 5 years.
  
• However, if you're willing to pay a card fee you can get the BA Premium Plus for £250 a year which not only earns you slightly more Avios on spend (1.5 Avios/£ vs 1 Avios/£ for the regular BA card) but also a companion voucher that let's you book two flights for the Avios price of one.
  
• You'll still need to pay the taxes and fees on your flight when using Avios (and a companion voucher) which can be around £600-700 per ticket in premium cabins.
  
• You can part pay with cash if you don't have enough Avios but it's usually poor value.
  
• Avios can now be exchanged to Nectar points (250 Avios gives you 400 Nectar points) so even if you ended up having 400k Avios to spend on flights, this would also convert to £3200 spend in Sainsburys. So basically, using Avios to redeem flights should not be thought of as free flights.
  

JamesPeter

paulpaulpaul said:

hi, does anybody use this card for collecting point to redeem against travel ?

I was wondering if 2 flight tickets can be booked with 1 cardholders points ?

I spend around 40K a year on my Barclaycard and get nothing in return so am thinking a first class flight for 2 to somewhere exotic in maybe 5 years or so time.

Secondly if not enough points gained at time of wanting to book can the balance be paid in cash and or points purchased ?

Thanks 
 

If you are thinking of getting the 'free' (Blue) BA Amex, from 1st September 2021 the companion voucher can only be used for economy class flights:

https://www.headforpoints.com/2021/06/01/british-airways-american-express-credit-card-economy-voucher/

You will need the £250 BA Premium Plus Amex card to get Business/First companion voucher by hitting the mimimum annual spend.