Airline cards - confused with the fees?

jon81uk

WillPS said:

You'll probably find the answer is 'not much'. On the other hand if you want to fly First Class as some sort of bucket list thing or whatever then it's likely to be a relatively cheap way of living that dream.

Yep most of our Upper Class flights have been done by purchasing Premium with miles/points and then using the credit card spend voucher to upgrade into Upper. Its the cheapest way to do it, if you'll spend £20k on a credit card anyway.

DullGreyGuy

WillPS said:

DullGreyGuy said:

Also be aware that if its an Avios booking (rather than cash+points) that its at least a semi-flexible ticket and so comparing it to the no-change cash price is a little inaccurate.

Yes, but if you're trying to calculate a saving, then you should compare with what you would actually buy - and not just with that airline either (unless you would only fly with them).

You'll probably find the answer is 'not much'. On the other hand if you want to fly First Class as some sort of bucket list thing or whatever then it's likely to be a relatively cheap way of living that dream.

I think the reality is somewhere between the two... I've been in situations where I would have bought a fixed ticket with cash but bought a reward one with miles instead. A change of circumstances happened and so was able to change my flight whereas I wouldnt have been able to do that with my fixed cash booking.

Flying upper classes is similar. Managed to bag a pair of 1st tickets back from the far east once for $5 each. I cannot say it saved me over £20,000 as I'd have never paid the cash price but at the same time saying it saved me circa £500 each for economy would be wrong too given there was a value to the better food, lounge, amenities kit, vast amount of Krug vintage champagne etc

After much pondering I've ultimately decided it's not worth getting too hung up on it. 

artyboy

jon81uk said:

WillPS said:

You'll probably find the answer is 'not much'. On the other hand if you want to fly First Class as some sort of bucket list thing or whatever then it's likely to be a relatively cheap way of living that dream.

Yep most of our Upper Class flights have been done by purchasing Premium with miles/points and then using the credit card spend voucher to upgrade into Upper. It's the cheapest way to do it, if you'll spend £20k on a credit card anyway.

And similarly with BA, the value 'sweet spot' is typically buying WTP (premium economy) and using Avios to upgrade to CW (Business) on long haul flights. That and selective 'reward flight saver' redemptions within Europe using the optimal cash/Avios balance.

But to reiterate... long haul economy is VERY unlikely to be a good value use of miles, certainly not from the U.K. anyway.

And at the risk of teaching the OP to suck eggs, you have to be pretty flexible on dates, because to use airline miles effectively, you have to pick dates and flights that actually have reward availability. I've been tied into school holiday dates for many years now, and that's put me off getting a BA credit card because it's pretty difficult to get Avios flights in the high season...

DullGreyGuy

artyboy said:
I've been tied into school holiday dates for many years now, and that's put me off getting a BA credit card because it's pretty difficult to get Avios flights in the high season...

Last few years have actually been great for reward flights, with many not wanting to travel with Covid restrictions etc the availability was vastly higher than normal. Obviously you were taking a punt and could have found yourself in a "red" country at the point of return but we've never managed to book so many club/first/upper flights with points in years.

artyboy

DullGreyGuy said:

artyboy said:
I've been tied into school holiday dates for many years now, and that's put me off getting a BA credit card because it's pretty difficult to get Avios flights in the high season...

Last few years have actually been great for reward flights, with many not wanting to travel with Covid restrictions etc the availability was vastly higher than normal. Obviously you were taking a punt and could have found yourself in a "red" country at the point of return but we've never managed to book so many club/first/upper flights with points in years.

To a point I'd agree - if you had the perseverance you could get some great deals and during 2020/2021 we booked about 5 times as many flights as we were able to take. So I share your sense of adventure there. 

But on the flip side, cash fares were also very very low (and basically risk free with BAs 'book with confidence' policies), so we chose to pay through the nose. Think we got returns to Santorini in summer 2020 for about £70 each, which with all the extra status benefits I get, was probably the value of the food/drink we consumed in the lounge 

DullGreyGuy

artyboy said:
But on the flip side, cash fares were also very very low (and basically risk free with BAs 'book with confidence' policies), so we chose to pay through the nose. Think we got returns to Santorini in summer 2020 for about £70 each, which with all the extra status benefits I get, was probably the value of the food/drink we consumed in the lounge 

They were, but not low enough that I would have paid cash for a First ticket to Mexico City whereas at the time you could pick almost any day of the week and Avios flights were available. 

Due to high expenses and inability to do long term planning we've always accrued points many times faster than we're able to spend them... its the first time in years we're below a 7 figure number now!

artyboy

DullGreyGuy said:

artyboy said:
But on the flip side, cash fares were also very very low (and basically risk free with BAs 'book with confidence' policies), so we chose to pay through the nose. Think we got returns to Santorini in summer 2020 for about £70 each, which with all the extra status benefits I get, was probably the value of the food/drink we consumed in the lounge 

They were, but not low enough that I would have paid cash for a First ticket to Mexico City whereas at the time you could pick almost any day of the week and Avios flights were available. 

Due to high expenses and inability to do long term planning we've always accrued points many times faster than we're able to spend them... its the first time in years we're below a 7 figure number now!

Fair enough, First to Mexico wouldn't have been on our agenda and my Avios balance generally tends to be more in the region of half a million so different circumstances - my view is always to try and get >1p per Avios point in value when redeeming, otherwise I might just as well flip them to Nectar and use them to buy my coffee in Nero (even after the devaluation, that gets me about 1.5p/point in value)