Good CC for building Avios Points?

TractorFactor

Is there a good CC for building Avios points?

We're planning a holiday in 6 years time so thinking I could spend spend spend (and clear off each month) to get ye old Avios points to help with the cost of flights.

I read online that one gives a welcome bonus of 5000 points but if I refer a friend and they're successful in getting the credit card, we can both earn an extra 4000 points.

Wonka_2

Given there's no guarantees that Avios will even exist in 6yrs, let alone it's value then it's a risk basing your choice of CC on it.

I've a BA Amex card that get's me a companion voucher each year as well as Avois - but is only really of any use if your future holiday is with BA 

QrizB

TractorFactor said:

Is there a good CC for building Avios points?

If you can meet the spending requirements (£3k in the first 3 months), the Amex Gold Rewards card has a 20k points bonus - and Amex points can be converted 1:1 into Avios.

Just beware the £160/yr fee that applies from year 2. At that point you'd probably be better off with the regular Amex reward card (I think you can switch).

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/credit-cards/best-credit-card-rewards/

You might also want to check out Head For Points: https://www.headforpoints.com/

Wonka_2 said:

Given there's no guarantees that Avios will even exist in 6yrs, let alone it's value then it's a risk basing your choice of CC on it.

And don't forget you can convert Avios into Nectar points, with each Avio being worth 0.667p - so 20k Amex points are worth £130.

lr1277

A few things you need to watch out for:

1) Devaluations: Avios points, Amex MR points, any other airline scheme's points can be devalued at any time. And 6 years is a long time.

2) In some airlines's schemes, points do expire. I don't think Amex's MR points expire but you would need to check.

3) If you choose Amex, esure the places you would normally use a credit card accept Amex. The Amex cardholders will tell you it is accepted in many places, but you eeed to make sure the places you normally spend money (or the places where you spend the most money) accept Amex.

Amex MR earning cards: the MR points don't expire to the best of my knowledge. These points can be sent to a number of airline or hotel rewards schemes.

Amex BA cards allow you to earn Avios which can be sent to BA, Iberia and Finnair amongst others. But then I don't know if the points expire if not used.

Barclaycard Avios - allow you to earn Avios with the same caveat as above. But when the card was initially introdued, people who had very good salaries and credit files were rejected. It depends if you fit th customer profile of what Barclaycard wants.

Suggest you look at the site Headforpoints. Apart from articles, there are forums for credit cards. You may find the information in the forum posts useful.

HTH.

WillPS

https://www.headforpoints.com/2023/01/03/maximise-american-express-signup-bonuses/

This is 'the optimum route' for Amex. Bear in mind the £575 Platinum Card fee is now non-refundable; you probably will want to skip that step unless there's a particularly generous sign up bonus.

Also look out for offers on the Barclaycards, check that blog every couple of days.

Finally - give some thought to whether collecting Avios to redeem for flights will genuinely get you more value in the long term. You might find that it's more effective to use the points for something else and save the cash.

DullGreyGuy

WillPS said:

This is 'the optimum route' for Amex. Bear in mind the £575 Platinum Card fee is now non-refundable; you probably will want to skip that step unless there's a particularly generous sign up bonus.

Or you can make use of the other benefits for a year at least, though the OP doesn't sound as if they travel frequent enough to make use of the Lounge Access etc. 


You really need to look at things like the AmEx BA card for direct collection of Avios and indirect options like AmEx Gold or Sainsbury's Bank card etc. There is no one single answer which is best because it will depend on where you shop etc.

If you do go the AmEx route you can normally get a better signup bonus by getting an associate to recommend you (though you may prefer the £10 cash back via Quidco etc)

lr1277

There are sign up bonuses and enhanced sign up bonuses.

Apparently some people at the moment when they log onto their ba.com account are seeing an enhances sign up bonus.

So if you apply for the BA Amex Premium Plus card through the Amex website, the bonus avios at the moment is 25k avios, assuming you meet the spending requirements. However for those where it is offered, the sign up bonus (SUB) for the BAPP card is 60k for spending £5k in 3 months. You need to keep an eye on the Headforpoints site, both the articles on the homepage and the posts on the forums, especially the daily chat thread. Btw the BAPP card is a paid for card so you have to assess if you can get enough vaue from the card for the fee.

Even though Amex doesn't mention it, sometimes there are minimum salary requirements, especially when there are enhanced SUBs. For example during the recent offer for an enhanced SUB on the Platinum card, the minimum salary required was £50k. Not sure of the minimum salary required when there is no enhanced SUB, on any of the cards.

If you do go down the Amex route, ensure you have a non-Amex backup in case Amex is not accepted.

For some rewards like vouchers for instance, you have to keep holding the same Amex that generated that reward or any Amex to make use of that reward. In certain cases, you have to show the card to claim your reward.

HTH

lr1277

Sorry some more thoughts for you.

You need to decide what rewards you want. Free nights in a hotel or cheap or free flights?

Do you value comfort in an airplane seat for however many hours or an enhanced or free hotel room for however many nights (ie.say 8 hours sleep a night).

But as you say you have 6 years to make these decisions and adjust yourr strategy accordingly.

WillPS

DullGreyGuy said:

 


You really need to look at things like the AmEx BA card for direct collection of Avios and indirect options like AmEx Gold or Sainsbury's Bank card etc. There is no one single answer which is best because it will depend on where you shop etc.

You're right but the Sainsbury's Bank card will never be the answer here (unless nothing else is available for some reason). It's beaten in all situations accepted by the Nectar Amex and the free Barclaycard beats it everywhere except Sainsburys/Argos, where it is a tiny bit lower.

lr1277

If you choose to down the Amex route, hee is an article suggesting minimum required for each card:

https://www.headforpoints.com/2023/07/20/american-express-brings-back-minimum-income-requirement/

TractorFactor

QrizB said:

TractorFactor said:

Is there a good CC for building Avios points?

If you can meet the spending requirements (£3k in the first 3 months), the Amex Gold Rewards card has a 20k points bonus - and Amex points can be converted 1:1 into Avios.

I think this is the issue.

I'm not sure we'd spend £3000 in three months as that's a pretty tall order and I can't think of any major purchases we need to make (we're actually trying not to spend money!).

I'm not bothered about points being devalued or the scheme closing in 6 years.  My current CC (Halifax Clarity) gives me nothing in return so I may as well try and get something.

The important thing for us is cheap / free flights.

The Barclaycard one would have been great but I don't earn £75,000 (although we do combined).  Shame as my mortage is currently with them - I guess they wouldn't back-date points.

I'm just wondering if it's just too complicated.
I don't have a BA.com account, but having to sign up there, to sign up to a special credit card - we rarely fly anywhere - I think it's just a bit too much effort and after the annual fees and things, probably barely worth it.  Although I'm sure I did see a fee-free AmEx card...  but then there's having to worry it won't be accepted everywhere (probably just supermarkets, Amazon, ebay, fast food outlets - I can't think of many other places we actually use cards regularly).