Newbie questions about collecting Avios points using any means!

whyismoneysohardtoget

I have three questions before signing up to collect Avios points, mainly using a credit card, which I use for all my daily spending.

Firstly, on reading the MSE article on "31 tricks to boost and max Avios", it states "You can only upgrade one cabin level up – so premium economy to business, not economy to business, and only if there's availability."
Am I correct in thinking this is just a restriction on upgrading, and I that I can simply "buy" a Business Class seat with Avios points if I have enough (or pay the difference if short on points)?

Secondly, are the premium points cards worth the monthly cost?
I am thinking about one of the Barclaycard cards (I'm fed up with places not taking Amex) but at £20 per month it seems to me that you would have to be a really high spender to recover the cost!
My thinking is as follows. Cost of card per month £20. On the assumption that 1 Avois point is worth 1p, you would need to spend £4000 per month to break even on points for your £20.
Or am I missing something?

Thirdly, what are peoples thoughts on the Barclays Avios Rewards account, costing £12 per month with 1,500 Avios points added every month?

Thanks for your help!   

DullGreyGuy

whyismoneysohardtoget said:

I have three questions before signing up to collect Avios points, mainly using a credit card, which I use for all my daily spending.

Firstly, on reading the MSE article on "31 tricks to boost and max Avios", it states "You can only upgrade one cabin level up – so premium economy to business, not economy to business, and only if there's availability."
Am I correct in thinking this is just a restriction on upgrading, and I that I can simply "buy" a Business Class seat with Avios points if I have enough (or pay the difference if short on points)?

Secondly, are the premium points cards worth the monthly cost?
I am thinking about one of the Barclaycard cards (I'm fed up with places not taking Amex) but at £20 per month it seems to me that you would have to be a really high spender to recover the cost!
My thinking is as follows. Cost of card per month £20. On the assumption that 1 Avois point is worth 1p, you would need to spend £4000 per month to break even on points for your £20.
Or am I missing something?

Thirdly, what are peoples thoughts on the Barclays Avios Rewards account, costing £12 per month with 1,500 Avios points added every month?

Thanks for your help!   

There are three ways to use Avios with BA:

1) Buy a Reward Seat with Avios (you have to pay for taxes in cash)
2) Buy and upgrade of a seat with Avios (again pay differences in taxes in cash)
3) Use the points to reduce the price of the flight and pay in cash

3 gives terrible value and should be avoided if possible.

To answer your first Q, yes you can buy a seat in any class, its only the upgrade thats limited to one class

Not sure why you are saying the value of 1 Avois is £0.01 that you think you need to to spend £4,000 to get £20? You'd need to spend £2,000 to get £20 value. If you use the more common £0.005 value then it's £4,000. 

Value of Avios is somewhat personal, for example I got a 1st class flight for $5 using Avios. The cash price of the flight was over £10,000 so in principle the Avios was worth something like £0.08 per point which is exceptional value but I'd have never paid £10,000 for the flight if I didnt have the Avios, would have gone PE probably that was circa £1,500 cash so did I really get 8p value? I'd argue it was worth more than £1,500 as I drank more than that value in the complementary vintage Krug they were serving but yet again were it cash I may have bought one bottle and shared it with the wife, the other two would have been something much cheaper. 


Haven't looked at the current account option so dont know its terms. 

whyismoneysohardtoget

DullGreyGuy said:

whyismoneysohardtoget said:

I have three questions before signing up to collect Avios points, mainly using a credit card, which I use for all my daily spending.

Firstly, on reading the MSE article on "31 tricks to boost and max Avios", it states "You can only upgrade one cabin level up – so premium economy to business, not economy to business, and only if there's availability."
Am I correct in thinking this is just a restriction on upgrading, and I that I can simply "buy" a Business Class seat with Avios points if I have enough (or pay the difference if short on points)?

Secondly, are the premium points cards worth the monthly cost?
I am thinking about one of the Barclaycard cards (I'm fed up with places not taking Amex) but at £20 per month it seems to me that you would have to be a really high spender to recover the cost!
My thinking is as follows. Cost of card per month £20. On the assumption that 1 Avois point is worth 1p, you would need to spend £4000 per month to break even on points for your £20.
Or am I missing something?

Thirdly, what are peoples thoughts on the Barclays Avios Rewards account, costing £12 per month with 1,500 Avios points added every month?

Thanks for your help!   

There are three ways to use Avios with BA:

1) Buy a Reward Seat with Avios (you have to pay for taxes in cash)
2) Buy and upgrade of a seat with Avios (again pay differences in taxes in cash)
3) Use the points to reduce the price of the flight and pay in cash

3 gives terrible value and should be avoided if possible.

To answer your first Q, yes you can buy a seat in any class, its only the upgrade thats limited to one class

Not sure why you are saying the value of 1 Avois is £0.01 that you think you need to to spend £4,000 to get £20? You'd need to spend £2,000 to get £20 value. If you use the more common £0.005 value then it's £4,000. 

Value of Avios is somewhat personal, for example I got a 1st class flight for $5 using Avios. The cash price of the flight was over £10,000 so in principle the Avios was worth something like £0.08 per point which is exceptional value but I'd have never paid £10,000 for the flight if I didnt have the Avios, would have gone PE probably that was circa £1,500 cash so did I really get 8p value? I'd argue it was worth more than £1,500 as I drank more than that value in the complementary vintage Krug they were serving but yet again were it cash I may have bought one bottle and shared it with the wife, the other two would have been something much cheaper. 


Haven't looked at the current account option so dont know its terms. 

Thanks for the response. Very helpful. 

callum9999

DullGreyGuy said:

Not sure why you are saying the value of 1 Avois is £0.01 that you think you need to to spend £4,000 to get £20? You'd need to spend £2,000 to get £20 value. If you use the more common £0.005 value then it's £4,000. 

Value of Avios is somewhat personal, for example I got a 1st class flight for $5 using Avios. The cash price of the flight was over £10,000 so in principle the Avios was worth something like £0.08 per point which is exceptional value but I'd have never paid £10,000 for the flight if I didnt have the Avios, would have gone PE probably that was circa £1,500 cash so did I really get 8p value? I'd argue it was worth more than £1,500 as I drank more than that value in the complementary vintage Krug they were serving but yet again were it cash I may have bought one bottle and shared it with the wife, the other two would have been something much cheaper. 


Haven't looked at the current account option so dont know its terms. 

Because you get 1 Avios/£1 on the free card and 1.5 Avios/£1 on the premium card, so if you want to cover the cost of the £20 you need to earn 2000 Avios + the 2000 Avios you would have gotten on the free card. Though that's only £2666.66 (a bit more with rounding). 

As to whether this is a good plan for the OP - they don't seem to earn miles anywhere else, and seem like they aren't a high spender on credit cards. I'd personally say it's a bit pointless - it would take them years to earn enough for anything more than a short-haul reward flight to Europe, where realistically, you could just often buy a Ryanair/easyJet ticket for a fraction of the cost with similar service/comfort.