Credit card for points against flights?

DrPips

Hi,

We’re planning a big holiday for in 2 years time but not package so we can book our own flights.  As there are 5 of us, we’ll be looking at around £5000 for just the flights so looking to find ways we can save money. Are there any credit cards which give points against flights? I’m thinking we could move all our monthly spending onto a credit card to maximise the amount of points we get between now and then to lessen the burden.

thanks in advance,

bagand96

This is the website to start at: https://www.headforpoints.com/ Has a wealth of information and articles about how to most effectively start earning points and getting the best value out of them. 

You'll need to choose to either start earning towards a specific airline's scheme using their own cards (BA or Virgin etc) or to go with an Amex card that earns Amxes Reward points which can later be transferred to different airline schemes.

It will depend where you're going and what you're after as to whats best for you. If there's more than one of you then there are strategies to get the most out of sign up bonuses to accrue more points. 

DrPips

Thanks, we’re going to Kenya so I know BA flies there

Grumpy_chap

DrPips said:

Thanks, we’re going to Kenya so I know BA flies there

I am not up to speed on the costs for flights to Kenya, but you need to consider whether a BA flight (even with points discounts) will be more cost efficient than other airlines (with or without points).
Points are not always available to use on every flight or sometimes offer best "value" if used towards upgrades rather than ticket discounts, assuming the upgrade is one you'd want.
Indirect flights can sometimes be a massive saving also, far more than you'd get from the points discounts.  At the expense of some inconvenience and the overall journey time being longer.

Ballard

I collect Avios which can be redeemed on BA flights plus affiliated airlines (Iberia, Qatar plus others). 

I used to use an Amex to collect but the fee went higher than I was willing to pay (c£300 pa) so I now use the free Avios Barclaycard.

The big benefit of Amex was that the paid version gave a 2-1 voucher on reward flights if you spent past £12,000 but this has been increased to £15,000 IIRC.

I’ve just checked on the BA website and reward flights to Nairobi in economy would be 60,000 Avios plus £150 each for next summer. Accruing 300,000 Avios in two years would probably be a challenge but you could potentially get enough for a couple this route. 

if you do decide to get a credit card you should investigate the sign up bonuses. For instance, when I first got my Barclaycard Avios card I went for the paid version for a few months to get the higher bonus and then downgraded to the free version. 

if you have time, and can handle incredibly dull surveys, you can boost your Avios via e-rewards.com or aviosforthoughts.com. You can get a few thousand on these sites per month if you put in the time. They are generally boring and repetitive, but its an easy way to earn Avios. 

I find BA to be decent enough, but cash fares are far too expensive so I only use them for reward flights. 

Tim_L

Everyone knows the Lloyds World Elite Mastercard deal right? It's not usually discussed much on headforpoints, but it's a great travel card if you travel a lot solo or as a couple. £15 a month gives you infinite priority pass for holder and one partnercard including restaurants which Amex doesn't, plus fast track access at a lot of airports via the Mastercard app, plus fee free forex at basically interbank rates. You get 0.5% cashback (maybe not on forex) or can just hold the card for the benefits and use a card with a better rate for spending. There are also partner offers which are mostly not that great and based on affiliate cashback which you can easily beat on TCB, but there are some decent exceptions from time to time. 6% at Gregg's just now I think, some that stack on spend offline.

My opinion is that you avoid points earning and get something that's transferrable (i.e. Amex gold possibly for a year, there's a new 1% spend card with another provider I noticed) or gives actual cash. The reason is that the thrust of the changes to BA loyalty and by extension IAG Loyalty make it quite likely there will be de facto or real devaluations on flight redemptions, and the value of Avios for other purposes is quite low. I had a huge Avios stack which I just spent the last of. 

Tim_L

Grumpy_chap said:

DrPips said:

Thanks, we’re going to Kenya so I know BA flies there

I am not up to speed on the costs for flights to Kenya, but you need to consider whether a BA flight (even with points discounts) will be more cost efficient than other airlines (with or without points).
Points are not always available to use on every flight or sometimes offer best "value" if used towards upgrades rather than ticket discounts, assuming the upgrade is one you'd want.
Indirect flights can sometimes be a massive saving also, far more than you'd get from the points discounts.  At the expense of some inconvenience and the overall journey time being longer.

Absolutely - there are some decent cash prices for business class ex CDG/AMS/OSL to Nairobi. The quality of the business class is a bit variable, but it's usually ok, I'm a big fan of Kenyan, though the reliability in terms of delays can be poor. It depends how you value Avios as to whether it's worth a redemption really, and can be tricky to snag the seats.

Ballard

Tim_L said:

Everyone knows the Lloyds World Elite Mastercard deal right? It's not usually discussed much on headforpoints, but it's a great travel card if you travel a lot solo or as a couple. £15 a month gives you infinite priority pass for holder and one partnercard including restaurants which Amex doesn't, plus fast track access at a lot of airports via the Mastercard app, plus fee free forex at basically interbank rates. You get 0.5% cashback (maybe not on forex) or can just hold the card for the benefits and use a card with a better rate for spending. There are also partner offers which are mostly not that great and based on affiliate cashback which you can easily beat on TCB, but there are some decent exceptions from time to time. 6% at Gregg's just now I think, some that stack on spend offline.

My opinion is that you avoid points earning and get something that's transferrable (i.e. Amex gold possibly for a year, there's a new 1% spend card with another provider I noticed) or gives actual cash. The reason is that the thrust of the changes to BA loyalty and by extension IAG Loyalty make it quite likely there will be de facto or real devaluations on flight redemptions, and the value of Avios for other purposes is quite low. I had a huge Avios stack which I just spent the last of. 

I’m not familiar with this card, but from what you’ve said, it has a fee of £150 pa and comes with decent airport benefits. I can see the benefit for couples travelling through airports a couple of times a year, but I’m not convinced that it makes that much sense for a solo traveller who doesn’t travel more than three times a year, so it’s a no from me.

I’ve seen it mentioned a few times that Avios could be devalued at some point in the near future, and that may be the case, but I’m unconvinced.

There are definitely better airlines out there than BA, but I find it easy to collect Avios and they, together with Iberia, travel to places that I want to go. If Avios redemption does worsen I’ll be very fed up but they’ve taken me to interesting places in business class over the years so I’d just have to lump it and remember the good times.