New to Airline Reward Points

ikr2

We're going to start saving points, probably towards upgrading flights to Australia in a few years. We plan to a get the Amex Gold for a year to start us off and then review the perks against second year fee to see if we keep that. We also plan to get the Avios Barclaycard to use where Amex isn't accepted. Looking at MSE and Headforpoints I think the answers to these are yes, but just want to check:

1) Can we pool points from the same household (e.g. if the Amex is in my name and Barclaycard is in my wife's name)?
2) Can we convert Nectar points to Avios to and put those in the same Avios pool as (1)?
3) 35 airlines accept Avios?
4) Best value is on upgrades, rather than buying flights outright.

Thanks - completely new to us so trying to understand how it all works!

MyRealNameToo

1) Assuming its Avios then yes, you each have your own BA FF account but you can create a household with you sharing your points across

2) Yes, though its likely they will have to go into the persons account that the nectar points are in

3) Maybe, BA is part of the OneWorld Alliance but you also have non-full members where you may be able to earn or spend but not both etc. If you have particular flights you are wanting then it's easier to try and look into your airline options with those particular carriers than work out all the scheme rules for every flight thats possible to take etc. 

4) Depends, higher tiers are generally better value than lower tiers when compared to the cash price but then flights from countries with low taxes are generally better than those from high taxes. The best cash per point flight I ever booked was a first class flight from HK to UK with Cathay Pacific with short notice. The taxes I had to pay was a whole $5 whereas were it a flight from LHR it would have been over £500 in fees. 

Marchitiello

@ikr2 I am assuming you have read the article in HfP titled "What is the best American Express strategy if you earn under £35,000?", as  in there they suggested the best strategy to maximise Amex Bonus Points awards applying for the right cards at the right time (having an Amex card already restrict future bonus earning).

Having said that, the previous posters already gave you some clarifications. What I would add though, is that unless you are 100% set to only look at Avios, it would be agood practice to keep your Amex MR points in your Amex account until the last possible moment (either when you are almost ready to use it, or when you may want to close the MR earning Amex Card Account and need to transfer the points to avoid losing it).

On the 3rd Point, Avios are the actual Miles currency for the following Airlines: BA, Iberia, AirLingus, Vueling, Qatar and Finnair. You can create accounts with all those airlines and link them afterwards in order to be able to make tranfer of Avios across. In addition to this, BA, Iberia, Qatar and Finnair are also members of the OneWorld alliance, which means that when making a reward booking on one of their accounts, you are often able to book flights on another OneWorld airline partners that does not actually use Avios themselves.

However, upgrading with Avios, which is what you mention as your objective,  would be restricted to only booking made on BA and some scenarios on Iberia and American Airlines. Also, to be transparent, in case you were thinking to make a full Reward booking to Australia and having also the option to upgrade further with Avios, this the most sought after route for Rewards booking and the premium seats available sell out fast (e.g. as soon as these are released 355 days in advance).

Finally, may be worth mentioning that if you are still set on getting into Avios earning (I have been for years, use it on First Class Long Haul redemption once a year, plus some Business seats on both SH and LH), you should really considering to multiply all possible avenue that offer Avios earning, which would include the Avios shopping portal, Rewards Accounts with NatWest/RBS, Barclays Premier Avios Rewards (if elegible), HSBC Premier World Elite Credit Card (if elegible), Avis car rentals (linked accounts), Hotel loyalty scheme conversion (often not a great conversion rate) as well as Nectar conversions and other options, particularly if you also run your own business (e.g. CapitalOnTap, Amex Business Cards). 

MyRealNameToo

Marchitiello said:

Having said that, the previous posters already gave you some clarifications. What I would add though, is that unless you are 100% set to only look at Avios, it would be agood practice to keep your Amex MR points in your Amex account until the last possible moment (either when you are almost ready to use it, or when you may want to close the MR earning Amex Card Account and need to transfer the points to avoid losing it).

If you are definitely using them on Avios you may as well transfer as you go 

If you may use them on other reward programmes then absolutely keep most as MR but remember that the likes of Avios expire if there has been no account activity and so you do want to transfer at least the minimum once a year or so (exact timings vary by scheme) to ensure existing points dont expire. 

Marchitiello

MyRealNameToo said:

Marchitiello said:

Having said that, the previous posters already gave you some clarifications. What I would add though, is that unless you are 100% set to only look at Avios, it would be agood practice to keep your Amex MR points in your Amex account until the last possible moment (either when you are almost ready to use it, or when you may want to close the MR earning Amex Card Account and need to transfer the points to avoid losing it).

If you are definitely using them on Avios you may as well transfer as you go 

If you may use them on other reward programmes then absolutely keep most as MR but remember that the likes of Avios expire if there has been no account activity and so you do want to transfer at least the minimum once a year or so (exact timings vary by scheme) to ensure existing points dont expire. 

That is what I said, no?  The suggestion to add to the airline balance is good, but some scheme e.g. Emirates, will expire each points batch on anniversary of earning data no matter the activity on the account, making irrelevant to transfer more points into it unless once has a clear plan of reward booking, so back to my point, if one want to keep options open, better to keep the balance within the MR account.  Hopefully, other Avios only scheme would keep the Avios balance going (the op mention to also get a BarclayCard Avios).

dcfc67

AMEX have a great offer on at moment if you get referred,
spend 5K within first 6 months get 55000 points.

Marchitiello

Indeed, happy to refer anyone that needs to. The platinum bonus is even higher (100,000 MR points) and they still offer pro-rata refunds.

MyRealNameToo

Marchitiello said:

Indeed, happy to refer anyone that needs to. The platinum bonus is even higher (100,000 MR points) and they still offer pro-rata refunds.

Thats odd, mine is showing as 85,000 MR + £250 travel credit for them

Marchitiello

MyRealNameToo said:

Marchitiello said:

Indeed, happy to refer anyone that needs to. The platinum bonus is even higher (100,000 MR points) and they still offer pro-rata refunds.

Thats odd, mine is showing as 85,000 MR + £250 travel credit for them

 Pretty sure is a targeted offer, maybe because I have been behind my annual 5 recommendations on the platinum (getting the max 90,000 mr points per year). 

The text of the email reads as:

”

You’ve unlocked an exclusive referral bonus only accessible to a limited number of Platinum Cardmembers.”

Also I do have the Charge Card version, although any new applicant will only be able to get the Credit Card version. 

MyRealNameToo

Mine too is a charge card.

Arguably £250 credit is worth more than the extra 15,000 MR points given the typical 1p per point conversion so doesnt immediately feel like a big exclusive benefit. 

Presumably still offering you 25k MR for each person that signs up too?

Marchitiello

MyRealNameToo said:

Mine too is a charge card.

Arguably £250 credit is worth more than the extra 15,000 MR points given the typical 1p per point conversion so doesnt immediately feel like a big exclusive benefit. 

Presumably still offering you 25k MR for each person that signs up too?

The £250 credit is also there (as it is the standard offer you get without any referral, 75,000 bonus points and £250 travel credit):