Free flight with easyjet credit card

Victors_Bruvver

I cannot see it mentioned anywhere here but Easyjet and Citibank have launched a Easyjet Mastercard. To promote it, you get a 'free' flight worth £40 when you spend £250 on the card in the first three months. I wouldn't bother myself and will stick with Tescos Mastercard but as anyone here have any thoughts?

simongregson

Could be useful if you use easyjet. Essentially £40 for taking out the card and spending on it. 10% cashback on easyjet flights for 3 months, then 3% on flights
1% cashback on UK transactions
2% on foreign spend (but with the usual loading fee, so better off with nationwide)
The cashback is credited when you book an easyjet flight (deducted from your balance).
Cashback points expire after 12 months.

Useful for regular easyjet flyers I suppose and to grab the £40.

I couldn't find out if you still have to pay Easyjet's credit card charge if you use it to book a flight, as this would save £4.50 ish per booking.

cardmaster

You still have to pay the 1.95% (min £4.95) charge for using the card on the website. Not such a bargain after all.
On my calculation if you are booking a flight costing less than £115, you'd be better off using your debit card which has a flat fee of £1.50, or better still a Visa Electron which is free.

simongregson

I do tend to book flights using a credit card. Although Easyjet are a fairly solid company, airlines have been known to go belly-up and it's nice to know I will get my money back with a credit card. I would only use a debit card for real cheapie fares.

Nikko5

cardmaster wrote: »

You still have to pay the 1.95% (min £4.95) charge for using the card on the website. Not such a bargain after all.
On my calculation if you are booking a flight costing less than £115, you'd be better off using your debit card which has a flat fee of £1.50, or better still a Visa Electron which is free.

Could you (or anyone else!) explain the above in a bit more detail, Maths never was my strong point!!

I've now spent £250 on my EasyJet Mastercard (all stuff that I would've bought anyway, so that's not a problem) and my latest statement shows me as having 4,258 EasyJet "miles"

I've read through the Ts and Cs (http://www.citibank.co.uk/personal/cards/easyjet/rewards_easy_tc2.htm?type=cards&merchant=citi&offer=A188) but I just cannot get my head round it (Maths never was my strong point!)

Basically I need to book an EasyJet flight which will cost me either 19.99 Euros with Electron (plus, presumably, foreign handling fee - Halifax EasyCash card), 22.24 Euros with Visa Debit (no charges as Nationwide Flex card) or 27.49 Euros with the EasyJet Mastercard (again, presumably plus forex handling fee).

What is the best way to do it?! In theory it should be "free" with the EasyJet card and my 4,000+ points, but I'm not sure it is going to work out that easy (pardon the pun!) Also, if I wait 12 months, it looks like I will be able to exchange my 4,000 points for £20 cash anyway which would also pay for this flight in the long run! Aggggggghhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!

Any assistance appreciated, am I just making it too complicated, or is that exactly what they are trying to do?!

simongregson

If you book the flight and pay for it using your easyjet card, the amount of your easyjet miles will automatically credit to your account.

i.e. book the flight. They charge you the sterling equivalent of €27.49.
Your statement is credited with the same amount. Your miles balance is reduced by 2749.

So the flight is in effect free.

hth

gmatwork

Nikko5 wrote: »

Could you (or anyone else!) explain the above in a bit more detail, Maths never was my strong point!!

I think the point that cardmaster was making referred more to the value of the 3% (3 miles per £1 spent) when using the card to book flights on easyjet, rather than claiming your free flight from the introductory offer. If on future booking you use the card, you will earn 3 air miles per £1 spent, but unless the flight costs more than £115, the minimum charge of £4.95 that easyjet charge for paying by mastercard will cost more than the air miles earnt.

However, if like simongregson and me, you always use a credit card to book flights, it will pay you to use the easyjet card.

Nikko5

Thanks both of you, much appreciated. Will book the initial flight on the EasyJet card then. And maybe another one in the future if the two add up to <£42 in total.

Won't use the card again after that 'tho, unless I happen to have to book an EasyJet flight >£115 (unlikely as I wouldn't really consider that fare to be moneysaving!! )

Usually use Electron to book flights with Easyjet/Ryanair/FlyBE to get round the card charges. If any of them do happen to go bust, then I'll take the chance I think (unlikely IMHO).

Cheers again...

daderb

We got the easyjet card from citibank. Our latest statement states that you have to pay a mimimum of £1 per month interest charges or they will charge your account £1 (or the difference between what you have paid and £1). ie: if you always pay your balance to avoid interest charges, they are going to nail you with a £1 per month fee. cheeky monkeys!

CannyJock

daderb wrote: »

We got the easyjet card from citibank. Our latest statement states that you have to pay a mimimum of £1 per month interest charges or they will charge your account £1 (or the difference between what you have paid and £1). ie: if you always pay your balance to avoid interest charges, they are going to nail you with a £1 per month fee. cheeky monkeys!

What?! There's a catch to it?! No way!!

I steered clear of this last time I was at Stansted and a guy with a bright orange fleece and a clipboard came wandering over and tried one of the most worn sales pitches in the world, affectionately known as the "3 yesses". Theory is you answer three questions positively and it makes you a gullible puppy.

His opening gambits were:
1. Are you flying with EasyJet today? (I was standing in the check-in queue for Glasgow).
2. Are you flying within the UK today? (I was standing in the check-in queue for Glasgow).
3. Did you book your flights online? (like 99.9% of people)

Then he asked the killer line:
4. Can I interest you in a credit card that gives you free flights?

My responses were:
1. Can you offer me a guaranteed 15,000 limit? (had just got my Virgin Money card)
2. Can you offer me a 15 month interest free period? (had just got my Virgin Money card)
3. Can you offer me a fee free transfer direct to my offshire savings account? (don't have one, but liked the sound of it)

Guess he wasn't used to smart asses asking questions back. He wandered on to the next victim with a vaguely mystified grin.

The_Zealot

So there's a monthly fee of 1£ with this card. Not the end of the world, but it might still be useful if you travel often with Easyjet. The question remains: How much are you travelling for this fee to pay up by itself? It is "pretty much never"? Or with two people flying once a year is good enough? How about twice a year?

Does anyone know when do these miles expire?