Airline Credit Cards Discussion Area
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Does Avios points expire if you continue to accrue the points over the years? I have been getting round to thinking about airline credit cards and if it is of any use to me. I probably fly 1-2 long haul return flights per year to the Far East (South East Asia) in economy. Any benefit of saving the points at all or being subscribed to a frequent flyer programme or airline just for its points? I don't like being tied down by one points based system, because I think flexiblity is best. Keen for some advice.
Q: Do Avios expire?
A:
Your Avios won't expire as long as you're either collecting or spending with us at least once every 36 months. Have a look under the 'Collect' and 'Spend' headings on our website to see all the ways to collect or spend your Avios.
If you don't collect or spend any Avios in over 30 months, you'll receive a message when you log in to your account to let you know that you have a further 6 months in which to collect or spend Avios or your account would expire.
If you've collected Avios in the last 12 months, you'll also be eligible for our Reward Flight Saver, which means we'll pay your airline taxes, fees and carrier charges for British Airways flights to European destinations and you just pay the Avios fare and £35 pp return in economy (or where available £40 Premium, £50 Business and £55 First Class).
30 seconds on the Avios site would have found you that, by the way.0 -
The annual fee for the Premium Plus card has recently changed to £195. Details here:
http://www.britishairways.com/en-gb/executive-club/collecting-avios/credit-cards0 -
The annual fee for the Premium Plus card has recently changed to £195. Details here:
http://www.britishairways.com/en-gb/executive-club/collecting-avios/credit-cards
Ouch! I'll be sticking with my Lloyds Avios card for now.
Ironically, the BA AMEX still charges foreign transaction fees... this should, IMO, be removed, as the card is aimed at those who travel...0 -
Hello
Bit of a random one this but my (Australian) wife and I are FF members with Qantas. Obviously they are Australian-based but does anyone know of a UK card that generates points for their FF program?
Thanks in advance :-)
Mark0 -
Not aware of any, but as they're in the same oneworld alliance as British Airways, this opens up options for redeeming BA miles on Qantas or vice versa so it may be worth getting a card that offers BA miles: https://www.oneworld.com/ffp/earning-redeeming-miles0
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Oh wow thanks, I didn't realise you could redeem miles across the whole Oneworld group. Thanks for the info!0
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Hi all
I currently have the MBNA diamond club dual amex/visa credit cards but I have been advised that diamond club has ended no so there are no longer points to earn from this card.
I travel up to twice per year, usually long haul and I don't tend to favour BA or any particular airline. When I first got the cards the bonus gave me enough points to upgrade to business class on Ethiopia air and since then I think I have only gained enough points to get a bit if a discount on a return trip to Finland. I think I may have enough remaining to get a short haul somewhere but that's no use for the trips I have planned - one to Borneo in Feb, one to south Africa in next September, travelling alone in Feb and with my mum in September.
I have 25,000 ish avios points left.
Most times I travel alone. In the past 5 months my spend on average has been in the region of £800 per month. This included a very expensive month (£1800) in unexpected vet bills. My usual spend has been between £300 to £600 per month.
Most of this will be on the visa and will be mainly eating out, some fuel, some food shopping (sainsburys and asda) , local shopping I don't tend to spend a lot in traditional chains or department stores etc.
I have a Santander account and a 123 credit card. Which credit card would be best for me? Should I look at a cash back card rather than an airline card?
Thanks for your help!!
Jo0 -
kittykat23uk
I'm an enormous fan of FF programmes and it has literally changed our lives and have been for a very long time. So good luck. The MBNA BMI card has a soft spot in many FF nerds hearts because many years ago they made an error on an offer that a few people were able to use to some millions of miles .....
For what it's worth and as a very broad generalisation unless you aspire to travel in premium cabins for long haul, and unless you can be highly flexible about travel dates and are prepared not to travel for a year or two whilst you build up your miles, then for most people it isn't really worth the effort. You may as well simply buy cheap tickets. However if the provisos fits well with you it is well worthwhile.
I focus on the BA scheme and that has been taking us to Singapore in BA First two or three times a year for many years. We're off in around six weeks for our next trip .... and off to Vienna in Club in a couple of weeks for the Christmas markets for 5 days because I had a spare 241 and it was going to waste. We're using hotel points and status to get us a suite in a 5" hotel that has Club thrown in. A very meaty trip for virtually no cash. I guess that show's it's possible but it isn't for everyone.
To achieve that level you'll need to buy miles when they are cheap and be CC savvy. The best place to start is "Headforpoints" where Raffles (Rob) hosts a great place to learn.
If premium BA cabins in long-haul is your aspiration this will involve a long-lead time to get your miles up and it is also best to get a BA Premium plus Amex card which gives you a partner ticket. It costs £195 per year but gives some other benefits. So for example our trips to Singapore cost us the one ticket.
Good luck.
Jeff0 -
Truthfully, it's hard to get value out of frequent flyer schemes unless;
a.) You're actually a frequent flyer and rack up a lot of points this way
b.) You spend huge amounts of money on credit cards
c.) Points collecting becomes ingrained into your everyday life and you seek to capitalise on opportunities to accrue points and bonuses - often at a cost.
For infrequent flyers who spend less than 5 figures a month on rewards cards, the truth is it's likely to take a very long time to get enough points for a decent redemption. If going down the credit card route, you must be able to pay off the bill in full every month as the APR rates on rewards cards are eye-watering - any interest will render points accrued as far more expensive than the value of the cash itself, i.e you could be paying 10p per Avios which you'd be lucky to redeem at a value of 1p. Regardless of the class I'm redeeming in, I calculate the value of the points against whatever the cheapest Economy rate is, as that's likely what I'd be prepared to pay with cash. Others have different ways of evaluating their points.
Then you have to factor in that you still have to pay taxes for flights redeemed with points. Sometimes the taxes alone add up to more than the cheapest cash rate, though there's a cheap fixed tax rate for BA redemptions in Europe. If you can get points free or for an acceptably marginal cost, they can reasonably be seen as a way to get to travel in a premium cabin for similar to the cash price of a seat in Economy.
All that said however, it's horses for courses. I should think that normal spend will earn enough points for a return trip for one to a European city perhaps once a year.0 -
kittykat23uk wrote: »I travel up to twice per year, usually long haul and I don't tend to favour BA or any particular airline.
Most times I travel alone. In the past 5 months my spend on average has been in the region of £800 per month. This included a very expensive month (£1800) in unexpected vet bills. My usual spend has been between £300 to £600 per month.
Most of this will be on the visa and will be mainly eating out, some fuel, some food shopping (sainsburys and asda) , local shopping I don't tend to spend a lot in traditional chains or department stores etc.
I have a Santander account and a 123 credit card. Which credit card would be best for me? Should I look at a cash back card rather than an airline card?
Jo, with your spend sort of level, I think you can still pool enough miles for some redemptions, but it will depend on many factors.
- You mentioned not favouring BA. That's OK, but we will need some idea of which airlines you do favour. There are cards for Virgin, Emirates, Etihad, various US airlines and those in the Star Aliance (e.g. Lufthansa). Some of these have very good earning rates on their cards (e.g. Virgin), others not so good (e.g. Etihad).
- It's important to note that credit card spend alone probably won't help to get you on your way to somewhere far away. I for one supplement my points using various sources like special offers, clicking through my airlines 'estore' to earn extra points when shopping online, converting Tesco points into miles, points from filling up with petrol/diesel, etc.
It's going to vary a lot as to which card you go for and that may well depend on the routes you take or t he places you visit.0
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