Avios Points Boosting guide discussion

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  • Swenglishnick
    Swenglishnick Posts: 4 Newbie
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    Hi,

    Does anyone know when Avios will finally close?

    I have an old voucher left on there but too few points to do anything so wondering if I have time to send some points back and make a booking?

    Thanks
  • richardw
    richardw Posts: 19,458 Forumite
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    Did BA send you an e mail to your registered Avios.com address, check the junk mail folder as well.
    Posts are not advice and must not be relied upon.
  • antbiker
    antbiker Posts: 1 Newbie
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    Will the welcome bonus still work if you already have the BA AMEX?


    It seems the wording has changed:


    I understand I will not be eligible for any Welcome Bonus award if I hold or have held any Membership Rewards enrolled American Express Card in the past six months.


    Can't find anything on Headforpoints about it.


    Cheers
  • Nick_C
    Nick_C Posts: 7,459 Forumite
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    antbiker wrote: »
    Will the welcome bonus still work if you already have the BA AMEX?


    It seems the wording has changed:


    I understand I will not be eligible for any Welcome Bonus award if I hold or have held any Membership Rewards enrolled American Express Card in the past six months.


    Can't find anything on Headforpoints about it.


    Cheers


    Yes it will. Avios and Membership Rewards are different schemes, so you can get sign up bonuses on each card.

    People regularly switch between the two and churn their cards for repeated sign up bonuses.

    You need to leave a gap of six months between closing a card and re-applying for another card in the same scheme.

    So you can use BA for six months, switch to Preferred Rewards for six months (cancelling BA), then switch back to BA and so forth.

    It is covered on HFP somewhere.

    Note also you can refer yourself from BA to Preferred Rewards. You will get a referral bonus on your BA card, and a sign up bonus on the PRGC!
  • Nick_C
    Nick_C Posts: 7,459 Forumite
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    edited 7 September 2018 at 12:43PM
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    American Express Preferred Rewards Gold (Amex Gold) ...

    You will not receive the sign-up bonus if you have held a Platinum, Gold or Green American Express charge card, or the new Amex Rewards credit card, in the six months before you apply.

    You will not receive the sign-up bonus if you have a Corporate or Business American Express card via your job and you receive Membership Rewards points from it. If your Corporate or Business card does not provide Membership Rewards points then you are OK.

    For clarity, you will definitely receive the sign-up bonus if you already have a BA Amex, SPG Amex, Platinum Cashback Amex or any Amex issued by Lloyds, MBNA or any other bank.

    You will also definitely receive the bonus if you are currently a supplementary cardholder on someone else’s Amex Gold or Platinum card. As far as Amex is concerned, that card belongs to the primarily cardholder and does not make you an ‘existing cardholder’.

    After the first year, when the £140 annual fee kicks in, you can cancel at any time for a pro-rata fee refund. American Express is the only card issuer to offer such a pro-rata fee refund.

    American Express no longer has a minimum income requirement for any of its cards.

    https://www.headforpoints.com/2017/10/15/amex-american-express-preferred-rewards-gold-charge-card-uk-review-3/
  • Nick_C
    Nick_C Posts: 7,459 Forumite
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    Referral links should only be posted on the referrals board
  • lean&mean
    lean&mean Posts: 77 Forumite
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    Nick_C wrote: »
    Referral links should only be posted on the referrals board
    Apologies Nick, I'll repost and remove my referral link. Hope it's ok to link to the referrals board?
  • lean&mean
    lean&mean Posts: 77 Forumite
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    One interesting change at Amex is that you can refer from any Amex card to any card. And the number of points you receive for a referral depends on the card you are referring from, not what card you (if you're self referring) or a friend are getting.

    For example, if you have a Nectar Amex card and refer from that, you get only 5000 Nectar points, regardless of what card your friend gets. But if you have a BA Premium American Express card, you get 9000 Avios, enough for a European return ticket, for whatever card they get. So, if you have more than one Amex card, make sure you generate your referrals from your best-earning card.

    Check the page here to see how many points you'll get for referrals from each card: https://www.americanexpress.com/uk/benefits/refer-a-friend.html

    And if you are new to this game but don't have any Amex card yet, remember it's use using a referral link as it'll give you more sign-up points than if you just applied direct to Amex. If you don't have a referrer you'll find one on the MSE referrals board https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=5954621
  • Browntoa
    Browntoa Posts: 49,300 Forumite
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    And pointing at your referrals from here is also not allowed
    Ex forum ambassador

    Long term forum member
  • Nick_C
    Nick_C Posts: 7,459 Forumite
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    The link to the Amex page that shows what the referral bonuses are from each card is very useful, and could help people with their churning strategy. Thanks for posting that.

    Note also that you can refer yourself! I currently have Amex Platinum. I referred myself for the Starwood Preferred Guest card. I got an 18000 bonus on my membership rewards account for referring myself, and I'm now working towards 33000 SPG points for spending £1000 in 3 months.

    The SPG comes with a £75 annual fee, but if you cancel during the year you get a pro rata refund.

    I have no interest in collecting SPG points, but you can transfer them to Avios at the rate of 3:1, so the sign up bonus of 33000 SPG points will give me 11000 Avios.

    If you can accumulate 60000 SPG points, you get a 25% bonus, so 25000 Avios.

    SPG points can be transferred between partners, so it's easy for a couple to achieve 60000 points through sign up bonuses alone, and if you keep the SPG card long term you are effectively getting 1.25 avios per pound, although you would need to spend heavily on it to justify the fee and if you normally travel as a couple the BAPP with the 241 voucher is probably a better choice.
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