To ask for air mile credit card

[howwillwedeal]

Recommendations?

OH and I want to start collecting air miles, but is worth it? If for example we get a virgin air mile credit card, can we only use them for virgin flights?

Will we need to collect 100000000 to travel on a short flight?

I’ve got the BA Amex one- we use it for all our usual spending and we easily rack up the air miles. The key thing you want for a long haul treat is the companion voucher which means you get an extra ticket for free in whichever class you fly. We used ours for a business flight to the US which was awesome. Taxes still cost a bit though so more sensible to probably use them for European flights with flat rate cheaper tax amount to pay. I tend to do one year with the premium version of the card (you have to pay £150 ish but means you earn a companion voucher after spending £10,000 in a year) and then go to the standard card for a year or so to rack up more miles and then I’ll switch back to premium when I’m ready to earn another companion voucher.
Hope that makes sense! I’ve got a referral code if you do decide Amex which would earn both of us extra air miles so shout if you’d like it or have any other questions!

That's great @Elpheba I will PM for code. Thanks for the companion tip!

Yes to the above. It’s worth noting that you must always pay the tax, so let’s say with BA transatlantic flights, the tax is a couple of hundred pounds, so it seems a waste of miles in that sense because you could get a flight with a cheaper airline for approx the same cost as the tax. I use mine for day to day spending too, and then spend the air miles on premium short haul flights, such as Santorini or Faro during the summer holidays, as they would cost a fortune for our family normally in August - but with air miles under BA, you pay a flat amount for Europe etc not an amount equivalent to the actual value of the flight IYSWIM. There are bonus points for joining up as a new customer usually, so what I do is chop and change cards every year to maximise the “new customer” bonuses. Your points stay in your air miles account as opposed to your credit card account, so you keep the miles even if you close the card off.

I use a Lloyds TSB credit card for most of my spending. It was Air miles but is now AVIOS I dont use the points for flights but do use them for hotels. Works out well

I have had the Virgin Atlantic credit card since it first came out and pay for almost everything with it during the year. Every summer I use it to pay for our transatlantic flights. It doesn’t cover taxes or fuel surcharges

Head For Points is a blog that's very informative on all of this stuff, and contains some specific articles for people new to airmiles.

My key tips are:

1. If you have an OH you can refer each other for cards (so you get both the referral and the sign up bonus), and BA points can be combined in a household account.
2. Amex Gold has very generous sign up bonuses (but charges a fee after the first year so cancel before then).
3. As others say, if you're planning travelling long haul business (or first) class together the BA companion voucher is invaluable.
4. The interest rates on these cards are eye-watering so PAY YOUR BALANCE OFF EVERY MONTH

Thanks all, great tips!

We both have the BA one and have used it to travel all over the world including USA, South Africa and the Caribbean, we even managed to fly on our honeymoon in first class.
It is best to use the companion voucher on long haul flights, and in premium cabins, that way you get the best value.
If you have the BA one you can book flights on some of the other One World airlines (American, Iberia) but the voucher is only valid on BA.
I think the virgin and BA cards are quite similar but BA fly to a lot more places so might be better for you depending on what you want
On short haul flights you can use a reward flight saver which I think is about 9000 avios.
I also collect avios through my online shopping by going through the BA e-store (like a cashback website)
If need some tips on maximising avios or collection the Flyer Talk forum is brilliant, we learnt loads of tricks for getting long haul availability (355 days before in the middle of the night!) The BA section is brilliant as loads of people use it, the virgin one might not be as good...
Happy to answer any questions (as you can probably tell I love my air miles!)

ah, found the 'easy route to long haul business class' email I sent to a colleague a while back (spend targets are somewhat high, unfortunately)

1. Get someone to refer you for the Amex Gold (as this person will get 9k Amex points you won't be short of offers). This gives you 22k Amex points (which convert 1:1 into Avios) if you spend £2k in the first 3 months. The spend will earn you another 2k Amex points, so you’ll be at 24k afterwards. The card is fee free for the first year (make sure to cancel it after that).

1. Refer your OH for the Amex Gold, get them to spend £2k in the first 3 months. They earn another 24k, you earn 9k for referring them. You can then cancel your card and get them to re-refer you, but you have to wait for 6 months from after you cancel the card.

1. Sign up for the BA Premium Plus Amex, spend £3k in the first 3 months, and you get 25k bonus points. Go on to spend £10k in the first year you hold the card, and you’ll earn another 15k points and a 2 for 1 voucher. Annual fee is £195, but it gets refunded pro-rata when you cancel (and you keep the voucher and points you’ve earned), so apply just before you’re going on a spending spree and cancel as soon as you hit the £10k spend and you can keep the fee way down.

After all of this, £14k of spend has got you 97k Avios and a 2 for 1 voucher, and you’re just in for the BA Premium Plus fee. New York is 100k Avios return in business at offpeak times, so if you’ve got even the slightest balance already, you’ve now got enough to get both of you to New York and back in business.

Alternately, one more round of churning the Amex Gold (getting you another 33k Avios) would get you to pretty much anywhere in the world other than South America or the Far East/Australia in business class (or New York in first, if you’d rather).

I have a virgin Atlantic one and use it for everything but pay it off straight away.

Every 2-3 years we use it for two long haul first class tickets. Sometimes we have to top up the miles with cash but because we only ever fly upper class it works out really cheap for us even with the taxes on top.

Head for points is also very good, especially at letting you know if lots of extra seats have been released on a particular route.
It is worth noting that they usually start by releasing 2 seats in the premiums cabins on each flight, though more can be released at any time, and on popular routes (like Australia) they will basically go as soon as they are released so you need to book the outbound leg, then call one of the international call centres in the middle of the night to add the return flights one they are released (this is only necessary if you are using a companion voucher)

My problem with airline miles is that they often expire before I can use them, and the airline can change the rules on them at any time, including increasing the number you need for a free flight, the availability of which is often restricted.

I have a credit card that pays 2% cash back on everything I buy, so everything from dental work to car insurance goes on it and I get a nice top up in my account every month. I can then use the money to pay for anything, including travel

YY to Head for Points - it has a series of posts highlighting the best credit card deals and also an 'Avios University' series explaining how to get max values for your points.
I am a fairly low-spend person but I have done very well over the years in a mix of Tesco vouchers (in the good old days!) and Avios redemptions (£400 return in business to New York - yes please!)

@howwillwedeal by far the best thing you can do is go on headforpoints.co.uk - a website/ forum completely dedicated to what you're asking about. I would start with a gold Amex, it's free and you can convert your introductory points into various different airmiles schemes. Pm me if you want a link, the link will get you an additional 2000 points compared to applying without it (it will also get me a referral bonus, not going to lie!)

With BA the taxes are usually only really horrible flying out of the UK. If you can book a cheap flight to Barcelona or something you can book flights with little taxes long haul. I've done Barcelona to Miami and New York for under £60.

I have a credit card that pays 2% cash back on everything I buy

What card is this? That’s an amazing deal! The best I could find post promo deals is 0.5%

I'm also very interested in the 2% cashback card please

What card is this? That’s an amazing deal! The best I could find post promo deals is 0.5%

I probably should have mentioned that I'm a Yank. It's from my investment broker, Fidelity

www.fidelity.com/cash-management/visa-signature-card

It's linked to my Fidelity cash management account, which is a brokerage account that also functions as a checking account.

It's a great deal, but not unique. Some give you 1% when you purchase, then another 1% when the balance is paid.

www.nerdwallet.com/best/credit-cards/cash-back

I got back over $1,000 last year, but I am pretty fanatical about using it for everything possible. It's currently funding DS's pocket money at uni.

@getback I've PMd you.