UK credit card to earn airmiles etc

[worthingmale]

Hi

Been doing a lot of research at the moment into airlines loyalty schemes and think I have found a solution for us based in the UK. Wanted to run it past you guys as such, it seems a bit long winded but a way of earnign points.

Looking at Emirates they have their loyalty scheme - Skywards which as per normal you earn points by flying. However they do not have a UK based credit card to earn extra points of.

http://www.emirates.com/uk/english/Skywards/earning_miles/earning_miles.aspx

However in the UK American Express do have a credit card you can earn points on it is the Starwood card.

http://www.americanexpress.com/uk/starwood-preferred-guest-credit-card/#sub2

From this you can transfer your points to quite a few airlines here is the list and how you transfer your points.

http://www.starwoodhotels.com/preferredguest/account/starpoints/transfer/airline_partner_list.html

So you could spend money in UK on the Amex Starwood card and earn miles on a 1:1 basis on Qatar on Emirates etc.

I know its a bit longwinded but it has taken me a day or to find out all the information.

[worthingmale]

the fee is £75 per year but with quidco it comes down to about £30 a year

so you earn miles for flying with for example Emirates and earn for spending on credit card to exchange for Emirates if I am right ?

[RickyR]

The most advantageous scheme is British Airways Executive Club (Now Avios). You can convert tesco club card points (so do you shopping and fueling at tesco). Then to help accumulate points you can either use the Tesco credit card or the British Airways american Express.

When you redeem them on the BA website, you can select partner airlines, and fly the Cathay Pacific routes to Manila and Cebu.

[RickyR]

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/british-airways-executive-club/1167473-tesco-ba-2011-master-thread.html

This is quite a useful thread about it.


Alternative is the BMI Club, flights can be redeemed on Singapore Airlines. BMI Miles earned on the BMI Mastercard.

[Englishman2010]

I've just switched to the Tesco Clubcard credit card after my old 0% scheme with Amazon (MBNA) ran out. They are offering 0% on purchases for 15 months. I didn't check out the balance transfer deal, but there is a 0% period too.

If I've read it correctly, for every £4 you spend on the card you get 1 reward point, but if you fill up with fuel at Tesco's it's 1 for every £1 spent. I haven't figured out how the Tesco points convert into Airmiles yet, and how much you need to spend to get sufficient points for a long haul flight, but I'll probably spend around £1000 per month on my card for things like fuel, food, on line purchases....etc

I've got around 20K Cathay Asia Miles from a flight earlier this year. How do I go about converting them and joining Avios?

I've also got around 20K Emirates and 20K KLM points, if I could merge them it would be very useful

[worthingmale]

does BA have Emirates or Qatar as a partner as my flights wont always be to Manila or Cebu, some might be Europe or America ?

Not sure where Cathay flys to ?

[Dedworth]

I used to be a serious airmiles collector and had a NatWest card that gave them but I chopped it in when they upped the spend needed per mile. It seems nowadays Lloyds TSB have taken over from Nat West as the AirMiles "Partner"

http://www.airmiles.co.uk/collect/lloydstsb/lloydstsb-airmiles-duo?from=affiliatewindow&affiliateid=Airmiles1500&WT.mc_id=Air0810F_bbchoices&_bbchoices

Others might disagree but I think its all a bit of a gimmick - I prefer the 1% cashback I get on my card

[RickyR]

The important thing to remember is that 'Airmiles' are completely different to 'Frequent Flyer Loyalty Schemes offered by the airlines.
Airmiles is changing, and soon to become part of the British Airways 'Avios' formerly Executive Club.

With the right kind of spending, you can benefit greatly from the Tesco/BA Miles scheme.
As a frequent flyer, points can be beneficial in a number of different ways.

I'm moving to Oman at the end of the week, and since i've got quite a lot of things to move, I'm using ba Miles to fly my dad out and Etihad Miles to fly him back to the UK so that he bring 3 x 23kg suitcases of my possessions. Taxes and fees in business is coming to about 180 quid all in all.

[Englishman2010]

I went on to the Avios website but it doesn't do anything yet, it looks like it will start in November. I'll sign up to it though, if I'm spending money and get these points, I might as well try to use them.

Any advice on how I can use my Cathay, Emirates and KLM miles? I'll also soon have about 20K each of Lufthansa and Saudi reward points too. If I can't use them on flights, I might just spend them in their on line shops and save on my Christmas shopping for the family.

[RickyR]

Unfortunately you can't merge any of those miles, with 20,000 klm you could probably do a return to europe.

[Englishman2010]

Unfortunately you can't merge any of those miles, with 20,000 klm you could probably do a return to europe.

A return to Amsterdam is 10K KLM points, but they want £110 in tax and charges...crazy when I've just booked an Easyjet return to Amsterdam for £55 all in:NoNo: