And the credit card of the year award goes to ….

For reasons unknown, I was not invited to “The Cards & Payment Awards” award ceremony a couple of weeks ago.

It is, however, an intriguing look at how people who do not know much about airline loyalty schemes judge airline loyalty credit cards. 

The motley crew above (apart from Milton Jones) were the winners of the “Best New Credit Card Product Of The Year” award.

This went to the Capital One for Aspire World Travel card.

The three finalists were:

Capital One – Aspire World Travel
Emirates Skywards and MBNA – Emirates Skywards Credit Card Account and Emirates Skywards Elite Credit Card Account
Etihad Guest & MBNA – Etihad Guest Credit Card Account

This list is so wrong …..

The Emirates cards are derivative, frankly.  As I wrote in my original article here, the ‘2 for 1’ voucher promised by the premium card is useless for most people.  Whilst the earnings rate is good (2 per £1 on the Amex, 1 per £1 on the Visa), Emirates has higher redemption rates than BA.   The sign-up bonus is weak and has never been on promotion.

The Etihad card is better – they ran a 17,000 mile sign-up bonus at one point (very good for a free card), offer double and triple miles on Etihad flights for cardholders and offer free Etihad Silver status for taking just one flight in any class.  (More details via the Etihad website here.)

However, whatever you think of their customer service, the most innovative credit card launch last year was – easily – the Lloyds Avios Rewards cards.  My original article on these cards is here.

The lack of a sign-up bonus means that these cards have not taken off well.  My personal impression of them was not helped when the Lloyds marketing team put the boot into me because I had allowed readers to post complaints about Lloyds credit card service levels on the site.

However, it is the first UK credit card to offer reward points AND no foreign exchange fees on overseas transactions.  There is a £24 fee but that is easily outweighed by the 3% saving on all your foreign transactions – and you earn Avios on that spend as well.

I cannot, for the life of me, understand why the Lloyds cards were not nominated for this award, unless they missed the entry deadline.  If they did miss the deadline, I hope they win next time – if only to put some pressure on other card issuers to drop foreign exchange fees.

And the greatest irony of all?  The winning card, the Capital One Aspire World Travel card (which offered cashback in the UK and no FX fees abroad) is no longer seems to be available to new customers, looking at the Capital One website.

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Want to earn more points from credit cards? – April 2024 update

If you are looking to apply for a new credit card, here are our top recommendations based on the current sign-up bonuses.

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

You can see our full directory of all UK cards which earn airline or hotel points here. Here are the best of the other deals currently available.

Earning miles and points from small business cards

If you are a sole trader or run a small company, you may also want to check out these offers:

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 12th May 2024, the Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa card is offering a bonus of 30,000 points, convertible into 30,000 Avios. You must have a Limited Company to apply. Click here to learn more and click here to apply.

For a non-American Express option, we also recommend the Barclaycard Select Cashback card for sole traders and small businesses. It is FREE and you receive 1% cashback on your spending.