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airberlin now offering oneworld status via credit card spend – would a UK credit card do this?

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This isn’t an article you can take advantage of, unless you live in Germany or Austria, but it is another example of how the credit card industry is shaping the loyalty business.

airberlin is now giving status miles when you spend on their branded Visa cards.

The German card offers 1 status mile per €1 on purchases

The Austrian card offers 1 status miles per €1 on purchases AND cash withdrawals!

Not many people will be able to achieve status purely on the back of credit card spend.  You will need to spend €25,000 to get the equivalent of BA Bronze, €50,000 to get the equivalent of BA Silver and €100,000 to get the equivalent of BA Gold.  However it will certainly help people who do only a modest amount of oneworld flying achieve a decent level of status.

That said, some people will certainly be trying to play games with the Austrian card.  Withdrawals of cash on the credit card are charged at 3% plus a flat fee of 35 cents.  An average spender may be tempted to pay the fees required to top up their normal spending in order to hit the €50,000 target required for BA Silver-equivalent.

There is currently no UK airline credit card which gives status by default. Etihad Guest does give Silver status after one return flight to UK credit card holders.

It is different with the hotel credit cards:

the Marriott card comes with Silver status

the Hilton card comes with Silver status and Gold for spending £10,000

the Starwood card comes with Preferred Plus status and Gold for spending £15,000

the IHG Rewards Club basic card comes with Gold status

the IHG Rewards Club Premium card comes with Platinum status

Will we soon see our first UK instance of a credit card giving airline status for spending?

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Category

oneworld alliance partners

Comments (27)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Erico1875 says:
    21 May21 May 06:39

    @ 3% thats €1500 + to get Silver.
    Is status worth that?

    • Callum says:
      21 May21 May 07:11

      No, but if you put your normal spending on the card you won’t need to rely on cash withdrawals for anywhere near that amount. Add in any OneWorld flights you’re taking and this could be a really useful way to move up to the next level if you’re not too far off.

    • Points to be Made says:
      21 May21 May 07:13

      Nope. If you didn’t fly a huge amount and had no status, the, 1500EUR could buy you many seat selections, access to 3rd party lounges and a few cash tickets you’d otherwise have redeemed using bonus airmiles.

  • sandgrounder says:
    21 May21 May 09:20

    An Amex BA Platinum charge card with a TP top up each year would be a great idea. Not so much for those who get status the traditional way, of course…..

  • N I Flyer says:
    21 May21 May 09:36

    Amex membership rewards can be converted to Finnair. Finnair points can be converted to tier points within Finnair Plus programme up to a limit. This is the closest that I have found so far as to buying status with a UK card.

    • Rob says:
      21 May21 May 09:53

      Very interesting! I will take a look. Thanks. Learn something new every day ….

      • Brendan says:
        21 May21 May 12:54

        15k points to get 5k tier points up to a max of 45k tier points = 135k points when you need 90k tier points to get oneworld sapphire doesn’t seem like it would be worthwhile!

        • Rob says:
          21 May21 May 13:37

          Agreed – especially as BA business class only earns 1.25 tier points per mile flown

    • Polly says:
      21 May21 May 16:55

      V useful, yes Rob worth a look that option, for those of us not getting MP cards any more with our Plats!

  • Andrew s says:
    21 May21 May 09:49

    I wonder how much “Status” costs the airlines? Sure they have to provide the lounges and administration but surley cannot be a huge amount?

  • simon says:
    21 May21 May 11:30

    As some one that spends over 100k a year on a personal card for work spend but always misses silver by a couple of hundred tier points I would love a Credit Card that counts toward status.

  • Varth Dader says:
    22 May22 May 05:42

    e50,000 is only 1,619 3V cards – based on a 10k limit you’ll have that done by the end of summer

    • Danksy says:
      22 May22 May 06:10

      I thought 3vs were effectively dead due to the restrictions recently placed on where they could be used?

  • Dave says:
    23 May23 May 04:16

    Worth a mention. Never know when I might have to work a year or so in Germany or Austria and as I’d be using hotels I’d easily make that sort of spend.

    Closer to home, I don’t think BA should do something similar. It would get abused too much, instead of TP runs people would do manufactured spend runs.

    The bmi plus card gave you a small status miles boost every year, maybe the BA PP card could give a 150 TP bonus each year, nothing exciting, but combined with the higher Avios earning may make more consider paying the annual fee.

  • ECR says:
    24 May24 May 16:59

    If airberlin is willing to sell status for credit card cash, there may be an opportunity for a small uk card issuer to persuade them to partner with them. It would be good if someone like Sygma Bank who issue the Flybe card could be persuaded.

    I assume that MBNA and Amex wouldn’t want to touch it for fear of upsetting BA.

    • Rob says:
      24 May24 May 20:13

      Amex was happy to give away Cathay Gold which cost BA quite a lot of money as people stopped chasing BA status!

      • ECR says:
        25 May25 May 09:52

        It would be great if Amex did partner with airberlin in this way. I could justify the £450 fee for Amex Platinum to myself due to the oneworld status with Cathay Gold but think I’ll be cancelling once the Cathay Gold expires (I know technically I could cancel now and keep Cathay Gold). Whilst the Priority Pass is useful I could buy it directly on its own for less, and its lack of Heathrow T5 means I would even consider whether it was worth it.

        A deal such as the airberlin could keep a lot of those cardholders on board, and would also encourage large expenditure through the Amex Platinum card. I tend not to spend a great deal on this card as I have another better Avios earning card.

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