Avios changes – is the Lloyds Avios Rewards credit card now more valuable?

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• Peaceful Waters says:

  9 Feb9 February 06:05

  “No other card in the UK offers zero foreign exchange fees AND rewards.”

  The Halifax Clarity Credit Card pays qualifying current account holders an additional £5 a month if they spend £300 or more on the credit card in the statement month.

  • Polly says:

    9 Feb9 February 06:15

    I think he means a card where you can earn avios also, within that context. We know there are olther cards out there. The Lloyds card would therefore be more valuable. And the spend doesn’t have to be all on amex either. Which is even better….

    One more thing, I wonder if you did pay for the Premier card at £150 fee, earned your upgrade voucher, bank it in your avios account, could you then downgrade to the cheaper £24 card! There’s a thought. This will definitely give amex a run for its money.

    • Rob says:

      9 Feb9 February 08:05

      No, Lloyds does not offer pro-rata fee refunds so there would be no point in downgrading.

      • Polly says:

        9 Feb9 February 08:17

        Thanks for that… That’s a shame P

    • Rob says:

      9 Feb9 February 15:14

      On the £500 credit limit Aquacard will give you, it is effectively nothing 🙂

    • Dave B says:

      9 Feb9 February 18:26

      You can get Aqua to increase the credit limit every 6 months , so -0.5% fees on FX.
      Always handy to have more than one FX card.

• Polly says:

  9 Feb9 February 06:18

  And could we use that upgrade voucher to fly ex EU, with no APD, instead of being tied to LHR etc. with it’s high taxes….we need to check the t and c s Rob to see if the flight must commence in the UK … very interesting this will turn out to be….

  • Joe says:

    9 Feb9 February 21:02

    Booked one of these last week, flight doesn’t have to start in UK (did a one way back) but you have to book it through the call centre

• Frankdjs says:

  9 Feb9 February 06:22

  Just a hint about using the voucher. If you call Avios, you can also use to upgrade two people on a 1 way from the UK. Used it to upgrade two from LHR to MIA to Club. Smooth process, but it is not clear from the site you can also do this, but not available online.

• Tim says:

  9 Feb9 February 06:32

  “If you want to upgrade two one-way flights, they MUST be done in the same booking with both passengers travelling together.”

  This is still couple-centric thinking. My understanding is that the booking can be for two separate one-way flights for one person made at the same time. (A return is an instance of this).

  • Polly says:

    9 Feb9 February 07:20

    Yes Tim, I asked avios about this, and they said you can use it to upgrade two people in the one direction if you like, or one person a RETURN upgrade. So useful for solo or couple, actually.

  • Rob says:

    9 Feb9 February 08:04

    A return for one person, yes. Two one-way flights which are not linked together (ie LHR-JFK, LHR-DXB)? Not sure how that could be done.

    • Polly says:

      9 Feb9 February 08:14

      No it’s for a couple again! Being both upgraded in the one direction to club, on same ticketing, and say travelling back WT. Which is still a nice treat, maybe once or twice a year, if you can earn them quite near each other, time wise as you point out later.

      My one big question is, can they originate in the EU, or must they start in the UKA like the 241. That would be a huge plus!

• AviosNewbie says:

  9 Feb9 February 07:40

  Is this upgrade voucher annual on this card? so like the 2-4-1, is it possible to accummulate two vouchers at a time?

  • Rob says:

    9 Feb9 February 08:00

    Good question. Technically you could earn two in a 12 month period (one at the end of a card year and one early in the next card year). Whether the Avios booking system lets you redeem two at once, I don’t know.

    • cynicalmoose says:

      9 Feb9 February 10:42

      The T&Cs say that you can only earn one voucher every calendar year, not card year.

      • Rob says:

        9 Feb9 February 15:15

        Thanks. Shows how little I know about this topic!

• James67 says:

  9 Feb9 February 07:55

  Many thanks Rob, this was a fantastic post 🙂 It will keep my avios habit alive for a while yet. Actually offpeak to Asia would cost me less than I am currently paying. Will apply for one in April when council tax becomess due as that wjll get £2400 on it right away.

  • Polly says:

    9 Feb9 February 08:02

    James, do you get charged a fee when you use your visa credit card… Guess we have to weigh up the cost benefit of being charged fees. Ultimate aim is that club upgrade. Agree with you, it gives us many more options, that plus Iberia, we shall survive this devaluation!

    • James67 says:

      9 Feb9 February 14:58

      Don’t know yet Polly, will be first I pay by cc since moving to Edinburgh last year, currently paying by dd. Given I’m in avios poverty now (100 remaining after recent four flight remption spree) it will certainly be worth it to me.

• JQ says:

  9 Feb9 February 08:01

  There is no free Lloyds Avios card; or rather there was, but this has forex fees and you can’t apply for it any more (but it might still be available from TSB?)

• Rob says:

  9 Feb9 February 08:02

  You mean the old ‘Lloyds TSB’ card? No.

  • Paul says:

    9 Feb9 February 09:45

    That is the old Duo card which does charge exchange fees.

    The bank was called Lloyds TSB before they spun off TSB. I think you joined around the time they rebranded so you may have a lloyds bank card from before they relaunched the scheme.

    • Imbruce says:

      9 Feb9 February 20:19

      I got the same Lloyds TSB card just before they seperated TSB off. 20k bonus points was good. I will close it now as I don’t use it, Perfer Diamond Club.
      Aqua Credit card is for people with a poor credit score it also charges 34% interest similar to Vanquis card apparently they help u build your credit rating.

      • John says:

        10 Feb10 February 21:53

        To be fair to Aqua, if you use the card properly the interest rate drops 5% each of the following three years (and apparently the majority of cardholders benefit from this).

        Also the credit limits run to £3000 and are regularly reviewed. Obviously you only pay interest if you don’t clear the balance each month.

        It’s perfectly possible to run Aqua like a debit card, using free faster payments from a current account to clear any Aqua balance, whilst saving the 3% foreign fee.

        One word of caution for prospective applicants: not all the cards are fx free.

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