Avios drops mytrainticket.co.uk for traingenius.com – is it a better deal?

I’m not sure exactly when this happened, but Avios (ie avios.com) has dropped mytrainticket.co.uk as their exclusive train ticket booking partner.  They are now working with traingenius.com

It was back in May that I last wrote about mytrainticket.

Whilst you earned 2 Avios per £1 spent, I was not impressed by the pretty tacky fees that mytrainticket.co.uk added on:

• Postage was £1.70 (free to collect at station)
• Credit card fee was 2.9%
• There was a £1 booking fee

Let’s compare that with East Coast Trains, which charges (for tickets on ANY train company) £1 for postage, 0% card fee and £0 booking fee.  East Coast also has its own very good loyalty scheme, East Coast Rewards.  redspottedhanky.com has no fees at all, even for postage.

Suddenly those mytrainticket.co.uk Avios don’t look as ‘free’ as they were ….

I am not, therefore, sad to see the back of mytrainticket.co.uk.  But is traingenius.com any better?

The answer seems to be ‘not really’:

Here are their fees:

• Postage is £1.70 (free to collect at station)
• Credit card fee is 2%
• There is a £1 booking fee

Put simply – unless you are spending someone elses money – there is no logical reason to use traingenius.  Even accounting for the value of the Avios points, you will get a better deal by booking on the East Coast Trains website and earning East Coast Rewards points on top.

The other option is redspottedhanky.com which charges NO postage fees (saving £1 over East Coast), NO card fees and NO booking fee.  Sounds better than 2 Avios per £1 and a fist full of fees ….

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How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (December 2023)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous 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:

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 9th January 2024, you will receive 30,000 Membership Rewards points (convertible to 30,000 Avios) with American Express Preferred Rewards Gold. You receive 25,000 points if you spend £3,000 in three months and a further 5,000 points if you hold the card for 15 months. You can apply here.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 9th January 2024, you will receive a huge 100,000 Membership Rewards points (convertible to 100,000 Avios) with The Platinum Card. You receive 75,000 points if you spend £10,000 in six months and a further 25,000 points if you hold the card for 15 months. You can apply here.

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital On Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios.

You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus.

There are also generous bonuses on the two American Express Business cards, with the points converting at 1:1 into Avios. These cards are open to sole traders as well as limited companies.

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.