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

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• Bob says:

  9 Feb9 February 15:20

  Don’t forget the foursquare offers and amex connect, just got £10 duty free perfume etc and £10 back from £30 Dixons duty free, £10 back for spending £50 in House of Fraser etc etc etc if you work it you’re soon quids in (up) cheers

• David says:

  9 Feb9 February 20:53

  I have had this card for over a year now and must say that I have been very happy with it. There is talk in this article of poor customer service, but I have had no significant issues. The fee-free use abroad works well and the upgrade voucher was applied to my account promptly on reaching the target. Yes you do have to monitor your progress on a bit of paper adding up your statements, but this isn’t a problem. The MasterCard earning rate is disappointing, and I tend to avoid using it.

  I am looking forward to spending my first voucher. I was considering spending it just before the Avios changes were announced, and on reviewing the old and new redemption tables soon realised I was better off waiting until May. For those who don’t have a massive avios balance and tend to redeem once every couple of years for (what is now determined as an “off-peak”) long haul trip I’m not sure the advice to spend before May is the best way forward if you already have this card. The only concern would be whether or not redemption availability remains good, but I personally think that once the dust settles availability should improve over what there was previously, based on at least two CW seats being available for every flight.

  As for use of the voucher from outside the UK, you would need to check with Avios. If possible I suspect this would only be able to be booked (and upgraded) over the telephone. Even if possible I’m not sure the tax savings are really worth the extra hassle though; not to mention the risk of the positioning flight being delayed causing the long-haul connecting flight to be missed. Of course you may view this risk differently.

• Joe says:

  9 Feb9 February 21:08

  As I put above, I used this voucher for a cw ow for two adults from pos to lgw but this had to be done over the phone as you cannot do one ways on the phone. At £24 per year, feel it’s worth it even if you end up using it on a club Europe sector

  • Mark says:

    10 Feb10 February 13:00

    It’s not just the £24 though, but the requirement to spend £7K that might otherwise be put to use earning sign-up bonuses elsewhere.

    In principle I’m tempted to go for it alongside the BAPP 2for1. Taking our overseas spend into account I think we could meet the spend target for one of each in a year. However whether we’d be able to amass enough avios to put both to good use without paying a high price for top-ups is another matter.

    With a referral bonus (if we qualify having had Airmiles cards previously) and double avios on the Amex in the first six months it is probably worth giving it a go for year at least. Hmm, definitely one to go and mull over….

    • Jason says:

      10 Feb10 February 14:01

      The double Avios for the first 6 months makes it very attractive, that’s even before the upgrade voucher is taken into account.
      Regards preferring to choose Lloyd’s account holders for applications, would that include business account holders as well?

    • Polly says:

      10 Feb10 February 14:17

      Mark, Could you not rotate the plat and the BAPP every year, one referring the other, alternate years, def worth it, we do that, plus tesco clubcard and just manage to get the amount needed. ESP now with the plat, adding supplementaries at 10k each, quite a lot of avios to be had right now in the next coupe of weeks. Am right in the middle of this plan at the mo… Worth a thought. We pay as many bills etc with amex to up the numbers etc. thanks for the info.

      • Mark says:

        10 Feb10 February 15:30

        Yes, that’s given me some ideas… presumably no issue with retaining an unused 2for1 when downgrading a BAPP to the standard blue card?

        Thanks.

        • Rob says:

          10 Feb10 February 21:02

          No problem at all.

• Polly says:

  10 Feb10 February 00:10

  Mark, 8.58 pm. I get your point about the voucher. What I am asking is, if we can use it on BA departing from a Low APD point outside the UK, ie departing from BRU. And yes always the risk of a positioning flight delayed, thus the plan to stay overnight each end of the trip, and enjoy a mini city break out and back. If anyone knows if it can be used in this way, that would be great.

  • Mark says:

    10 Feb10 February 12:41

    Good point. I suspect the only way to really find out would be to try it…. you would of course have to shell the extra avios for the leg back to London as well as getting yourself to the start point when upgrading an outbound. Even if it is possible that would substantially eat into the tax saving, especially when considering the hassle of doing it and the disruption risk.

    Inbound you’d presumably have to use the avios for the onward flight to Europe even if you don’t turn up for it.

• Andi says:

  10 Feb10 February 16:19

  the Lloyds Upgrade Voucher and 241… do i have to use these with Avios points booking or can i use them in anyway with BAEC?

  • Mark says:

    10 Feb10 February 18:31

    No. They can only be used for Avios bookings via avios.com (although the points can easily be transferred from BA). You can’t use them for cash bookings.

• Mark says:

  10 Feb10 February 21:38

  OK. Card applied for. I didn’t see any option to add a companion card holder though as part of the application process. I assume that is possible later on?

  • Jason says:

    11 Feb11 February 08:56

    I have to say LLoyds is now much more efficient, now that TSB has been jettisoned.
    Did an application for my wife last Wednesday, accepted immediately, PIN arrived yesterday.
    Didn’t see anywhere to put her Avios account number or a supplementary card.
    This compares to, 18 months ago applying for a similar card, accepted immediately but she had to visit a Lloyd’s branch ( I can’t remember why but now TSB branch) 4 times, taking 45 mins each time, they did 3 credit checks,( without our knowledge) and accepted her for a platinum card as well, which she didn’t apply for.
    3 months later I emailed Lloyd’s when no card( or Avios bonus) had appeared and they compensated her £130 for the inconvenience and for the fact the Avios bonus offer had now finished.
    The 2 applications are a world apart!

    • mark2 says:

      11 Feb11 February 09:01

      It sounds as if you did not get the 9000 Avios for inviting each other which causes a small delay?

      • Jason says:

        11 Feb11 February 09:24

        I thought it better to wait for a second card, in 6 months, as I don’t want to initiate the double Avios bonus( if it’s still available)on the 2nd card until the first card’s double Avios bonus has expired.
        I did a referral via Raffles.
        I can only put just under £7k through the card, in the first 6 months, as I want to try and trigger the vouchers together.

• AndyGWP says:

  12 Feb12 February 07:57

  So…. is there anywhere on the Lloyds site where you can keep track of how far off your voucher you are?? 🙂

  Also, where does your voucher ‘appear’ when it’s been earned? 🙂

  • David says:

    12 Feb12 February 12:00

    There is no “tracker”, but it isn’t really a hassle to keep a note of your spend each month. Just add up the total spend since the annual fee was charged and if/when it reaches £7000 then the voucher should be issued fairly soon after.

    The voucher is added to your avios.com account, and shows in the “vouchers” section of your account.

    • AndyGWP says:

      12 Feb12 February 20:12

      Agreed, was just being lazy and couldn’t be bothered go through 6 months worth of statements 🙂

      Looks like I’m £400 short 🙂

• Roger says:

  13 Feb13 February 11:32

  Don’t sneer too loudly at the supposed £500 limit given by Aqua.

  FWIW my limit is £3,200. Not as much as on some other cards but interesting enough to use outside the UK earning 0.5% rebate and making a Faster Payment if necessary to keep within the limit.

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