Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

British Airways performs badly in annual Which? airline survey …. and why I am not quoted in it

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Which? magazine published its annual airline (economy class) satisfaction survey on Saturday, and it did not make great reading for British Airways.

On short haul ….

Based on feedback from over 11,000 Which? readers, BA’s short-haul performance could hardly have been worse.  The airline slumped to ‘third from bottom’ on short haul with a customer score of just 52% compared to 67% last year.  It only managed to outperform Ryanair and BA’s sister airline Vueling who tied for last place.

which magazine best airline

BA was given two stars out of five for food and drink, seat comfort and value for money.

The top 10 rated short-haul airlines were:

  1. Aurigny Air Services
  2. Jet2
  3. Norwegian
  4. Aer Lingus
  5. SWISS
  6. Air Malta
  7. Lufthansa
  8. KLM
  9. SAS
  10. Eurowings

Aurigny, if you don’t know it, operates a small fleet to and between the Channel Islands and was an Avios partner until last year.

To be honest, I have not flown a single short-haul segment this year on anyone other than British Airways.  Whilst the fall is certainly dramatic, you can never be sure how much is driven by external ‘noise’, eg the IT collapse, and how much is from real experience – albeit Which? readers were only asked to vote on airlines they had flown in the last year.

Worryingly, this is before the upcoming second-wave of changes to cabin layouts, including removing one toilet from economy, placing the remaining one against the back wall of the galley and replacing the seats with new ultra-slim ones.

And on long-haul ….

The British Airways long-haul performance was little better.

Customer satisfaction dropped from 60% to 50%, with BA also falling to ‘third from bottom’.  It ranked below TUI and Thomas Cook, although it did still beat United Airlines (a shocking 39%) and American Airlines (46%).

Singapore Airlines was the clear long-haul winner with a score of 80%.  It was followed by Emirates, Qatar Airways and Cathay Pacific.

And on Avios ….

The magazine also talks about the devaluation of Avios.  Now, I have to declare an interest here as Which? approached me to contribute to this and I refused.

Well, not quite refused.  However, Which? wanted to show the number of flights required to get a free flight to New York over the last 30 years (1988 to today) – and they have discussed this in the published article.   This is what I told them:

“  Let me put this into context a bit:

* there have been various changes over the years in terms of how you earn miles from BA flights, most recently in 2015.  This severely cut the miles earned on discount economy tickets, increased them sharply on flexible tickets and made proportional changes to everything in between.  Even if we had the data, you would need to be VERY specific, eg ‘how many fully flexible business class flights are needed?’

* it ignores the ‘taxes and surcharges’ which used to be very low but now add £500+ to a BA or Virgin business class return redemption

Those are the downsides. Here are the upside changes:

* there has been a MASSIVE increase in product quality since 1988.   This seat is what you got for a BA business class seat back in 1988.  Today you get a fully flat bed.  If you redeem on Qatar Airways (a BA partner) you can now get a PRIVATE SUITE – see here.  What you get versus 1988 is not comparable.

* earning miles is now FAR easier.  The oneworld alliance was formed in 1999, allowing you to collect Avios / BA Miles on 13 different airlines, not just one.  From that point you have also been able to spend on 13 different airlines, most of which are better than BA (Cathay Pacific, Qantas, Qatar etc).

* the ability to earn miles via credit card sign ups and the like has never been as generous as it is today.   ANYONE with a decent credit score and a partner can earn 100,000 Avios for almost free within 7-8 months.  It has never been so easy to hoover up points via credit card sign-up bonuses. 

* BA now guarantees two Club World seats and four Economy seats for Avios on every BA flight, and usually far more than that. This guarantee was not there before 2015.

* the introduction of the ‘2 for 1’ voucher with the British Airways American Express card about 12 years ago effectively HALVED the cost of redemptions overnight for people who got the credit card and earned the voucher”

That has probably cost me a few new readers from the Which? audience but I’m not prepared to kick a man when he’s down …..

BA did issue a statement in response to the report:

“British Airways is a premium airline committed to customer choice.

We offer customers the biggest network from London’s most central airports, a loyalty programme with huge benefits and the best punctuality record of the three big short-haul operators from the capital. We also give our growing numbers of customers a wide choice of fares and services.”

PS. If you are not a regular Head for Points visitor, why not sign up for our FREE weekly or daily newsletters? They are full of the latest Avios, airline, hotel and credit card points news and will help you travel better. To join our 65,000 free subscribers, click the button below or visit this page of the site to find out more. Thank you.

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (April 2025)

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:

Barclaycard Avios Plus card

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios card

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

Get 5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

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

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

30,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending £15,000 Read our full review

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 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on the ‘free for a year’ American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card is increased from 20,000 Membership Rewards points to 30,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (30,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on American Express Platinum is increased from 50,000 Membership Rewards points to a huge 80,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (80,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 30,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

80,000 bonus points and great travel benefits – for a large fee Read our full review

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, and the standard card is FREE. Capital on Tap cards also have no FX fees.

Capital on Tap Visa

NO annual fee, NO FX fees and points worth 1 Avios per £1 Read our full review

Capital on Tap Pro Visa

10,500 points (=10,500 Avios) plus good benefits Read our full review

There is also a British Airways American Express card for small businesses:

British Airways American Express Accelerating Business

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

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.

American Express Business Platinum

50,000 points when you sign-up and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and FREE for a year Read our full review

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

Category

British Airways and Avios

Comments (162)

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

  • Kathy says:
    18 Dec18 December 08:21

    I’d argue the fact that you can’t compare the value of the scheme like-for-like over the years is one of the things that affects its perceived lack of value by the non-savvy traveller. Unless it’s your hobby it’s just too damn complex – I can see friends’ eyes glaze over when Intry to explain it to them, even though they know I get to travel in business class and they don’t!

    • Leo_c says:
      18 Dec18 December 08:44

      Kathy I agree peoples eyes do glaze over , and many just aren’t interested in the effort required, but hey ho if everyone did …..

      • Kathy says:
        18 Dec18 December 09:06

        Yes, this is good for *us*, but if Avios as a scheme is actually revenue-generating, it’s not so great for BA.

        My parents will be flying with FlyBe for their holiday next year. They could earn Avios! But I contemplated how difficult it would be to explain what they needed to do to join the scheme and claim the points, weighed it up against the number of points they were likely to earn, and how infrequently they fly, and decided it’s not worth the hassle for them.

    • CV3V says:
      18 Dec18 December 08:51

      Yeah the eyes go glaze over, chap at work asked me if i was flying business class ‘again’, i responded not this time, I’ll be in First 🙂

  • Optimus Prime says:
    18 Dec18 December 08:42

    OT but BA related:

    My TP year ends in Feb 2018, Mrs Prime does in June 2018…

    If we were interested in a “Tier Points run via Qatar sale” – would we have to wait until July 2018?

    Thanks.

    • Stu N says:
      18 Dec18 December 09:10

      Assuming you’re looking to get to BAEC Silver:
      – if you complete trip before 8 Feb, you’ll get silver to March 19 and Mrs Prime to July 19
      – if you go between 9 Feb and 8 June, you’d get silver to March 20 and Mrs Prime to July 19
      – if you go after 9 June you’d get silver to March 20 and Mrs P to July 20

      Remember TPs credit to the day you fly, so watch out if travel straddles a year-end. Also you’d need 4 BA segments regardless of the TP qualification, and status lasts to the end of the following year plus 7 weeks.

      If you fly together as a couple most or all of the time then remember that only one of you needs to be Silver to get most of the benefits.

      My gf has the same year-end as me so we don’t have any conflicts around this, though also there are no opportunities for arbitrage either….

      • Optimus Prime says:
        18 Dec18 December 10:02

        Yes, going after BAEC Silver.

        Thank you so much for this explanation. I thought if we travelled between Feb and June 2018 her TP’s would be wiped out in June 2018!

        • Stu N says:
          18 Dec18 December 10:26

          The TPs _will_ be zeroed at year end. I was assuming you both had some TPs already so would hit Silver with the Qatar trip. Say your Qatar flight trip is 560 TPs (4 x 140TP long haul sectors), and you fly in March, Mrs P will need to earn a further 40TPs and get in her 4 BA sectors in her collection year (so between 9-6-17 and 8-6-18) to get to Silver. If she only does the Qatar trip then she won’t get to Silver from that alone.

          The 4 qualifying BA flights must be revenue flights so you will get at least 5TPs each; if you are in any doubt you can book one of them into Club Europe and that will be 40TPs. Its not too difficult to find CE for approx £100 one way, so about a £30-40 premium over the cheapest economy fares that only earn 5 points.

      • Optimus Prime says:
        18 Dec18 December 12:40

        Ah, okay, now it makes sense.

        I’ve currently got 19 TPs – even though I can see 20 received from a LIH-LAX flight on AA, does it mean I was on negative balance prior to that trip.

        One question about the 4 qualifying BA flights – if I book them on ba.com with a BA code but then the flight is actually operated by Iberia, does it count?

        • Optimus Prime says:
          18 Dec18 December 12:41

          BTW that AA flight was last month, hence my question about negative balance.

  • David says:
    18 Dec18 December 08:47

    I fly Edinburgh-London every week, almost always with easyJet, but I’ve made two return trips this year BA.

    The first was when I was meeting colleagues at Heathrow to catch a Jet Airways flight to India, I was in CE as with the baggage I had it was actually cheaper than economy. The experience on the plane was good in both directions, as was the airport experience at Edinburgh. Heathrow however was not good:
    * on arrival we had to wait 45 minutes for bags.
    * on the way back I got an error from the self check-in machines, I was told this was because my bag was >22kg. I asked if it was OK to split the allowance between the two bags and was told no, so ended up with some delicate items not surrounded by as much as they would’ve been otherwise. After doing this I still got an error and had to be processed manually. I later discovered my allowance was 32kg/bag, so was made to repack my luggage for no reason.
    * there was barely a free seat in the lounge at Heathrow. Compared to either the BA lounge at Edinburgh or any of the Priority Pass lounges at Edinburgh or Gatwick North Terminal it was poor.

    The second was where I’d made a mistake on my easyJet booking, and needed to book flights at near-zero notice in December. I was so thankful for Reward Flight Saver!

  • Mikeact says:
    18 Dec18 December 08:50

    11000 readers..is that really representative ?

    • Rob says:
      18 Dec18 December 08:55

      Once you get over 1000 then, statistically, yes. One thing I have learned running this site, and having data from 1m page views and 1m emails per month, is that small samples (as we were all taught at school) are representative of large ones.

  • CV3V says:
    18 Dec18 December 08:50

    When I recommend airlines to friends:
    Emirates, great economy product, but you will be changing flights at Dubai
    Easyjet, cheap, they like to announce boarding before the plane has even landed, but you get what you pay for
    Ryanair, we all know what to expect, but for the price I cant complain
    Norwegian, cheap transatlantic sale fares, and so far so good
    Air Asia, as mentioned by JamesB, have been consistently great (I do up to 6 flights per year with them), with great value optional extras (you really cant beat their curry, costs about £4).
    BA, nothing exceptional to say! Not the cheapest, not the best. Only use if it’s the most convenient (e.g. non stop to Asia), or using up avios.

    • Polly says:
      18 Dec18 December 14:58

      Yes we also use Air Asia locally 3 sectors in Feb. Plus mas y. All better than ba y. But rfs works so can’t complain. And always give feedback.
      I had them call me recently to apologise for bad service from dub
      They let the 19.10 flight go to lhr half full whilst about 50 of us were delayed 1.5hrs on the later one. Fog. They admitted they should have put us all on the earlier one. Got 10k avios for my trouble . V annoying but it was party time in the DAA dub lounge then.

  • Rivo says:
    18 Dec18 December 08:54

    I really don’t think BA care. They have the most extensive route network in the UK and ultimately there is competition out there. If you don’t like it then take your business elsewhere.

    Admittedly I am a serial feedback giver (to Cruz’s own customer complaints team) however the responses tend to be glib. They like to use mysterious surveys to prove their point that customers are extremely satisfied, especially with the M&S catering.

    With that said of the 14 BA legs I flown in 2017, only 1 flight was poor in terms of service and another where the service was good but the 744 old and tired.

    They also screwed up a companion redemption however they rectified and actually converted 2 CW seats to Avios.

  • rams1981 says:
    18 Dec18 December 08:56

    I’m not sure I would use BA long haul out of choice. The 2 for 1 Amex deal makes the economics work. No better deal out there

    • shd says:
      18 Dec18 December 09:00

      It only works if you won’t or can’t get good value from your Avios elsewhere, ideally without paying £hundreds in fake carrier surcharges

    • Rob says:
      18 Dec18 December 09:02

      Assuming it gets final sign off today, we are going to do a VERY novel competition soon to see which airline you would fly out of choice, if price and miles / status were not an issue ….

      • shd says:
        18 Dec18 December 09:13

        Qatar and/or Etihad!

      • Ian says:
        18 Dec18 December 09:22

        I won’t prejudge what might be in the competition but I suspect I might say Qatar!

      • Frenske says:
        18 Dec18 December 09:26

        The one that flies directly to destination. That’s the only criteria I have: to minimize the hours wasted in a plane.

        • Fenny says:
          18 Dec18 December 18:07

          +1
          If price and destination were no object, I’d want the best timed flight from where I am to where I want to be. I have no clue about 90% of airline hard products, as I haven’t flown enough different carriers in the last 20 years to have any experience of most of them. But the ones that don’t serve poncy food and will tell you the score in the test match when asked get my vote!

        • Fraser says:
          18 Dec18 December 18:30

          Definitely not, given the choice between an American carrier direct, or Virgin via LHR, I’d go for the latter every time for travel stateside.

      • John says:
        18 Dec18 December 09:29

        If price, miles and status were not an issue, I would never fly Qatar or Etihad.

        I would always fly direct to wherever I am going (or as direct as possible) – although this doesn’t mean I would fly BA unless it is the only airline doing that route as a direct flight.

        • Rob says:
          18 Dec18 December 09:55

          How this competition will work, if we do it, is that we have picked the destination. You tell us who you would prefer to fly with, and if you win that is the airline we will book you on. There is a market research angle to this which is how it will be funded.

        • ankomonkey says:
          18 Dec18 December 16:09

          Can’t reply to Rob as his comment doesn’t have a reply button, but this sounds the sort of thing perfectly suited to this site, as long as your client understands we’re not typical fliers. I would gladly participate.

        • the real harry1 says:
          18 Dec18 December 16:34

          presumably not a good idea to suggest Flybe?

      • Carl says:
        18 Dec18 December 10:38

        Alex Cruz must be thrilled by this. He’s been doing everything he can to transform BA into a budget carrier and now they’ve finally achieved the customer satisfaction of one.

        • Rob says:
          18 Dec18 December 10:45

          Jet2 is a LCC and they came second, primarily on the back of what is generally seen as good customer service.

        • Billy says:
          18 Dec18 December 16:49

          Oh enough with the Cruz bashing. It’s like a broken record. Especially Amongst people slavishly trying to Renee Gold.

        • Billy says:
          18 Dec18 December 16:49

          Urgh. Spellchecker.

        • Ian says:
          20 Dec20 December 15:11

          @Billy

          Enough with the Cruz bashing?! The bloke is driving BA in to the ground. We have every right to ‘bash’ him.

          He’s out of his depth, and turning BA in to a budget airline.

      • Simon says:
        18 Dec18 December 11:10

        Out of interest, who signs off your competitions? Do you have a Compliance consultant?

        • Rob says:
          18 Dec18 December 11:32

          Sponsor signs off on the rules. Some like to provide their own or we use our boiler plate ones.

          Technically we should ban Northern Ireland residents from entering, but as we cannot break out NI IP addresses as a separate ‘country’ we have to rely on the honesty of NI residents not to enter 🙂

        • Michael Jennings says:
          18 Dec18 December 15:03

          Could someone tell me why competitions often ban NI entries. I know that it often happens, but I have no idea why.

          • Rob says:
            18 Dec18 December 15:38

            Competitions in Northern Ireland need to be a ‘game of skill’. Filling in your email address a la HFP competitions doesn’t count!

  • David says:
    18 Dec18 December 09:06

    Hello, I am an avid reader of your blog. Did also check your regular posts re credit card offers. As a newbie to this topic and someone who has only recently moved to the UK, what would give me the best idea how to get to this statement “ANYONE with a decent credit score and a partner can earn 100,000 Avios for almost free within 7-8 months. It has never been so easy to hoover up points via credit card sign-up bonuses.” Thanks, David

    • the real harry1 says:
      18 Dec18 December 09:20

      there are 2 of you
      #1 gets gold card for 20,000 points
      refers #2 for 9000 points for #1 (referrer) and 22,000 points for #2 (when you git spend targets in first 3 months)
      #1 upgrades to Platinum & gets another 20,000 points, then cancels card
      after 6 months gap, #2 refers #2 for gold card for 9000 points (#2) and 22,000 points #1
      #2 upgrades to Platinum for 20,000 points then cancels card
      after 6 months gap, #1 refers #2 for gold card for 9000 points for #1 and 22,000 points for #2
      total 152,000 or so – you get the picture, it’s churning the cards

      • Dale says:
        18 Dec18 December 09:27

        And how sustainable is that suggestion before AMEX ban you for life? Fantasy churning?

        • the real harry1 says:
          18 Dec18 December 09:32

          agreed, I think some people will inevitably get black-listed and basically have to go on bended knees to get re-instated with an Amex card but no sign up bonus, ever again

      • Tom says:
        18 Dec18 December 09:47

        Plus you can get bonus 3k MR for supp cards on the accounts which adds a few more miles. Also throw in using the BAPP card and you end up with another 50k+ or so in bonuses alone for two of you churning.

        • Optimus Prime says:
          18 Dec18 December 10:30

          I always take the supp card when applying to help hitting the spending target quicker.

          Maybe I shouldn’t and wait for Amex to offer me a reward for taking one?

        • Genghis says:
          18 Dec18 December 10:53

          We applied for another supp recently on BAPP and got 3k avios. We didn’t even know about the offer! Others have reported similar.

    • Stu N says:
      18 Dec18 December 09:26

      Paging Genghis! But here’s my fairly amateur version of the churn strategy.

      Basically take out Amex Gold (get Rob to refer you), spend £1k, get 20,000 Amex rewards = 20,000 Avios. Refer partner to Amex gold (9k bonus I think) and that takes you to c.30k MRs. They get their bonus – you’re now on approx 52k Avois. Card is free in year one so no cost here.

      Then take out BA Premium Amex – see if you can cross-refer, some reports work. Otherwise ask Rob again. Spend £3k to trigger 26k bonus Avios (plus 4.5k for the spend), refer (another 9k) = approx 40k Avios. Partner hits spend target = another 26+4.5 = approx 70k Avios. Card is £195 a year – but can cancel and get a pro-rata refund.

      52 + 70 is >120k Avios – lovely!

      Then keep going to get a 2-4-1 voucher on the first BA Amex card and bingo, you have enough Avios for a CW return to east coast US for two people. 200k Avios is First to far east. Adding an SPG cycle into that should get you close, or platinum upgrade.

      It’s relatively easy to hit targets if you put EVERYTHING through Amex. I mean fuel, supermarket shops, the £2.40 for a coffee, £1 for a paper in WH Smiths. Also can use Paypal if online retailers don’t take Amex directly. And get a supplementary card for your partner for the one you’re trying to hit targets on. As long as you have good financial discipline and pay off every month in full then the card fees are de minimus.

      Then there is finding a redemption – but that’s another story all together (hint – be flexible and/ or plan a long way ahead and you’ll get something very worthwhile without too much effort).

      • Stu N says:
        18 Dec18 December 09:28

        Actually WHS don’t take Amex do they? But the rest holds. TRH1 has obviously been writing while I was – so you have two variations that get you to same sort of total.

        • RussellH says:
          18 Dec18 December 10:19

          WH Smith certainly take Amex (though I have not been in there for about six weeks). It is where I buy a newspaper to read on the train, though I do not know of any paper worth reading that only costs £1. Always pay with Amex – helps make up for all the places that do not take it!

        • Stu N says:
          18 Dec18 December 10:35

          Hmm, will give it another go. I’m sure the last time I tried (Edinburgh Airport Airside) it didn’t work.

        • Vasco Alves says:
          18 Dec18 December 12:20

          Can confirm I paid with Amex last week at WHS (used the self-service checkout, but I’ve paid at the till with it in the past with no issue).

        • Fraser says:
          18 Dec18 December 18:32

          Yes, WHS at EDI take Amex. They still seem to insist on a boarding card too.

        • Lady London says:
          18 Dec18 December 19:43

          You can say No to showing WHSmith a boarding card too. You don’t have to. does mean you have to queue up for the manual tills though.

        • Stu N says:
          19 Dec19 December 08:06

          It works. Me daft.

      • Genghis says:
        18 Dec18 December 10:46

        Sounds like a reasonable strategy. Remember the cross card referring, e.g. from Amex Plat gets 18k and the fact that fees are refunded pro-rata.

      • Polly says:
        18 Dec18 December 13:35

        David,

        I would go one further in this strategy. If there are 2 of you…

        1st get gold, referred by Rob et al.
        spend bonus of 22k, upgrade to Plat. 20k after bonus spend of 1k. Get a supp to speed spend
        As Plat, cross refer OH for BAPP immediately 18k, and the GOLD 18k, a month later. MRs. Just done this myself as a cross referral to BAPP from Plat.
        BAPP spend bonus 26k avios
        Gold spend bonus 22k MRs
        You may have to take the hit of about 2 months Plat fee in order for the referral MRs to post
        But worth it if you can start aiming for your 241 immediately. Get a supp card on the BAPP. Maybe a further 3k avios…
        You will have to change your spend over to the GOLD for a bit to get that bonus spend in, drawer it, then revert back to BAPP spend only to achieve the 241.
        refer OH for their BAPP, either aim for another 241 or just cancel down to far card as soon as bonus spend banked. 9k plus 26k
        NB, as soon as you have banked your 241, you online drop down to free BACC card, and get a fee refund from the BAPP.
        OH to Hold on to the GOLD until it’s time to refer you again after your no MR card time of at least 6 mths after you have cancelled the Plat.
        Then cancel your plat once your MRs are in BAEC or wherever. It’s amazing how they will have added up by then. Reckon am up to 164 avios by now..probably in an 8-10 month time span..
        Hope l haven’t confused you further!
        That’s good for starters..

        • Genghis says:
          18 Dec18 December 13:39

          A lot depends on how quickly you can hit the spend targets and to take it to extremes (and I try to), like a plane isn’t earning if it’s not in the air, I’m not earning if I still have an Amex in my pocket…

        • Steve says:
          18 Dec18 December 14:21

          Genghis, I am the same. However, as someone mentioned above, are you not worried about being flagged/black-listed by Amex?

        • Genghis says:
          18 Dec18 December 14:25

          Not happened yet. Amex get quite a lot of spend still through the cards.

        • Genghis says:
          18 Dec18 December 14:26

          Though I plan on keeping the cards longer given the cross card referrals and at least have one card on the go at any one time in either my name or Mrs G’s.

      • Chris says:
        18 Dec18 December 16:06

        Has anyone ever had issues getting the 20k for £1k with the gold to plat upgrade when going via the link without having received the email?

        • Dale says:
          18 Dec18 December 16:33

          I haven’t had it yet and it should have been automatic

        • Sapiens says:
          18 Dec18 December 21:57

          Does anyone have a copy of this link? See Gold to plat for 20k being mentioned a lot, but can’t remember seeing the link.

    • Vasco Alves says:
      18 Dec18 December 12:18

      I’d also very much like to know this, as someone who’s also just got started on this hobby.

      • Rob says:
        18 Dec18 December 13:01

        It simply doesn’t exist in the form they want. You can say that you need to fly x return flights to NYC in discount economy to get enough Avios for 1 Avios economy flight to NYC, but that number doesn’t mean much. Because, actually, you can get enough Avios to do that (off peak) from 1 x free Amex Gold charge card and a tiny bit of spending on it, no flights at all to NYC required – and you couldn’t do that in 1988.

        And if you have a BA Amex 241 voucher, the number of flights required to get a ‘free’ flight suddenly halves and suddenly you are actually massively better off than you were in 1988.

        • Vasco Alves says:
          22 Dec22 December 21:21

          Hi Rob,

          You probably won’t be seeing this as it’s been a bit since you replied, but you misread me. I agree with all you said, what I’d like to see in detail is the guide to score the 100,000 Avios in a few months! 😉

        • Genghis says:
          22 Dec22 December 21:48

          His n hers Plat = 92k MR + any additional referral at start for only £4k spend and a few quid in fees.

        • Polly says:
          22 Dec22 December 23:06

          Vasco,
          Plus give the BA premium plus card a go in between, so you are roasting q 6 months, the avios rol in, plus you obtain a 241 voucher, so,you,only,only,need the avios for one person…but do read Robs beginner posts on earning, as it cannot be done overnight.. It does take some planning and good timing…

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