Many of the credit card articles on Head for Points are focused on sign-up bonuses. Get a card, spend the minimum required to trigger the bonus and potentially move on.
However, if you are a high to medium spender, the few thousand pounds of card spend required each year to hit your sign-up bonus targets is not a stretch. You need to consider where to put the rest of your annual spend.
This article can help you!
All of these cards add a 3% foreign exchange fee so you might want to get a separate free credit card to use abroad. Unfortunately there are no travel rewards card without a foreign exchange fee. One option is to get a free Curve Card – see this HFP article – and link it to a miles-earning Visa or Mastercard.
What are the best UK card bonuses for long term spending?
Many travel credit cards offer incentives if you spend £10,000+ per year on their cards. The value of these perks is often underestimated – they are often worth far more than the points for your normal spend.
In order of value, lets take a look at what is out there. This analysis ignores the value of any sign-up bonus or ‘first year free’ deal – I am looking for the best long-term solution.
Excluding the Virgin credit cards, the results summary is, based on spending just enough to trigger the relevant long-term bonus:
- British Airways American Express Premium Plus – 10.1% back on first £10,000
- British Airways American Express (free version) – 6.1% back on first £20,000
- Generic cashback Visa or Mastercard – 0.2% to 0.5% back, usually in vouchers
Your return on the free Virgin Money Reward card varies by status:
- Base Virgin Flying Club member – up to 2.4% on first £20,000
- Silver Virgin Flying Club member – up to 3.4% on first £20,000
- Gold Virgin Flying Club member – up to 6.4% on first £20,000
Your return on the £160 Virgin Money Reward+ card also varies by status:
- Base Virgin Flying Club member – up to 3.3% on first £10,000
- Silver Virgin Flying Club member – up to 5.1% on first £10,000
- Gold Virgin Flying Club member – up to 11.4% on first £10,000
I will explain the basis of my calculations below. The BA and Virgin calculations are based on using the 241 voucher for San Francisco or a flight of similar length.
Our base comparison – The John Lewis / Waitrose Partnership Card or similar
This is typical of the best free Visa or Mastercard cashback cards currently available, giving you 0.5% of your general spending back in the form of shopping vouchers.
This rate is dropping to 0.25% in September 2020, however, so we’ll need to change our base comparison card at that point.
Why are we featuring a card which does not give travel rewards? Because if your travel rewards credit card doesn’t clearly beat the return from a cashback or shopping vouchers card, there is no point having it. You are better off with the cash.
Representative APR 18.9% variable.
The winner – British Airways American Express Premium Plus card
This is not exactly a surprise. After all, you voted the British Airways Premium Plus card your ‘Best UK Travel Rewards Credit Card’ in the 2019 Head for Points Awards.
Spend £10,000 on this card and you get a voucher which gives you two Avios redemption tickets (on BA planes, ex-UK only) for the miles of one. On a typical redemption (two Club World tickets to San Francisco on a peak day), this saves you 150,000 Avios points!
Based on my very conservative 0.75p per Avios point valuation, the 2-4-1 voucher is ‘worth’ £1,100. You also earn 15,000 Avios for spending £10,000 (worth £110 assuming 0.75p per Avios) with an annual fee of £195. The net benefit for spending £10,000 = £1,015 (£1,100 + £110 – £195) or 10.1% of spend.
Representative APR 74.7% variable including £195 fee based on a notional £1200 credit limit. Interest rate on purchases 22.2% variable.
Runner-up – British Airways American Express card
The standard, free, British Airways Amex gives you a 2-4-1 voucher when you spend £20,000, and a lower 1 mile per £1 on your spending. Using the same maths as above, £20,000 of spend gets you £1,100 of 2-4-1 benefit plus 20,000 Avios for your £20,000 of spending, worth £150. There is no fee. The net benefit for spending £20,000 = £1,250 or 6.1% of spend.
However, if you plan to earn the 2-4-1, the British Airways Premium Plus Amex is more attractive. The card has a higher earnings rate and the 2-4-1 voucher lasts for two years instead of one.
I wrote this article explaining why I don’t recommend that anyone gets the free British Airways credit card.
Representative APR 22.2% variable.
Honourable mention, airline category – Virgin Money Reward Mastercard
The new Virgin credit cards are very hard to value because you have a choice of rewards which are determined by your Virgin Flying Club status.
Spend £20,000 on this card and you can get:
A 2-4-1 voucher, valid for two years, for a Virgin Flying Club redemption in Economy (base members), Premium (Silver members) or Upper Class (Gold members) or
A return upgrade to Premium when you book an Economy reward flight (requires reward availability in Premium)
Let’s assume you use the 2-4-1 voucher to fly to San Francisco on a peak day:
a base member redeeming in Economy will save 50,000 miles
a Silver member redeeming in Premium will save 75,000 miles and
a Gold member redeeming in Upper Class will save 155,000 miles
Someone using the upgrade voucher to redeem in Premium rather than Economy will save 25,000 miles.
Based on my very conservative 0.75p per Virgin Flying Club mile valuation, the 2-4-1 voucher is ‘worth’ between £375 and £1162. The upgrade voucher would be worth £187.50. You would also earn 15,000 miles for spending £20,000, valued at £112.50. The card itself is free.
The low end valuation is a base member using the upgrade voucher: £187.50 value from the voucher plus £112.50 of value from miles earned, total £300 back on £20,000 of spending. This is a return of 1.5%.
The high end valuation is a Gold member using the 2-4-1 voucher in Upper Class, assuming a flight to San Francisco: £1162 value from the voucher plus £112.50 of value from miles earned, total £1273 back on £20,000 of spending. This is a return of 6.4%.
Representative APR 22.9% variable.
Honourable mention, airline category – Virgin Money Reward+ Mastercard
This card is equally hard to value. Spend £10,000 on this card, which has a £160 fee, and you can get:
A 2-4-1 voucher, valid for two years, for a Virgin Flying Club redemption in Economy (base members), Premium (Silver members) or Upper Class (Gold members) or
A return upgrade to Premium when you book an Economy reward flight (requires reward availability in Premium)
The maths is the same as with my analysis of the free card. With a 2-4-1 to San Francisco on a peak day, a base member redeeming in Economy will save 50,000 miles; a Silver member redeeming in Premium will save 75,000 miles and a Gold member redeeming in Upper Class will save 155,000 miles.
Someone using the upgrade voucher to redeem in Premium rather than Economy will save 25,000 miles.
Based on my very conservative 0.75p per Virgin Flying Club mile valuation, the 2-4-1 voucher is ‘worth’ between £375 and £1162. The upgrade voucher would be worth £187.50. You would also 15,000 miles for spending £10,000, valued at £112.50. The card has a £160 annual fee.
The low end valuation is a base member using the upgrade voucher: £187.50 value from the voucher plus £112.50 of value from miles earned, total £300 back on £10,000 of spending, less the £160 fee.
The high end valuation is a Gold member using the 2-4-1 voucher for Upper Class, assuming a flight to San Francisco: £1162 value from the voucher plus £112.50 of value from miles earned, total £1274 back on £10,000 of spending, less the £160 fee.
This means the net benefit for spending £10,000 = between £140 and £1114, or 1.4% to 11.1% of spend.
Representative APR 63.9% variable including £160 fee based on a notional £1200 credit limit. Interest rate on purchases 22.9% variable.
I also considered the value of the long-term spend bonuses on these other cards, but dismissed them as poor value:
Marriott Bonvoy American Express – upgrade to Marriott Bonvoy Gold Elite status for spending £15,000 and a free night voucher for spending £25,000. Marriott Bonvoy Gold Elite has only modest benefits and is often available for free, eg as an Amex Platinum benefit. The free night is valid only at hotels costing up to 25,000 points, which limits its use considerably, and the value of such a free night (generally around £100) is a small reward for such substantial expenditure. The card has a £75 fee.
American Express Preferred Rewards Gold – 10,000 Membership Rewards points when you spend £15,000, paid when you next renew. I would value the 10,000 points at £75 (assuming you transfer to airline miles and achieve 0.75p of value). You also receive two additional Lounge Club vouchers with each renewal. Given the £140 annual fee after the first year, your net return is low.
I also feel that the Lufthansa Miles & More Diners Club and Mastercard package deserves a mention. Whilst there is no long-term spend bonus, the day-to-day earning rate of 1.25 miles per £1 is very strong. You need to be a high spender to maximise value due to the £79 annual fee, although the 5,000 mile sign-up bonus offsets much of it in the first year. For something spending £10,000+ per month, however, you could do very nicely with this product. It is especially helpful if you have children since Lufthansa and SWISS will often have reward availability during UK school holidays – which do not match German and Swiss ones, even in Summer – when BA and Virgin do not.
I am happy to hear arguments for and against my views here. Many of these rewards are subjectively valued, dependant on your travel patterns.
(Want to earn more miles and points from credit cards? Click here to visit our dedicated airline and hotel travel credit cards page or use the ‘Credit Cards Update’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.)
About Head for Points
Our long term spending goes on the SPG card, with our day-to-day spending on IHG Premium. IHG White is there as backup because the IHG Premium credit limit is too low, and Hilton Barclaycard has a very specific use in relation to the others. This serves us very well indeed at the moment.
After “day-to-day” I intended to write “non-Amex” of course!
Aren’t long-term and day-to-day the same thing in this context?
That’s exactly what I do… with a smidgen going to HSBC and Hilton Barclaycard. But my ‘go to’ cards are the SPG and the IHG. Only a £174 a year in fees for both. I’ve found my last BA 2-4-1 hard to use, it will expire in nine months, and I have another with later expiry in hand too. I might return to BAPP again if I find myself with only one 2-4-1 left, the standard paying rate of 1.5 Avios/£ is some consolation for the high annual fee if it goes unused, but I may not. Marriott Bonvoy points at 3/£ are a good return on their own for Amex spend.
This is very similar to my spend strategy. Only I also use Revolut for non-Amex day to day spend.
The SPG is probably the go-to Amex card for high spending points collectors, primarily because of the 25% transfer bonus to airlines. Though the occasional Ritz-Carlton redemption is a treat.
I guess the maths changes a bit for those who can refer a lot of people or make use of the additional benefits offered by the MR cards but that really is dependent on spend levels!
SPG is my mainstay too, I’ve got reasonably large forex purchases through business so curve billing to IHG works nicely for those.
Since Hilton changed cash and points and devalued I’ve found much better value at Marriott and IHG and as you say Marriott to airline points is a no brainer to me.
My wallet contains the SPG and free BA Amex cards and the premium IHG and Virgin cards. I put 10k through the IHG card each year for the free night and then use the SPG and Virgin cards for day to day spending for the good earning rate. I have struggled to make good use of BA 241 vouchers as we are a family of 3 and I therefore need to acquire a lot of points for a decent redemption.
Even worse is that families only can go on holidays when availability is low and one needs to pay peak prices for reward flights.
Interesting that you used SFO. Over a 6 month period there are just 6 days when 2 seats are available in J LHR SFO
Currently there are just 2 days when there are 2 F seats available in the next 12 months and not a single day when there are 2 SFO LHR over the coming 355 day booking period. Source rewardflightfinder.com
Doesn’t that mean it’s a very good example? There *were* 2 CW seats per flight, and the fact that there are now so few suggests that it’s a very popular redemption destination and many 2-4-1’s are likely to have been used…
We have 4 Club World to SFO for next Easter for a 16 day break.
next Easter as in 2021 – Can you book ahead of the 355 days? (I’m desperately trying for Tokyo in J but availability is always on the 777 and i’d prefer the 787-9)
Book the flights available set up an alert on reward flight finder and when flights become available phone up and change it, you will have to pay the £35 change fee but if it’s that important to you that’s the price for pay. No Rob can’t book more than 355 days ahead, he’s bound by same rules the rest of us are.
He means Easter 2020, i.e. the “next” one to take place!
By all means keep trying, but as the most successful deployers of the 2 4 1 keep banging on about, flexibility is everything and that would definitely include compromising on the choice of aircraft! (Being flexible sometimes works in one’s favour, though, we are flying F to Miami at Easter on the afternoon flight which always seems to have more Avios availability so is presumably less popular. However it is also the A380 which looks to have a really great F cabin).
Anna … I’m quite bemused he’s only looking at one type of aircraft as it could always be swapped out anyway. I’ve been reading there are changes from LHR to NRT coming up and BA are changing things so I wouldn’t bank on getting the exact aircraft you want anyway.
Thanks for the tips, that is good to hear you can get the A380 flight in J to MIA, I would consider that again as it one of the few places I would like to return to, perhaps over Tokyo. My dates are flexible within a 4 week range to see Sakura.
The A380 J cabin is simply huge, it is probably more spacious and just as new as the 789 version, enjoy your Easter trip on it.
Does it help when booking to have Gold status, as mine will expire soon and presumably drop down to silver, but expect I can still book without issues using the AmEx card my 2-4-1 came on.
I agree, it’s always a risk that you won’t get the aircraft you want so I try not to get my hopes up too much when booking. Guess I just feel that the newer aircraft give better value for points over some of the more tired fleet.
What news is there regarding NRT, let’s hope it’s the 787-10 being rolled out!
I’m doing April this year to Japan, the key is to be flexible, I’m going out in first on the 777 and back in first on the 787. I’ve been reading they are changing the 787 from October this year. I booked in J and set up alert with RFF. I ended up changing my outbound flight when 1st became available. I used my 241 voucher.
Robert – thanks for the tips on the J cabin, although we are flying in F lol! Re the Gold status, I think you can force open extra seats for double avios but not sure if you can use a 2 4 1 for this? There are people on this forum who know about this though!
You can’t use a 241, no.
Sounds like a great trip, and be interesting to hear if you find much difference between the 777 and 787.
I’ll look out for those changes to equipment later in the year thanks. I don’t subscribe to RFF so will keep checking manually.
Enjoy, it will be fantastic, I hope to do the same trip next spring.
Oops I’m only a novice at this, I thought J and F were the same! I was meaning first cabin at the front downstairs.
Entirely your choice Robert but my TOP tip is pay the £3 a month for RFF which will check every hour of the day for your seats. I wouldn’t of got mine without using it. You are looking to go peak time Easter and cherry season going to be hard to get, use the tools available. Above all be flexible.
US West Coast in J is a good benchmark redemption in my view. If you set to “any time” in the BA App, Club World and 2 passengers:
– SFO has 73 outbound and 51 inbound days
– San Jose has 248/83
– LAX is 121/61
Nearby (by US standards!) you have Phoenix with 104/172 and Las Vegas 70/167.
If you used, say, F to Singapore, you’d get a much higher value but that _is_ a genuinely rare redemption.
Oh there’s San Diego on 26/34 as well.
Anna,
The A380 F cabin is really spacious, I enjoy it the most out of all the F cabins in the BA fleet. I think you will enjoy it too.
Dev – thanks, I am SO excited. Especially as we will hopefully be able to use the Cathay First lounge beforehand!
I’ve been lucky enough to fly in all current F cabins. I think I prefer the 787 F cabin but not much in it over A380. 787 has gate-to-gate IFE and more storage space around the seat, while the A380 seat and cabin is most spacious and quieter and smoother. I’d rank 777 in third and in last place, 747. The 747 cabin feels (relatively) cramped and lacking in storage and a bit less private than the others.
The 747 is in no way “bad” – First is still a lovely way to fly and streets ahead of CW but I guess you can rank anything if you’re picky enough.
Another point that cuts across all cabins is air quality; on A380 and 787 is noticeably better than 747/ 777 which makes a big difference to how fresh I feel after a long flight.
I did F to Singapore with the family (4), availability was wide open. On return we got a lot of dark looks in the lounge as the kids (5&7) got stuck into some satay.
After her steak on the plane, my 5 yo requested that the “servant” make her bed up. Luckily the Flight Attendant didn’t hear.
I’m surprised you don’t mention the spg Amex, I thought that brought you a free night after a minimum spend every year?
Free night up to cat 4 after £25k spend is a pretty useless return.
We have a full piece on that card during the week. And the free night is a joke. Unless £25,000 for a free night in Preston appeals.
Outside London there are plenty of hotels at the cat 4 25000 level. I tend to use mine for those stop overs where I literally want somewhere to sleep. Not aspirational but means the SPG card is essentially free with a 1.5% return. Apart from the BAPP (with a high fee) I can’t see any other card that offers that return
Indeed.
Spend another £8500 a year on it and you’ve got 6 nights in AC Downtown New York, nothing flash but new build, big rooms and a great base to stay.
Two reasons to get it, I think:
a) you are a very heavy spender, so the £75 is immaterial vs the rewards you earn
b) you want miles in an airline which doesn’t have its own UK credit card
A free night in the Bexleyheath Marriott is not a reason to get it. It would be slightly better if the voucher was 25,000 points OFF a booking – this would at least allow you to go somewhere decent. People who spend £25,000 per year on Amex cards – unless it is all business spend – generally have their sights higher than Bexleyheath.
I promise you …. if I could get a free night at the Gritti Palace every year I would be front of the queue to stick £25k through the card.
@Funtime. Its a single night up tp 25k points not a redemption to the value of 25k points. I might be wrong but you can’t top it up with say 10k points and book somewhere better either.
Correct.
Is there any news on a new Marriott credit card coming out, or is it just that the SPG Amex is being re branded?
Neither, weirdly.
It is mentioned, and dismissed, at the end of the article.
I’m surprised you didn’t read the article before commenting.
Oh, it’s Alex. In that case I’m not surprised as it’s a disparaging comment.
I have a feeling there are many Alex’s around here, and that you’re directing your ire at the wrong person here.But no harm done. Take a deep breath.
And in my defense, my news reader seems to have cropped just after the honourable mention for the IHG card, after which I clicked on the website link to comment and jumped straight to the bottom. You learn every day.
Sorry.
Helpful suggestion. Try linking your email to gravitar so that you’re not too be confused with any other Alex that posts as you’ll have a picture by your posts 🙂
I miss the Lloyds update voucher for the solo traveller !
+ 1
The BAPP is no use to the solo traveller.
We need a facility on this site for solo travellers to arrange trips with other HFPers to use their companion vouchers! Though once my son is independent I would seriously consider such a thing myself as I am married to a workaholic who needs to be cajoled into booking any annual leave.
What is it with these people who regard work as essential to their identity. I took a mate in BA J to Hong Kong. 4 nights in the Conrad and he spent most of the time on his laptop servicing clients who naturally loved the fact he was permanently on call. He wasn’t interested in the Executive Lounge or sights only what speed the broadband was.
What a waste Debs…
These people belong in Milton Keynes or Slough.
Unlucky! I’d sooner let a voucher expire than spend on someone who is totally indifferent!
My husband has just spent the threshold to receive 10,000 points on the Gold Rewards Card. I currently have free BA card with around £2K spend. Would we be best to stop spending on the gold card but keep it until renewal to get the 10k points and lounge passes and then cancel that card, but upgrade my BA one to start collecting for the 2-4-1. Is this the best way? We have both had BAPP cards in last 24 months and I have had gold card so I take it no referral bonuses. Just want to check I understand correctly.
Yes, but there’s no rush to upgrade the BA to the BAPP. Just make sure you get in upgraded *before* you spend the £10,000.
The referrer does get a REFERRAL bonus (6.000), but the referred does not get the SIGN-UP bonus (10.000). You can also get an extra bonus for adding people to account. Despite the lack of sign-up bonus my wife and I are still using the gold reward cards using the referral, 15K spend, additional card bonuses successively.
Sarah,
Be very aware of the “spend conversion to avios” tracker. Once you get to 9.5k spend “converted”, apply for the upgrade to BAPP. Put that bacc in the drawer, be vigilant, as some folks on here got the 1 yr 241 in error. V hard to correct that one. Not the end of the world of course, if you plan to use it soon. You usually have a few days wait for conversion to avios also. Can be quicker, but we always allow 5 days. As OP says, no rush to upgrade.
Obs, once you get the BAPP, you are home and dry with the 2yr 241.
I’ve not seen it mentioned on the site yet, but on my December statement for my Virgin Reward + card there was a notice at the bottom to say that spend in EUR, SEK, and RON would no longer be subject to FX fees-
From 15 December 2019, we’re changing how you’re charged when you use your card or withdraw cash in any of the 31 countries of the European Economic Area (EEA). When you pay for something in Euros, Swedish Kronor or Romanian Lei, we won’t charge you a Non-Sterling Transaction Fee.
Isn’t this because of regulation, that they can’t impose fees on these currencies? LOL passing it off as a generous offering
What regulation?
There is an EU regulation which stops you imposing fees for cross-border payments which you do not charge on domestic payments.
Still, think Rob should do an article on it. Diners Club and Amex aren’t covered by this regulation BTW. I got charged EUR FX on a transaction booked on my Miles and More MC on Dec 19…
You can be charged FX loading – you CAN’T be charged a handling fee for a FX purchase.
Anyone know if this applies to the free card too?
I believe a different sort of fee, not called a fee, is replacing it.
Indeed, I’ve seen the slight-of-hand with multiple, confusingly similarly named fees before.
I rather suspected this might be the case here…
Thanks for this. Very useful as I am moving to Switzerland (but on the German border), so will be spending a significant amount in euros.
I don’t think this applies to Switzerland. Unless you mean using a GBP card. In any case it is pretty meaningless as any fixed fee will be replaced by a percentage fee on the exchange rate. If your card has both a fixed fee and a percentage fee, then there may be a benefit as the fixed fee would go.
As far as I underused (and experience since Dec 15 confirms), the paid Virgin card doesn’t charge a loading fee anymore either. No FX in transactions done in EUR and BGN
I don’t quite get how you can give an Avios valuation of 0.75 which indicates you refer to someone who struggles to get good value for them because: they fly not very often, they can’t get reward tickets on the routes they want, they fly economy, their routes are low value or have cheap cash rates. But the 241 you use on SFO which is not by any means a similar idea. It’s a high value business flight with expensive cash rates.
You can’t pick one and not the other, either both are valuable or both low value, personally I choose the latter.
Just looked at a return to LAX early September this year – 137,500 (peak out/off peak return) avios plus £700 in fees. Cash fare £1800 with far more flights available at that price. Ppa 0.8p, not including avios earned back from the cash ticket, status earning opportunities or checking other airlines/ex EU flights.
Looking at the low fare finder on the BA app, the school summer holidays to SFO are around £1600pp right throughout the month.
What about the HSBC Premier World Elite Mastercard? Main benefits for GBP £195 include:
– 20,000 Avios if you spend GBP £2,000 in the first 3 months
– Another 20,000 Avios if you spend GBP 12,000 in first 12 months
– Unlimited airport lounge access
Worth pointing out as well is the decent earning rate of 1 Avios per GBP spent, as well as the high(er) acceptance of Mastercard.
Currently have the BAPP (about to earn my 2nd 2-4-1 voucher) and held the Platinum Amex within the past 24 months, so this makes the above my preferred choice… or am I missing something?
Thanks
This article doesn’t look at introductory bonuses – the £12k bonus is a one-off, not repeating. Good deal though. Stick £500k into HSBC and they waive the £195 fee too 🙂
But churnable after 6 months+
Is there any likelihood of BA / Avios ending their arrangement with AMEX and switching their card programme across to MasterCard? Or possibly even operate both an AMEX AND MasterCard programme?
Yes, I think so. If Amex cannot escape the EU interchange fee caps then what’s the point? If BA switched to a Visa / MC it would get 100% share of wallet. At the moment, every BA Amex cardholder carries a 2nd Visa / Mastercard credit card. This not only dilutes revenue but also dilutes the marketing impact of having the card in the wallet.
An interesting data point to take into consideration that may/may not have anything to do with the reduced interchange fee ruling, is that I’ve now found the large majority of my suppliers (over 90% I reckon) now accept Amex whereas these same suppliers and retailers when I first started seriously spending money for business expenses did not – more like 50%
I find in a personal capacity that Amex acceptance has got better although mainly smaller independent cafes/shops are the ones that still only accept visa/MasterCard. Interesting to see if this trend continues..
I work for a large retailer with responsibility for payment provider fees and we pay the same discount rate (Amex nomenclature for fee) for every type of card. When terms were being negotiated recently, our lawyers specifically asked why there was one uniform rate and why co-branded cards were subject to the same fees. Amex replied that they were comfortable their fee structure was compliant with all regulations…
Here is a list of the hotels where you can stay for 25,000 Bonvoy points:
https://www.hotelsbypoints.com/marriott/categories/4
The country selector is at the bottom left corner. I can particularly recommend the University Srms in Cambridge.
On peak days, Category 4 hotels are now 30,000 points and so the voucher won’t be accepted, unless it is technically a Category 4 voucher and they just called it a ‘25,000 point’ voucher for simplicity.
some decent looking redemptions in France — thanks for that link. I’m likely to get the voucher through ‘natural spending’ anyway so a genuine bonus if I find somewhere nice to use it!