Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

What do Sunday Telegraph readers do with their Amex Membership Rewards points?

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I advised on an article in The Sunday Telegraph this week about how to use American Express Membership Rewards points.

Here’s a link although the site is paywalled. There’s nothing in it that I haven’t written about on HfP multiple times so you aren’t missing much if you’re a regular reader.

I thought you might be interested in extracts from the comments section under the article. Telegraph readers are generally literate (verbally and financially) so you would expect sensible feedback.

Sunday Telegraph American Express article

Here are a few:

From Chris:

If you have got enough money to be spending £100k per year on Amex then can you really be bothered spending time exchanging points for pennies?

Er, yes Chris. I suspect Chris believes that wealthy people keep warm in winter by throwing large piles of £50 notes into a roaring fire. In reality the majority of people with cash wealth (as opposed to housing wealth) got it via running their own business and have spent a lifetime focused on cost control.

From Joe:

When I closed the account to which my Amex card was linked they booted me out without any chance of paying from any of my other accounts, despite having been a client for almost two decades. And they kept all my points. Wouldn’t trust them as far as I can throw them.

No idea what Joe is on about 🙂 Failed Direct Debit? Let’s move on.

From Ale:

Avios is a complete and total waste of time. Worth nothing these days, most flights are unavailable and you can still get a cheaper flights elsewhere at the time you actually want to go.

Feedback for IAG there I think ….

From Alan:

I can’t see anywhere on the BA site that lets me convert avios to nectar points

The first Google search result for ‘BA nectar’ is the relevant page.

From Gavin:

You will never be able to use those lounge access vouchers. All lounges are full now all the time and only accept paid entry or business class passengers.

Fair point at peak times in the UK (not internationally).

From Richard:

I don’t fly much, so using the points on Amazon or Laithwaites wine works for me.

I had specifically written in the article that converting points to Nectar via Avios gets you 50% more value than doing what Richard does, getting himself 0.45p per point.

From Bennett:

Just use the Amex points as credit to clear your credit card balance.

See my reply to Richard above.

From LIz:

Wine Flyer – that’s a good way to use up your Avios.

As we showed here, you’re getting 0.68p per Avios via Wine Flyer so, admittedly, it’s not terrible. It’s not great either – we’d be aiming at over 1p – but there are far worse options. Such as:

From Julian:

just use them on amazon.

See my reply to Richard above.

From Jane (replying to Julian):

But then your return on the points is 10% less than buying [Amazon] gift cards, for example, as shown by the figures in the article. I just get get Amazon or M&S gift cards, as I shop there anyway.

No, Jane, don’t do it!

There are some thoughtful contributions from other Telegraph readers, which elevate the discussion to something nearer the HfP comments level:

From Al:

I accumulate thousands of points a year but rolling them into airmiles type schemes is a waste of time as it’s usually cheaper to buy the flights/upgrades elsewhere.

What can be useful with Amex is their rewards discounts. Most of them are pointless overpriced luxury brands, but I tend to make >£300 a year with the more regular ones. For example, LNER has 12% Amex cashback plus another 2% discount booking via LNER directly.

From Chris:

If you’re persistent enough and flexible you will find your seats depending on your flexibility. I have only flown First & Business since I started collecting in 2005.

From Bret:

The best thing about Amex (aside from their human customer service if I ever need to phone them up) is that if you are going overseas for work and need a local credit history (e.g. in the US for a few years), utter the magic words “Global Transfer” and Amex in your new country will use your UK credit history to support your application where you have no local creditworthiness to evidence. So far as I know, they’re the only major global credit provider that will do this.

From George:

I have been an Amex Platinum member since 1995, with gold 2 years prior to that and indeed have had good points benefits because I earned a lot in my working life.

The annual cost has increased hugely and whilst the cost to benefit ratio used to be good now I am over 70 the travel insurance no longer applies ( I though it was to 75 and was surprised that Amex never reminded me that I would loose it at 70). Indeed I still get letters that made me think I still had this.

You would think Amex would want to retain its senior members but now there is little to no point in me retaining the card at £575 a year.

From John (re lounge access):

You will struggle to use them in the UK but in the rest of the world, you should be fine. Lounge entry refusal is a UK phenomenon. At worst in places like the AENA-run lounges across Spain, they may ask you to wait at the door till the next flight boards to smooth out capacity. Whereas in Manchester, the airport-run Escape lounges put a “We’re full, please F off” sign outside when about 25-30% occupied.

From William (re ‘Avios are a waste of time’):

That may be true for short haul destinations, but you can get 1p per avios on many long haul routes even in economy (eg. to South America), thanks to the recent reduction in the required cash component via Reward Flight Saver. You can also redeem on Iberia and Qatar, which gives excellent value. I am flying from Singapore to London on Qatar Business class for 75000 avios plus £180. The cash fare for this same route would be £2500+. Finally this doesn’t take into account the extra value from the 2 for 1 voucher you can earn on the BA Amex, which substantially increases the worth of your avios.

It’s true that certain routes are practically off limits for redemptions (eg. BA Australia/Singapore) and you often need to book close to a year in advance. But with a little flexibility you can get good deals.

What can you take from this?

What you need to remember, as a HfP reader, is that you are very much in the minority in terms of knowing how to maximise the miles and points that you earn.

I think the comments above, from what in theory should be an above-average audience in terms of street smarts, show that.

This is good news for us though. The more people who redeem for sub-optimal redemptions, the lower the pressure on the financial performance of the programme and the more likely it is that higher value redemptions will remain – if only because of their PR value via sites like this.


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Comments (128)

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

  • JDB says:

    The comments that suggest there is some correlation between intelligence, wealth/financial literacy and playing the points game seems very wide of the mark. Many people, including very smart ones, abhor the concept of paid credit cards, whatever the putative benefits and others either like to keep life very simple, don’t want to devote the time or want to book whatever, whenever. They aren’t stupid or ignorant, they just have a different approach.

    • Richie says:

      So some can’t do cost benefit analysis! I learnt this back in the seventies.

      • JDB says:

        @Richie – It rather depends also how you value your time. I really think people should be allowed not to be interested without some criticism of their alleged inability to carry out a cost benefit analysis. It presumably doesn’t apply to you, but from reading some comments over time, there are clearly a number of people who are deluding themselves about how clever they think they are in the points game; the providers rely upon this.

        • Richie says:

          Providers rely on consumers purchasing and not claiming the benefits.
          Yes, I’m not one of the clever ones, I was blissfully unaware of the risk of AN going bust and infortunately lost alot of points.

          • QFFlyer says:

            A lot of us nearly went the same way with VA back in 2020. I was very points rich because of their HKG route (which was on the chopping block anyway).

    • Lady London says:

      I have met a number of rich people who weren’t actually very bright or “broad”. And yet for various reasons they had made a ton of money.

      Gives me courage that if you’re interested in money, you don’t actually have to be that bright to make it.

      • Rob says:

        Piece in The Guardian today based on a recent academic survey. Up to £60k, your salary correlates to your IQ. Beyond that it doesn’t.

        This is logical, when you think about, because the smartest people in the country are often doing modestly paid cutting edge research. Of all the skills required for running a big business, exceptionally high intelligence is relatively low on the list.

        • The Savage Squirrel says:

          This makes perfect sense when you tie it in with happiness/earnings research. There the findings are very similar: up to a similar level (the exact level depends on case-specific factors – not least of which is the wealth of those around you) higher earnings are well correlated to more happiness in a direct linear relationship – money really does make you happy.

          Above that level, further increase in earnings has basically zero correlation with happiness.

          Very smart people will have worked this out either consciously or intuitively, and acted upon it. Once they reach the “happiness plateau” of earnings, they will only work on increasing their income further if doing so comes with other benefits (more satisfying/rewarding work role, greater status, greater flexibility, greater control of working environment etc etc). If declining to chase further earnings will provide these things then they will do that.

  • danimal says:

    Disable Javascript for free access to the Telegraph website. (There are various Chrome extensions that will do this for you quickly).

  • Notmyrealname says:

    The article on Hpf seems to have been highlighted so Hpf readers can feel smug.

    Not that they need any excuse IMHO.

    Having and using AVIOS can be advantageous but is not a way of life for everyone.

  • Philondon says:

    Typical Telegraph comments. Full of negativity and people commenting who don’t actually read the article they are commenting on.

  • Sam says:

    I’m always surprised how people are not savvy with their money yet are rich on paper – mostly because they managed to buy a house in London (or elsewhere as investments) at a certain time and that has increased in value. But on a day to day basis do not know how to make their money stretch (even if they earn a lot) – just goes to show luck plays a big role in people’s “asset wealth”. I wouldn’t really label these people as financially literate. Some people who have this wealth just do not have the bandwidth to look into points and get the best value and “simply can’t be bothered”.

    • TimM says:

      Most people with a house in London and the South East of England have ‘made’ more from house price appreciation than they have earned in their lifetimes. The ‘ignorant rich’ is a not a new phenomenon. The survey results of apathy and ignorance is no surprise.

      • Rob says:

        You can’t spend this though, until you downsize.

        Nice work if you can get it though. A couple I know, very average middle class jobs, sold their modest Putney house (bought for peanuts in the 1960’s) and freed up £2m (tax free) which they gave to their kids (tax free as long as the givers live 7 years) after buying a smaller place for themselves.

        • TimM says:

          Yes, if you only own one house it makes little difference. However, standing in place of local councils are private landlords, many funded directly by the Government through Housing Benefit (now disguised under the UC blanket) who re-finance every few months to buy more houses. These people will go broke if house prices fall, as they surely will. A 30-40% drop appears inevitable. It could be more if the housing market becomes efficient.

  • Billy says:

    From Joe:
    When I closed the account to which my Amex card was linked they booted me out without any chance of paying from any of my other accounts, despite having been a client for almost two decades. And they kept all my points. Wouldn’t trust them as far as I can throw them.

    No idea what Joe is on about 🙂 Failed Direct Debit? Let’s move on.

    The only thing I can think of is when my friend closed her Amex card, they kept her 50k Membership Points – she didn’t realise she had to transfer them out first. They point blank refused to convert them to Avios or any other scheme the next day when she realised.

    • RussellH says:

      Yes, I thought that what “Joe” was on about was losing his MR points when he closed his a/c.
      I am sure that everyone here understands how MR points work, but it is probably fair to say that while Amex have no duty to advise him that if his closes the a/c now, he will lose the points, it might have been good CS for someone to point that out to him.
      Every other UK card scheme that I can think of sends the points somewhere else at the end of each month, so there will always be a risk that those who do not bother to learn how a scheme works will get caught out.

      • Rob says:

        You do get a grace period. For simplicity we always say ‘close your account and you lose your points’ but there is a period afterwards before your account is shut, and Amex should tell people this.

      • Martin says:

        When I closed my gold card a few years ago, the CS agent advised of this and asked if I’d still like to proceed. Maybe it depends on the agent

  • QwertyKnowsBest says:

    Some years ago I put in place a consumer redemption offer for a free TV upon purchasing a given product. Uptake was high and the promo successful. To redeem for the free TV was a relatively simple process, no particularly high barriers, just claim within 30 and 120 days of purchase with a copy of the receipt. We budgeted for a redemption rate of 85% as was a very strong incentive, actual redemption was circa 35%.

    This was when I realised only a small % of the population are organised or keen enough to personally benefit from effort and time investment. Better for the few funded by the many then eh!

    • zapato1060 says:

      Cheers for that. 35%. Wow.

      • RussellH says:

        So, unlike the famous Hoover / free transatlantic air ticket promo then.
        Where people bought a Hoover they did not need just for the free flight.
        How many here, I wonder, got that to work?

        • Louie says:

          Me for one (or two to be exact) 🙂

        • Yorkieflyer says:

          I remember thinking it was too good to be true and wouldn’t be honoured so didn’t buy a hoover I didn’t need….doh

  • anuj says:

    “Telegraph readers are generally literate (verbally and financially)” I think you’ll find these days their readers are just old people angry about anything with a dash of racism and homophobia thrown in. Often the comments are more depressing than the daily mail..

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