BA Amex international charges worth it?

[sdonald93]

Hello Everyone,
Quite new to this so apologies if an obvious answer!

On the Avios Collect rewards, Booking.com is currently 6 Avios per £ spent

Looking to book a hotel in the USA for £2000 GBP

I would get 3K Avios from the transaction (2000 x 1.5) plus 12K for the booking.com deal (6 x 2000)

Thats a total of 15K Avios. I would have to pay a 2.99% transaction fee of £59.80 GBP

Effectively getting 15K Avios for £59.80 rather than using my other bank card (no international fees)

I think that works out as .39p per Avios.

Is this all correct and a good deal or have I missed something?

Hoping its not too good to be true!

Thank you!

[Rob]

Yes, you’re missing a lot of things.

The 6 per £1 does NOT require you to use a BA Amex. You can use a credit or debit card with 0% FX fees if you have one, which makes those Avios free.

Except, are they? Has Booking inflated the price to cover rewards? They are well know for charging different prices on different platforms (depending where you click from) and whether you’re on a phone or desktop.

And are you certain this is the cheapest deal for that hotel? No member rate for booking direct?

Booking.com Avios do not always turn up so always take a cash saving now over ‘not guaranteed’ points later.

[Garethgerry]

Agree, booking.com via BA store is not the best deal any more . Just done a 3 week UK Anniversary tour , 4 hotels it seems that in every case booking directly beat booking.com. Either hotel membership 10% off, hotel 4 nights for 3 if booked directly, hotel bottle of bubbles a decent champagne. Similarly booked hotel in Spain 15% off via members rate. Only recent booking.com was Holiday Inn for Cruise, no discount so used booking.com via ba.store.

Historically have used booking.com via BA store as default , but it seems hotels are trying harder to get direct bookings and linking discountto simple process of on-line memberships.

Would like to thank Rob for his article on getting Barclaycard Avios for non Amex spend, didn’t realise how many Avios I missed , so just keep Halifax for abroad.

[sdonald93]

Hi Rob,

Thanks for your reply! After some further research, there is also an Avios Hotels offer for 10 Avios per £ spent.

I checked the price and its the same as a normal website booking and because you pay in £, you skip paying the Fx fee

Perhaps this would be a better option?

Thanks
Stuart

[Ihar]

We use TCB (Topcashback) for booking hotels and often get 10-11% cashback. (You can happily use my referral code and I get £35 😂). IMHO it’s always better to book direct, and call if you can get it cheaper elsewhere – they will usually match or beat. The price, plus you have more chance of getting an upgrade (again IMHO/experience).