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I have a spend of about 15k per year and I am considering taking out a non Amex card to go with the Amex cards I already have. Between the Barclaycard avios plus and Virgin Atlantic Rewards plus card what is a better option to go for in terms of benefits, returns on the bonus points collected etc?
I checked the flight options on BA and Virgin and the routes for Virgin cover most of my requirements so the limited routes isn’t a gating factor.
Anything else I should consider please in the decision making process? Thanks much.
Is the £15k on top of your Amex spend, or in total?
I think the main question with the Virgin card is are you going to earn enough points to be able to make reasonable use of them now dynamic pricing has been introduced. So are you going or be in a position to take advantage of saver seats, or use the points on partner routes (if you don’t have other ways of collecting them)? If not, then avios might be more useful as they can be used on short-haul routes, and you can also vary the ratio of avios and cash you pay for reward seats.
You say you’ve looked at VS routes, however if you’re not familiar with how the award seat system works now, you probably need to read up before you make a decision about which card to get:
https://www.headforpoints.com/2024/11/11/virgin-flying-club-dynamic-pricing-analysis/
Is the £15k on top of your Amex spend, or in total?
This spend is on top of the Amex one.
I think the main question with the Virgin card is are you going to earn enough points to be able to make reasonable use of them now dynamic pricing has been introduced. So are you going or be in a position to take advantage of saver seats, or use the points on partner routes (if you don’t have other ways of collecting them)? If not, then avios might be more useful as they can be used on short-haul routes, and you can also vary the ratio of avios and cash you pay for reward seats.
You say you’ve looked at VS routes, however if you’re not familiar with how the award seat system works now, you probably need to read up before you make a decision about which card to get:
https://www.headforpoints.com/2024/11/11/virgin-flying-club-dynamic-pricing-analysis/
Family of 4 so most likely looking for saver tickets in economy really – don’t see me accumulating enough points for an upper class seat 🤦♂️
VS: maybe, if the routes you’ll use are “core” ones which have been around for years.
VS have a habit of announcing and then killing new routes. VS as a whole is rather circling the drain – it doesn’t make money, it has no business strategy, and it’s heading for being acquired or restructuring/bankruptcy if there’s a recession.
With a family, so needing school holiday availability, I wouldn’t do it. You’re unlikely to be able to redeem for 4 at a worthwhile price.
I’d stick it on Barclays Avios Plus.
You could consider just using the Lloyds cashback card.
£180 annual fee, will generate £750 cashback on £15k spend. It’s 0.5% cash to £15k pa but 1% afterwards, so it really comes in to its own if you will spend A LOT, so if 1% cash is attractive to you vs Amex points then you might shift some Amex spend over.
Just one thing to consider with the Barclaycard, is that it gives an upgrade voucher, so not useful if you want to fly economy, unless you choose the 7k avios instead. I personally wouldn’t pay £20pm just to get 7k avios after £10k spend.
You could use the upgrade voucher to book 2 of you one way in PE outbound (for the same avios cost of economy, and tax of PE), but you might not even be able to book the other 2 in PE, as BA only guarantees 2x PE avios seats per flight.
You can also use the Barclays voucher to upgrade to CE on short-haul routes, which can give good value in peak periods like school holidays.
Just one thing to consider with the Barclaycard, is that it gives an upgrade voucher, so not useful if you want to fly economy, unless you choose the 7k avios instead. I personally wouldn’t pay £20pm just to get 7k avios after £10k spend.
You could use the upgrade voucher to book 2 of you one way in PE outbound (for the same avios cost of economy, and tax of PE), but you might not even be able to book the other 2 in PE, as BA only guarantees 2x PE avios seats per flight.
You’re not just getting the (fairly useless I agree) voucher for your £20pcm, you’re also getting the increased earnings rate – 1.5 avios/£ rather than 1.
@aq.1988 – I think that looking at the 7k Avios in lieu of the voucher at a cost of £20/month is a slightly simplistic view of being a customer in the Barclays universe.
We would get three Barclays vouchers p.a. but now take the 7k for each as the voucher is fairly useless for us. Obviously other families are different. If we go west, we use Iberia for its destinations, frequencies and hugely superior service vs BA. Can’t use the BUV. If we go east, we want to travel in First, also can’t use the voucher. For CE travel around Europe they want a silly amount of Avios at which even someone who doesn’t do any calculation as we always have a large float baulks.
With a Premier account, Avios Rewards (at £12/month) offers me 2,200 Avios/month (the extra 700/month from being second name on my son’s mortgage), dual rewards giving me £5 off the £20 Avios Plus card fee, £6/month for Apple TV (it’s more if you take it as a standalone product), the extra 0.5 Avios per £1 spent and 2 x 7k Avios still works out as a good deal in my book.
Cost of Avios Plus card + Avios Rewards (net of dual rewards) = £324 p.a.
In return I get 14,000 Avios for the vouchers, 26,400 for Avios Rewards so total 40,400 Avios say £400. Obviously the vouchers could potentially be worth much more if they worked for our travel patterns, but they don’t.
The fees pay for themselves but I’m then getting £72/year Apple TV plus an extra 0.5 Avios per £1 worth maybe £500 to me so I’m quite keen on Barclays. Pleased they turned up with an Avios product. The 7k in lieu of voucher seems a bit mingy but still works out rather well.
@JDB, I also earn 2 vouchers per year (one from the free card for spending £20k, and one from Avios rewards from my Premier account for £12pm).
Whilst the vouchers have its limitations, I have managed to use them for my family of 3 (as one benefit over the BAPP is booking for other people). As I usually save 75k avios using the voucher, I would never swap it for 7k.
Just in the OP’s situation, it may not be useful to them if they are planning to fly economy, but 7k avios is on the low side, in my opinion. The extra 0.5 avios per £1, and 7k avios is not worth paying £20pm for a whole year; I would definitely look to downgrade once I hit the £10k.
I would agree that with the changes to the cash element in CE, the voucher is next to useless for short haul.
I forgot to add I have Barclays premier account but no other cards etc with them – does having premier change anything in favour of the Barclaycard at all?
@aq.1988 – the 7,000 Avios alternative is merely a reflection of the cost to Barclays of the voucher rather than its value to a customer. As the voucher has no value to us and all but one have been left unused, 7k is a bonus. In my earlier calculation I didn’t add the four free DragonPasses, although I have only ever used one.
@smartboyalec – if you have a Premier account and the Avios+ card you are on Dual Rewards which gets you £5/month off the card fee (or off Avios Rewards if you have that) and DragonPass+ with four free passes.Just one thing to consider with the Barclaycard, is that it gives an upgrade voucher, so not useful if you want to fly economy, unless you choose the 7k avios instead. I personally wouldn’t pay £20pm just to get 7k avios after £10k spend.
You could use the upgrade voucher to book 2 of you one way in PE outbound (for the same avios cost of economy, and tax of PE), but you might not even be able to book the other 2 in PE, as BA only guarantees 2x PE avios seats per flight.
You’re not just getting the (fairly useless I agree) voucher for your £20pcm, you’re also getting the increased earnings rate – 1.5 avios/£ rather than 1.
On a roughly £2k monthly spend you can just boost Avios for under £10 a month if you want a higher earn rate.
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