Booking BA Holiday using Amex Gold card

[VerityJ13]

Hi,

I’m new to AMEX / Avios.

Trying to understand what points I will earn if I book a holiday through British Airways holidays using my AMEX Gold card to pay. Assuming I will earn Amex Membership Rewards points rather than Avois points?

I understand I can convert the MR points into Avois afterwards.

But am I right in thinking I wouldn’t be able to earn the Avois points through my BA Executive Club account if I’m paying with AMEX Gold and therefore earning MR points on the same transaction? Ie. You can’t earn both at the same time?

Thanks

[BA Flyer IHG Stayer]

You are incorrect.

Points earned from spend are totally separate from those earned from flying.

[VerityJ13]

BA Flyer IHG Stayer wrote:

You are incorrect.

Points earned from spend are totally separate from those earned from flying.

So I would be able to earn both MR points via my Amex Gold and Avios via my BA Exec club simultaneously on the same purchase?

[JDB]

@VerityJ13 – you need to distinguish between points earned from spending money at a particular merchant, in this case BA Holidays and those earned from travelling on the holiday. If you pay for the holiday on Amex Gold you will earn MR for that on your card at the time of spend. You will entirely separately earn Avios (and tier points) from BA for the flights and often a bonus for buying the holiday. A BA Premier Plus card will earn 3 Avios/£1 spent buying the holiday at BA Holidays whereas the Amex Gold will earn 2MR/£1 (assuming it’s treated an airline purchase) plus you get the bonus 0.5MR at each £5k threshold. You will again earn Avios for the flights on the normal basis.

[VerityJ13]

JDB wrote:

@VerityJ13 – you need to distinguish between points earned from spending money at a particular merchant, in this case BA Holidays and those earned from travelling on the holiday. If you pay for the holiday on Amex Gold you will earn MR for that on your card at the time of spend. You will entirely separately earn Avios (and tier points) from BA for the flights and often a bonus for buying the holiday. A BA Premier Plus card will earn 3 Avios/£1 spent buying the holiday at BA Holidays whereas the Amex Gold will earn 2MR/£1 (assuming it’s treated an airline purchase) plus you get the bonus 0.5MR at each £5k threshold. You will again earn Avios for the flights on the normal basis.

Thank you that’s really useful. Separate question – if I use the BA Avios App to buy things at other retailers (assuming similar to sites like TopCashback), if I pay with my Amex gold card am I able to earn Avios and MR points at the same time?

[JDB]

@VerityJ13 – it’s fairly much the same buying things on the BA estore. You earn the Avios stated on the estore (on the pretax cost) irrespective of your payment method for online purchases. You additionally earn any spend points from your card provider. Finally, on the estore you can register your credit cards to earn extra Avios on in store purchases at certain merchants which are again additional to any eg Amex MR earned for spending. You need to follow the T&Cs precisely on the estore!