Do you earn BA tier points if you book a flight using American Express points?

[n166]

Hi guys, sorry if this is a silly question – i was wondering if you can still earn BA tier points if you book a flight on the amex website using MR points?

I know it probably requires you to use more points than you would need to if you were using Avios but i am trying my best to get to 450 tier points before June so I can get to silver!

Thanks

• This topic was modified 55 years, 4 months ago by .

[ChrisC]

No. Reward flights don’t earn TPs.

[Rui N.]

Yes you do. Tickets bought on Amex Travel are not reward flights.
However, aren’t better off converting your MR to Avios then Nectar and paying cash for your tickets?

[n166]

i haven’t looked into it too much to be honest. what is the logic here? (sorry i’m a noob and haven’t thought about Nectar!) would appreciate some guidance and direction on this! is it better than redeeming avios for flights?

[cats_are_best]

n166 wrote:

i haven’t looked into it too much to be honest. what is the logic here? (sorry i’m a noob and haven’t thought about Nectar!) would appreciate some guidance and direction on this! is it better than redeeming avios for flights?

As far as BA is concerned, paying via Amex is a cash booking, you’ll get TP.

You then have the option to ‘pay with points’ immediately, or apply MR points against the statement value later on. This assumes you are booking with an MR earning Amex, not the Amex BA card.

But it’s a bad deal, using MR points that way gets only 0.45p per MR point. If you converted to Nectar you’d get 0.8p/point.

When booking a non-reward flight, there’s usually an option to part pay with Avios, there’s reasonable value if you burn 3000 Avios for a 30 pound discount (the Avios/£ rate gets worse above that amount) and the booking will still earn TP. It’s not a bad deal, if you don’t have 3000 Avios you could convert some MR.

Converting MR to Avios could give better value on a reward flight, but booking a reward flight won’t get you the TP you want.

• This reply was modified 55 years, 4 months ago by .