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My fiancée and I are wondering whether using Avios could be a good idea for booking flights for our honeymoon. We’ve never spent Avios before, but I think we can earn around 100k in the next year so I’m wondering whether this could work.
Currently I only have 10k Avios but have 60k Nectar that I will convert. I got the Nectar Amex card so am a bit restricted on what other cards to get. I don’t currently want to pay the £650 fee for the Platinum Amex, so was thinking of getting the BA Premium Plus card for now.
– Is the BA Premium Plus card a good option, or would the Barclays Premier account and one of the cards be better value potentially? Earning the BA companion voucher is possible.
What are the chances of being able to get the flights we want? We would be looking at second half of 2025, potentially the Maldives. Are flights to target destinations usually possible one way or another, but you just have to work to secure them?
Anything else we should bear in mind?
Any input is much appreciated, new to all this but it seems like the way to go! Especially if wanting to fly business 🙂
You have 2 more days to convert the nectar points to avios if you want the current (better) rate.
Avios are okayish value when using for economy flights. Unless they are last min flights, difficult to get outsize value.
Maldives seats get snapped up as soon as they are released, but if you are happy with premium economy, that’s doable both in terms of number of avios required and availability.Being realistic, you haven’t got an awful lot of time to earn a lot of avios/241 before MLE flights start being released for the 2nd half of 2025, so you should probably decide whether flying there in PE is preferable to going somewhere else in CW/F.
MLE does get snapped up very quickly, but you’ll probably have a better chance if you go Sep/Oct rather than Nov/Dec, if that’s an option. Have a look at the threads on here about booking your seats as soon as they’re released.
Another option would be to use avios/241 to somewhere like Dubai or Doha, where there’s lots more availability, then get connecting flights to MLE.
I think MLE is a tough ask. Personally I wouldn’t use a large amount of Avios for anything except long-haul/241 AMEX travel, especially if you’re “buying/converting” Avios. First/Club is where you get back for the buck. I might be the oddball, but I use my Avios for “where can I go” rather than a specific trip/destination.
You have 2 more days to convert the nectar points to avios if you want the current (better) rate.
Avios are okayish value when using for economy flights. Unless they are last min flights, difficult to get outsize value.
Maldives seats get snapped up as soon as they are released, but if you are happy with premium economy, that’s doable both in terms of number of avios required and availability.Nectar to Avios isn’t changing is it? I thought it was just the other way around
What are the chances of being able to get the flights we want? We would be looking at second half of 2025, potentially the Maldives. Are flights to target destinations usually possible one way or another, but you just have to work to secure them?
Worth getting the free 14 day premium trial of SeatSpy and have a look at general availability across the year, it should give you an idea of what you’re dealing with.
You have 2 more days to convert the nectar points to avios if you want the current (better) rate.
Avios are okayish value when using for economy flights. Unless they are last min flights, difficult to get outsize value.
Maldives seats get snapped up as soon as they are released, but if you are happy with premium economy, that’s doable both in terms of number of avios required and availability.Nectar to Avios isn’t changing is it? I thought it was just the other way around
You are correct. Got confused!
Refering your fiance for the BA card will bag you an extra 9K Avios on top of her bonus.
She can then add you for another 3K.
Then vice versa.
The BA shopping portal is great to double/triple up Avios earnings too.
We rinse £1k amex/Monzo twice a year via coop + paypoint.
Finally Avios boost is a great way to increase your balance quickly. It would be hard not to get more than 0.9p per Avios that costs.We rinse £1k amex/Monzo twice a year via coop + paypoint.
Don’t you have to pay for a monthly plan?
No. We are on free plans .we actually got a fiver each when I referred my wife.
If you can get a bonus and spend £10k in the next few months to get the 2-4-1, you should get towards the amount of avios needed for MLE. However you won’t get there through credit card spending alone, so I make use of the BA estore for nearly anything bought online, and it racks up avios quite quickly (e.g. car insurance bought through one of the comparison sites can be several thousand avios in one go).
MRU is another good option for a honeymoon, several of the hotels do special honeymoon offers.
I managed to secure 2 business outbound to the maldives within 3 months ish of travelling in Nov 2022, as the wedding gift for my sister. It is possible, but she already had the BAPP voucher which opened extra availabilities. [For anyone wondering, my sister is one of my ‘players’ so I pay the fee on her BAPP and the SUB goes into the household account, so yes I used a voucher in her name, but I essentially paid for it so I think it is fair to call it my gift to her also I paid the taxes].
It depends on how fixed are your dates, if one of you is a school teacher or something, I would say more difficult. I presume you have a lot of wedding stuff to pay for between now and then, so it would seem like a good idea to get the card and even if you don’t manage to use the points for your wedding you will most likely find it useful later on.
I would normally suggest waiting for an uplift in sign up bonus before signing up. However next one is probably not due till the summer, and as someone else said doesn’t leave you a lot of time. Difficult to advise. Esp if you are after the 2 for 1.
Depending on how high for spending is, Barclaycard is a monthly fee, so you could get that, do the sign up bonus and downgrade. Then move to the BAPP, the voucher is not as good and I think the extra availability access from the BaPP would be very useful.
Sorry rambling with no clear suggestion.
No. We are on free plans .we actually got a fiver each when I referred my wife.
Looks like they charge you £1 per top up. Max top up each time is £300. So you need to top up 4 times to reach £1000. Essentially buying 1000 points for £4.
No. We are on free plans .we actually got a fiver each when I referred my wife.
Looks like they charge you £1 per top up. Max top up each time is £300. So you need to top up 4 times to reach £1000. Essentially buying 1000 points for £4.
Yeah Monzo is brill. There was a card that allowed you to do £500 for £1.49 fee which was a game changer but sadly it was discontinued last month.
I’ve done a few long hauls with companion voucher. I’d suggest you earn the Avios and vouchers first and see where you stand then. Availability might not be what you want, and BA may change the rules before you are ready to book, so, for now, plan to pay cash for your honeymoon.
With that said:
– even if you are not yet living together start a household account
– close the Amex nectar
– both get the Barclays card if you are eligible, hit the target, then
– both get the BA premium (one refers the other) , get supplemental cards on each others accounts
– focus all spend on one account to get the voucher
– i’m not a fan of the avios portal, but you may have more luck than meNo. We are on free plans .we actually got a fiver each when I referred my wife.
Looks like they charge you £1 per top up. Max top up each time is £300. So you need to top up 4 times to reach £1000. Essentially buying 1000 points for £4.
Its the BAPP card I use so its actually 1500 avios for £4
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