-
I’m taking my family away 14 of us in total, I don’t currently have an Avios card, I’m thinking of getting a card and paying for the flights with the Avios card to maximise the points. We are going to Florida so the cost of the flights will be around £14k in total. My question is what’s the best way to maximise the points if I get an Avios card? and what is the credit limit is £14k to much?
Hi
Are these BA flights? If so, the BA Premium Plus American Express earns double points on BA spend (booked direct with BA or BA Hols) which is 3 Avios per £1. This means 42k Avios for the booking. No other BA credit card offers a bonus on BA spending, oddly.
If these are not BA flights, Amex Gold gives 2 points per £1 on all airline bookings (booked direct with the airline). This means you’d get 28,000 Amex Membership Rewards points for the booking. This card is free for Year 1.
Further reading (as they say):
https://www.headforpoints.com/2023/04/06/review-british-airways-american-express-premium-plus-credit-card-2/
https://www.headforpoints.com/2023/03/31/review-american-express-preferred-rewards-gold-amex-gold-credit-card-2/
https://www.headforpoints.com/2022/10/03/what-can-you-do-with-american-express-membership-rewards-points-3/£14k credit limit won’t be an issue with Amex as long as your salary is healthy.
Make sure you are all members of the relevant flying club too, of course.
The BA Premium Plus (BAPP) is definitely the card to go for. There’s currently an enhanced sign-up bonus (SUB) of 60k avios for £5k spend in 3 months (just make sure you use the correct link). With that, you would immediately trigger the SUB, as well as the companion voucher, and if the flights are on BA, then as Rob says, 42k avios for that too.
As @degsy says, it is also an opportunity for everyone to earn avios or other frequent flyer points or miles for their flights. If you are flying on British Airways, or American or another OneWorld airline, you can pool some of these in BAEC household accounts.
If you aren’t already familiar with BAEC Household accounts, here is some more light reading
The BA Premium Plus (BAPP) is definitely the card to go for. There’s currently an enhanced sign-up bonus (SUB) of 60k avios for £5k spend in 3 months
Just thinking out loud… Does BA allow payment for a single booking to be split into instalments or across cards? Could Player 1 take out the BAPP, refer Player 2, who then refers Player 3. If the total booking could then be pushed up to £15k (perhaps with some seat selections, or addition of car/hotel via BA Holidays maybe), and each player pays £5k (if the bill can be split), they could net an additional 180k Avios plus referral bonuses into a BAEC household account…?
If you book a BA Holiday which offers you the chance to pay a deposit up front and the balance later, then you don’t have to use the same card for those payments, and you can pay the balance amount in chunks up until the final payment due date
Loads of sounds advice, but would like to add my 2 cents with regards to credit limit:
All credit providers have their ow criteria about Credit Limits, risk and how they look at existing income to debt ratio and Income to total “unsecured” credit lines.
I have enough personal experience as well as feedback from friends/family and reading on various forums to understand that whilst some credit institution may be “generally” more generous on credit limits given to new customers, if these same customers are around or more than 100% of their income in total credit limits from different cards from different issuers, they may get lower limits than reported.
I have had my main Amex card since I was at university and only working part time, and my Credit Limit built over time with automatic increases, but then it stopped and even upon request I was refused an increase (I was at 130% of my salary in total credit limits across my cards) and only after closing some accounts, wait few months, and applied again, I received the larger limit I needed for a luxury family holiday booking, so a word of caution there.
Another factor, albeit people reported different experiences, is that apparently Amex will some time agree to let you pre-load the card and spend the amount needed for a specific purchase, or at least will temporarily increase your limit if you can provide evidence of funding available to cover the excess.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
Popular articles this week:
