Newbie – use Avios points to reduce flight or wait until companion voucher?
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Hi,
I signed up back in February for the BA Amex Premium Plus card, with the offer of 70k avios points if you spend £3k in the first 3 months. I’ve met that target, and current have around 78/79k avios points in my BAEC account.
My AMEX app says I need to spend approx £4800 by mid Feb next year to get my Companion voucher. Me and my partner are thinking of a multi city trip to New York and Miami this December (LHR–>NYC–>MIA–>LHR).
Just looking at flights with BA, this is coming to around £670 each approx. I notice I can use avios points to help bring this cost down. For example, £20 off with 2000 points, £40 off with 6100 points all the way up to £230 off with 53200 avios points.
I’m guessing it wouldn’t be wise to use any of my points to help reduce ticket prices? I am on track to meet the companion voucher but that target won’t get met until several months down the line, whereas we would like to book our flights by the end of next month really.
I noticed I could also use 60k points plus £100 to book a economy return to NY, but as this trip is multi city, that seems pointless too.
Any advise would be appreciated, thanks
Using avios to discount cash prices doesn’t usually give good value compared to using them for a long haul redemption in a premium cabin. If you eat into your avios balance by doing this, would you then earn enough for a decent redemption once you get your companion voucher?
£4800 spend could be reached by paying up front any utilities which take Amex, vouchers for shops you’d use them in anyway (groceries etc), do your Xmas and birthday shopping early, etc. Lots of ideas on this is other threads as well.
Bear in mind the complications of doing an open jaw redemption with the companion voucher as well – lots of info on here about that as well.It’s not clear but are you happy to use the avios/voucher for economy flights? Again this won’t get you great value but if that doesn’t bother you, you could do economy to NYC and back from MIA as they are both long haul RFS destinations (so 25/30k avios plus £50/£75 each way).
If you eat into your avios balance by doing this, would you then earn enough for a decent redemption once you get your companion voucher?
Yep good point, it would take me a few years to get my balance back up again to an amount where its half decent to redeem.
I think I will spend the £4800 as i’ve just recently bought a house, and whilst its undergoing building work currently, it will need furnishing in the coming months
It’s not clear but are you happy to use the avios/voucher for economy flights? Again this won’t get you great value but if that doesn’t bother you, you could do economy to NYC and back from MIA as they are both long haul RFS destinations (so 25/30k avios plus £50/£75 each way).
It doesn’t bother me but I do like the idea of flying long haul business class as I’ve never done that before. I’m happy to pay in cash for the flights for this trip in December, and redeem my points towards another long haul flight when I do get my companion voucher. I’m guessing majority of people would pick this option?
If you’ve got the money to do that, then yes, and you’ll also get avios from the cash flights plus 3 x avios for paying with the BAPP – one of the best sources of avios is paying for BA flights and holidays by BAPP.
If you’re furnishing a house that will give you loads of Amex spending opportunities! This is where you have to educate your partner that if a company doesn’t accept Amex, you’re not buying their stuff 😂
* – once you’ve got the voucher, you might be able to apply for the avios Barclaycard (if eligible), which would give you another nice chunk of avios via the SUB.
As a further newbie tip… when spending on materials / fittings for your house, use the ba estore for multiplying those Avios. It can be a bit fiddly if you have cookie issues on your device, but it will help you rack them up sooner.
I wish I had been points collecting when we did a major refurb of our house 8 years ago.
A year or so before I discovered HFP I paid for a £10k kitchen refit from my current account 🤦♀️. I still feel slightly queasy when I think about it, lol. You’ve just got to focus on the future!
If you’ve got the money to do that, then yes, and you’ll also get avios from the cash flights plus 3 x avios for paying with the BAPP – one of the best sources of avios is paying for BA flights and holidays by BAPP.
Thank you I think I will go down this route. I wasn’t aware of this BA Estore so will definitely check it out. I need to buy a new kitchen from Howdens/Wickes/Wren etc so hopefully that will get me my companion voucher,
Thanks guys 🙂
I’ve just bought new kitchen from wren paid on Amex, you can manage your order through an app and pay some off here and there. Use wicks for building supplies paint etc go thru BA store pay by Amex. They will deliver so if heavy stuff it’s a godsend. The points soon mount up with a little effort, another way is to go thru cash back site T O P Cashback click thru the links and you can link BA executive number and cash out to that in points. Furniture always get points and cash back go to store try out what you want come home order online more points. You also earn with EBay and Argos. If you shop at Sainsbury’s go through BA store but not on app must be desktop points collected are nectar but again transfer over to Exec account. All can be paid for by Amex. You will soon have enough points and companion voucher.
Don’t forget amex offers, for example Marks electrical is sometimes on there.
I did a lot of order online and collect instore for screwfix and B&Q. I found Vouchercodes sometimes quite good when they have order 3 times and get back X amazon voucher. I’ll just split my b&q order into 3 and collect them together 😅.
I worked through a lot of SUB via my other players for my renovation. set up hotukdeals alerts for stores and things you might need.
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