Received a chunk of Avios from Barclaycard – should I Boost them?

[ekposh]

I boosted today at 0.92p which is standard so must be something wrong if you are seeing higher.

It also let me Boost transactions from June 1st so slightly over the 30 days… Meant I got two lots of Barclaycard spend.

[Aston100]

ekposh wrote:

I boosted today at 0.92p which is standard

I think that is standard if you are boosting at x3 and haven’t hit the 300k cap.
At x2 boost, it seems to be 0.94p
Beyond 300k, the rate is over 1.5p I think if my quick maths is correct

[Misty]

Aston100 wrote:

TGLoyalty wrote:

look at the Avios estore before any and all purchases

That site is my cashback of last resort. never tracks for me, and people I know have had avios clawed back.

@Aston100@ I find Estore is very hit and miss, I use a site called QVC a great deal and it never tracks it’s definitely on there, I must have ‘lost’ 100’s of Avios because of this. I do all the usual stuff of clicking on the cookies it throws up, using private window, not doing more than one transaction per day etc. I know it says you the avios will not post if you are using a discount code, but the whole site is about discounts, so it can’t be that.

@TGLoyalty you must have a lot of friends you can recommend, apart from myself and my OH there isn’t really anyone else I know to recommend, but I agree referrals are a great way to earn extra points. Off to ponder why I have no friends….

[TGLoyalty]

Nope all my referrals are to my close family. In fact only 2/3 people. Just have to strike at the right time. You and your OH can refer each other …

[Mahinda]

NorthernLass wrote:

@Mahinda, that was a great deal! I suspect your companion voucher opened up extra regional availability – if this is something you can take advantage of in future, there are articles and threads on here about this and other perks and quirks of the 241.

Absolutely. I must have spent hours reading up, here and on other similar (but not as good, obviously) sites! Well worth it when you bag that dream flight.

Honestly, we never expected to have a chance at the Sydney flights, as we’re nowhere near organised enough to book far in advance. Just goes to show that it can happen though.

[Mahinda]

Misty wrote:

Thanks to all of you, I find it so helpful to hear everyone’s point of view on these matters. As mentioned with a 241 only just being triggered (valid for 2 years ?), it does seem a bit of a no brainer to do the boost. I am a bit worried that I am paying 0.92 for them as it seems high, but presumably less than when there is an Avios sale, also it requires a sale to be on at the exact time I see my dream flight.

@Mahinda, that sounds like a double edged sword, getting double, but kind of being forced into it. I’m not big on the idea of Australia, I don’t think we could managed the hours, but it sounds like you have a bargain, I’m hoping there will be some kind of long haul deal that will peak our interest as the months roll on.

@TGLoyalty I do use the Avios estore but get mixed results from it. I did book a hotel for next year via hotels.com which is saying I will receive approx. 1,800 avios 90 days after completion of stay, but it’s a long way off, if I see attractive flights in the near future.

Another issue I have is I prefer to use small local companies, we need new carpets and are giving the job to a one off high street firm, who have given us good service in the past but don’t take amex. I thought about using John Lewis for the Avios, but was then a bit meh about it as I would rather keep my high street functioning if at all possible. Plus John Lewis have a disconnect between their sales staff and their craftspeople, or at least that happened to me the last time I bought carpet from them.

@NorthernLass I think this will also help us trigger the Barclays voucher, although I haven’t yet read through the mega thread on using it – saving that for a rainy day………

Sorry about the late response — only just catching up on messages on here.

Yeah, we weren’t happy at the time, but it’s still an effective way to get Avios for those of us who are generally Avios poor. A 23-hour flight (with 2 hours stop in Singapore) would be horrible in economy but should be tolerable, fun even, in business — we’re new to “turning left” so it’s still very much a treat. If you take £4000 as the cheapest business class fares to Australia, ours work out at almost 2p/Avios, which is well in excess of the 0.9p(ish) we paid to boost.

But even if you don’t fancy Australia, there are plenty of other long haul options for which you need lots of Avios. SE Asia, the Caribbean, etc. So it’s worth having over 100k Avios in your account so you can take advantage of any handy flights. I pop over to the Avios booking pages whenever BA announces a business class sale, for example.

I like to use high street firms where possible too. While more and more are taking Amex (and do watch out for the “shop local” promotion that seems to happen once a year), it’s proved very handy having the Avios Barclaycard as a backup.

Good luck!