Cards for flight upgrades

[the-norseman]

Hi all,

A lot of my recent travels have been short haul city brake style with the budget airlines, but next year me and the wife will be going on Honeymoon, she fancies Bali at the moment, we haven't booked yet though.

I currently have a Barclays bank account which has travel pack plus on it so I get travel insurance and lounge passes, I also have a Barclaycard rewards CC that gets me cashbank. I use this to make most of my purchases and pay it off at the end of the month. This has quite a large allowance on it. I also have a Virgin CC simply for 0% transfers or cash, this also has a large allowance on it.

I'm thinking of either ditching the Barclaycard and moving to somebody else (not sure another company would give me a large allowance straight away) or having another card to use solely to collect points/airmiles in the aim to be able to upgrade the honeymoon flights next year, a quick look at Stansted - Bali suggests Emirates being one of the options.

Ideally I'd like to find a card that can be used where there is no monthly/yearly fee, Amex Gold for example is free for first year, £195 for second year. I think with Amex Gold you can move points from it to their partner airline programmes, they list Emirates, BA etc.

Barclays do a BA Avios card but that would purely restrict me to BA.

What do people use to upgrade? any recommendations, and on average how many points are needed for upgrades?

[MarcelM6]

I'm not aware of any Bank issued card that will give you an upgrade without significant spend.

I used to use the Amex BA Premium Plus card - deal was that a 10k per annum spend got you a companion voucher. They've just moved this to 15k, so have stopped spend on that card (but have kept the card) fees are £20 a month. Earns 1.5 Avios per £1. I used Avios and voucher to buy 2 Club world tickets to NY, return, after 1 year spend. Still have to pay the taxes though!

Card I currently use is the Barclays BA plus card which has a 10k spend for an upgrade voucher. Earns 1.5 Avios per £1. Also costs £20 per month. But, despite the lower spend qualification (for now) I don't think this is as good a deal as the Amex card.

Both have good sign up bonuses of Avios points.

The real kicker is trying to find flight availability - Your only real chance are high availability routes. Sydney, Cape Town or Tokyo are almost unicorn level of availability. Dubai and NY you'll get lots. And you have to book months (almost a year) in advance. You may get 1 leg of the journey for 1 of you, but you essentially need to upgrade 2 legs X 2 people, so 4 slots of availability.

So for a flight to Bali next year, starting spending in 2023 would have been ideal, as well as booking about now for next July ( and even then you need a bit of good fortune with availability) You may get 1 leg of the journey for 1 of you, but you essentially need to upgrade 2 legs X 2 people, so 4 slots of availability.

Avios also works on Qatar but you'll have to check conversion rates

Of course, if you have any Gold airline status or qualify for a Amex Centurion card none of this applies.

2 good blogging sites to check:

www.oneflightatatime.com
www.turningleftforless.com

[GT03ROB]

MarcelM6 said:

Of course, if you have any Gold airline status or qualify for a Amex Centurion card none of this applies.

Why do you say this?

[the-norseman]

I dont quality for any of the Barclays bonuses as I'm already a customer of theirs. I'll have a read of them sites thanks! Sounds like its too little to late for next year.

[MarcelM6]

GT03ROB said:

MarcelM6 said:

Of course, if you have any Gold airline status or qualify for a Amex Centurion card none of this applies.

Why do you say this?

I used to do quite a bit of business travel, whenever flying Emirates, the Gold members booking business class were upgraded to first almost all the time.

[Cabsi]

The number of upgrade points needed will depend on the length of the flight, and whether the airline has a 'low' and 'high' season rating structure.

I've given up my BA Premium Amex card and now use Amex Platinum. Despite the decent sign on bonus, you'll still need to spend a lot to earn the miles necessary for an upgraded flight all the way to Bali. The Amex Platinum has lots of benefits but is expensive at £650 pa.

Flights generally become available 355 days beforehand, and popular destinations need to be booked that far ahead. Upgrades do get released nearer to the flight date, but only if their cash sales are slow.

headforpoints.com is probably the best site to learn about this pretty complex subject.

[Cabsi]

Slightly off topic, but I should also have said that it can often be quite reasonable to buy a long haul business class flight if you start your long haul flight from Europe.

The usual suspects are Stockholm, Oslo or sometimes Dublin. Positioning flights are relatively cheap, but you do need to build in a good time buffer (sometimes the night before) to allow for the positioning flight being late. Google flights is your friend when working out the options.

[shirt]

MarcelM6 said:

GT03ROB said:

MarcelM6 said:

Of course, if you have any Gold airline status or qualify for a Amex Centurion card none of this applies.

Why do you say this?

I used to do quite a bit of business travel, whenever flying Emirates, the Gold members booking business class were upgraded to first almost all the time.

Pre covid I’d guess. Those days are gone and the tier qualifying levels have gone up. Emirates also used to have a tie in with one of the credit card cos which would return 3 miles per dirham (approx 15 per £1) which was also stopped. Nice whilst it lasted mind.

[GT03ROB]

MarcelM6 said:

GT03ROB said:

MarcelM6 said:

Of course, if you have any Gold airline status or qualify for a Amex Centurion card none of this applies.

Why do you say this?

I used to do quite a bit of business travel, whenever flying Emirates, the Gold members booking business class were upgraded to first almost all the time.

Some airlines do this, others don't. BA don't.

[Insurancejon]

GT03ROB said:

MarcelM6 said:

Of course, if you have any Gold airline status or qualify for a Amex Centurion card none of this applies.

Why do you say this?

When I got mine I thought, lets run it for a year, and see if it pays for itself. It has, in spades.

Gold Emirates means that myself and the family use the lounges at both ends, even if flying economy - although Emirates have just pulled out of the deal, but Etihad or Qatar likely to replace them.

Same with Virgin. - these are very easy to points upgrade on too.

Hotel deals - some of them are frankly insane - the centurion travel agents are amazing and work 24/7

points swap easily with most airlines.

cheaper business class flights.

any flights (business or not) get up to 8 free blacklane trasnfers a year.

[MarcelM6]

shirt said:

Pre covid I’d guess. Those days are gone and the tier qualifying levels have gone up. Emirates also used to have a tie in with one of the credit card cos which would return 3 miles per dirham (approx 15 per £1) which was also stopped. Nice whilst it lasted mind.

More like over 10 years ago - jetsetting days came to an end quite a while ago.

[gotoPzero]

I use virgin atlantic reward + card.

I spend as much as I can on it and as such get a companion voucher each year.

Get 1.5x per £
And 3x per £ on Virgin flights.

There is talk of points being usable on Virgin Voyages too. Dont know if that came in or not?

The only issues are (IMO)

limtied reward flights on some routes
£160 fee
No lounge upgrade if you are in lower class of travel

[h0b0]

GT03ROB said:

MarcelM6 said:

GT03ROB said:

MarcelM6 said:

Of course, if you have any Gold airline status or qualify for a Amex Centurion card none of this applies.

Why do you say this?

I used to do quite a bit of business travel, whenever flying Emirates, the Gold members booking business class were upgraded to first almost all the time.

Some airlines do this, others don't. BA don't.

I flew from US to U.K. on United as a Platinum member. Business class was empty but when I asked if they would consider upgrading me I was told they no longer did that on international flights.

Earlier in the year my family of 4 were all upgraded US to Ireland.

I’m now a lowly gold member so upgrades are very unlikely. United has their global level, 1K, platinum and keeps going down to gold.

[The G Kid]

shirt said:

Pre covid I’d guess. Those days are gone and the tier qualifying levels have gone up. Emirates also used to have a tie in with one of the credit card cos which would return 3 miles per dirham (approx 15 per £1) which was also stopped. Nice whilst it lasted mind.

I was Gold Emirates pre-covid, flying 6 or 7 times biz per year to Dubai and never got upgraded to First. Did manage to fly a couple of legs in First when it was a only a £100 or so extra to book First.

[omniflow]

gotoPzero said:

I use virgin atlantic reward + card.

I spend as much as I can on it and as such get a companion voucher each year.

Get 1.5x per £
And 3x per £ on Virgin flights.

There is talk of points being usable on Virgin Voyages too. Dont know if that came in or not?

The only issues are (IMO)

limtied reward flights on some routes
£160 fee
No lounge upgrade if you are in lower class of travel

Snap. You "only" need to spend £10K / year to get a companion voucher. Groceries, fuel, meals out and some other holiday spending takes care of this.

It was pretty easy to collect enough airmiles for 2 * Upper Class returns to the US - out to Vegas, back from Miami. Reward flights are released 331 days in advance. Phone them up early AM on that day and you'll probably be fine - although a little flexibility won't go amiss. The call centre is somewhere in Wales, and the staff are fantastically helpful.

I chose this card because I much prefer Virgin Upper Class to BA Business, even if their network is relatively limited.

[skyebear]

omniflow said:

gotoPzero said:

I use virgin atlantic reward + card.

I spend as much as I can on it and as such get a companion voucher each year.

Get 1.5x per £
And 3x per £ on Virgin flights.

There is talk of points being usable on Virgin Voyages too. Dont know if that came in or not?

The only issues are (IMO)

limtied reward flights on some routes
£160 fee
No lounge upgrade if you are in lower class of travel

Snap. You "only" need to spend £10K / year to get a companion voucher. Groceries, fuel, meals out and some other holiday spending takes care of this.

It was pretty easy to collect enough airmiles for 2 * Upper Class returns to the US - out to Vegas, back from Miami. Reward flights are released 331 days in advance. Phone them up early AM on that day and you'll probably be fine - although a little flexibility won't go amiss. The call centre is somewhere in Wales, and the staff are fantastically helpful.

I chose this card because I much prefer Virgin Upper Class to BA Business, even if their network is relatively limited.

This is useful info, thanks.

Looking at the Virgin rewards cards and they'll give me a credit limit of £1200 which I'd look to max and pay off each month.

Would it be worth me paying the £160 fee for the higher tier card and getting the 18,000 intro points plus 1.5 points for each £ spent. Or would the free card with 3,000 intro points and 0.75 points per £ be better?

[Saleen836]

skyebear said:

This is useful info, thanks.

Looking at the Virgin rewards cards and they'll give me a credit limit of £1200 which I'd look to max and pay off each month.

Would it be worth me paying the £160 fee for the higher tier card and getting the 18,000 intro points plus 1.5 points for each £ spent. Or would the free card with 3,000 intro points and 0.75 points per £ be better?

if you are going to put everything on the card then the reward + card with the £160 is worth it, I've had the reward card since Feb as didn't think I would spend enough to warrant the fee, the app shows how much you have spent and due to having spent a lot more than I expected I have just (last weekend) been accepted for the reward + card, it comes with a credit limit of more than double my current standard reward card

[fat80b]

One thing to consider with Virgin is that they don't actually have many routes any more.

I have 500K+ Virgin miles and 600K+ BA Avios (plus 2 companion plus vouchers) and have spent a bunch over the years. Over time, we've done NY 3 times, Vegas, and Tokyo on miles and companion tickets.

To do this, I have the paid for BA Amex which we use for every day spending and the non-paid-for Virgin Mastercard for those places where Amex is not accepted.

With the shopping bonuses and British Airways wine etc, we manage to add ~150K miles per calendar year across the both of them which I'd like to think is good going!

Bear in mind that this is only just enough for 2 x return (using a companion ticket) to NY each year.

[PorkInsider]

GT03ROB said:

MarcelM6 said:

GT03ROB said:

MarcelM6 said:

Of course, if you have any Gold airline status or qualify for a Amex Centurion card none of this applies.

Why do you say this?

I used to do quite a bit of business travel, whenever flying Emirates, the Gold members booking business class were upgraded to first almost all the time.

Some airlines do this, others don't. BA don't.

Yep. And I haven't come across any doing it as a regular thing in a long time.

Pre-Covid, for years I was Gold with Qatar, Etihad and Turkish (Star Alliance) at the same time and never had any free upgrades from business to first myself.

[Saweep]

Insurancejon said:

GT03ROB said:

MarcelM6 said:

Of course, if you have any Gold airline status or qualify for a Amex Centurion card none of this applies.

Why do you say this?

When I got mine I thought, lets run it for a year, and see if it pays for itself. It has, in spades.

Gold Emirates means that myself and the family use the lounges at both ends, even if flying economy - although Emirates have just pulled out of the deal, but Etihad or Qatar likely to replace them.

Same with Virgin. - these are very easy to points upgrade on too.

Hotel deals - some of them are frankly insane - the centurion travel agents are amazing and work 24/7

points swap easily with most airlines.

cheaper business class flights.

any flights (business or not) get up to 8 free blacklane trasnfers a year.

I think Centurion Travel are polite and fast but not very competitive unless you stick to the handful of hotels they have current deals with.

I've just had to turn them down for a booking as Hotels.com were hundreds cheaper per night.

They regularly make mistakes too, like booking my Mrs on an American Airlines codeshare with BA to LAX when I specifically asked for a BA flight.

The card just about pays its way for me but I certainly could live without it.