Credit Card Rewards
Discussion
Yip there are threads about it but these deals change all the time so I'll start a new one:
About to spend £25k on stuff for the house - is it worth getting something like an AMEX Avios to put the spend on or are there other options worth considering?
Interest isn't a factor as the balance will be cleared before any interest accrues.
About to spend £25k on stuff for the house - is it worth getting something like an AMEX Avios to put the spend on or are there other options worth considering?
Interest isn't a factor as the balance will be cleared before any interest accrues.
It very much depends on what you want / where you want to go.
I have very little interest in flying long haul with BA or any of their partner airlines, so I opted for a Virgin Money credit card. I went for the one with the fee. £25K spend will get you a companion voucher and approx 37,500 miles. Best value is with upper class tickets, so you will need a few more than that. I stopped using my debit card and used the Virgin credit card for everything - fuel, supermarket, meals out etc. It soon adds up. Just make sure you have a direct debit in place to pay it off in full every month.
There's a slight advantage over Amex in that I've not encountered a single place where I couldn't use the Virgin card. I have definitely seen a few places that don't take Amex.
I have very little interest in flying long haul with BA or any of their partner airlines, so I opted for a Virgin Money credit card. I went for the one with the fee. £25K spend will get you a companion voucher and approx 37,500 miles. Best value is with upper class tickets, so you will need a few more than that. I stopped using my debit card and used the Virgin credit card for everything - fuel, supermarket, meals out etc. It soon adds up. Just make sure you have a direct debit in place to pay it off in full every month.
There's a slight advantage over Amex in that I've not encountered a single place where I couldn't use the Virgin card. I have definitely seen a few places that don't take Amex.
omniflow said:
It very much depends on what you want / where you want to go.
I have very little interest in flying long haul with BA or any of their partner airlines, so I opted for a Virgin Money credit card. I went for the one with the fee. £25K spend will get you a companion voucher and approx 37,500 miles. Best value is with upper class tickets, so you will need a few more than that. I stopped using my debit card and used the Virgin credit card for everything - fuel, supermarket, meals out etc. It soon adds up. Just make sure you have a direct debit in place to pay it off in full every month.
There's a slight advantage over Amex in that I've not encountered a single place where I couldn't use the Virgin card. I have definitely seen a few places that don't take Amex.
There is also an introductory 18k miles bonus with the Virgin Reward+ CC currentlyI have very little interest in flying long haul with BA or any of their partner airlines, so I opted for a Virgin Money credit card. I went for the one with the fee. £25K spend will get you a companion voucher and approx 37,500 miles. Best value is with upper class tickets, so you will need a few more than that. I stopped using my debit card and used the Virgin credit card for everything - fuel, supermarket, meals out etc. It soon adds up. Just make sure you have a direct debit in place to pay it off in full every month.
There's a slight advantage over Amex in that I've not encountered a single place where I couldn't use the Virgin card. I have definitely seen a few places that don't take Amex.
pete_esp said:
Yip there are threads about it but these deals change all the time so I'll start a new one:
About to spend £25k on stuff for the house - is it worth getting something like an AMEX Avios to put the spend on or are there other options worth considering?
Interest isn't a factor as the balance will be cleared before any interest accrues.
We've been doing this for a few years now. It's paid off for us with the companion vouchers for business and first tickets to long haul destinations that we wanted to visit. We found that you need to put some effort in and pay for most stuff with the Amex card to build a decent balance but it's largely given us what we wanted.About to spend £25k on stuff for the house - is it worth getting something like an AMEX Avios to put the spend on or are there other options worth considering?
Interest isn't a factor as the balance will be cleared before any interest accrues.
As a caveat we haven't looked at any other CC schemes.
omniflow said:
It very much depends on what you want / where you want to go.
I have very little interest in flying long haul with BA or any of their partner airlines, so I opted for a Virgin Money credit card. I went for the one with the fee. £25K spend will get you a companion voucher and approx 37,500 miles. Best value is with upper class tickets, so you will need a few more than that. I stopped using my debit card and used the Virgin credit card for everything - fuel, supermarket, meals out etc. It soon adds up. Just make sure you have a direct debit in place to pay it off in full every month.
There's a slight advantage over Amex in that I've not encountered a single place where I couldn't use the Virgin card. I have definitely seen a few places that don't take Amex.
We use a Virgin card- the paid for one and get a companion seat every year. Going upper both ways to St Lucia for very little. Also using points to go KLM to Amsterdam in December.I have very little interest in flying long haul with BA or any of their partner airlines, so I opted for a Virgin Money credit card. I went for the one with the fee. £25K spend will get you a companion voucher and approx 37,500 miles. Best value is with upper class tickets, so you will need a few more than that. I stopped using my debit card and used the Virgin credit card for everything - fuel, supermarket, meals out etc. It soon adds up. Just make sure you have a direct debit in place to pay it off in full every month.
There's a slight advantage over Amex in that I've not encountered a single place where I couldn't use the Virgin card. I have definitely seen a few places that don't take Amex.
Great, thanks for the tips. That's the Virgin Atlantic one just 'ahem', landed.
Any advice on how to use the points? I looked into it but I'm a little vague - we're just outside of Edinburgh so it looks like the only flights I can get easily are Edinburgh - Orlando. Can they be exchanged for Delta airlines flights?
What about exchanging them for 'stuff', is there anything worthwhile to exchange them for?
Any advice on how to use the points? I looked into it but I'm a little vague - we're just outside of Edinburgh so it looks like the only flights I can get easily are Edinburgh - Orlando. Can they be exchanged for Delta airlines flights?
What about exchanging them for 'stuff', is there anything worthwhile to exchange them for?
pete_esp said:
Great, thanks for the tips. That's the Virgin Atlantic one just 'ahem', landed.
Any advice on how to use the points? I looked into it but I'm a little vague - we're just outside of Edinburgh so it looks like the only flights I can get easily are Edinburgh - Orlando. Can they be exchanged for Delta airlines flights?
What about exchanging them for 'stuff', is there anything worthwhile to exchange them for?
Plenty of info out there, and the V flyer forum is a great place if you want to be really smart about things, but in short:Any advice on how to use the points? I looked into it but I'm a little vague - we're just outside of Edinburgh so it looks like the only flights I can get easily are Edinburgh - Orlando. Can they be exchanged for Delta airlines flights?
What about exchanging them for 'stuff', is there anything worthwhile to exchange them for?
1. The points provide the most value when you exchange them on upper-class reward seats; do not use them to get a discount on a full-price fare, as that's not the same thing.
2. This reward seater checker tool is helpful, but it's not infallible, so always check the VA booking site https://travelplus.virginatlantic.com/reward-fligh...
3. In my view, the best use of points and a rewards voucher is to use the points to book a reward seat in premium economy and then use the voucher to upgrade to upper class.
4. You can exchange your points for stuff on Virgin Red, but the exchange ratio is poor. Remember, Virgin points don't expire, so even if you aren't flying for a year or two, you can still keep them topped up.
5. You can use the points for reward seats with other Sky Team partners, e.g. Delta, KLM etc.
I took an Amex gold out In July. Four airport lounge passes straight off, I've just spent the £3k in three months and 30,000 Avios bonus landed.
Also took out the Barclaycard avios for anywhere that doesn't accept Amex and it gives a free upgrade or 7000 Avios every 12 months.
We use BA (daughter works for them) plus Qatar for the Maldives, you can use your BA Avios on Qatar- they codeshare.
Edit just seen you went with Virgin but the post might come in handy for others.
Also took out the Barclaycard avios for anywhere that doesn't accept Amex and it gives a free upgrade or 7000 Avios every 12 months.
We use BA (daughter works for them) plus Qatar for the Maldives, you can use your BA Avios on Qatar- they codeshare.
Edit just seen you went with Virgin but the post might come in handy for others.
i have had a VA card for years. It accrues virgin red points now, not VA flying club, although virgin red can be used for flights etc too.
I think at last count I have 550k miles and unfortunately I struggle to spend them. We have two young kids so we're not hopping off on long haul flights multiple times a year. VA destinations list is fairly restricted as you might expect. I could probably use a rewards programme where there are far more usable short haul options.
virgin red rewards other than flights are a bit hit and miss. Some rewards are good value points wise, and some are quite poor. We've used the virgin red box at manchester arena a few times. I've had a few cases of wine. Most of the time however I could scroll the whole way through the available rewards in the app and not see a single thing worth choosing.
considering swapping over to an amex platinum next year.
I think at last count I have 550k miles and unfortunately I struggle to spend them. We have two young kids so we're not hopping off on long haul flights multiple times a year. VA destinations list is fairly restricted as you might expect. I could probably use a rewards programme where there are far more usable short haul options.
virgin red rewards other than flights are a bit hit and miss. Some rewards are good value points wise, and some are quite poor. We've used the virgin red box at manchester arena a few times. I've had a few cases of wine. Most of the time however I could scroll the whole way through the available rewards in the app and not see a single thing worth choosing.
considering swapping over to an amex platinum next year.
Blown2CV said:
i have had a VA card for years. It accrues virgin red points now, not VA flying club, although virgin red can be used for flights etc too.
I think at last count I have 550k miles and unfortunately I struggle to spend them. We have two young kids so we're not hopping off on long haul flights multiple times a year. VA destinations list is fairly restricted as you might expect. I could probably use a rewards programme where there are far more usable short haul options.
virgin red rewards other than flights are a bit hit and miss. Some rewards are good value points wise, and some are quite poor. We've used the virgin red box at manchester arena a few times. I've had a few cases of wine. Most of the time however I could scroll the whole way through the available rewards in the app and not see a single thing worth choosing.
considering swapping over to an amex platinum next year.
We were same until kids went on their own.I think at last count I have 550k miles and unfortunately I struggle to spend them. We have two young kids so we're not hopping off on long haul flights multiple times a year. VA destinations list is fairly restricted as you might expect. I could probably use a rewards programme where there are far more usable short haul options.
virgin red rewards other than flights are a bit hit and miss. Some rewards are good value points wise, and some are quite poor. We've used the virgin red box at manchester arena a few times. I've had a few cases of wine. Most of the time however I could scroll the whole way through the available rewards in the app and not see a single thing worth choosing.
considering swapping over to an amex platinum next year.
Now use them and companion seat each year to Carribean. Upper both ways next year!
For short haul you can use points on KLM and Air France amongst others, you have to phone Virgin to book though.
craig1912 said:
Blown2CV said:
i have had a VA card for years. It accrues virgin red points now, not VA flying club, although virgin red can be used for flights etc too.
I think at last count I have 550k miles and unfortunately I struggle to spend them. We have two young kids so we're not hopping off on long haul flights multiple times a year. VA destinations list is fairly restricted as you might expect. I could probably use a rewards programme where there are far more usable short haul options.
virgin red rewards other than flights are a bit hit and miss. Some rewards are good value points wise, and some are quite poor. We've used the virgin red box at manchester arena a few times. I've had a few cases of wine. Most of the time however I could scroll the whole way through the available rewards in the app and not see a single thing worth choosing.
considering swapping over to an amex platinum next year.
We were same until kids went on their own.I think at last count I have 550k miles and unfortunately I struggle to spend them. We have two young kids so we're not hopping off on long haul flights multiple times a year. VA destinations list is fairly restricted as you might expect. I could probably use a rewards programme where there are far more usable short haul options.
virgin red rewards other than flights are a bit hit and miss. Some rewards are good value points wise, and some are quite poor. We've used the virgin red box at manchester arena a few times. I've had a few cases of wine. Most of the time however I could scroll the whole way through the available rewards in the app and not see a single thing worth choosing.
considering swapping over to an amex platinum next year.
Now use them and companion seat each year to Carribean. Upper both ways next year!
For short haul you can use points on KLM and Air France amongst others, you have to phone Virgin to book though.
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