It seems that you built up quite a lot of your avios through relatively expensive means such as high cost credit cards, premium travel, could you make a video about how people on modest incomes can achieve this? I think for many people this would be more realistic. Thanks for your endeavours!
Yeah that’s a fair comment. Naturally the more people spend the greater the potential to earn points. All the methods discussed will still earn points on lower spends albeit not as much, but can still return enough to get a few points redemptions. Back when I was on £16k per year I was still able to earn enough for the occasional long haul premium economy trip and I was only doing half the things listed at that point. Some of the cards have large annual fees but the returns can deliver value well beyond the cost of the fee
Some of these cards can require an income of £35k+, so will definitely prevent a lot of people applying and being accepted. The bog standard BA Amex, whilst not as lucrative, at least earns something - do your weekly Sainsbury shop with, pay it back straightaway, and you'll be paying no interest and get the benefits. I've also got one of those pre-paid Mastercards that BA brought out a while ago, although I can't top it up any more for some reason (and you can't get them any more). 1 Avios per £2 spent (or thereabouts), and it did work in letting me pay my credit card etc. and earn Avios from the cash spend :) At the end of the day with credit cards, you need a good income. There's no point in getting one, spending £3k in the first 3 months to earn a 5k bonus, and then spending the next 10 years trying to pay it back with 39.9%+ interest resulting in you paying for those points over and over..... As said earlier, if you can pay it back in full, you're onto a winner. If you end up paying interest every month, then they become far less lucrative. At 1p per Avios, you're going have to earn 25k Avios just to cover a £250/year card fee (which is probably a decent spend) Sainsbury works well for me. I generally get 1100-1400 bonus Nectar points on my offers each week (although spending too much tends to cause the points to drop, so small bits and pieces / top up shops are favoured). On a good day or week, £10-£20 for my shopping and those points which at 400 Nectar points = 250 Avios, could yield 750 a week, or 39k a year. On a bad week, I might only take advantage of 4-5 out of 20 offers (most of which could be something such as 20 points for a £3 spend on some dodgy looking fruit) and scrape 400 points. Generally fill up with petrol there as well, and maybe 6-8 times a year, get double point coupons from the tills that add a few hundred more points. Do get lucky with reduced prices in store sometimes as well. 50 bonus points and 39p for a pack of raspberries rather than £1.75 works well. Ba e-store works well, although have had one clawback on Avios and a 100% failure rate with AirBnB - could have had 1000s of Avios there but not one transaction tracked on any device. Always use that if I'm booking IHG hotels (Holiday Inn etc.). 3 Avios per £ is the default amount earned, with 6 Avios / £ appearing a few times a year. Easy 200-300 Avios for a cheap overnight stay at a Holiday Inn Express for example.
Charles, great video and has filled me with ideas. Whats your stance on avios boosting? I can see you can triple avios on certain transactions, would this be worth the cost tradeoff for avios for larger purchases such as your safari for example?
You need to update this as it is out of date. No mention of the Amex Platinum 10k bonus per month if you spend £10k in that month. Also the British Airways American Express Accelerating Business Card. This is also 1.5 Avios for £1 but has 3 x 10k bonuses for spending £20k, £40k and £60k.
I’ve never had my own business so not too knowledgeable on any of the business cards unfortunately. Sounds like a brilliant way of earning more points for business owners though!
You can still get the sign up bonus on the platinum card. The only thing that would prevent getting the platinum sign up bonus is if you’ve held another card that earns membership reward points in the last 24 months e.g. the gold card.
Yes the wording in the T&Cs is definitely confusing, but it’s only referring to the “pure” personal Amex cards that earn membership rewards and not the co-branded cards like the BA ones and the hotel ones.
Thank you. I had no idea about the estore. You seem very clued in. Did you know if you have a friend in the US you could get credit cards there. And the bonuses are far better - I just about beat you …
One thing I noticed you didn't mention but it's something I do, is do online surveys for points. I aim to get 100 avios a day, sometimes you can get alot more, others less and I don't spend that long doing them. But if you aim for that method, you could earn well over 35k points a year and that's just for making up the answers!
Without ever really researching it I’d always just assumed the return likely wouldn’t be worth the time required. How long are you spending doing surveys to get 100 avios in a day?
@@charlesontravels On average I'd say no more than an hour although I tend to do them at work when I'm waiting for something to come in so my 'own’ time isn't wasted if that makes sense? I got 20 points just for answering a survey of 1 question. It's the small things like that can really add up for people or don't travel that often or who can't afford the better cabins.
@@RichW3440 Last time I tried surveys, they tended to work at first and soon there were fewer and fewer offered. Those you did get would kick you out after a few questions as you weren't the sort of person they wanted answers from, so you either got nothing, or 10 instead of 150 points.
Curious to why you mostly flew BA metal? BA has a terrible award chart when compared to carriers like Qatar, who have a much better product. I would never spend Avios on 2008 CW as it’s terrible. Also an underrated way of earning Avios is BA hotels, you get 10 Avios per £ and the prices can be very competitive
Mainly spend avios on BA flights as myself and my partner both have the BA Amex and so have two companion vouchers to use per year which halves the avios cost of flying on BA for us. The old CW is definitely very dated, but I do think is a little under rated when flying as a couple. Majority of the complaints about it are that you have to face the person next to you but that’s actually great if you like the person you’re flying with, and I find it more spacious to sleep in than the club suite. Yeah agree about BA hotels and have used it in the past. But found it to be a nightmare waiting months to get money back when hotels cancelled during covid whereas never had any issues going via booking.com and often get just as many avios if not more when going to booking.com via the BA estore
@@charlesontravels good insight regarding the refund situation, I was not aware of it and it will definitely influence my thinking. I mainly travel alone so I guess that’s why I’m not as big as a fan of the old club world
Nothing specific I’m aware of aside from getting 3 avios per pound on Amazon devices (e.g Amazon echo) via the BA estore, and using an avios earning credit card when paying for things on Amazon
@@charlesontravels I see … well I don’t have credit card that gives me avios yet so that’s why I’m asking if there is another way … thanks for your reply 🙂
Earn Avios with Uber? I checked the settings on my Uber app and there is no BA there, but I do have Marriott Bonvoy. I wonder why mine is different! Any idea how I can change it from Marriott to BA?
Depends who you like to fly with. Avios can be used on flights with oneworld airlines such as BA, Qatar, American Airlines etc. Based in the UK, they’re the easiest points to earn and use.
Top Cash Back. I signed up after watching your video but I cannot find where I can redeem any rewards for avios points. Can you tell us how to set this up please?
It was pointed out to me by someone else in the comments that this is unfortunately no longer available. I looked it up and they apparently removed this on the exact day that I uploaded this video
Very useful video. Thank you for sharing. Did not know about the shopping through BA website!
Basically: Pro tip, book 27 holidays per annum
It seems that you built up quite a lot of your avios through relatively expensive means such as high cost credit cards, premium travel, could you make a video about how people on modest incomes can achieve this? I think for many people this would be more realistic. Thanks for your endeavours!
Yeah that’s a fair comment. Naturally the more people spend the greater the potential to earn points. All the methods discussed will still earn points on lower spends albeit not as much, but can still return enough to get a few points redemptions. Back when I was on £16k per year I was still able to earn enough for the occasional long haul premium economy trip and I was only doing half the things listed at that point. Some of the cards have large annual fees but the returns can deliver value well beyond the cost of the fee
Some of these cards can require an income of £35k+, so will definitely prevent a lot of people applying and being accepted. The bog standard BA Amex, whilst not as lucrative, at least earns something - do your weekly Sainsbury shop with, pay it back straightaway, and you'll be paying no interest and get the benefits.
I've also got one of those pre-paid Mastercards that BA brought out a while ago, although I can't top it up any more for some reason (and you can't get them any more). 1 Avios per £2 spent (or thereabouts), and it did work in letting me pay my credit card etc. and earn Avios from the cash spend :)
At the end of the day with credit cards, you need a good income. There's no point in getting one, spending £3k in the first 3 months to earn a 5k bonus, and then spending the next 10 years trying to pay it back with 39.9%+ interest resulting in you paying for those points over and over.....
As said earlier, if you can pay it back in full, you're onto a winner. If you end up paying interest every month, then they become far less lucrative. At 1p per Avios, you're going have to earn 25k Avios just to cover a £250/year card fee (which is probably a decent spend)
Sainsbury works well for me. I generally get 1100-1400 bonus Nectar points on my offers each week (although spending too much tends to cause the points to drop, so small bits and pieces / top up shops are favoured). On a good day or week, £10-£20 for my shopping and those points which at 400 Nectar points = 250 Avios, could yield 750 a week, or 39k a year. On a bad week, I might only take advantage of 4-5 out of 20 offers (most of which could be something such as 20 points for a £3 spend on some dodgy looking fruit) and scrape 400 points.
Generally fill up with petrol there as well, and maybe 6-8 times a year, get double point coupons from the tills that add a few hundred more points.
Do get lucky with reduced prices in store sometimes as well. 50 bonus points and 39p for a pack of raspberries rather than £1.75 works well.
Ba e-store works well, although have had one clawback on Avios and a 100% failure rate with AirBnB - could have had 1000s of Avios there but not one transaction tracked on any device.
Always use that if I'm booking IHG hotels (Holiday Inn etc.). 3 Avios per £ is the default amount earned, with 6 Avios / £ appearing a few times a year. Easy 200-300 Avios for a cheap overnight stay at a Holiday Inn Express for example.
You can fill in the surveys on Avios for Thoughts for totally free Avios, BUT it is very time consuming indeed for the level of reward!
That was very helpful thank you. Didn’t know about the Friday Nectar deals.
Very well put together video, some great tips. Thanks!
Thanks!
Nice video thank you. Happy safe travels 👍🏻
Charles, great video and has filled me with ideas. Whats your stance on avios boosting? I can see you can triple avios on certain transactions, would this be worth the cost tradeoff for avios for larger purchases such as your safari for example?
Thanks! I’ve actually recorded a video on buying and boosting avios yesterday. Just working on the edit now so hoping I can get that out very soon!
WOW, very helpful video. Thanks, i have just linked my Uber account.
Keep up the great videos!
You can also book trains through uber.
Very helpful video and have just subscribed 😊
Thanks very much!
what do you do for a living mate? thanks for the video, really useful, liked and subbed!
I work in financial services. Thanks very much, I really appreciate it!
Didn’t know about the e store. Thank you
Hi mate, do the companion vouchers expire? Or can you keep accumulating them each year?
Once you’ve earned the voucher you have 2 years to use it
You need to update this as it is out of date.
No mention of the Amex Platinum 10k bonus per month if you spend £10k in that month.
Also the British Airways American Express Accelerating Business Card. This is also 1.5 Avios for £1 but has 3 x 10k bonuses for spending £20k, £40k and £60k.
I’ve never had my own business so not too knowledgeable on any of the business cards unfortunately. Sounds like a brilliant way of earning more points for business owners though!
worth saying you missed petrol at BP and also Esso (BP direct to avios) and Esso thru nectar
Great point. It’s not something I use personally, but a good way to earn more points for those that do!
unable to earn Avios via TCB anymore sadly
It’s a real shame that option has gone. I guess I’ll be fully focused on the BA e-store going forward
Thanks for this, if I already own an Amex BA Prem card does this not prevent getting a sign up bonus if I get the Platinum card also?
You can still get the sign up bonus on the platinum card. The only thing that would prevent getting the platinum sign up bonus is if you’ve held another card that earns membership reward points in the last 24 months e.g. the gold card.
@@charlesontravels awesome thanks for the response on this. Going to apply for one now. Great vid!
You’re very welcome, let me know if you would like a referral link. It will get you an extra 5k points on the sign up bonus
It says in the t&c’s that if you have held any Amex in the last 2 years you won’t be eligible for the bonus. Have you found this isn’t accurate?
Yes the wording in the T&Cs is definitely confusing, but it’s only referring to the “pure” personal Amex cards that earn membership rewards and not the co-branded cards like the BA ones and the hotel ones.
Thank you. I had no idea about the estore. You seem very clued in. Did you know if you have a friend in the US you could get credit cards there. And the bonuses are far better - I just about beat you …
I’ll need to make some friends in the states!
@@charlesontravels you’ll figure it out. There are at least 6 cards with 75k avios bonuses
One thing I noticed you didn't mention but it's something I do, is do online surveys for points.
I aim to get 100 avios a day, sometimes you can get alot more, others less and I don't spend that long doing them.
But if you aim for that method, you could earn well over 35k points a year and that's just for making up the answers!
Without ever really researching it I’d always just assumed the return likely wouldn’t be worth the time required. How long are you spending doing surveys to get 100 avios in a day?
@@charlesontravels On average I'd say no more than an hour although I tend to do them at work when I'm waiting for something to come in so my 'own’ time isn't wasted if that makes sense?
I got 20 points just for answering a survey of 1 question. It's the small things like that can really add up for people or don't travel that often or who can't afford the better cabins.
@@RichW3440 Last time I tried surveys, they tended to work at first and soon there were fewer and fewer offered. Those you did get would kick you out after a few questions as you weren't the sort of person they wanted answers from, so you either got nothing, or 10 instead of 150 points.
Curious to why you mostly flew BA metal? BA has a terrible award chart when compared to carriers like Qatar, who have a much better product. I would never spend Avios on 2008 CW as it’s terrible. Also an underrated way of earning Avios is BA hotels, you get 10 Avios per £ and the prices can be very competitive
Mainly spend avios on BA flights as myself and my partner both have the BA Amex and so have two companion vouchers to use per year which halves the avios cost of flying on BA for us. The old CW is definitely very dated, but I do think is a little under rated when flying as a couple. Majority of the complaints about it are that you have to face the person next to you but that’s actually great if you like the person you’re flying with, and I find it more spacious to sleep in than the club suite. Yeah agree about BA hotels and have used it in the past. But found it to be a nightmare waiting months to get money back when hotels cancelled during covid whereas never had any issues going via booking.com and often get just as many avios if not more when going to booking.com via the BA estore
@@charlesontravels good insight regarding the refund situation, I was not aware of it and it will definitely influence my thinking. I mainly travel alone so I guess that’s why I’m not as big as a fan of the old club world
Do you have a way to get points with Amazon ? 😅 I really wanna know
Nothing specific I’m aware of aside from getting 3 avios per pound on Amazon devices (e.g Amazon echo) via the BA estore, and using an avios earning credit card when paying for things on Amazon
@@charlesontravels I see … well I don’t have credit card that gives me avios yet so that’s why I’m asking if there is another way … thanks for your reply 🙂
Earn Avios with Uber? I checked the settings on my Uber app and there is no BA there, but I do have Marriott Bonvoy. I wonder why mine is different! Any idea how I can change it from Marriott to BA?
Think you may need to select to unlink the Marriott account first and then add BA, but I’m not certain
@@charlesontravels Hmm, no good. I'm only seeing Marriott as the available reward. Perhaps different people get different offers.
Avios for thoughts - free panel to sign up to and you get Avios for questionnaires
Is it possible to get a decent return on the time invested for this? Or do you need to spend hours for relatively few points?
@@charlesontravels it’s a small amount but adds up - 40 points for a 10 min survey, 80 for 22 mins
good video charles
Thanks!
Are avios better than skypenny by delta
Depends who you like to fly with. Avios can be used on flights with oneworld airlines such as BA, Qatar, American Airlines etc. Based in the UK, they’re the easiest points to earn and use.
God we all sound geeky… points status… etc…
Top Cash Back. I signed up after watching your video but I cannot find where I can redeem any rewards for avios points. Can you tell us how to set this up please?
It was pointed out to me by someone else in the comments that this is unfortunately no longer available. I looked it up and they apparently removed this on the exact day that I uploaded this video
The BA portal is way better
In Short.
Spend alot of Money to get Avios Points 😂
Im ditching my card on Monday after 4 years. Its shite
could you explain why as just looking into this