Airline points - a BASIC overview
- Jordan Sinclair
- Apr 17
- 5 min read
Want to get into points/airmiles but don’t know where to start?
I’m not going to lie, it’s a bit of a minefield, and we’re still working it out. There are entire blogs dedicated JUST to points, so we don’t claim to be experts, but just want to share how we gained 250,000 points in 2 years.
This is not financial advice, this is just our opinion, and what we’ve done.
How do you earn points?
Through spending on a points credit card.
Transfer other points schemes such as Nectar (Avios) or Tesco Clubcard points (Virgin) into airline points.
Open a free Avios account and get points on purchases with many retailers you’d normally shop with.
By flying! You can accrue points from flights you take or have taken recently, but ensure you join the airline loyalty or frequent flyer programme (these are free to join).
What are the different types of points?
There are various types of points “currency”. They aren’t all interchangeable, but it is definitely worth collecting points, no matter which airline you’re flying with.
Types of points:
American Express Membership Rewards points - these are the most flexible, and can be transferred in one direction only into other points types, such as Avios. Once you have transferred them, you can’t transfer them back.
Avios - these are the points “currency” on the “Oneworld” airline alliance, meaning they can be used on any airline within that group, such as British Airways, Qatar, Aer Lingus and more.
Virgin - these can be used within the “Skyteam” alliance, which includes airlines such as Virgin Atlantic, Delta, KLM, Air France and more.
Earning points via spending on credit cards
Firstly, a lot of the info out there is aimed at the US. In the UK, your points credit card options are more limited.
Card options for earning airline points/miles in the UK:
American Express (Amex) cards
British Airways Amex cards
Virgin Rewards cards
Barclaycard Avios cards
First things first - IMPORTANT INFORMATION for credit cards:
You will undergo a credit check and are not guaranteed to be eligible. You can check eligibility prior to a hard credit check here.
These cards have high interest rates so ensure you pay the balance off in FULL every month.
Set up a direct debit so you never miss a payment.
Use for every day spending (in the UK), not as an excuse to spend more, otherwise it’s defeating the point of trying to save money on flight fares.
Although, if you do have some planned high expenses, then these can help you achieve the initial spend in order to get those introductory bonuses.
Although we tend to associate Amex cards with travel, they are NOT the best way to spend abroad as they have high foreign transaction fees. The ONLY points card which does not have foreign transaction fees is the Virgin Atlantic Reward or Reward Plus Card, but that’s only in Europe. Fees still apply for spending outside of Europe.
There are various versions of all of the above cards, so it does take a bit of research into which one is likely to be the right card for you. Most of these cards have introductory points offers, so you can aim to make the most of these, by earning the bonus and reaping the benefits before switching to another card for that introductory bonus.
Some of these intro bonuses are based on a minimum spend within a certain time frame, so ensure you are likely to achieve this, or wait until you know you have some big planned purchases coming up.
Note - don’t RELY on being able to make big spends on your Amex as some retailers/businesses still don’t accept Amex cards. We thought we were going to rake in the points on paying for our wedding but many of our vendors didn’t accept Amex or even credit cards at all! Most big businesses like supermarkets and petrol stations will accept Amex though. This may make one of the Mastercard options more attractive, and is something we are considering in the future.
There are varying benefits to the points cards options in the UK. We chose to start with the Amex Preferred Rewards Gold, due to the huge introductory points bonus and the 4 free airport lounge visits a year, amongst other benefits.
Note - look out for inflated points offers! Amex always have an introductory bonus, usually around 20,000 points for this card. BUT, twice a year, they have an inflated bonus. So try to make the most of this, and wait until they run an increased offer to sign up.
Other tips for earning points
Airline Frequent Flyer / Loyalty schemes
Whenever you fly, ALWAYS sign up to the airline’s own reward programme so those miles can earn you points (and ensure both passengers do this, not just the person who made the booking). They’re free to join - so no harm done if you never fly with them again, but you have collected the points in case they come in handy in the future.
If you already have a flight booked or have flown recently and didn’t sign up, most airlines will let you sign up and enter the flight details to collect the points retrospectively within a certain time frame (usually 3-6 months). If you’re travelling as a couple, each person needs to have their own account with the reward programme as you can only collect your own points.
Create a household account (this can be done with both Avios and Virgin) so you can pool points. This is particularly helpful if one person flies more frequently (eg. for work) and also for families, as children can accrue points through a household account, but can’t hold their own account until the age of 18.
An example of when this was useful for us:
Many airlines are grouped together in “alliances” so you are able to transfer points between airlines within the same group. For example, Qatar, Aer Lingus and British Airways are part of the Oneworld Alliance. We flew with Qatar and had no other routes planned anytime soon but I signed up to the Qatar Privilege Club. We forgot to sign Chrisy up at the time but created him an account a couple of months later and retrospectively added his points. A couple of years later we transferred the Qatar points into our British Airways Club account to pay for our flights to Mexico. The flights from London to Mexico City (one way) cost £75 in taxes plus 33,000 Avios per person instead of £956 per person (one way)!
Shopping portals
Sign up to the Avios and Virgin Red websites in order to earn points at some retailers just by clicking through the Avios link. This means you can earn double - earn the Avios gained through just using the link and also earn points by paying on your points credit card.
The key is not to spend extra just for the sake of earning more points. Double check the price doesn’t change - we’ve found using the Avios link can increase the price occasionally, particularly with hotel bookings. I would always say prioritise the cash savings first, but if the price of something is the same using the shopping portals or Amex travel portal, then use them for the extra points.
Play the long game
We started earning points using all of these methods YEARS before we intended to use them. We initially aimed to earn enough points to upgrade to business class for our honeymoon, but we didn’t end up doing this due to our flight path and times - we figured it wasn’t worth it for that journey in the end. Instead, all the points we’ve been squirrelling away for years will pay for the majority of our flights on our sabbatical / grown up gap year (economy class).
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