Raffles

I have been having a think about the potential ways to arbitrage Air Miles, BA Miles and IB before November 16. When I say 'arbitrage', I mean crediting miles to a different programme to your usual one because (when Avios become transferable between programmes) you will be better off.

These are the ones I can think of so far:

1. BAA WorldPoints

250 WP's = 250 BA Miles or 30 Air Miles. Since 30 AM's will become 300 Avios, you get a 20% bonus converting to Air Miles.

2. Overseas credit card spend on the Air Miles Amex

The Lloyds Air Miles Amex awards 1 Air Mile per £5 spent abroad. After conversion, this will be equivalent to 2 BA Miles per £1 spent abroad, a 33% improvement on the BA Amex PP rate and a 100% improvement on the basic BA Amex rate.

3. Priority Club hotels (HI, IC etc)

If you choose to earn BA miles with Priority Club you get 500 miles per stay (Holiday Inn Express 100 miles). If you earn via IB points, you get 40 points for Holiday Inn Express, 70 points for Holiday Inn, Staybridge and Candlewood Suites, 100 points for Crowne Plaza and 120 points for InterContinental.

The conversion rate is 15:1. This would get you 1,800 Avios per IC stay (360% more) through to 600 per HIE stay (600% more).

(NB. I did not originally spot this one and take no credit for it!)

4. Accor A-Club

Accor lets you transfer 4,000 points to 2,000 BA Miles. The IB transfer rate is much better, though - 3,000 points is 500 IB points, which will be 7,500 Avios. You will end up with 500% more miles by transferring to IB!

There may be other hotel programmes that offer one-off stay benefits. However, very few (any?) hotel programmes let you convert your existing points into IB - Hilton, Marriott, PC, Hyatt and Carlson don't.

5. Amex Membership Rewards

The exchange rate to BA is 1:1. The exchange rate to IB is 12:1. You will therefore get a 25% bonus by going into IB at 15:1.

6. Buying Air Miles

You can buy 500 AM's per year for £75. This works out at 1.5p per BA Mile after the conversion, which is cheaper than buying them from BA. (You can also buy IB points, but given the FX rate there is no benefit in doing so.)

7. Earning with partners which are not currently BAEC partners

Mainly Spanish hotel brands with Melia, WorldHotels, Occidental, Barcelo and NH being the main ones you are likely to come across. IB also earns with all the major car hire groups. It also earns with Vueling, Avianca, Taca and Royal Air Maroc.


Any more?