Thanks for the suggestions all,

Although I would love to have £1000 to put on hold for 6 months, an ISA would not be possible unfortunately.

Gold Amex card is interesting, but I am not sure how that would work alongside my MBNA equivalent. I would imagine you can only have one card at a time, but I will certainly look into upgrading my white

Replied to the referral thread, thanks for the link.

Lastly, Nick I agree that brand loyalty is something I should improve on. I would be happy to pay the premium for a VS ticket where possible, so long as I know that after the initial investment, my return is of value to me. My main concern is that I am going to "bust a gut" to hit 105k in 5 years or so, only to find that they want all my miles + £1000 cash.