Originally Posted by
orbitmic
My guess is (for once
) slightly different from
Goldorak's and would have more to do with comparative banking habits. My perception of France is that a majority of people have much fewer credit cards than, say, in the UK or the US, and still tend to get it/them through their primary banking institution (ie where they have their current account). In the UK, it is perfectly usual for someone to, say, have their current account with NatWest but get an RBS mastercard and an MBNA visa card etc. This means that there is a strong market for 'niche' cards which have ties with airlines, supermarkets, or even sportsclubs. My feeling is that this is still not very usual in France because typically, someone who has their current account at LCL or the SG will tend to get their credit card from LCL or the SG as well. Amex is the key exception, so probably the only 'logical' target for a special co-branded credit card, but as said, it is not widely accepted. All this is, however, totally unscientific an interpretation on my part and just a hunch.
I would agree with
orbitmic on this. There is much more competition for a variety of reasons between credit card issuers in the UK than there is in France in general and offering miles or other perks is one element in the competition.
Just a factual correction on what
brunos said with respect to the UK: there is only one credit card offering BAEC miles: the BA Amex from American Express (well two cards: two variants of the BA Amex: one which is free-free and one which is fee-based, with different earning ratios but both from the same issuer: Amex).
It is true that you can get avios from other card issuers. You can get avios from two of the LLoyds TSB cards but that is for the consumer avios scheme rather than BAEC. You can also indirectly get miles that convert to avios in your BAEC miles though the bmi-branded cards from MBNA but this is a historical anomaly: these are legacy cards, which are not open to new consumers and which will presumably disappear once the BA Amex contract comes for renewal and BA decides whom to go with for the renewal.
I cannot think of any FF scheme for which cards from two different issuers are available in the UK. OTOH, you do have a number of Frequent Flyer or Frequent stayer schemes for which a credit card is offered (BA, LH, UA, AA, Hilton, Priority Club, SPG, ...) but in each case it is always a single card issuer. So, at
consumer level, you have competition between credit cards with FF perks but they are between cards in different schemes rather than the same scheme. Interestingly, Flying Blue, unlike LH's M&M, has no dedicated card in the UK (although you can earn indirectly by transfer from generic Amex Membership rewards cards) so FB does not seem particularly interested in having a go at the UK market, notwithstanding the coverage of a wide number of airports (it seems to me that there would be room for more consistency here).
At
card issuer level, OTOH, you do have competition to secure a contract with a given scheme. I would suspect that there is much jockeying at the moment between MBNA and Amex to be the one selected by BA for a BAEC miles earning card when the current Amex contract runs out.