ftpmi

Hi all,

My company currently spends approx £50k month via business debit card. I am intending to transfer some of this spending, and utimately all of it, to be spent via an Amex card in order to build up air miles.

The obvious choice is British Airways, but I would actually prefer to use KLM / Air France from Schiphol since it is a nicer experience than Heathrow.

It's all very new to me s but my questions are basically:

1. Would there be any significant differences between the two programs? And,
2. With £50k/mo expenditure I've no idea what sort of benefits I would earn (e.g. long haul flight / year etc?)

I also need to choose between charge card and credit card - if needs be I can bill the card and pay off multiple times a month to build up expenditure on it.

Any comments / advice gratefully received!

UpgradeMe

Because?

Often1

At that spend, before you start worrying about credit cards and points, why not consider the appropriate corporate contract managed by a corporate TA? What if you could negotiate an average 8% discount and save the company GBP 48,000 per year. No idea whether you are an owner or have any P&L responsibility, but that is something to consider and might shift your thinking beyond the trinkets given out to individual fliers.

ftpmi

Thanks for the reply. I do have P&L responsibility. Excuse the ignorance, but what is corporate TA? The expenditure itself is minimised as far as possible.

ftpmi

Hi UpgradeMe, because they are UK based and I fly out of the UK... it may not be the obvious choice though! It's all a learning curve for me.

Often1

TA = "travel agent".

A very strong suggestion here. If you have a £600K annual travel spend and have P&L responsibility and don't know that there are corporate TA's who can help to control costs, it may be worth spending a bit on a consultant to help you through all of this. You may well be able to affect that 600K number substantially with a much happier "P" than "L".

ftpmi

Thanks for the explanation.

I should have said the £50k / month is nothing to do with travel. It's other expenses my company incurs and currently just pays by company debit card. The suggestion was to move this expenditure to Amex to build up airmiles, hence the question.

Thanks for help so far.

beckoa

Please follow the redirect as we relocate this query.

~beckoa, co-moderator Information Desk

mia

Have you verified which of your vendors will accept American Express in lieu of a debit card?

Are most of your expenses that could be paid with American Express in Sterling or in Euros?

Kagehitokiri

- amex - charge (membership rewards) - sterling, euro, dollar

mastercard >
- hsbc premier world elite (British Air, Cathay, Singapore air, etihad)
- virgin atlantic