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?

Roger

Thanks, Raffles. Very useful.

A question about the Lloyds Airmiles Amex, please: how does the 1 Airmile per �5 and 2.95% foreign use surcharge compare with cards with 0% surcharge and no miles?

I don't normally use AmEx privately outside the UK, but this could tip the balance. Thanks.

Raffles

2.95p per �1 FX fee would mean you are still paying 1.47p per BA Mile / Avios, which is poor - I would stick with the FX-free card.

ysb41

thanks, very useful indeed, good work!!

Raffles

Accor added. This may actually be the best of the lot.

Roger

Thanks very much, will do.

Jamjaw

Great job Raffles!

Thanks

britbronco22

It is worth using the Amex MR Gold Gard for private spend this month, if you can take advantage of the 100% transfer bonus. 4 BA Miles per �1 spend, so 0.75p per BA Mile.

Hannibal Lecter

and if you are flying with Vueling in the near future, you won't earn any BA miles but you will earn IBERIA plus points which you can later convert to AVIOS and transfer to a BA account.


You earn 50 pluspoints at HILTON which will be converted to 750AVIOS (double points in September)
you can also earn plus points with Hertz, Europcar and a number of hotels that aren't BA partners, they're all listed here
http://www.iberia.com/OneToOne/v3/ob...ANONYMOUS=true

dobba

A thread in a miles/points forum about how to earn more miles!

Good work fella.

Raffles

Cheers. Added No 7.

TOMSURFER

I have received a mail from Iberia offering a 25% bonus for buying plus points before 30 September.

1500 cost 375euro.

With the 25% bonus at 15:1 ratio this works out at 28,125 AVIOS at around 1.2p each.

There is also an offer of 600/900/1200 plus points for subscribing to the Economist for 1/2/3 years. Delivery options don't seem to include the UK.

me2

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.



(sorry if I am being a bit thick here...)

So are you saying here it would be worth switching my AMEX reward points to Iberia and not to BA for now and then once the merger of points schemes happens I will be better off ?

Thanks

Raffles

Yes. If you move 12,000 Amex points to Iberia, you will have 1,000 Iberia points. After 16 November that will become 15,000 Avios points, which you can merge with your BA Avios balance.

Alternatively, moving 12,000 Amex points to BA means you will have just 12,000 Avios.

Raffles

I saw this. If you have a mailing address in one of the participating countries, a 3 year sub could be a good deal to earn 18,000 Avios - because The Economist lets you cancel a subscription at any point and refunds you the balance!