stifle

The Lloyds TSB Airmiles cards have been relaunched as Avios cards. For those who aren't familiar, the accounts offer both an American Express and a MasterCard card, with 1 Avio per £1 spent on the Amex or per £5 on the MasterCard, with a 2000 Avios bonus for spending £500 a month for the first three months. The Premier account has a £50 annual fee (first year half price) but pays 25% more Avios, and the introductory bonus is 10,000. There are also bonus Avios awarded on balance transfers, and Avios on foreign card-present spend are doubled.

More here.

BicesterTerrier

A companion voucher when you spend £15k.......redeemable only on British Airways economy tickets, if I read that correct. Does this mean less availability for BAEC members wishing to use Avios on Y tickets? Or will there be 2 buckets?

Raffles

To the extent that most Air Miles Y availability already came from BAEC inventory, and that the 2-4-1 already existed under Air Miles, I doubt it will make any difference to availability.

What I genuinely cannot understand is why you would want the Lloyds cards to get a voucher at £15k when you get use a BAPP to get a voucher at £10k (albeit with a fee) which can be used on WT+, J and F as well as Y. The only logic would be if you could put a huge sum through on the Mastercard, say a tax bill - but then you can now get a M&M or BMI Visa paying 1 mile per £1, so you are still sacrificing a lot of miles on that £15k spend.

That said, you might as well get the Premium Card given the fee in year 1 is only £25 and you get 10,000 Avios after spending £1,500. The issuer is Lloyds so unlikely to clash with any existing cards in your wallet.

raikje

Just to clarify that slightly, the requirement is to spend >£500 in each of the first three months, with the miles credited in month 4. So a single £1500 transaction wouldn't do. But if you can pay your monthly council tax/utility bills on the Mastercard, then it should be easy to achieve without paying too much attention.

stifle

I didn't mention the companion ticket because I didn't think anybody here redeems in whY

pauldb

I would think the Lloyds and Amex both had exclusivity agreements which BA has had to renegotiate. The Lloyds Y restriction would seem to preserve Amex's superior offering for FFers.

BicesterTerrier

I only mentioned it as I was surprised that there was a restriction - I once used a 2-4-1 on a Y flight to Vancouver - I was younger then, less mile, less money. I am sorry for the embarassment I may have brought to my family and seek forgiveness from the board for this.

SEW247

I use Lloyds MasterCard as my "backup" to my BA PP Amex when you get the "sorry we don't take Amex" The Lloyds Amex just sits in my drawer at home.

I guess I'd like to know what will happen to my "airmiles" account (which currently gets credited by Lloyds for my expenditure) when airmiles becomes Avios?

Will I be able to port all my Avios to a single account (i.e. my BA account) and if so, can I port my future Lloyds transactions to my BA account (once it changes to Avios)

Hope this makes sense!?

stifle

I've read elsewhere (can't remember where specifically) that Iberia Plus, BAEC, and Airmiles accounts will all stay separate but will allow free transfers between one and the other as long as they're in the same name.

Raffles

Yup. And the Q&A at airmiles.co.uk confirms this.

T8191

As a Lloyds customer in UK I think I might go for that ... if they give me a decent credit limit and, of course, acknowledge the existence of Jersey!!

Miles/Avios are Miles/Avios on everyday spending. I could probably rack up the necessary spend on cigarettes and Calvados

stifle

*feels a violent urge to dredge up the old chestnut that Jersey isn't part of the UK*

Raffles

I just noticed the 'double miles on foreign spend' bit.

This makes the premium card look good for heavy foreign spenders who don't have a 'no fees' foreign currency card. You'd be getting 2.5 Avios per £1 of spend abroad, and the £25 fee easily covers the 10,000 Avios sign-up bonus.

T8191

Even more interesting as our overseas spend is on the BA Amex, which charges transaction fees.

IIRC, our last accommodation bill cost me £50 in commission fees. Never mind a few week's heavy retail!!

OMG ... I have to pay for a Credit Card?
I think I may have to go there.

T8191

Maiowww

I'm hoping that as an LTSB customer in UK, it might work. Probably get the OH to try, since I don't want to hazard the 5-digit credit on my Visa CC.

But, seriously, it's unbelievable how you can get blocked out of anything financial in UK. Even though we pay tax to HMRC [which they think is fine] and the OH and I both operate UK Bank Accounts. But ... try to open a new one, and suddenly the doors slam shut.

Anyway, an interesting explore for tomorrow, and thanks to stifle for flagging it up. It could save us a skip of BA Amex fees on US spend, and at the same time earn "Los Avios".