Gagravarr

Raffles wrote it all up about 3 weeks ago! http://www.headforpoints.com/2016/09...sa-mastercard/

golfmad

When used at the AAnytime rate the miles required are very high (i.e. expensive to have collected). When MilesAAver is available I'll use my Avios. Perhaps I'm being a bit thick but I don't understand your comment.

cornishsimon

Thanks for the pointer.

I no longer frequent this place as often so missed it.


cs

Roger

Methinks you're confusing the EU initiative with BA's decision to close Diamond Club.

Just to be clear, the DC benefits are not being reduced, they're being eliminated.

hugolover

The interchange cap is killing off all these, earnings cut on many others. Raffles has said on many occasions he expects the licenced cards to go.

Roger

As I said, If the benefits had been reduced as with some other cards, you may have had a point. As it is, confusing 'Brussels' with BA is a non sequitur.

FWIW I don't like BA's decision either but I'm not blaming 'Brussels'..

Globaliser

Why do you think that the UK is being worse affected than other EU countries? Doesn't the cap apply equally to all EU countries?

onlysuites

Why you redeem at AAnytime rates? Lets compare what is available to BA which is saver rates which offer miles better value.

UK to USA west coast - AA is 90,000 return vs BA 150,000 peak or 125,000 off-peak.
UK to Dubai is - 85,00 on AA vs BA 120,000 or 100,000 off peak.
UK to Sydney is - 170,000 vs BA 300,000 Peak or 250,000 off peak.


Why would you use Avios to any of these destinations when you can use AA.

dsf

But golfmad said "expensive to have collected", not to spend. Until now, I've been able to earn a significant proportion of my Avios at roughly 2.5x the rate I could reasonably hope to earn AA miles, and none of those AAdvantage redeem rates are even 2x that of Avios. So, if "when you can use AA" has the narrow literal definition of "when you have enough balance in both programmes to afford either" then perhaps it's true that it's better to use AA, but still the replacement cost of those miles must be taken into account.

golfmad

I have a 7 figure Avios balance. I have a 6 figure AA balance. As a general rule, if I can use Avios I will because I have so many more and will probably keel over before I run out of them. I save my AA miles for when I need something last minute and in situations where I don't have a joker and cannot use Avios or MilesAAver because there's no availability. In those circumstances I redeem AA miles at the AAnytime rate which - mile for mile and point for point - are more expensive to collect than Avios.

Raffles

There's the twitter feed, Apple News, Flipboard, RSS, Facebook, LinkedIn, the emails ..... No excuse for missing articles even if visiting the site every day is a pain

EDIflyer

Is this going to be for each MasterCard account you've ever held? Could be very lucrative for us churners if so!

hugolover

Try getting a credit card in EU countries anything like what we have in the UK ☺️. The market is so much more developed here. Heck. Did you say balance transfer? Balance what? 😜

Eg A ban on fishing turbot can be equally applied across the EU but I don't think Luxembourg have much to worry about.

hugolover

I feel like I imagined this now. I am sure Raffles has been briefing he expects all the licenced MBNA cards to be killed off. Did I imagine this?

Also. Didn't he point out that other licenced non-Amex cards have seen huge reductions in earnings due to the cap?

So whether this card got killed right now it was gonna get killed and when it did it would be cos of Brussels usual interference. The future is bleak for MBNA.

I single out the UK because having lived in a few different MS (especially rich ones) there was never anything like what we have in the UK when it comes to loyalty cards & the various deals. It's a much more competitive and vast marketplace and more difficult to obtain credit. Look at credit card usage in DE. So many people are just using an ec debit card.

NickB

To be fair, you picked a country which is right at the other end of the spectrum rather than a typical/average one. Retail banking and other consumer financial services in Germany have barely emerged from prehistory.