Apologies if this has been covered elsewhere, I have had a good look around but haven't found anything.
I'm a member of both BA and VS FF programs with minimal points with each.
I don't travel that much, perhaps once long haul a year and once short haul to europe a year.
I'm starting a new job and wanted to sign up for an airmiles credit card so that over the next few years my spending could get me an upgrade when i take a holiday flight somewhere nice or a 241 etc...
Which would be the better card to take out?
I normally travel economy (cheapest i can buy) and tend to go to the US and/or Asia once a year . But would love to go to Africa and New Zealand in the near future.
Incidentally, I'm going to go with a fee-free card as I can't justify paying a fee on my low salary.
I've heard that BA rewards are easier to come by and work with the cheaper tickets compared with VS which insist on full fare tickets.
I have family in Malaysia too which is a factor though CX would be fine if I didn't go with VS (SQ and MH).
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Both BA and VS require purchase of specific Economy fare classes to upgrade to Premium Economy.

BA requires 25,000 miles (to North America) and purchase of a Y, B or H fare*. You can create a hypothetical BA booking to test pricing by logging into your Executive Club account on ba.com and choosing: Book and upgrade with Miles. You can see BA's upgrade rules here...

https://www.britishairways.com/trave..._us?sl=upgrade


VS requires 20,000 miles and purchase of Y, B, L or (on some routes) M fare. The VS upgrade rules and a tool which would allow you to create a hypothetical booking to see typical costs of upgradeable fares are here...

http://www.virgin-atlantic.com/en/gb...ghts/index.jsp

*My Executive Club account is in the USA program. It is possible that the rules for UK based members are different.

So essentially, there is no big difference and I should just go on personal preference of the airline?

I suggest a American Airlines advantage Citibak (UK) VISA card which will give you easy mileage in the AA programme. Use AA for travel to the US and build up your miles, then exchange them on the One World programme of airlines for world wide travel.

That's really interesting. I took a look at the website. Good deal, I would definitely be tempted if I could transfer the points into my BA exec club account. The fact that it's a visa is obviously more convenient than amex...

I believe wemyss is suggesting that you collect AA miles rather than BA miles. The only way to convert AA miles to BA is an intermediate transfer to Hilton HHonors and you would lose 80% of the value in process...

AA 5,000 miles
HH 10,000 points (pay $30 fee)
BA 1,000 miles

AA and BA are both members of the OneWorld alliance. You cannot transfer miles from one OneWorld member to another, but you can redeem for travel on other OneWorld members. However, there is one specific exclusion due to antitrust concerns. You cannot cross earn or cross redeem AA/BA miles on flights between the UK and the USA. For example, you could fly between the UK and Canada on a BA flight and earn or redeem miles in the AA program, but you cannot do this between the UK and the USA.