Hey All,

I have been trying to get on top of my rewards as I seem to have so many that just expire and waste away. Recently it was my Avios...

I am an American living in the UK so I've racked up some points from when I was in the states and now have some from living and traveling in the UK for the past 4 years. I think my biggest problem is my lack of loyalty to airlines. I started flying with Virgin when I do my London<->NYC flights (about twice a year) otherwise everything is short haul.

If anyone has tips on consolidations or what I should look into or change I would appreciate it!

Hotels:

Flying:

So yea, that's me. Is there anything I should do differently? Anything I should change or look into do? Anything I am not taking advantage of?

Most my trips tend to be weekend city breaks with a 5-7 day trip every 3 months around Europe.

Thanks again in advance

You might want to engage Avios enough to cover your short-haul flight redemptions. Short-haul in Europe is one of its sweet spots.

If you are still banking in the U.S., I might pick up the Avios Visa. It'll have a hefty sign-up bonus, earn 1.25 Avios per dollar spent, and no FX fees.

Even if you stick to Virgin for your long-hauls, you'll have a lot of award flights around Europe at 4,500 to 7,500 per segment. Sign-up bonuses on this card are usually 50k to 100k, so you're looking at 5-10 short-haul round-trips even if you only use it for the initial spend threshold.


Hard to say on hotels. I like Marriott but a big part of their value prop to me is that they cover so much of rural, suburban, and urban U.S./Canada. I use them a lot in Europe as well, but don't know if they're your optimal program based there. Probably depends on whether you need mainly 3- to 4-star business hotels in big cities or a broader mix of small town, boutique, or less expensive hotels in general.

I've used Booking.com as a backup in Europe. Not for awards, but just to get properties far off the beaten path. B&B's, flats, hotels, etc.

Any particular reason why you're flying with VS and not BA from LON-NYC? Because as pinniped said, you could fly with BA and get their USA card, which you'll be able to use in the UK.

Also, I don't know how many nectar points you collect, but can't you convert them into expedia credit for BA flights? I know that will require significantly more points so if you collect them only through household spending, easyjet would obviously be the better value.

As for hotels, Accor is unchallenged in Europe but their loyalty program is garbage. I count on Hilton in mainland europe although I do find myself in an accor hotel a lot...

Just as one could continue to fly VS, and apply for the Virgin Atlantic credit card which is issued by Bank of America.

BA requires the BAEC account be registered in the same country as a co-branded credit card. This means the same BAEC account cannot be linked to both a UK and USA-issued BA credit card. To my knowledge, Virgin Atlantic has no similar restriction.

I'm suggesting do both. I'm also assuming that the OP is continuing to bank in the U.S., hence the concern about FX fees on major purchases.

I totally get why you'd stick to Virgin for the TATL traffic. Avios are useless for pure award redemption on that route (short of some sort of inefficient hop through Dublin or Berlin), although upgrading may be a possibility depending on fares purchased. So maybe stick to Virgin there, and the Virgin trains of course. Grab the Virgin CC if it has some nice bonuses. But then use Avios for the short stuff in Europe. That *probably* gets you a deeper pool of flight options than Easyjet.

Of course, where Easyjet has cheap and convenient flights that make even 4,500 Avios a poor value, keep using them. I just think if I lived in Britain, I'd want a stash of Avios to access BA for some short-haul routes where the LCC's leave you at a suboptimal airport or don't operate at all.

He said he was American. So I figured he could open a bank account in the US

Thanks, a lot of good advice!

Yep, I still bank in the US. I get paid in Sterling though, so I only really use my credit card for big purchases to get the ThankYou points. I don't use it for groceries and normal everyday purchases.

I am going to look into the Avios visa as that sounds really nice.

Hotel wise, I like to just stay at a smaller/modern hotel when I am traveling. Not really looking for business hotels that's why I use hotels.com. I will look a bit more into Marriott though. I think the only issue is it winds up being more expensive then what I could get.

Nectar wise, i will look into that on Expedia. I just get them from household spending though so I don't have much. Maybe �150 worth right now.

I am going to look into the Virgin credit card too. I only really use Virgin for TATL because they offer a good service and I can get virgin points pretty easily here. Between Trains, Car Rentals, Tesco purchases they come in pretty easy.

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Thanks for some of the great advice though. I am going to look into all these and if there is anything else you recommend I'd be glad to hear!

I'd certainly look into all of MR, HH, and SPG. Get whatever status each will throw at you with a credit card that either (a) has no annual fee or (b) pays for itself in the form of free nights and sign-up bonuses. It certainly can't hurt to add Marriott Silver, HHonors Gold, and SPG Preferred Plus to your arsenal if they are there for the taking. Low-tier statuses can at least help keep you out of the "bad" rooms in the hotel.

But...in Europe...my guess is that you'll still find yourself in the local boutiques you already like more often than not. Each chain has some fine luxury properties in Europe. But for a leisure traveler looking at the midrange Marriott vs. the local 3-star independent hotel, you will probably find more value with the local one.

Why not get a BA amex or a gold amex (150 GBP fee waived for your first year) or and SPG amex.

I'm not sure if the rate of amex acceptance in the UK, but it'd surely be a better way to rack up points through regular spending. And, at the end of the day, unless you're getting an amazing bank rate for GBP-USD transfer, you're not really coming out ahead if you still need to do a forex transfer of your salary to pay for the USD cc.

An American BAEC account also prevents you from converting Tesco vouchers to Avios and cashing in on other UK offers.

I think I need to look into both honestly. The only problem is my credit in the UK is non existant really. I might get lucky but you are right, it would help to get regular spending points.

I have a small income generated in the US so I don't have to do transfers to often. If I do then I just use paypal as they give good rates and I am just gifting myself really. The GBP -> USD isn't very good at the moment so I stay away from that.