I took out the BA premium plus through Amex , I had an email that offered me 40000 AVIOS if I spent a certain amount in the first 3 months , the fee was £150 year and I had a good think through it all , taking into account how many AVIOS I estimate to earn in the next year from flights , how many I would need for upgrades and exactly how I would get the benefits by putting my spending through the card . If I put £10000 through the card I get a free companion reward , which is useless if you have plans to fly only as far as mainland Europe , but if you are going to the Caribbean or Middle East then you are saving a sizeable amount despite having to pay taxes and fees . Now I was wondering how I was going to spend £10000 in a year as I already use the Hilton Visa card for most of my spending , ( no yearly fee ) and collect a lot of Hilton points alongside using Hilton hotels quite frequently to earn more points and benefits , spending on this card it is easier to earn gold status than trying to earn it by staying the required number of nights per year and gold status does have good benefits when using Hilton hotels .
I worked out that I could put £10000 through Amex if the wife had a card and used it to pay for Tesco shopping , I mean £100 a week over 50 weeks is half of the spend needed already and I can do the rest on flights and other hotels over the year.
So I have just got the 40000 AVIOS bonus which is just as we'll because I spent 50000 the other day on upgrades on flights to St Lucia !!!! I got club class return for £900 each and £300 off the hotel cost because I booked them together , I've already got flights to Minorca in June which I paid £350 for , I decided not to use AVIOS for them , it would have been £54 plus 30000 AVIOS , instead I've saved them to build up so I can get to 120000 and use them for a reward flight to Dubai and use the free companion reward as well to get first class return flights for just taxes and fees which will be just under £1000 .
So in my case I value 1 AVIOS as worth more than 1p and if anyone wants to give me 20000 ( you can legally transfer them ) I will snap your hand off if you only want £25 for them !! Tell you what, double it , I offer £50

Sounds. Like you have definately worked out how to get the benefit from the scheme there Andy perhaps I have underestimated the value of an AVIOS.so I will politely decline your offer . Maybe just save mine up for a trip to St Lucia instead sounds lush.

Doe

I think the benefits of the scheme fit my circumstances so they appeal to me but perhaps not everyone , I don't feel that I'm having to pay out more money than I was originally but I'm getting extra benefits at great prices .
We travel at off peak times so don't have to pay out school holidays prices , there are only 2 adults to pay for as we dont have kids so we can afford to go long haul in march and November , while we go shorter flights in June and September . I always used to swap up the tesco clubcard points for holidays , many years ago it was for free flights with XL and then I did virgin vouchers for a holiday which I didn't think was such a great deal and now I change them into AVIOS , I used my first load of AVIOS to upgrade to club for flights to Dubai this November and have booked 3 days staying in the desert and then we go to the Hilton in Ras Al Khaimah for 5 nights I got the 5 nights there for £190 total because I used a points and money reward , the normal rate is around 150/160 per night , and over the next year I will save Hilton points to do the same next year , I've got 100000 hiltons points already so that should be ok . So the points I collect make our long haul holidays more affordable and luxurious , the short haul I just shop around to find the best deals and would use BA for flights as it will be more beneficial to me in the long term .
I'm already looking forward to St Lucia next year , at the moment I'm trying to organise helicopter transfers