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Are you a point of points? If you have been looking forward to it since April that British Airways and American Express announce how frequent leaflets can earn “level points” on credit card expenses, we can safely assume that the response is yes.
Even those who do not participate in the particular sport of the loyalty of the airlines of the game can remember the fury when BA has announced changes in scanning in its loyalty club.
Since the rules changed in April, it has become more difficult to reach the status of gold, silver or bronze and the advantages of access such as access to the show, selecting seats and priority recording. But this week, travelers holding the premium card from Ba American Express finally discovered how to win up to 2,500 additional “level points” to help qualify – and turbulence have reached.
To obtain the full blow, £ 25,000 of expenses must be pumped by credit cards in the next seven months. At more than £ 3,500 per month, it is higher than the gross salary of the average United Kingdom.
Changes to this system of loyalty of airlines and others reflect a broader erosion of the advantages for British consumers – which has forced some to wonder if there is a lot of points on the old -fashioned obsession with points collection.
Credit card awards have been wrapped since the Implementation costs of the United Kingdom for the treatment of payments in 2015, restoring a key revenue source for card issuers. Like the unwritten point rule, Geekery erases your balance in full each month to avoid interest costs, the margins are tight, so the advantages shrink. John Lewis has just announced that he will reduce the value of the points that holders of his popular partnership card can gain on spending in other stores, which has caused the middle class.
But that has not dissuaded the collectors of the most committed points of the United Kingdom who double in their quest to get something for nothing. “If you want to get the advantages, you need to do the job,” says Tom, one of the 400 frequent travelers attending the travel website Go to points Summer party in London this week. Nicknamed “Glastonbury for the points of the points”, the crowd of city workers and retired couples has exchanged advice and hackers, groaned on airlines and card providers modifying the rules and boasted of the lengths that they go hunting for additional points.
A man convinced his boyfriend that they should make five gas flights on Christmas day between London, Dublin, Brussels and (possibly) the United States in order to obtain enough level points to qualify for the status of BA Silver. “A fun Christmas,” smiled his partner.
Many revelers regularly fly long -term to work and use the rewards for fun. Many had brought their other halves (“he’s the point guy, I’m just the beneficiary,” said one). As I learned, the reference to your partner for a credit card can bring you both a bonus, and everyone gets their spending points. “I trained my wife always paying by card,” boasted. Another has brought his wife £ 200 £ 200 from John Lewis Shopping and resets the same items via the portal of a credit card purchase website to earn the airline points.
There have been as many conversations on the difficulties of spending the points; Those who unlock the flight vouchers 2-4-1 complain of reserving much earlier to use them.
Those who have reserved a BA vacation or spent large sums on their BA Amex cards after the April change of rule is furious that the point collection will not be back until then (BA has given all 500 additional bonus points instead). This means that those who spend £ 25,000 just to obtain bronze status will probably still be theft of the lack of selection of free seat and priority boarding, which means that their cabin bag will never be put on a full flight. Is it really worth the effort?
The category of NERD points known as “status chasers” certainly thinks. A guy who has never done that the business class has applauded the Ba rule change, believing that this will make the first class show less congested. The long queues for airport salons are a common reproach, but there is a hacking for this – a “digital waiting list” for other fairs for certain AMEX card holders.
“The main thing is that anyone who pays their full credit card bill every month and receives nothing should do something to get a kind of reward,” explains Rob Burgess, the investment banker who founded his head for points.
At the very least, he advises that cashback cards offer better value than most retailers’ programs (about £ 70 back per year on £ 1,000 credit card expenses). Even with high annual costs, the benefits are more worth, such as travel insurance and restaurant offers.
Constant rules changes and ts & CS adjustments will certainly give the Nerds much to speak, but unfortunately, I fear that the point of all this is lost for me.
Claer Barrett is the FT consumption publisher and author of the FT Sort your financial life Newsletter series; cloer.barrett@ft.com; Instagram and Tiktok @Claerb
