All booked sort of.. credit card strategy

[jf256]

I was supposed to be going in 2020.. that obv didnt happen. Then we were waiting till post wedding 2025.

But ive booked our flights for March 2023.

Just got to move some points around now.. to get our hilton stays booked.

This is the breakdown if anyone is interested. Fyi in 2020 a 10 day stay in akl, 2 nights at universal an airport stay and a cruise was going to cost us 10k. This would be close to 15k now. Hoping these proces reduce by 2025. So we are doing it a bit different.

This is the plan.

2 premium virgin flights £1100..have to fly back to manch. So hoping to get that changed. Used virgin credit card points and companion ticket. (Card cost 160)

5 nights port orleans 1380 plus 1019 on tickets. 360 dollar fandb and 200 dollar gift card.

1 night loews portofino bay. FHR. Platinum perk and breakfast, express pass, and dinner included. £585

Hilton Bonnet Creek 10 nights £0. Using 60k hilton points per night (earned through amex) and platinum card gold status enables 1 x free night and no resort fees. (Plat card £585) bought 80k plus 64k points to enable this.

Tickets universal 800. Using prepaid master card for half through points earned through my OH work. =£800

Total = 4784

I wanted to post this just incase anyone is planning a trip a few years down the line. It would be worth researching credit cards to see if it can save you money. As long as you know you are able to pay it off every month. As point earning cards have really high interest rates.


edit: we are actually booking port orleans for the first 5 days now. To make use of the fb credit. I decided that the additional cost for the swan or deluxr hotel was not worth it for the extra evening hours and a few dollars more on the credit. This meant having to cut down our universal hotel nights. But we were planning 1 chilled mardi gras day and 1 volcano bay day anyway and we can do that from our disney resort.

amended full stay to hilton because it looks like a much nicer property for only 20k points more. Which we have due to bonus purchase points.

 

[PeachyBubba]

I'm interested in signing up for the BA Amex card which gives you 5000 Avios points for £1000 spend over 3 months. Is there anything better out there credit card wise for using for a Disney World spend?

 

[jf256]

I'm interested in signing up for the BA Amex card which gives you 5000 Avios points for £1000 spend over 3 months. Is there anything better out there credit card wise for using for a Disney World spend?

Have a look at pointsguyuk.

My personal strategy would be if was using it for airlines;

1) Amex Gold Free for first year and then downgrade to the free card (to store your points). You can refer a spouse for a free card and get additional welcome points and You will get a few more points that way and can transfer into BA.

2) Get the paid for version of the BA Amex card. The BA free card will only let you get a companion ticket in economy. You have to pay taxes on both tickets so its really not a big saving. 5000 avios isnt going to get you very far. The paid one is 25k for 3000 spend and companion tickets cover premium.

Or

3) Barclaycard British Airways credit card. Its a mastercard £20 a month and includes an upgrade after a certain spend. They have a free one but the limitations for economy also apply. This is a mastercard so accepted more places. I have just applied because we have had enough of the virgin process and we need it for wedding venue who wont accept amex.

Not sure if it is allowed so i dont want to post referral codes if not able to. But you can get more points if you use a code for amex.

 

[PeachyBubba]

Have a look at pointsguyuk.

My personal strategy would be if was using it for airlines;

1) Amex Gold Free for first year and then downgrade to the free card (to store your points). You can refer a spouse for a free card and get additional welcome points and You will get a few more points that way and can transfer into BA.

2) Get the paid for version of the BA Amex card. The BA free card will only let you get a companion ticket in economy. You have to pay taxes on both tickets so its really not a big saving. 5000 avios isnt going to get you very far. The paid one is 25k for 3000 spend and companion tickets cover premium.

Or

3) Barclaycard British Airways credit card. Its a mastercard £20 a month and includes an upgrade after a certain spend. They have a free one but the limitations for economy also apply. This is a mastercard so accepted more places. I have just applied because we have had enough of the virgin process and we need it for wedding venue who wont accept amex.

Not sure if it is allowed so i dont want to post referral codes if not able to. But you can get more points if you use a code for amex.

Thanks for info

 

[CaptainAmerica]

You're planning a wedding now for 2025?

 

[jf256]

You're planning a wedding now for 2025?

No wedding is 2024. Honeymoon 2025

But booked venue last september and one of the venue dates we wanted was already booked. Covid post ponements mean having to book things a lot quicker than normal

 

[jf256]

I was supposed to be going in 2020.. that obv didnt happen. Then we were waiting till post wedding 2025.

But ive booked our flights for March 2023.

Just got to move some points around now.. to get our hilton stays booked.

This is the breakdown if anyone is interested. Fyi in 2020 a 10 day stay in akl, 2 nights at universal an airport stay and a cruise was going to cost us 10k. This would be close to 15k now. Hoping these proces reduce by 2025. So we are doing it a bit different.

This is the plan.

2 premium virgin flights £1100..have to fly back to manch. So hoping to get that changed. Used virgin credit card points and companion ticket. (Card cost 160)

5 nights port orleans 1380 plus 1019 on tickets. 360 dollar fandb and 200 dollar gift card.

1 night loews portofino bay. FHR. Platinum perk and breakfast, express pass, and dinner included. £585

Hilton Bonnet Creek 10 nights £0. Using 60k hilton points per night (earned through amex) and platinum card gold status enables 1 x free night and no resort fees. (Plat card £585) bought 80k plus 64k points to enable this.

Tickets universal 800. Using prepaid master card for half through points earned through my OH work. =£800

Total = 4784

I wanted to post this just incase anyone is planning a trip a few years down the line. It would be worth researching credit cards to see if it can save you money. As long as you know you are able to pay it off every month. As point earning cards have really high interest rates.


edit: we are actually booking port orleans for the first 5 days now. To make use of the fb credit. I decided that the additional cost for the swan or deluxr hotel was not worth it for the extra evening hours and a few dollars more on the credit. This meant having to cut down our universal hotel nights. But we were planning 1 chilled mardi gras day and 1 volcano bay day anyway and we can do that from our disney resort.

amended full stay to hilton because it looks like a much nicer property for only 20k points more. Which we have due to bonus purchase points.

Bit of an update:

We are now doing 5 nights at the swan reserve using our amex points. We will have to buy a few points but it was a bit of a steal.

Also hilton wound me up last week. We had an issue with purchased points and they were useless at sorting it out. So ive decided to use my points partially elsewhere. Id already transferred so i have to do the 5 nights.

Marriott have an excellent feature of prebooking room and also have the 5th night free offer. There are resort fees, but we get evening hours while we are there and $ILL opportunities. So i think it is worth it.

 

[Ruttangel]

Hello @jf256 just saw a deal on Virgin Credit Card until 3rd Oct, 15000 points for getting card (£160 fee) and then 15000 if spend £3k in 90 days. Companion flight is available if you spend £10k.
I think a MCO flight is 25000pts +taxes (still £260 sadly)
I assume you qualified doing this, any creative tips for maxing out the spend, im going to struggle to get to £10k I think?

 

[jf256]

Hi;

Spending Strategy if you want to upgrade to premium

The real sweet spot is premium. Taxes are higher but you are getting much better value.

By the time you spend £160 on tickets and £260 on taxes you are on saving around £550 on an economy flight and you can find a economy flight for that money if you were a creative.

10k spend + = 30,000 + (1.5 x 10k =15000) = 45000. Vouchers are valid for 2 years from the date of issue. (off peak you would only need 10k more points for a premium)

So what you could do - is get the offer now. Spend the 10k. Cancel your card before the end of the card year you still pay the fee but virgin are notorius for applying the yearly fee before the end of the card year.

Then apply for the free amex gold card - free for one year and get the 20k referral and you will have enough points at that time for a premium. (£545 in taxes for each of the tickets)

Obviously this strategy only works if you are happy to pay the initial taxes for the premium. That is what we did.

Strategies for paying the 10k;

If you are a credit card person - not everyone is. You need to pay the whole thing off on time every single month because the interest rates are dire!

Virgin is a mastercard so it is accepted everywhere. Literally put every bit of spending you that can be paid via a credit card on there. Food bills; holidays; everything. Big purchases should really always go on a credit card anyway. New phone, tv etc. 10k is surprisingly easy to build up if you use it for daily spending.

We paid our deposit on our wedding venue so hit the threshold with daily spending really easily. But it can be done.

If you have a trusted partner - husband / wife etc. A supplementary card may be a good idea as their daily spending will also go on it - and then the payment can come out of a joint account or however you split bills. That is only 5k each.

Getting more points

Virgin is around 55k for off peak and 65k for peak flights premium. Economy is about 25k off peak and 45-52k Peak.

Using the virgin shopping portal can quite substantially increase your points. Just use it for daily shopping needs

There are other options for Amex BA and Barclaycard BA which may be a better fit - but I am going to assume that you have your heart set on Virgin for the purposes of this.


Virgin Specific Issues

You need to call to book the tickets - so check reward availability and then call up. Its a long slog and i wish they would have an online system like ba do. But they dont.

You still get Tier points if you do rewards through virgin. I dont know how important this is to you.

Seat selection is free in Premium Economy but preferred seats (Eg the front seats) come at an additional cost. Economy is chargeable

Thats my mind dump feel free to message me (if you can on this forum).

 

[Ruttangel]

thanks, we always pay cards off in full so no problem there!
Will try it for a year and see if we just switch out to their regular card or try something else after that.
30000 points seems a decent incentive though.

 

[jf256]

I think i got a few more points when it first came out just because its a new product but it is a pretty good deal to be honest.

We do have a lot of BA point without setting foot on a BA flight for 10 years. Which i have to admit took a lot of admin. But i get a bit of a buzz off of it - and there are worse addictions to have!

As much as i know that Virgin have a much better long haul product. BA are easier to collect; the vouchers are easier to book with; and they have medium and short haul options aswell.

 

[jf256]

One more thing - Virgin are really bad at letting you know that you have hit the thresholds. They dont (or at least didnt) have a tracker to let you know you had it available - its not a visible thing.

So i'd write down your total bill at the end of every statement month and then call when you hit 10k to confirm it is being added.

 

[Ruttangel]

Up here in North East BA is always an indirect flight via LHR so not always good option

What do you do with Avios if not using for BA flights? How do you get to MCO?

 

[Ruttangel]

Just updating my story here for anyone that is interested in paying for Virgin flights using points.
I got 30000 points from opening card and meeting initial spend threshold of £3k in 90 days.

I booked flights in Nov for 30000 points and £265 per person in taxes. (60000/£530 in total)
The flights being EDI-MCO to return end of Aug 2024.

This was during a Black Friday sale where the amount of points needed dropped 33% from 45000, they have these sales 2-3 times per year, there is one now for 20% off.

As it happens, spending £10k was quite easy this year as I used it to pay for my son’s student accommodation fees. So, I now have a 2-4-1 flight voucher valid to Jan 2026.
I’m going to use that on Premium economy and if I time it with a sale it will be about 44000 points plus £1k taxes for 2 people.

So, is it worth it?
The card earns 1.5 points for each £1 you spend although it’s 3per £1 for virgin Atlantic bookings.
It costs £160 in an annual fee.
You may be thinking (if you are still reading this of course) how did I go from 30000 points in Sep 2023 to 60000 in Nov?
I discovered something called point booster. Up to 6 months after travel you can pay to boost points earned on a flight. So, the Aug 2023 trip gave me 4156 points but I rang and boosted this 4 times (max). So I got 16,624 more points. The cost was £166.24.

So the 2 Economy Flights has cost me £530 plus annual card fee £160 and £166.24 booster.
£425 return to MCO in Aug is not bad at all for Virgin.
The premium flights will be £500 each! These flights depend on availability but the EDI-MCO route seems very good on that score.

It is a fun hobby building up points but without these welcome bonuses it would be hard to get enough points.
Sadly, the Virgin Atlantic Credit Card bonus is now only 15000 which is a shame.
So, I’m now going to get the Amex Gold card free for a year and it comes with 20000 welcome bonus if you spend £3k in 3 months.
Also comes with 4 Airport Lounge passes to start holiday in a bit more style.