Who gets you flying the furthest: BA, AirMiles or Virgin Atlantic?

By Sarah Wray Staff Writer Thursday, 4 February 2010

Which credit card is best for air miles?

Read our reviews of these credit cards:
Virgin Atlantic White
Virgin Atlantic Black
Lloyds TSB Airmiles Duo credit card
British Airways credit card
British Airways Premium Plus
MBNA bmi

Compare air mile credit cards:
Compare Air Mile Credit Cards

How many air miles do I need to get to...?

New York:
50,000 BA Miles
5,000 AirMiles™
14,750 Flying Club Miles
45,000 destination miles

Paris:
9,000 BA Miles
750 AirMiles™
9,000 destination miles

Rome:
15,000 BA Miles
1,500 AirMiles™
12,000 destination miles

Tokyo:
80,000 BA Miles
8,000 AirMiles™
30,000 Flying Club Miles
70,000 destination miles

Buenos Aires:
70,000 BA Miles
10,000 AirMiles™
50,000 destination miles

IF you do a lot of flying and use a credit card, it's well worth killing two birds with one stone and getting a credit card which allows you to rack up air miles as you spend.

The main air miles schemes include BA Miles run by British Airways (BA), Flying Club run by Virgin Atlantic, Diamond Club run by bmi and Star Alliance, and AirMiles, which is a more generalised scheme.

You can earn air miles directly and indirectly, and we’ll look at which way gets you flying the furthest.

You can earn BA Miles or Airmiles directly using the British Airways, Virgin Atlantic, MBNA bmi and Lloyds TSB AirMiles Duo credit cards respectively.

So which way earns you the most miles? Let’s look at the schemes in more detail.

What's the deal?

Basically all these systems are like loyalty card schemes.

With all of these credit card reward schemes you spend on the credit card, and as you do you earn miles, which can be used to pay for flights.

The more you use your credit card, the more miles you earn.

You need to spend a fairly large amount on your credit card to reap air miles rewards, so some people pay for regular expenses like their mortgage with their credit cards, allowing them to rack up more miles and points.

You can even earn miles as you fly by paying for your flight by credit card.

So, free flights... brilliant!

Before you run out waving your credit card wildly at anyone who will swipe it, remember that, as always, to reap any benefits you do need to pay off the balance in full each month or the interest will outweigh any loyalty offers.

That's the lecture over, now on with the matter in hand.

Who's offering what?

American Express' British Airways credit card earns you one BA Mile for every £1 that you spend anywhere.

There is also a British Airways Premium Plus which earns 1.5 miles per £1, and further increased mile earnings as well as privileges and perks, but has an annual fee of £150.

Virgin Atlantic offer two credit cards, the White card offers 1 Flying Club mile for every £1 spent, as well as double miles when you fly or holiday with Virgin Atlantic or Virgin Holidays. The Virgin Atlantic Black card offers twice the miles - 2 Flying Club miles for every £1 spent and double that with Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Holidays, however this also carries an annual fee of £115.

The MBNA bmi credit card offers 1.5 destination miles for every £1 spent and double miles when you fly with bmi.

AirMiles is a travel loyalty company and you can directly earn AirMiles with the Lloyds TSB AirMiles Duo credit card.

You actually get two credit cards with this account, The MasterCard only offers one mile per £50 spent, but the American Express earns you one AirMile for every £10 spent anywhere.

Comparing

Time to work out what this means in money and miles. Here comes the maths bit... concentrate!

So let's say you spend £1,000. You'd earn X amount of miles depending on which airmile credit card you choose, however you'll need to do a bit more number crunching before you can work out whose offering you the most miles.

The value of a 'mile' varies considerably between airmile schemes, and as such, 1,000 miles from one scheme could actually be worth less than 100 miles from another.

To work out how much a mile is worth you have to find out what rewards you can get for X amount of miles and then work out how much that reward would cost to buy - divide one by other and you find out how much a mile is worth. Of course, you have to do this a few times to get a more accurate picture of the mile's worth.

To save you the time we've done the research for you. You can compare airmile credit cards by reward worth based on your individual spending amounts, or see the tables below for a rough idea of mile worth for different spending levels.

Low spend: £100 a month

High spend: £1000 a month

And the winner is...

Of course, the actual outcome of which card is best will vary greatly depending on who you fly with the most. Fly just occasionally with a member airline and the air miles you'll earn will take a dramatic leap.

Therefore, always choose an airmile scheme for the airline - or member airlines - you fly with most.

On the basis of simple monthly spending however, MBNA's bmi credit card wins the points race - with Lloyds TSB's AirMiles Duo credit card coming in a close second.

If you don't mind who you fly with or would rather shop around, then AirMiles might be your best option, as you can use your miles with over 25 different airlines, including American Airlines, British Airways and Virgin Atlantic.

It may also be worth thinking about if there’s a particular place you want to use your air miles to go, or somewhere that you regularly travel. The air miles schemes are not like for like, and the same destination could require a different spend with each scheme.

Base your air miles loyalty card choice on your spending habits and flying preferences, and let your money take you miles further.

Compare air mile credit cards