As a travel hacker in the United Kingdom to be

As a travel hacker in the United Kingdom to be -

I wrote about traveling a lot lately hacking, and a question that keeps popping up is "Matt, how can we hack traveling in the UK?" Now, while I much about doing this knows in the UK, I do not know as much as Robert (aka Raffles) by the Head of points, the leading travel hacking site for the UK. Today, I sit with him and he explained in detail how the received from you, from the United Kingdom may obtain free flights and hotels like the rest of us across the pond

Nomadic Matt: as you are to travel hacking
Robert: was literally ingrained in me from childhood, the idea of ​​"getting a deal" when my family never had much money. This also meant that my parents never traveled because it was very expensive to fly in the 1970s. My father never had a passport, and my mother only got when she 50.

was

I think I flew for the first time, when I came across a document to Spain was 18 with friends in 1988th My first "hack" was when I was 20 years old when I "arranged" to win a flight to Paris in a British Airways Competition. That was in 190, and BA was every place on each flight away to increase one day business. You can choose your route, and I was smart enough to realize that 99% of people would get to win a long distance with a minimal chance. I took Paris and despite literally millions of entries, got my free seat -. And in 190 Flights to Paris from London were

Only when I discovered expensive FlyerTalk that I realized that I only scratched the surface , I was greatly FlyerTalk beginning of 04 - and still - and in 2012 began Director of points as the first British miles and points-blog

In January 2016 Head of points to beat a million page views per month. for the first time, almost all from the UK. I also Shopper Points launched in British supermarket to focus loyalty programs.

In the United States, it is easy to be hackers, because we have to get points so many opportunities to explore. Describe travel hacking in Britain.
It is true that the British market as the United States is not as generous. However, it is still the second best place in the world for travel hacking!

The benefit from the United Kingdom to do, that you will see much more of the world for much less. While the low-level US airline saver reward 25,000 miles (and they are hard to find), British Airways will fly to Germany France, the Netherlands, etc. 8,000 Avios return [round-trip]. A flight to Spain is only 13,000 Avios on an off-peak date. You can get in more than 20 countries and seen some of the largest attractions for less than the cost in miles from a US domestic award flight

The typical UK "travel hackers" - someone who wants to earn reward flights but not earn any miles for business - is usually credit card focus on churning, primarily with American Express (Amex), and the use of the actions run by Tesco. Tesco is the largest supermarket chain in the UK, and their loyalty points can be converted into British Airways Avios points or Virgin Flying Club miles.

Can you be a bit more the Tesco trick? [1945003erklären] Tesco has a loyalty program called Club card. At first glance, seems it is pretty boring: spend £ 1 in their stores and earn 1 point. One point you get 1p from shopping or you can exchange it for other things, including 2.4 Avios points or 2.5 Virgin Flying Club miles.

The real value comes from regular promotions Bonus point run by Tesco. This can be extremely aggressive. For example, they regularly offer 150 bonus points for selected CDs or DVDs to buy, which can be as cheap as £. 3 That is, you get 360 Avios points for £ 3 you like on printer ink to offer bonus points that easily on eBay can be resold, often at cost -. This means the miles are free

There scaled to. They often offer 5,000 points (12,000 Avios) for removal of Tesco Life Insurance - with a minimum commitment of just £ 5 per month for a year. The end of 2015 they offered a computer printer for £ 39 with 2,000 bonus points -., The 4,800 Avios was

All these deals can be purchased online, so you do not even need to enter a Tesco. Tesco also offers a free MasterCard credit card that Avios earned (it works on 0.3 Avios per £ 1 spent) This is not a high speed, but it is the best Avios MasterCard or Visa deal available.

points 75% dedicated Tesco Clubcard, not only for Miles collectors, but also for people who use the points for non-travel redemptions. My new website Shopper

UK-based flights have strong fuel surcharges (ie, big taxes and fees) when you book an award ticket. How does this trip to the UK hacking impact?
The essential difference between the UK and the US frequent flyer scene is that in the UK, you can not really "fly free", at least not easily. Both British Airways and Virgin Atlantic (and all the other major European carriers) impose heavy fuel surcharges on redemption tickets.

This is mixed in the UK of passenger, a departure tax by the British government raised the can up to £ 166 add to a business class ticket. If you redeem your British Airways Avios points for a Club World (business class flat bed) headquarters to New York, you are asked to pay more than 500 in the form of taxes and surcharges for the "free" ticket per person £.

This is still a good deal, of course, buy in comparison to the cost of a similar ticket for cash. However, if a couple of £ 1,000 must be found in order to cover the additional costs on a pair of long-range reward seats, obviously restrict your market to people on a decent salary. Unlike the US, which is not a hobby for students or paid low.

The other problem with the heavy taxes and charges that it has made long distance repayments economy basically meaningless except in peak periods. Who would redeem 40,000 Avios points and £ 350 to buy in the form of taxes for a return economy flight to New York, when the same ticket can for £ 400 in cash?

You can work around this problem, but it is not easy. Air Berlin is a Avios partner and fellow Oneworld member and has low taxes (£ 75 return) withdrawals from Germany to the United States and Abu Dhabi.

Aer Lingus also has low-tax withdrawals of Dublin in the USA. However, you need to ring British Airways to book this - and the BA site will not tell you this. Only know a handful of people on it as a result.

Likewise, Iberia has low taxes (£ 150 instead of £ 500 for business class) withdrawals from Madrid to North and Latin America. But on ba.com this book falls a £ 500 + surcharge. Move your Avios to Iberia Plus (free, online) and you can for only £ 150 in tax reserve the same seat. BA does not tell you that either!

Has the United Kingdom has a lot of good credit card have as we do here? What are such bonuses Dedicated
There has improved dramatically in the past few years. American Express has very aggressive. It runs very high (for the UK) bonuses on the British Airways Premium Plus card - usually 20,000 to 25,000 points or miles - and is happy when you apply for you their cards as long Churn six months for the same again wait [

as long as you know, for example, that the points from the Starwood Amex, American Express gold and Platinum American Express cards can be turned into Avios points, then you can do very well. But I reckon that 0% of Avios collectors are unaware.

you get occasionally offered by other issuers. MBNA / Bank of America offered 35,000 American Airlines miles as signup bonus back in 2013, and the card was free fee. That would have gotten you a one-way ticket in Business Class with Etihad from London to Abu Dhabi!

Are there other cards via American Express?
The other major issuer MBNA / Bank of America. They take care of the UK credit card for American Airlines, Etihad, Virgin Atlantic, Miles & More, and United, among others

The standard MBNA Bonus offers are quite weak. The reason Virgin Atlantic credit card offers only 3000 miles for subscribing. You need time and apply for a good bonus offer it right. You can not MBNA bonuses churn as these days they give you a bonus limit lifetime per card

said that MBNA is a well-run company. - You publish your miles immediately, and their promos always work as promised.

Lloyds and Barclays, have both "mainstream" banks, some store cards operations. Lloyds running maps for avios.com (unlike British Airways over) and Barclays running maps for Hilton and IHG Rewards Club. Usually, however, their operations are sloppy. I do not get many complaints about Lloyds honor sign-up bonuses and Barclays has a habit of late to your points publish 3-4 months.

The writing on the wall for non-Amex cards can be, however. to the end of 2015 the EU "interchange fees" (to accept paying a proxy for what business credit cards) capped at 0.3% for Visa, MasterCard and American Express credit cards issued third. The previous rates were around 0.75%.

It is simply not possible to carry out a free credit card to earn miles with an exchange fee of 0.3%. That does not pay for the cost of funds for the card issuer, let alone the miles, bad debts, statement fees, etc. It does not take much to make in interest payments from airline cards, because you have a high net worth client base.

In the future we are likely to see more annual fees and lower rates of return. However, the airline and hotel companies are desperate to keep their logo in your wallet, so compromises are made. Cards can start elite status to offer, for example, or additional perks such as priority boarding. It will take the market a few years to adjust.

If someone was getting in the UK looking for in travel hacking, what advice would you give them?
Focus on something simple, because when you have your first good riddance under your belt, it will encourage you to be more ambitious.

The Hilton Visa, for example, is free and gives you a free night at any global Hilton Family Hotel to spend for £ 750. With that, let's say, the Waldorf-Astoria in Rome or the Conrad in New York or Hong Kong would be a good result. When a couple each got this card, the two free nights would cover a long weekend.

. For your first flight redemption, there is nothing wrong with a European redemption on British Airways Maybe pay the additional miles for Club Europe on the way out, and spend an hour or so before the flight in lounges of BA at Heathrow. There is an appetite your collection, scale-up

Have travel hacking look lighter or heavier in the UK get
Ignores fuel surcharges of BA -.?, Can be mitigated through air may Berlin, Aer Lingus and Iberia - this is a golden age. As long as your credit is good, it has never been so easy for a resident in the UK, a large pile of Avios points by credit card sign up bonuses rack

The development of Oneworld -. With Qatar, Malaysian and Sri Lanka in recent years Accession -. great opportunities open up for redeeming miles

Some of the deals of the past have gone further - it used to be ridiculously easy to get free Star Alliance flights on BMI Diamond Club miles, for example. There are now no UK airline in the Star Alliance. However, this is still good times are all to be all in all, to play the game.

Is there online shopping or eating such portals in the US? Where several options are issued to multiply your points per dollar to rack points easier?

Both British Airways and Virgin Atlantic have online shopping portals called Tor 365 and stores are gone. The problem is that they were to be late, the game.

The United Kingdom has two large cash back sites Quidco and TopCashback. The majority of dealers on the airline shopping portals are on these cash-back sites, so you are essentially "buying" Avios at a bad rate, if you choose not to use them and instead take Miles.

The only reason I would use the airline websites for shopping at a merchant who wants to work with cash back websites. The popular dealer who does this is the department store chain John Lewis.

There is another tweak where at TopCashback shopping is far more attractive to earn Avios as BA's Gate 365 Portal. As I explained in this article, TopCashback to send £ 50 of cash back annually to Tesco Clubcard. This can be converted into 12,400 Avios points. You pay basically 0.4p each for those 12,400 Avios (50.00 / 12.400 Avios £), which is an excellent deal.

In the US, we have a lot of ways to produce outputs to maintain artificially miles. Can you do that in the UK?

No, actually not. The most important option - prepaid Visa cards at face value in grocery buying an American Express card and then redeem in your bank account - is gone

However, it is a fluid situation .. There are a lot of innovative products in called the British financial services market at the moment to life, and new opportunities are bound to emerge. As we know from the United States, they are unlikely to last long when they do it.

Based in the USA cards as Citi, Chase, or AMEX, you have many transfer partners, so you can move on to show where the best deal is. Is that possible in the UK? What is the best way to use points on non-resident in the UK airlines?

If you. UK, but earn miles in a non-British airline program, there are a few options

(but for a beginner is not something I would recommend British Airways and -. Offer Virgin Atlantic far more options for redeeming, if you are resident in the UK only expats or people - to a lesser extent that at the end. up fly other airlines with their work should miles significant efforts in place elsewhere structure)

Some non-British airlines have UK credit cards :. Lufthansa, Etihad, Emirates, United, and American. Others are American Express Transfer Partners, so that you have points of a post Amex Platinum Card Gold or Amex. Emirates, Etihad, KLM, Air France, Singapore, Delta

Lost The other option many people Starwood Preferred Guest. Starwood has more than 30 airline partners, you can purchase and transfer them on points with the Starwood Amex card. The rate is pretty good, even though the card has a £ 75 annual fee.

You can also transfer American Express Membership Rewards Starwood Preferred Guest to your preferred airline. The rate is not great because Amex Starwood only 2 :. 1, but I have this done in the past, Lufthansa Miles get to

Unless you spend considerable credit card, it is unlikely that you would ever earn enough miles for a decent pure salvation. There are some amazing repayments you can get - Emirates A380 business or first class, Etihad A380 Business or First Class Lufthansa First Class, etc. - but you need to save at least 100,000 miles on all those

If your balance is not build on these airlines fly for work and can the way, credit card spending alone is unlikely that you get enough.

If you learn more about travel hacking in Britain out Robert's website, head for points, and follow him on Twitter. We have it. Really good here in the United States with lucrative point deals and credit card bonuses, but it is clearly a lot of opportunity in the UK

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