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

By Sarah Wray Staff Writer Wednesday, 12 March 2008

Which credit card is best for air miles? Read our reviews of these credit cards: Tesco Clubcard credit card British Airways credit card 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™ Paris: 9,000 BA Miles 750 AirMiles™ Rome: 15,000 BA Miles 1,500 AirMiles™ Tokyo: 80,000 BA Miles 8,000 AirMiles™ Buenos Aires: 70,000 BA Miles 10,000 AirMiles™

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.

Two of the main air miles schemes are BA Miles and AirMiles, run by British Airways (BA) and Airmiles.

You can earn these 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 and Lloyds TSB Duo credit cards respectively.

Or, you can earn them indirectly by racking up Tesco Clubcard credit card points and then converting them to BA Miles or AirMiles.

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

What's the deal?

Basically both systems are loyalty card schemes.

With the BA Miles and the Airmiles 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.

Tesco Clubcard credit card allows you to earn points on your spending and exchange these points for Airmiles or BA Miles, which you then go on to use to pay for flights as above.

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?

With the Tesco Clubcard credit card you’ll earn 5 Clubcard points for every £4 spent at Tesco, and 1 Clubcard point for every £4 spent anywhere else.

One Clubcard point is worth one penny.

250 Clubcard points would get you £2.50 in Clubcard Vouchers, which is the lowest redeemable amount, and could be exchanged for 60 Airmiles or 600 BA miles.

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

There is also a 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 £120.

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.

Using your Tesco Clubcard credit card, you’d get 1250 points (£12.50 in Clubcard vouchers) if you spent the money in Tesco, or 250 (£2.50 in Clubcard vouchers) points if you spent the money elsewhere. A Tesco spend would entitle you to 300 Air miles, or 3000 BA miles. A non-Tesco spend would entitle you to just 60 Air miles or 600 BA miles.

£1,000 on your BA card would get you 1,000 BA Miles.

And finally £1,000 on your LloydsTSB Duo card would get you 100 AirMiles.

And the winner is...

If you're an avid Tesco shopper, you are clearly quids in by collecting your air miles with the Tesco Clubcard credit card, earning three times the miles you would with the other credit cards.

However, if you’re using the Tesco card to spend elsewhere you’re losing out on miles, earning a third less miles than by spending on BA and Lloyds TSB Duo cards.

Although the extra air miles you’ll reap if you do spend at Tesco still far outweigh this drop.

BA Miles and AirMiles cards offer roughly the same deal, so this is a matter of who you want to fly with, and where you want to go. If you usually fly with British Airways, then BA Miles could work best for you.

The British Airways credit card also gains you 1,000 BA Miles the first time you spend on it.

If you don’t mind who you fly with or would rather shop around, then the Air Miles 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