Credit card points appear increasingly, well, meaningless

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Are you the points of the student who study a lot? If you have been waiting impatiently since April, the American Airways and American Express to announce the repetition of the bulletins that can earn “layer points” to spend credit cards, we can bear the answer safely yes.

Even those who do not compete in the loyalty plans of the strange games can be remembered when BA announced Comprehensive changes To the repeated traveler club.

Since the rules changed in April, they became It is difficult to achieve The state of gold, silver or bronze and access privileges such as access to the hall, seat selection and priority access. But this week, travelers with the Ba American Express Plus-Plus have recently discovered how to earn an additional 2,500 “flat point” to help qualify-the disturbances have been tried.

To get a full multiplication, a 25,000 -pound spending must be pumped through credit cards in the next seven months. At more than 3,500 pounds per month, this is higher than the average total salary in the United Kingdom.

The changes in this and other plans of loyalty to the wider corrosion of consumers for consumers in the United Kingdom – which causes some to ask whether there is a lot of point to the obsession with collection points.

Credit card rewards have become steadily worse because the fees that the UK crowned to process payments in 2015, restricting the main flow of card exporters. as Unwritten rule From the points, Geekry plans your entire balance every month to avoid interest fees, and the margins are narrow so that the benefits are narrowed. John Lewis just announced that it will reduce the value of points that the famous partnership card holders can earn in other stores, leading to middle school.

But this did not deter the most committed points in the UK and those who multiply in their endeavor to get something for nothing. “If you want to get the benefits, you should do the work,” says Tom, one of the 400 frequent flyers attending the Internet travel site. Head to get points A summer party in London this week. “Glastonbury for Points NERDS”, a crowd of city workers and retired couples, exchanged advice and breakthroughs in a feverish way, complain about airlines and changing card service providers and boast of the lengths they go to search for additional points.

One man from his friend persuaded that they should take five trips on Christmas day between London, Dublin, Brussels and (at the end) the United States in order to get enough level points to qualify for a silver position in the Bachelor. “An enjoyable birthday”, his partner smiled.

Many party pioneers fly regularly to work, and use rewards for fun. I brought a lot of their other half (“He is the point of points, I am just the beneficiary,” says one of them). As you have learned, to find your partner to get a credit card to suspend each of the rewards, and each get the spending points. “My wife has always trained to push the card,” one of them boasted. His wife made his wife worth 200 pounds from shopping in John Lewis and repaired the same elements through the shopping site for credit cards to earn airline points.

There were many talks on the difficulties of spending points; Those who open the accompanying flights 2-4-1 complain that they must be reserved early in order to actually use them.

Those who booked a Bachelor’s vacation or spent large sums on their BA AmeX cards after changing an angry April base will not decline the set of points until then (BA gave everyone 500 additional points instead). This means that those who spend 25,000 pounds just to get the bronze situation will likely be one trip away from getting a free seats and priority setting, which means that their cabin bag will not be placed on a full trip. Is this worth all this effort?

The category of the student points that study a lot known as the “Status Case” definitely believes that. Only one person transmitted the business degree only changed the BA base, believing that it would make a first -class lounge less crowded. The long waiting lists for the airport halls are common, but there is a breakthrough for that-a “digital waiting list” for other halls for the chosen AmeX card holders.

“The bottom line is that any person pays credit card bills completely every month and does not regain he must do something to get a type of reward,” says Rob Burgis, a former investment banker who established the points of points.

At least, it is recommended that money recovery cards offer better value than most retail charts (about 70 pounds per year at 1,000 pounds of monthly spending for credit cards). Even with high annual fees, benefits are more worthy, such as travel insurance and restaurant deals.

Certainly the ongoing base changes and modifications to TS & CS will give the obsessive a lot to talk about, but unfortunately, I am afraid that everything is lost on me.

Claer Barrett is a FT consumer editor and author of FT’s book Carm your financial life Newsletter series [email protected]; Instagram and Tiktok Claerb