How to earn points for travel on credit cards

Halladubha72

Hi, I'm looking to book flights to Australia for Christmas and my friend told me I should pay for everything with a credit card and I'll get credit for flights. Then another girl said to use revolut card and get free credit for flights. Is it too late to do this now if I want to book flights for Christmas?

Is this the way to go. I pay for everything with ptsb debit card. I hate being in debt so don't have a credit card but I do have revolut.

Can anyone give advice on this matter. What do you recommend I should do. What card gets you the most points.

Tia

thebiglad

Whichever airline you fly with, it is worth signing up to their loyalty program too, you will get points from that.

As for credit cards, Aer lingus or Revolut, you'll get 1 point per €4 spent (Aer Lingus) and 1 point per €10 unless you pay an increased monthly fee to revolut in which case you can get up to 1 point per € (or, if you can find a free month and cancel once all booked).

Assuming your flights to Oz will cost under €1k each, the points return will be very low and would not justify applying for a new credit card (for which you'd have to pay €30 govt duty too) and with Aer Lingus/Revolut, a monthly fee.

If you are also booking hotels then, you could join Aer Lingus Aerclub (which is free and instant) and, using their e-store get up to 10 points per € on hotels (sometimes hotels through this site are more expensive than on other sites for exact same hotel). This, would also get you points.

Typically you need 4,000 plus points for a one way flight into Europe and, you still pay taxes and charges - it can be worthwhile but, you need to spend a lot to get there.

With combination of Airline loyalty (if in One-World you can transfer points to British Airways and then onto Aer Lingus), Avios on a credit card and possibly hotel spend you could rack up some points but, doubt you'd hit 4k plus quick enough to justify the costs.

Also, to apply for a credit card now to book flights means waiting for the application process and there is a chance price of flights will increase.

The Aer Lingus credit card does come with Annual Travel insurance so, the monthly fee of €6.50 is pretty much offset by that, unless you already insurance.

Points do not expire as long as you keep adding to them so, maybe take a long view and just collect points and in 2/3 years with more trips you'll get a 'free' flight somewhere.

CelticRambler

As a rule, any "free" flights you might book with points aren't actually free - you still have to pay taxes and other charges. If you bargain-hunt aggressively and aren't tied too tightly to specific dates, you can sometimes (often?) get a regularly-priced flight for less than the cost of the taxes on the free one.

Unless you're a frequent flyer and a big spender overall, chances are you'll never accumulate enough points to justify the cost and hassle of joining such a programme; but if you do, the best way to use your points is likely to be in the form of a seating/class upgrade rather than a free-not-free flight.

L1011

You are realistically too late to get any real, or any at all, savings for flights this December

Rock Steady Edy

Credit cards are fine as long as you set up a direct debit to pay it all off at the end of each month and don't use it to withdraw cash. Obviously you must trust yourself not to change your spending pattern because you have a credit card, which not everyone has the discipline to do.

I've been using a credit card in this way for 30+ years and never paid interest. Last year I earned about €100 using my Avantmoney rewards credit card in cash back (it gives about 1% back on certain spending categories, up to a max of €12pm).

CelticRambler

Further to the above, one significant advantage to having a credit vs debit card is the ability to take advantage of genuine time-limited offers for something you were going to buy anyway, if you know you'll have the funds available before the card statement is due. This can be really handy for things like flights when a number of seats are put up for sale at "flash sale" prices just before you get paid, for example.

Again, you need to be constantly on the look-out for this kind of thing, but the savings can be much more significant than a "just-pay-taxes-and-charges" free ticket.

BailMeOut

You'd need 60,000+ airmiles to get you to Australia so you'd need to spend €60k on a credit card to get to this level.

endofrainbow

Better protection using a credit card than a debit card.

Nigel Fairservice

I wouldn't waste my time trying to save money on flights to Australia through credit card usage. Although having a credit card is handy and as long as you pay it off monthly you shouldn't have a problem.

dory

As above, it’s too late for this year.

I have the upgraded Revolut (Metal) and about 37,000 points from just putting all my household bills on the card. All my spending goes through it, and I’ve had a few bill bills lately (a 5k bill will get me 2,500 points). 26,000 plus taxes and charges (€240 or so) will get me a round trip to USA/Canada. Haven’t looked into Australia. But it’s very late now to go collecting for this year. You could pay on the Revolut card and have the points from the cost of that for future travel.

ted1

not really a thing in Europe. Everything is inflated in countries that do it as they know allow for a discount

thebiglad

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123662908#Comment_123662908

Plus the monthly fee for Revolut - only worth it if the 'perks' from the Revolut Metal justify the cost outside of the Airmiles.

dory

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123664739#Comment_123664739

Yeah, it's worth it for me for the travel insurance with excess car rental insurance, the VPN and a few others.

lau1247

You mentioned that you spend everything through PTSB debit card. Depending on how much you earn and spend per year, it might be worth while to look at AIB platinum (criteria is earning 40K and above), it give you 0.5% on everything you spend through it after the first 5K (up to 50K) and it resets every year.

For myself, I spend enough every year to cover the Stamp Duty from credit card and still have extra from cashback. The way I see it is that if you are doing the spending already anyway (through debit card), you might as well do it through credit card and get paid for it. Again, this is depending on how much you earn and spend per year.

Hope this helps.