How to Travel in Luxury: The Beginner's Guide to Points & Miles

Around 10 years ago I was boarding a long haul flight to Orlando in economy. I watched everyone turning left and thinking “wow that must cost a fortune”

Back then, I had no idea how to travel in luxury with points and miles. Fast forward to now and I’ve flown Business and First Class multiple times while working a normal 9 to 5 job in the UK.

This is a simple UK beginner guide to help you get started on your journey to turning left on the plane.

I’ll help you learn the exact strategies I’ve used to earn over 1.5 million points and being able to fly Business and First Class on a normal 9 to 5 budget.

What you’ll learn:

How to start collecting points/airmiles without over complicating it
How to earn points faster on normal daily spending
How to redeem your points for real value, and not just £20 off a flight

I’ll help you avoid beginners mistakes too. I should know, I made a lot of them when I first started!

How to Travel in Luxury with Points and Miles: Start Here

If you’re serious about learning how to travel in luxury with points and miles, firstly, answer these questions:

What’s your go to airline at the moment?
Do they have a loyalty points programme?
Do they have a loyalty programme credit card?

If you don’t have a go to airline at the moment then pick one and commit.

My main airline is British Airways (BA) so I collect their Avios points. BA are part of the oneworld alliance so that also contains American Airlines, Iberia, Qatar Airways, and more.

Another good option from the UK is Virgin Atlantic and their Virgin Red points programme. You can also spend these points on LATAM Airways and South African Airways.

You could also choose KLM’s Flying Blue programme. KLM is part of the SkyTeam alliance which features other airlines like Etihad Airways and Air France.

A beginner mistake is definitely spreading yourself too thin and trying to collect points in every loyalty scheme.
Don’t overcomplicate it. Just pick one and commit to it for 6 months to a year.

Earn Smart

Now that you’ve picked an airline, let’s have a look at credit card options to help you accrue points faster. This will give you a jump start and it’s the best way to boost your points quickly. Not only that, it will bring you consistent points with every day spend. Just make sure you pay off the balance before you get hit with interest charges.

Credit card companies will typically provide you with an incentive to sign up. It’s usually a set amount of points if you spend a certain amount within a specific period of time. For example, if you register today for the British Airways American Express Premium Plus Card then you’ll get 30,000 Avios if you spend £6,000 in the first 3 months.

I’ll focus on Avios and Virgin for the UK credit card options.

The Best Avios Credit Card:British Airways American Express Premium Plus Card
The American Express Premium Plus Card comes at a cost of £300 per year but the key benefits and details are outlined below.
- Introductory Offer: 30,000 Avios when you spend £6,000 in the first 3 months (note that this is correct at the time of writing)
- Ask me for my referral link for bonus Avios when you sign up.
- Annually: Get a Companion Voucher when you spend £15,000 each year. You can use the voucher to essentially half the Avios required for two people on the same reward flight or you can get a 50% discount on the Avios price of the reward flight for one person (taxes still apply). This can be used on Economy, Premium Economy, Business, or First Class flights.
- 1.5x Avios on purchases
- 3x Avios on purchases made with British Airways or British Airways Holidays
- £300 per year fee
The Runner Up Avios Credit Card: British Airways American Express Credit Card
The alternative to build up your Avios, without paying an annual fee, is the American Express Credit Card. There is no annual fee for this card but the benefits are understandably not as good.
- Introductory Offer: 5,000 Avios when you spend £2,000 in the first 3 months (note that this is correct at the time of writing)
- Ask me for my referral link for bonus Avios when you sign up.
- Annually: Get a Companion Voucher when you spend £15,000 each year. You can use the voucher to essentially half the Avios required for two people on the same reward flight or you can get a 50% discount on the Avios price of the reward flight for one person (taxes still apply). This can be used on Economy flights only.
- 1x Avios on purchases
- £0 per year fee
The Best Virgin Points Credit Card: Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Credit Card
The Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Card comes at a cost of £160 a year but this is till the go to card if you want to focus on collecting Virgin Points.
- Introductory Offer: 18,000 Virgin Points when you use your card for the first time within the first 90 days (note that this is correct at the time of writing)
- If you use code referral code: A0XdlBgsKGUhYKBciDZPGw== at the following link: https://www.virginmoney.com/cards/referafriend you’ll receive an extra 7,000 points.
- Annually: Get a Flying Club Reward voucher when you spend £10,000 each year. These vouchers are slightly more complicated than the British Airways companion vouchers. If you’re in the starter Red tier, you can use the voucher to get a 75,000 Virgin Points reduction from your companion reward flight redemption or upgrade total if you’re flying solo. This can be increased to 150,000 Virgin Points if you’re a Silver or Gold tier member. This can be used on Economy, Premium or Upper Class flights.
- 1.5x Virgin Points on purchases
- 3x Virgin Points on purchases made with Virgin Atlantic or Virgin Holidays
- £160 per year fee
The Runner Up Virgin Points Credit Card: Virgin Atlantic Reward Credit Card
The alternative is the Virgin Atlantic Reward Card which is the equivalent card without an annual fee. The benefits as you’d expect aren’t as good but they’re detailed below.
- Introductory Offer: 3,000 Virgin Points when you use your card for the first time within the first 90 days (note that this is correct at the time of writing)
- If you use code referral code: A0XdlBgsKGUhYKBciDZPGw== at the following link: https://www.virginmoney.com/cards/referafriend you’ll receive an extra 4,000 points.
- Annually: Get a Flying Club Reward voucher when you spend £20,000 each year. These vouchers are slightly more complicated than the British Airways companion vouchers. If you’re in the starter Red tier, you can use the voucher to get a 75,000 Virgin Points reduction from your companion reward flight redemption or upgrade total if you’re flying solo. This can be increased to 150,000 Virgin Points if you’re a Silver or Gold tier member. This can be used on Economy, Premium or Upper Class flights.
- 0.75x Virgin Points on purchases
- 1.5x Virgin Points on purchases made with Virgin Atlantic or Virgin Holidays
- £0 per year fee
The Best Flexible Points Credit Card: American Express Preferred Rewards Gold Credit Card
The American Express Gold card lets you accumulate American Express Membership Points. These points can be transferred to airlines like British Airways, Delta, Emirates, Etihad, KLM, Qatar, SAS and Virgin Atlantic. They can also be transferred to hotel partners like Hilton, Marriott and Radisson. The rates of these transfers differ depending on the partner. These give you much more flexibility. Here are the benefits of the AMEX Gold card.
- Introductory Offer: 28,000 Avios when you spend £3,000 in the first 3 months (note that this is correct at the time of writing and there is a bonus from 20,000 Avios to 28,000)
- Ask me for my referral link for bonus Avios when you sign up.
- Annually: Four Airport Lounge Passes
- Monthly: £10 off Deliveroo
- 1x Membership Points on purchases
- 2x Membership Points on purchases with Airlines
- 3x Membership Points on purchases made through American Express Travel
- £195 per year fee (£0 for the first year)
The Runner Up Flexible Points Credit Card: American Express Platinum Card
I personally prefer the Platinum Card to the Gold card but the much higher annual fee makes this less attractive for beginners to the points space. The annual fee is £650 but comes with a whole host of benefits. I explain the benefits and the true cost of the card to me in this article: American Express Platinum UK: Is the Premium Card Worth £650? Revisited.

Here are a few additional options for each airline points scheme. These won’t get you a lot of points on their own but in addition to your credit card points these will keep your points balance continuously increasing.

Avios:

BA Shopping
- This is a shopping portal that allows you to get a small amount of Avios back on your spend at various shops. This is like TopCashBack/Quidco but instead of getting a small cash commission, you get a small Avios commission. This combined with using the credit card above you’ll get points through your credit card and BA Shopping.
Nectar Conversion
- If you collect Nectar points from shopping at Sainsbury’s, Argos or eBay then you can convert them to Avios. Every 400 Nectar points converts to 250 Avios. I have automatic conversion on but they do have some boost periods throughout the year where that conversion rate is higher so it could be worth hanging off for that.
Avios For Thoughts
- Avios For Thoughts give you the chance to get Avios for your thoughts. Who would’ve thought it? When you sign up you get a small bonus of Avios and then you can complete surveys for Avios after that. If you’ve got a spare bit of time this can be a small boost but I don’t spend lots of time on this one myself.

Virgin:

Tesco Conversion
- Similar to the Nectar conversion for Avios, if you shop at Tesco then you can swap your Tesco vouchers for Virgin Points. You get 300 Virgin Points for every £1.50 voucher. You can also set up automatic conversion so you can set it and forget it.
ShopsAway
- This is the Virgin Points equivalent shopping portal. Similar to the BA Shopping portal you get Virgin Points for purchases through this link. There is no increase to the cost for you and you can get more points by using your Virgin credit card in addition to using this portal

Spend Smart

The whole goal of how to travel in luxury with points and miles is getting the msximum value per point.

For the best use of your points, never use them for money off a maximum

If you search through posts on Reddit you’ll see that very mistake from beginners regularly. It’s one of the worst redemption options alongside swapping your points for gift cards. Don’t do that either!

My number 1 rule is to never spend Avios unless I get at least 1p value per Avios/Virgin Point.

That means if you could book reward flights for 100,000 Avios/Virgin Point plus £350 taxes or you could pay in cash less than £1,350 then paying in cash is the better option.

You’re most likely to get the most value from booking long haul flights in premium cabins like Business / First Class on British Airways or Upper Class on Virgin. These fares are typically £1,500+ in cash whereas it’s hard to get value on lower cost economy flights, especially where low cost airline alternatives are available.

Always check the amount of Avios required versus cash. 1p an Avios minimum otherwise pay cash.

Example 1 (Good Value)
Flight: London to New York in Business Class
Cash price: £2,200 return
Reward price: 100,000 Avios + £350 fees and taxes
Value per Avios: 1.85p per Avios

Example 2 (Bad Value)
Flight: London to Paris in Economy
Cash price: £72 return
Reward price: 18,000 Avios + £35 fees and taxes
Value per Avios: 0.2p per Avios

Why Choose Premium Cabins?

This is where travelling in luxury with points and miles becomes worth the effort. When you’re working full time, your time and energy can be worth way more than saving a couple of hundred pounds. Turning left in Tokyo means you can go straight to exploring and not straight to bed.

In addition, you get access to the airport lounge, priority security and boarding, lie flat seats and more luggage. In terms of comfort you won’t get a better experience on a plane so it’s definitely the way to go with your air miles.

I’d recommend having a plan for your points. For example, you might want to fly in Business Class with British Airways. Now that you have a goal then you can research just how many Avios you need. Using London to New York as an example you would be looking at roughly 100,000 Avios.

Be sure to keep a track of your points and aim to book your reward flights as soon as possible. On more popular routes it can be difficult to get availability so booking as early as you can is best. Reward flights are typically easy to cancel and refund too.