USING POINTS FOR PURCHASES

POST stevescoots DATE Sept 7, 02:51

Does anybody use points to buy from airline stores? This morning I received my Flying Blue statement and found myself looking at the offers. On the flight offers, I can get from the EU to Hong Kong for 156,000 points in business or for 157,000 miles I can buy a Dyson vacuum cleaner. The average price of a flight to Hong Kong is £2,000, while the high-street price of a Dyson is £500. I think you need to be on a no-fly list to choose to buy appliances instead of flights.

Gin&Tonic Sept 7, 06:17

Similarly, when I look at the American Express catalogue for points purchases, the number of points for a basic purchase is ridiculous when I compare how many miles in the air those points get me if I transfer them to my BA Executive Club account.

Knightflyer Sept 8, 13:10

It can make sense if miles are soon to expire. I’ve made good-value purchases on Etihad’s site, delivered into Egypt and Malaysia for points-only with no add-on duty or charges. In contrast, I was hit with duty and charges equal to the value of the items when I tried the same with Emirates. I just converted a wedge of expiring Skywards miles to Heathrow Rewards as it provided much better value for money.

PerthWA Sept 8, 14:45

Having had the “you’ll lose your points in a nano-second unless you do something now” from Virgin Australia Velocity, I ended up with a steam cleaner and a cookbook. If I’d read the fine print on these outstanding points (amounting to quite a few thousand), I could have been in first class on Singapore Airlines on my last flight, except, of course, there was no first class. Points roulette. I give up…