I needed to have read this morning
Wow, that’s a great tip! Does Uber support digital train tickets or is it a machine job?
They do both. They support Apple Pay too, although I’m yet to see whether they’ve set the Apple Pay passes to expire correctly. Trainline and LNER do, but SWR don’t so you quickly end up with stacks and stacks of QR codes in your Apple Pay.
I suppose given this will now mean there’s an Avios app, popping this in this thread; seeing this in the BA Executive app:
It’ll probably remain just as shit as everything BA IT-wise.
Yeah they’ve got a new logo too.
It’s boring, yes, but it’s also much cleaner and much more versatile. I like it.
It would be great if I could collect Avios using my Flex Card. I would put all my spend through Monzo then!
That’s never going to happen unfortunately. It’s an insanely complex and expensive game for Monzo to get involved in.
I hear you. But. Surely they’re big enough and have enough buying power / sway by now?
They would have to buy all of the Avios first. Amex don’t just hand them out on behalf of Avios - they spend no doubt millions a year purchasing them to be able to give them out to their customers.
Monzo simply wouldn’t be able to compete, or afford this.
BA’s standard valuation for Avios when selling to third parties is 1p per Avios. Supposedly their floor value, which is paid by Nectar, Amex and Barclays is 0.8p per Avios (and is based on purchasing millions).
How many Avios would you like to earn per £ spent on your credit card, and how would you foresee they’d be able to pay for them? Before answering, consider that the interchange fee cap means they will never get more than 0.3p per £ in commission from Mastercard.
(Before you think ‘that can’t be right otherwise how are Barclays doing it’, Barclaycard are making a loss on normal UK spend paid in full on their free card, in hope that they’ll make it back elsewhere.)
For the life of me I can’t find it now but there was an article once about the BA Amex cards and the amount that goes through them is a sizeable amount that is enough to be a percentage of GDP. We’re talking such vast numbers that any company involved would either need large pockets or severely restrict numbers of customers to ensure they didn’t allow too many points to be issued that they couldn’t afford.
It’s similar to hotel points. Not many are aware that it’s the individual hotels often who issue you with your points - and the parent company charge them for it. It’s not just worthless currency - they have value even within the company.
Worth noting that today is the final day to convert Nectar to Avios and receive a 20% bonus. I’ve just moved all mine across.