To call 44-year old Barry Collins a “points nerd” feels woefully inadequate given his level of devotion to the craft. More accurately, he is a points millionaire after completing a challenge set in the closing months of 2024 by Scandinavian airline SAS — to fly around the world using routes operated by 15 members of the SkyTeam Alliance.
Describing the experience as being like TV’s Race Across the World without the cameras, Barry’s point-collecting odyssey cost him £3,950 and involved 21 economy flights, many of them long haul. This has netted him 1mn EuroBonus points which — if spent wisely — could be worth £10,000.
Barry says: “Every single bloke I’ve told about this says: ‘That sounds so cool’ but every single woman asks: ‘And who is looking after your children?’”
The SAS promotion has attracted huge interest from points enthusiasts around the world, as well as intense criticism from environmentalists.
SAS declined to reveal the number of passengers who have completed the million points challenge, but some travel bloggers estimate it could be hundreds. Many, like Barry, were doing it for the thrill of the chase. On one flight, from Guangzhou to Nairobi, he discovered that 10 of his fellow passengers — nine men, and one woman — were all on the same quest.
I find this darkly fascinating. What is it that makes so many men potty about points? What lengths will they go to to maximise their point collection and redemption technique — and if you’re tempted to have a go yourself, is it ever really worth it?
Consumer outrage this week about British Airways’ decision to shake up its Executive Club loyalty scheme from April shows you how much these things matter to a certain type of traveller.
The gamification of the points industry creates the addictive allure, says Rob Burgess, a former investment banker behind Head for Points, a travel website devoted to frequent flyer and hotel points schemes.
We met up for lunch in the Square Mile, but the day before he had taken his teenage son to Paris (on points) and they ate in a swanky Sushi place for virtually nothing using his £150 Amex Platinum foreign dining credit.
“It’s human nature to take delight in beating the system,” he grins. The 40,000 people who subscribe to his Saturday newsletter surely agree. But to beat the system, you need to invest time in understanding it.
There’s free money to be had — but there is also money to be lost if you take your eye off the ball. Most cards have annual fees; ludicrously high interest rates are charged if you don’t clear your balance in full each month and the temptation to overspend in pursuit of points is ever present.
And if too many people become too good at playing the system, the airlines can move the goalposts. Rob thinks BA’s changes will make it “very difficult, bordering on impossible” for leisure travellers to earn the coveted ‘gold’ status in future.
Nevertheless, January is the peak time of year for point collection newbies to get started. The American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card offers a sign on bonus of 30,000 Membership Rewards points if you apply before January 14 (these can be exchanged for Avios, plus myriad other airline and hotel points schemes).
Spend £25,000 on your card in your first year, and you’ll get another 12,500 points. There’s double points on foreign spending and airline transactions. See how easy it is to be sucked down this rabbit hole?
Yet only a few manage to get very good value from points schemes, he notes. As a former banker, he is expert in doing the points maths. The key lesson? Trading your points for business or first-class flights gives you the maximum redemption value.
When paying in points, a first-class fare costs three to four times as much as an economy one. But if you paid in cash, it could cost 10 to 20 times as much — so that flat bed premium cabin is (strangely) much better value.
“If you are the sort of person who would pay £3,000 to fly first-class, this means you have really saved £3,000 of your own money,” he says. Understanding that this quest is about getting better value, rather than lower prices, explains why so many wealthy people obsess over points collection. Plus, if you travel a great deal for work, the points you collect from flights and hotels are effectively free.
Barry, a property developer and kitchen designer, was turned on to point collecting 10 years ago by a fellow business owner who routed quite a lot of work-related spending through points cards. He has never paid for a posh flight in his life, but in the past decade, his hobby has flown his family first or business class to Orlando, Cancún, the Caribbean and many other places for no more than the tax and airline charges on their seats.
He is sad to learn that I have never flown anything other than economy. I rarely fly, and I would rather forgo lounges and flat beds to spend the money on first-class experiences at my chosen destination. You can’t miss what you’ve never had.
Yet one hidden benefit of paying for air fares on points is the flexibility. Give 24 hours notice, and most airlines will only charge a nominal fee of £30 for changing your flight. Forums are stacked with flight booking tips, such as using SeatSpy to notify you the instant new seats appear or SeatGuru to view airline seating plans.
Double or triple stacking is Barry’s top tip to max out your points collection in 2025. Use the British Airways’ Avios shopping site as a portal to other retailers’ websites, and you will collect extra points. At the time of writing, you could get 16 Avios per £1 spent at Harvey Nicks, and 18 at Diptyque. Great news if you’re the sort of person who doesn’t mind blowing £85 on a posh candle. But there are always offers on hotel booking sites, travel insurance and other essentials you’d arguably need to buy anyway.
Next, Barry selects one of his 10 cards from a mobile wallet app called Curve, which adds another potential layer of point or cashback collection — then finally, there are the points on the card transaction itself.
Nectar card points can be converted into Avios; you can also earn them on Uber journeys. Enjoy a tipple? The Wine Flyer always has good Avios deals. Energy companies including Octopus will let you pay your bill on Amex (forums advise to set up a low-value direct debit, then top it up). You can even pay council tax bills using a Visa or Mastercard points card.
Yet Barry warns: “To collect a decent amount of points, you have to do it for everything, every time. It’s all in or don’t bother.”
There are quite a few of my FT colleagues — all of them male — who are ferociously interested in this topic. Dare I say it, I think it has even made Christmas shopping pleasurable for some of them!
This brings me back to Barry’s wife, Cheryl. She was happy to look after the children so Barry could jet off, and has a solo sea-swimming holiday in Turkey booked — plus she now gets to share the million points with him.
Claer Barrett is the FT’s consumer editor and the author of ‘What They Don’t Teach You About Money’. [email protected] Instagram @Claerb
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