‘How I earned £25,000 worth of airmiles and luxury holiday perks in two years’
James Mutton goes to great lengths to earn airmiles and uses the points he collects for luxury travel perks
AVID flyer James Mutton is always willing to go the extra mile when it comes to securing luxury travel at a fraction of its original cost.
Over two thousand miles extra to be precise.
Earlier this year, the self-confessed points junkie had arranged to visit a friend in Aberdeen but rather than booking a direct flight from Gatwick, he decided on a bit of an adventure.
Instead of taking a direct flight from London Gatwick lasting approximately 90 minutes, he set off from London Gatwick but stopped in Jersey, Amsterdam, London Heathrow, Glasgow and Shetland before arriving in Aberdeen.
James, who lives in London, said: “I could have taken the sleeper train for half the price but it wouldn’t have been so much fun!”
“I got to visit places that I had never been to (Jersey and Shetland), as well as fly on some aircraft that I hadn’t flown on before.”
RELATED STORIES
The 31-year-old teacher is addicted to collecting airmiles, as well as hotel loyalty points and his hobby allows him to travel the world with his wife Emma and stay in luxury accommodation for a fraction of what it would cost them full price.
He estimates that if he had paid in cash on a like-for-like basis for the trips that he has been on in the last two-and-half years they would probably be worth around £25,000.
He has used airmiles and hotel points to go to Paris, Bruges, New York, Washington, San Franscisco, Nice, Copenhagen, Madrid and Rome.
His high-flying hobby started in 2002 when he was planning his wedding and realised he would be spending lots on credit cards and decided to reap the benefits by using cards that paid rewards for using them.
It soon paid off and the couple were able to enjoy a trip first class to New York and Washington a result.
He said: “The flights would have been around £8,000 full price but we ended up paying around £500. And we stayed at four and five-star hotels, completely free.”
“In the first class lounge at Heathrow we enjoyed a three-course meal, Champange, waiter service, a massage and spa. It was incredible!”
The main way James collects Avios points - the scheme used by British Airways and Iberia - is by conducting all his spending on credit card and converting it into Tesco points.
In order to make money saving sense James must ensure that he pays off his balance on his American Express Gold credit card so that he doesn’t incur any interest on his balance and end up costing him more money.
James, who documents his airmile obsession in his blog , also uses the Intercontinental Hotel Group rewards club for hotels.
It runs a loyalty scheme that pays points to customers and allows them to then book hotel rooms for free.
He says that airmiles have two uses for him - luxury and last minute travel. He said: “I could never afford to pay for first class, but saving up airmiles meant that I paid the equivalent of an economy ticket to the East Coast of the USA, but flew in First Class.
“They also don’t change in price as you approach the travel date, so I have been able to book flights the day before or on the day of travel for 4,500 Avios and £17.50 one way when a normal cash ticket was over £200.”
Once he even went to Rome for an hour to collect an iPad that he had left on the plane the week before.
said: “A new one would have been about £350, the cheapest tickets I could buy for the next day, which was the only day I could go, were about £700 so I paid about 25,000 Avios and £50.
“Clearly that wouldn’t work for someone who was tight for time, but as a teacher with holidays, I have the time to do it.”
With Avios you still need to pay for taxes when using airmiles to buy flights. This means that James pays £35 in taxes for a short-haul destination in economy, £50 in business class on a return.
For longer flights you are charged taxes and fees making it less good value in the economy class, which is why he sometimes opts to upgrade to first class.
Do you have a money saving trick? We pay for your stories! Tell us: [email protected]