Banks battle for Airmiles customers

Hundreds of thousands of NatWest customers will have to take out a Lloyds TSB credit card if they want to keep on collecting Airmiles while spending on plastic.

And the evidence so far is that they may well do just that, with 25,000 applying in just five days.

NatWest has dumped the Airmiles reward scheme after 19 years of letting customers collect miles via their credit card spending.

From 1 June, the bank is offering a new scheme called YourPoints, linked to the Ebookers travel website and Easyjet.

This will let members of the new scheme use their points to book flights on any airline available via Ebookers, including other low-cost airlines.

Less popular

NatWest will not reveal exactly how many of its credit card customers are members of the Airmiles reward scheme, other than to say that they are in the minority.

NATWEST CHANGES

Airmiles scheme: One mile for £20 spent - ends from date of June statement

Airmiles Mastercard: Stops working altogether from 31 July

YourPoints scheme: Starts from 1 June on offer to existing Airmiles scheme members - costs £3 a month unless you spend at least £1,000 a month

But its research has found that the scheme has become less popular with them over the years.

"There was a lack of flexibility to get seats on the days they wanted or the seats they wanted," said a NatWest spokeswoman.

When Airmiles, partly owned by British Airways, was first launched 19 years ago, the only flights available were on the big and expensive national airlines.

But the past decade has seen a revolution in international travel, with the advent of low-cost airlines flying passengers around Europe and now even further afield, as well as people using the internet to book their own flights.

New cards

From the beginning of next month, anyone still wanting a credit card that accumulates Airmiles will have to sign up for the new Lloyds TSB cards.

LLOYDS TSB SCHEME

Airmiles Duo: Offers one Amex card and one Mastercard

Amex card: One Airmile for every £10 spent

Mastercard: One Airmile for every £20 spent until 30 November, one Airmile for every £50 spent thereafter

These are branded as Airmiles Duo, as the bank will supply both an American Express credit card and a Mastercard credit card for the account.

NatWest customers who collect Airmiles through either a NatWest card or one issued by Coutts bank will not be able to accumulate them any more from the date of their June statement.

But they will still keep their separate Airmiles account, while any points still in them can be spent any time they like.

However, people with an Airmiles Mastercard credit card, also issued by NatWest, have a possible problem.

This bit of plastic will stop working altogether from 31 July, once NatWest breaks its link with Airmiles, and will be completely redundant.

NatWest says it will be issuing them with a new NatWest Platinum credit card, with the same account number and credit limit as their current card.

Again, the accumulated Airmiles will still be available to the card holders.

Better deal?

Lloyds TSB claims it will offer a much better deal, letting people run up twice as many miles for each pound spent as on the existing NatWest cards.

But that depends on which of its two cards you use.

Twenty-five thousand applications demonstrates the lure of Airmiles

Lloyds TSB

The Duo American Express credit card will indeed offer one mile for every £10 spent on it.

That is twice as good as the one mile for every £20 spent on NatWest credit cards.

But the Duo Mastercard will still accumulate one mile for every £20 spent, and only until 30 November 2007.

After that, the rate at which miles build up on the credit card will be much more meagre - just one mile for every £50 spent.

The bank explained that the Mastercard was really a back-up for customers who found themselves in the 20% of retail outlets that do not accept American Express.

YourPoints

The new YourPoints scheme now being offered to NatWest customers is not quite a direct replacement for the outgoing Airmiles scheme.

For a start, only people who are already NatWest Airmiles customers can join up.

And if they spend less than £1,000 a month on their card, they will be charged £3 a month for YourPoints membership.

The Airmiles business is now encouraging current NatWest customers to sign up for its new Lloyds TSB Duo offer instead.

It sent letters to all of them last Friday. As of Wednesday this week, it had received 25,000 applications from NatWest customers keen to keep racking up their miles.

A Lloyds TSB spokeswoman said this was a phenomenal response.

"Twenty-five thousand applications demonstrates the lure of Airmiles," she said.