Avios drops mytrainticket.co.uk for traingenius.com – is it a better deal?

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I’m not sure exactly when this happened, but Avios (ie avios.com) has dropped mytrainticket.co.uk as their exclusive train ticket booking partner. They are now working with traingenius.com

It was back in May that I last wrote about mytrainticket.

Whilst you earned 2 Avios per £1 spent, I was not impressed by the pretty tacky fees that mytrainticket.co.uk added on:

Avios wing 11

Postage was £1.70 (free to collect at station)
Credit card fee was 2.9%
There was a £1 booking fee

Let’s compare that with East Coast Trains, which charges (for tickets on ANY train company) £1 for postage, 0% card fee and £0 booking fee. East Coast also has its own very good loyalty scheme, East Coast Rewards. redspottedhanky.com has no fees at all, even for postage.

Suddenly those mytrainticket.co.uk Avios don’t look as ‘free’ as they were ….

I am not, therefore, sad to see the back of mytrainticket.co.uk. But is traingenius.com any better?

TrainGenius

The answer seems to be ‘not really’:

Here are their fees:

Postage is £1.70 (free to collect at station)
Credit card fee is 2%
There is a £1 booking fee

Put simply – unless you are spending someone elses money – there is no logical reason to use traingenius. Even accounting for the value of the Avios points, you will get a better deal by booking on the East Coast Trains website and earning East Coast Rewards points on top.

The other option is redspottedhanky.com which charges NO postage fees (saving £1 over East Coast), NO card fees and NO booking fee. Sounds better than 2 Avios per £1 and a fist full of fees ….

How to earn Avios points from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (December 2021)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards. Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways BA Amex American Express card

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up, no annual fee and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending ….. Read our full review

British Airways BA Premium Plus American Express Amex credit card

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the UK’s most valuable credit card perk – the 2-4-1 companion voucher Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points, such as:

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & two airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

30,000 points and an unbeatable set of travel benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital On Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios:

Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa

The most generous Avios Visa or Mastercard for a limited company Read our full review

You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus: