Calling Barry Collins, 44, a “dots nerd” seems woefully inappropriate given his level of devotion to the craft. More precisely, he is a millionaire in points after completing a challenge proposed in the last months of 2024 by the Scandinavian airline SAS: fly around the world using routes operated by 15 members of the SkyTeam Alliance.
Describe the experience as something similar to television. Race around the world Without the cameras, Barry’s odyssey to rack up points cost him £3,950 and involved 21 budget flights, many of them long-haul. This has earned you 1 million EuroBonus points which, if spent wisely, could be worth £10,000.
Barry says, “Every guy I’ve talked to about this says, ‘That sounds great,’ but every woman asks, ‘So WHO Are you taking care of your children?’”
The SAS promotion has sparked great interest among points enthusiasts around the world, as well as intense criticism of environmentalists.
SAS declined to reveal the number of passengers who completed the million point challenge, but some travel bloggers estimate it could be in the hundreds. Many, like Barry, did it for the thrill of the chase. On one flight, from Guangzhou to Nairobi, he discovered that 10 of his traveling companions (nine men and one woman) were all on the same search.
I find this darkly fascinating. What is it that makes so many men go crazy about stitches? How far will they go to maximize their point accumulation and redemption technique? And if you’re tempted to try it yourself, is it really worth it?
Consumer outrage this week over British Airways’ decision to renew its Executive Club loyalty program from April shows how much these things matter to a certain type of traveller.
Gamification of the points industry creates addictive appeal, says Rob Burgess, former investment banker behind Go to the pointsa travel website dedicated to hotel points programs and frequent travelers.
We met for lunch in the Square Mile, but the day before he had taken his teenage son to Paris (on points) and they ate at a fancy sushi restaurant for next to nothing using his £150 Amex Platinum foreign dining credit.
“It’s human nature to revel in beating the system,” he smiles. 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.
You can get free money, but you can also lose it if you stop paying attention. Most cards have annual fees; Ridiculously high interest rates are charged if you don’t pay off your balance in full each month, and the temptation to overspend in pursuit of points is ever-present.
And if too many people get too good at gaming the system, airlines can change the rules of the game. Rob believes BA’s changes will make it “very difficult, almost impossible” for leisure travelers to gain the coveted ‘gold’ status in the future.
However, January is the peak time of year for newbies to point collecting to get started. American Express Preferred Rewards Gold Card Offers 30,000 Membership Rewards Point Sign-On Bonus if you apply before January 14 (can be redeemed for Avios, plus many other airline and hotel points schemes).
Spend £25,000 on your card in your first year and you’ll earn another 12,500 points. There are double points on foreign spending and air transactions. See how easy it is to get sucked down this rabbit hole?
However, only a few manage to get very good value from points systems, he points out. As a former banker, he is adept at making point calculations. The key lesson? Redeeming your points for business or first class flights gives you the maximum redemption value.
When paying with points, a first class ticket costs three to four times more than an economy class ticket. But if you paid cash, it could cost 10-20 times more, so the premium flat-bed cabin is (strangely) much better value.
“If you’re the kind of person who would pay £3,000 to fly first class, this means you have In fact He saved £3,000 of his own money,” he says. Understanding that this quest is about getting better value, rather than lower prices, explains why so many wealthy people become obsessed with accumulating points. Plus, if you travel a lot for work, the points you collect on flights and hotels are effectively free.
Barry, a property developer and kitchen designer, started collecting points 10 years ago thanks to a fellow business owner who funneled a lot of work-related expenses through points cards. You’ve never paid for a fancy flight in your life, but over the past decade, your hobby has taken your family in first or business class to Orlando, Cancun, the Caribbean and many other places for no more than the taxes and fees flights of your flight. seating.
It saddens him to know that I have never flown anything other than economy class. I rarely fly and prefer to 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.
However, a hidden benefit of paying for airfares with points is flexibility. Give 24 hours’ notice and most airlines will only charge a nominal fee of £30 for changing your flight. The forums are full of tips for booking flights, how to use spyseat to notify you when new seats appear or SeatGuru to view airline seating charts.
Double or triple earning is Barry’s top tip for maximizing your points collection in 2025. Use the British Airways system Avios purchase site as a portal to other retailers’ websites and you will accumulate extra points. At the time of writing, you could earn 16 Avios for every £1 spent at Harvey Nicks and 18 at Diptyque. Good news if you’re the kind of person who doesn’t mind spending £85 on a fancy candle. But there are always deals on hotel booking sites, travel insurance, and other essentials you’d probably need to buy anyway.
Barry then selects one of his 10 cards from a mobile wallet app called Curvewhich adds another potential layer of points collection or refunds; and 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 trips. Do you enjoy a drink? The wine brochure Always has good Avios offers. Energy companies, including Octopus, will allow you to pay your bill on Amex (the forums recommend setting up a low value direct debit and then topping it up). You can even pay your council tax bills using a Visa or Mastercard points card.
However, Barry warns: “To rack up a decent amount of points, you need to do it on everything, every time. It’s all in or don’t bother.”
There are quite a few of my Financial Times colleagues (all of them men) who are fiercely interested in this topic. Dare I say it, I think it’s even made Christmas shopping enjoyable for some of them!
This brings me back to Barry’s wife, Cheryl. She was happy to babysit so Barry could travel and has a solo sea swimming holiday booked in Türkiye; Plus, you can now share the million points with him.
Claer Barrett is the FT’s consumer editor and author of ‘What they don’t teach you about money‘. claer.barrett@ft.com instagram @claerb