Jan 1, 2014, 5:45 am
Last edit by: EsherFlyer
Current sign-up, referral, spend promotions and retention offers
New member sign ups
British Airways American Express Premium Plus Card:
Collect 25,000 bonus Avios when you spend £3,000 within the first three months of card membership.
British Airways American Express Credit Card:
Collect 9,000 bonus Avios when you spend £1,000 within the first three months of card membership.
Referrals
If you are already a BA American Express card holder (either BA card) and introduce a friend to the BA American Express card, you'll receive a 4,000 Avios bonus once your friend's application is approved.
If you are already a BA American Express card holder (either BA card) and introduce a friend to the Premium Plus card, you'll receive a 9,000 Avios bonus once your friend's application is approved.
If your friend achieves the spend required for the welcome offer on either card they'll receive an additional 1,000 Avios. I.e. 26,000 or 10,000 total bonus Avios for the Premium Plus and Credit Card respectively.
Promotions
Retention offers
Voucher eligible spend
Pretty much everything counts towards the £10,000 (or £20,000) required to earn a 2-4-1 Companion Voucher, including the following which might be unexpected:
A few things that don't:
The online total to the right of the card summary is pretty up to date, and far more useful for tracking spend than what the statements show.
Insurance
Both standard and Premium Plus cards include insurance benefits for goods and services purchased on the card. Full details here and here respectively. Summary of Premium Plus benefit are shown here, with standard card offering same cover unless alternate figure is shown in parentheses:
New member sign ups
British Airways American Express Premium Plus Card:
Collect 25,000 bonus Avios when you spend £3,000 within the first three months of card membership.
British Airways American Express Credit Card:
Collect 9,000 bonus Avios when you spend £1,000 within the first three months of card membership.
Referrals
If you are already a BA American Express card holder (either BA card) and introduce a friend to the BA American Express card, you'll receive a 4,000 Avios bonus once your friend's application is approved.
If you are already a BA American Express card holder (either BA card) and introduce a friend to the Premium Plus card, you'll receive a 9,000 Avios bonus once your friend's application is approved.
If your friend achieves the spend required for the welcome offer on either card they'll receive an additional 1,000 Avios. I.e. 26,000 or 10,000 total bonus Avios for the Premium Plus and Credit Card respectively.
Small print:
You must refer your friend via the referral link provided above to be eligible for this offer.
You may recommend as many friends or family members as you wish but you can only receive a maximum of 45,000 Avios per calendar year for those approved for a Card.
You will receive 4,000 bonus Avios if your friend applies and is approved for the British Airways American Express Credit Card. Your friend will receive 4,000 bonus Avios after they have been approved and spent a minimum of £1,000 on goods and services purchased and charged to their Account within three months of Account opening.
You will receive 9,000 bonus Avios if your friend applies and is approved for the British Airways American Express Premium Plus Card. Your friend will receive 19,000 bonus Avios after they have been approved and spent a minimum of £3,000 on goods and services purchased and charged to their Account within three months of Account opening.
When completing the referral form, you must
(i) select the Card you hold from the list at Step 1 and
(ii) select a card to recommend from those listed at Step 2. If you do not follow this process, you and your friend will not be eligible for the bonus.
If your friend has already applied for any of the British Airways American Express Credit Cards without using this referral, you and your friend will not be eligible for the bonus Avios.
All introductory offers are subject to change, can be withdrawn at any time and are not available if your friend currently holds or has held any other British Airways American Express Credit Cards in the past six months.
You must refer your friend via the referral link provided above to be eligible for this offer.
You may recommend as many friends or family members as you wish but you can only receive a maximum of 45,000 Avios per calendar year for those approved for a Card.
You will receive 4,000 bonus Avios if your friend applies and is approved for the British Airways American Express Credit Card. Your friend will receive 4,000 bonus Avios after they have been approved and spent a minimum of £1,000 on goods and services purchased and charged to their Account within three months of Account opening.
You will receive 9,000 bonus Avios if your friend applies and is approved for the British Airways American Express Premium Plus Card. Your friend will receive 19,000 bonus Avios after they have been approved and spent a minimum of £3,000 on goods and services purchased and charged to their Account within three months of Account opening.
When completing the referral form, you must
(i) select the Card you hold from the list at Step 1 and
(ii) select a card to recommend from those listed at Step 2. If you do not follow this process, you and your friend will not be eligible for the bonus.
If your friend has already applied for any of the British Airways American Express Credit Cards without using this referral, you and your friend will not be eligible for the bonus Avios.
All introductory offers are subject to change, can be withdrawn at any time and are not available if your friend currently holds or has held any other British Airways American Express Credit Cards in the past six months.
Promotions
Retention offers
Voucher eligible spend
Pretty much everything counts towards the £10,000 (or £20,000) required to earn a 2-4-1 Companion Voucher, including the following which might be unexpected:
- Foreign transaction fees
A few things that don't:
- Annual membership fee
- Interest payments
- Transactions under £1 (although you can earn the single Avios
)
The online total to the right of the card summary is pretty up to date, and far more useful for tracking spend than what the statements show.
Insurance
Both standard and Premium Plus cards include insurance benefits for goods and services purchased on the card. Full details here and here respectively. Summary of Premium Plus benefit are shown here, with standard card offering same cover unless alternate figure is shown in parentheses:
- Purchase protection: £2,500
- Refund protection: £300 (£200) per item
- Flight delay / cancellation / overbooking / missed: £200 (£0)
- Baggage delay (6+ hours): £750 (£0)
- Baggage delay (48+ hours): £1,000 (£0), additional to 6 hours benefit
- Accident: £250,000 (£75,000)
- Hijack (24+ hours): £1,500
- Hijack (72+ hours): £3,000, additional to the 24h benefit
BA American Express credit card
Oct 7, 2020, 2:11 pm
#2131
Join Date: Jun 2014
Location: NCL
Programs: BAEC and Hilton mostly
Posts: 655
No problems davidcamp6 - I am currently thinking about cancelling my Times sub, given they've just terminated the Travel magazine. Your post seemed to offer an alternative and I thought it best to post the restriction 
I may have a chat with Brighton and see if they would consider making the offer to personal customers in the light of the lack of travel opportunities... yeah, right!
and I thought it best to post the restriction I may have a chat with Brighton and see if they would consider making the offer to personal customers in the light of the lack of travel opportunities... yeah, right!
Oct 8, 2020, 8:49 am
#2132
Join Date: Apr 2013
Location: Devon, UK
Programs: VS Silver; Matmid Silver, BA Bronze; Accor Plat.
Posts: 960
When I completed a survey, I did raise the issue of the redundancy of the PP card. They called me. Although clearly reading from a script they had flexibility and offered £150 off next years fee as a gesture to keep me enrolled. I don't have a massive spend on the card, I am a sole trader and use it for travel and hotels.
Oct 20, 2020, 5:16 am
#2133
Join Date: Sep 2007
Programs: AA, BA, Accor, Honors Diamond, IHG Diamond Elite and lots more....
Posts: 2,971
So I learnt today that Amex will take thousands over the amount owed if you have had a big merchant refund in the month.
They are quite happy for the card to be thousands in credit.
And if you are abroad and opted not to bring the card away you can't get the money refunded.
The direct debit is only adjusted if you make payments and any merchant refunds are ignored.
Or I can pay 3% fx fee to use the credit (I have the card on my hotel account so can still use it)
They are quite happy for the card to be thousands in credit.
And if you are abroad and opted not to bring the card away you can't get the money refunded.
The direct debit is only adjusted if you make payments and any merchant refunds are ignored.
Or I can pay 3% fx fee to use the credit (I have the card on my hotel account so can still use it)
Oct 20, 2020, 6:28 am
#2135
Join Date: Sep 2007
Programs: AA, BA, Accor, Honors Diamond, IHG Diamond Elite and lots more....
Posts: 2,971
My card was wrongly charged and then refunded within 24 hours. However a Statement was issued between these events.
Amex will ignore any merchant refunds in the direct debit apparently and this they tell you in the letter.
You have to cancel the direct debit to avoid Amex taking the money in addition to the refund by the merchant.
You then need to wait for the refund which takes two weeks if you have the card in front of you. If you don't then there is no refund until you do or spend the money again to bring the account from a large credit situation to a debit one.
In the meantime they will sit on thousands and you cannot do anything about it.
My chat with them fell on deaf ears and all they could say is that all card holders agree that merchant refunds will not alter the direct debit even if this makes the card in credit which is also not allowed 😂 😂
You can't win!
Oct 20, 2020, 6:34 am
#2137
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: London
Programs: Mucci. Nothing else matters.
Posts: 38,644
Oct 20, 2020, 6:38 am
#2138
Join Date: Sep 2007
Programs: AA, BA, Accor, Honors Diamond, IHG Diamond Elite and lots more....
Posts: 2,971
Oct 20, 2020, 6:40 am
#2139
Join Date: Mar 2018
Posts: 142
Yeah you don't need the card at all. And just request the refund.
If you have such severe cashflow issues that this is a problem, simply disable direct debits on that card if you don't want them going out when not necessary.
edit: presumably you've memorised the 4 digits on the front or just put them in your password vault
If you have such severe cashflow issues that this is a problem, simply disable direct debits on that card if you don't want them going out when not necessary.
edit: presumably you've memorised the 4 digits on the front or just put them in your password vault
Oct 20, 2020, 6:49 am
#2142
Join Date: Sep 2007
Programs: AA, BA, Accor, Honors Diamond, IHG Diamond Elite and lots more....
Posts: 2,971
Yeah you don't need the card at all. And just request the refund.
If you have such severe cashflow issues that this is a problem, simply disable direct debits on that card if you don't want them going out when not necessary.
edit: presumably you've memorised the 4 digits on the front or just put them in your password vault
If you have such severe cashflow issues that this is a problem, simply disable direct debits on that card if you don't want them going out when not necessary.
edit: presumably you've memorised the 4 digits on the front or just put them in your password vault
I have no plans to spend that on that Amex in the next couple of months as I am currently abroad.
Oct 21, 2020, 1:26 am
#2144
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: UK
Posts: 10,709
Excel spreadsheett with two passwords is the way I do it
All card numbers are listed and if a card is replaced and number changed I use an additional sheet on excel listing them and when they changed.
So the excel spreadsheet has a password then I use winzip with another password.
All card numbers are listed and if a card is replaced and number changed I use an additional sheet on excel listing them and when they changed.
So the excel spreadsheet has a password then I use winzip with another password.
Oct 21, 2020, 1:36 am
#2145
Join Date: Sep 2009
Posts: 1,015
After 10 years I've finally downgraded from the Premium to the basic card. I could no longer justify the 195 pound fee against the backdrop of ongoing travel disruption and the inability to use 2-4-1 even for short haul without testing/qurantine either end. Tesco no longer being an Avios partner also at the back of my mind although in truth the whole points game has taken a tumble in recent years.
I'll still plod along with the free card and never say never, I might stump up for the Premium in the future
I'll still plod along with the free card and never say never, I might stump up for the Premium in the future