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
May 18, 2022, 4:27 am
#2326
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: JER
Programs: BA Gold/OWE, several MUCCI, and assorted Pensions!
Posts: 32,145
I just called Amex and asked to downgrade to the free BA card. They refused.
So I asked to close my account and now they're making me jump through hoops to do that (I'm currently on the phone with them being transferred to "another department").
Edited to add: cancellation department downgraded me and I'll get a pro-rata refund of whatever I paid last year. Still, an unnecessarily awkward process...
So I asked to close my account and now they're making me jump through hoops to do that (I'm currently on the phone with them being transferred to "another department").
Edited to add: cancellation department downgraded me and I'll get a pro-rata refund of whatever I paid last year. Still, an unnecessarily awkward process...
+ Card number and date unchanged, card [and partner] remain in use until new card is activated. New card eta 7-10 days by post.
+ Existing BA companion vouchers retain all the T&C extant when the voucher was earned [any cabin, 2-year validity].
+ £195 p/a card fee saved, with a pro-rate refund of unused months.
- New Companion Vouchers only valid for Eeekonomy [so I won't be using them!].
- Shorter [1 year] validity of Companion voucher.
- Lower Avios earning [1 per £1 spend]
On the basis that finding redemption seats continues to be extremely difficult, and normal prices are shockingly high, we will just use our 1m Avios to abate cash fares. And we will need cash fares over the next 12 months to renew Gold ... or perhaps accept Silveryness as our 'new normal'.
It was fun while it lasted.
Last edited by T8191; May 18, 2022 at 5:04 am Reason: typos
May 18, 2022, 7:26 am
#2327
Join Date: Nov 2017
Posts: 1,197
Because if you can't use them for business class, they're useless to me.
May 18, 2022, 7:52 am
#2328
Join Date: Aug 2014
Location: London
Programs: KLM, BA Silver, Etihad
Posts: 918
May 18, 2022, 11:22 am
#2329
Join Date: Jan 2010
Programs: Ba gold, gha black
Posts: 283
I just took out the platinum card offer of 60k points to go alongside to go alongside the premium card. Think i will wind down the premium card. 60k points to avios is good enough for 1st class one way on Qatar basically on the 380. The priority pass benefit i think is good enough going forward rather than chasing BA gold just to go in the F lounge from time to time. The surcharge of 1k GBP +100k avios for J just feels like a bad deal to me on the companion spend ticket when every other decent airline will let you redeem miles + about 40gbp for the same sort of long haul J flight.
May 18, 2022, 11:38 am
#2330
Join Date: Jul 2013
Programs: BA GGL/CCR, Hilton Diamond *, IHG, Couples Romance Rewards
Posts: 2,351
Successfully downgraded from the PP card this morning, using their on-line chat facility. A couple of points to note for those with a PP card thinking of doing the same:
+ Card number and date unchanged, card [and partner] remain in use until new card is activated. New card eta 7-10 days by post.
+ Existing BA companion vouchers retain all the T&C extant when the voucher was earned [any cabin, 2-year validity].
+ £195 p/a card fee saved, with a pro-rate refund of unused months.
- New Companion Vouchers only valid for Eeekonomy [so I won't be using them!].
- Shorter [1 year] validity of Companion voucher.
- Lower Avios earning [1 per £1 spend]
On the basis that finding redemption seats continues to be extremely difficult, and normal prices are shockingly high, we will just use our 1m Avios to abate cash fares. And we will need cash fares over the next 12 months to renew Gold ... or perhaps accept Silveryness as our 'new normal'.
It was fun while it lasted.
+ Card number and date unchanged, card [and partner] remain in use until new card is activated. New card eta 7-10 days by post.
+ Existing BA companion vouchers retain all the T&C extant when the voucher was earned [any cabin, 2-year validity].
+ £195 p/a card fee saved, with a pro-rate refund of unused months.
- New Companion Vouchers only valid for Eeekonomy [so I won't be using them!].
- Shorter [1 year] validity of Companion voucher.
- Lower Avios earning [1 per £1 spend]
On the basis that finding redemption seats continues to be extremely difficult, and normal prices are shockingly high, we will just use our 1m Avios to abate cash fares. And we will need cash fares over the next 12 months to renew Gold ... or perhaps accept Silveryness as our 'new normal'.
It was fun while it lasted.
May 18, 2022, 11:57 am
#2331
Join Date: Aug 2012
Programs: BA silver
Posts: 308
Can’t find this on the wiki so maybe someone can confirm for me.
I have a 241 J return to SYD next year but now want to just take the outbound and cancel the return. Can I do this and get the relevant taxes and Avios returned? If so can this be done online? Thx in advance for any help
I have a 241 J return to SYD next year but now want to just take the outbound and cancel the return. Can I do this and get the relevant taxes and Avios returned? If so can this be done online? Thx in advance for any help
May 18, 2022, 1:15 pm
#2332
Join Date: Nov 2017
Posts: 1,197
It's a difficult one. We too have noticed the reduced redemption availability in business long haul no matter what BA say about more seats. Of course lots of people are using up avios and vouchers saved up during covid so maybe not surprising. We're doing the opposite to you by going large on double tier point holidays (targetting 3700 bonus TPs between us) and trying to get to a point where we can use up our increasing large avios stash & companion vouchers with jokers. If that doesn't work we'll probably end up doing the same as you or convert them into nectar points to get about 2 years shopping at Sainsbury's.
Then I'll take advantage next year when most people have burned through their vouchers.
May 18, 2022, 1:45 pm
#2333
Join Date: Jul 2019
Programs: BAEC Bronze, Mucci recipient
Posts: 1,786
Can’t find this on the wiki so maybe someone can confirm for me.
I have a 241 J return to SYD next year but now want to just take the outbound and cancel the return. Can I do this and get the relevant taxes and Avios returned? If so can this be done online? Thx in advance for any help
I have a 241 J return to SYD next year but now want to just take the outbound and cancel the return. Can I do this and get the relevant taxes and Avios returned? If so can this be done online? Thx in advance for any help
May 30, 2022, 1:32 pm
#2334
Join Date: Dec 2013
Location: Shoreham By Sea
Programs: BAEC Gold
Posts: 1,330
I’m trying to use my BAPP voucher. It’s the new one with supposedly enhanced availability, but I can’t see any extra.
Im flexible on dates I can travel to Vegas. On June 22nd there are 9+ I class seats available according to Expert Flyer, but there is no reward availability with the premium voucher.
Might I be searching incorrectly or did this promised additional never materialise?
Im flexible on dates I can travel to Vegas. On June 22nd there are 9+ I class seats available according to Expert Flyer, but there is no reward availability with the premium voucher.
Might I be searching incorrectly or did this promised additional never materialise?
May 30, 2022, 2:48 pm
#2335
Join Date: Jul 2020
Programs: BA Bronze
Posts: 78
@T8191 Have you downgraded before? I currently have the premium card with two companion vouchers expiring towards end of 2023 (extended due to covid and a converted FTV) and soon to earn a third.
I think I'll downgrade the premium card when the third CV is earned.
I'm wondering does the call centre get funny if people upgrade/downgrade annually? Or is the quite standard practice that people earn the CV then downgrade, then upgrade again at the start of the new CV year, only to downgrade again when received.
I think I'll downgrade the premium card when the third CV is earned.
I'm wondering does the call centre get funny if people upgrade/downgrade annually? Or is the quite standard practice that people earn the CV then downgrade, then upgrade again at the start of the new CV year, only to downgrade again when received.
May 30, 2022, 2:53 pm
#2336
Join Date: Jul 2020
Programs: BA Bronze
Posts: 78
I’m trying to use my BAPP voucher. It’s the new one with supposedly enhanced availability, but I can’t see any extra.
Im flexible on dates I can travel to Vegas. On June 22nd there are 9+ I class seats available according to Expert Flyer, but there is no reward availability with the premium voucher.
Might I be searching incorrectly or did this promised additional never materialise?
Im flexible on dates I can travel to Vegas. On June 22nd there are 9+ I class seats available according to Expert Flyer, but there is no reward availability with the premium voucher.
Might I be searching incorrectly or did this promised additional never materialise?
May 31, 2022, 12:38 am
#2337
Join Date: Dec 2013
Location: Shoreham By Sea
Programs: BAEC Gold
Posts: 1,330
I have no need to travel to Vegas on 22nd but this date was a good example as it's showing as 'I9' yet no can do with the new voucher.
May 31, 2022, 2:31 am
#2338
Join Date: Jul 2020
Programs: BA Bronze
Posts: 78
You've totally missed my point (or my likely I made it poorly). The 355 day thing is great, but there, nothing has changed. It's what many of us have done for years. But in September, new 241's issued came at an increased card cost of over 25% and one of the benefits was that there would be greater availability. It was initially reported that if there was 'I' class available then booking a reward with the voucher would now be possible. That was then rolled back a bit and it was said if there was good 'I' class availability.
I have no need to travel to Vegas on 22nd but this date was a good example as it's showing as 'I9' yet no can do with the new voucher.
I have no need to travel to Vegas on 22nd but this date was a good example as it's showing as 'I9' yet no can do with the new voucher.
The greater availability is the increase in the minimum number per flight from 2 to 6.
I imagine there are the same number of people going for the reward tickets so on popular routes (which I imagine Vegas is), the seats will still go quickly.
May 31, 2022, 3:04 am
#2339
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: London
Programs: Mucci. Nothing else matters.
Posts: 38,644
I suspect that the main learning from what you have seen is that, although there are more award seats available to those with new-style vouchers, even cash inventory of I9 does not guarantee that there will be award seats in Club.
May 31, 2022, 4:13 am
#2340
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: JER
Programs: BA Gold/OWE, several MUCCI, and assorted Pensions!
Posts: 32,145
@T8191 Have you downgraded before? I currently have the premium card with two companion vouchers expiring towards end of 2023 (extended due to covid and a converted FTV) and soon to earn a third.
I think I'll downgrade the premium card when the third CV is earned.
I'm wondering does the call centre get funny if people upgrade/downgrade annually? Or is the quite standard practice that people earn the CV then downgrade, then upgrade again at the start of the new CV year, only to downgrade again when received.
I think I'll downgrade the premium card when the third CV is earned.
I'm wondering does the call centre get funny if people upgrade/downgrade annually? Or is the quite standard practice that people earn the CV then downgrade, then upgrade again at the start of the new CV year, only to downgrade again when received.
Anyway, our greatest concern is retaining Gold, and associated benefits, rather than staying up late in the hope of catching reward seats to use our surviving 2-4-1 voucher (having already had 2 expire earlier this years!).