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
Jan 30, 2024, 3:14 am
#2566
Join Date: Nov 2017
Programs: BA, Hilton
Posts: 2,091
The companion voucher holder must travel on the booking in this case.
See here, and the section on how to use the solo benefit: Companion vouchers | Executive Club | British Airways
Jan 30, 2024, 3:24 am
#2567
Join Date: Nov 2017
Programs: BA, Hilton
Posts: 2,091
I should add that officially, the voucher holder must travel on the booking in all cases, but in reality it seems that there is at least some leeway here - we often see questions about what happens if e.g. plans change and the voucher holder cannot travel on the return leg, and the answer seems to be nothing, and their companion(s) complete their travel without issue. But for solo use, it's the voucher holder only, unfortunately.
Feb 8, 2024, 10:23 am
#2568
Join Date: Oct 2023
Posts: 10
Switching from AMEX Blue to Premium Plus mid year
Good afternoon all,
I'm not sure if this has been asked before, but here goes nothing..!
I have just upgraded from AMEX blue card to Premium Plus card mid year. Does anyone know if the voucher I will earn is the Blue Tier or the Premium Plus Tier voucher? I have noticed that my current year tally of spending remains (£3k ish), and my target limit is still £12k which I must achieve by July!
Thanks!
Tom
I'm not sure if this has been asked before, but here goes nothing..!
I have just upgraded from AMEX blue card to Premium Plus card mid year. Does anyone know if the voucher I will earn is the Blue Tier or the Premium Plus Tier voucher? I have noticed that my current year tally of spending remains (£3k ish), and my target limit is still £12k which I must achieve by July!
Thanks!
Tom
Feb 8, 2024, 1:06 pm
#2569
Join Date: Mar 2017
Location: AMS
Programs: BAEC Silver, Flying Blue Gold, TK M&S Nobody
Posts: 2,481
I switched a couple of weeks before hitting £10k on the Blue card [wouldn't normally get that high, having left the UK] - got the Premium voucher upon hitting £10k. You shouldn't need to reset anything, and it should be £10k [unless that's changed, I downgraded again because ... see above].
Feb 8, 2024, 1:17 pm
#2570
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: North of Carlisle
Programs: BAEC Silver
Posts: 1,538
I switched a couple of weeks before hitting £10k on the Blue card [wouldn't normally get that high, having left the UK] - got the Premium voucher upon hitting £10k. You shouldn't need to reset anything, and it should be £10k [unless that's changed, I downgraded again because ... see above].
Feb 8, 2024, 1:18 pm
#2571
Join Date: Mar 2017
Location: AMS
Programs: BAEC Silver, Flying Blue Gold, TK M&S Nobody
Posts: 2,481
Exactly - and to add I did ask this on the phone when I upgraded: voucher should be dependent on card at time of hitting spend target, nothing more.
Feb 14, 2024, 3:36 am
#2572
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: UK
Programs: Virgin Flying Club Red, Emirates Skywards Blue, BA Executive Club Blue, Amex BA
Posts: 2,381
I have a 2-4-1 voucher expiring in April and have 29,888 Avios. Not sure if I should just let it go to waste and save Avios, or use it to go somewhere for a day (maybe LCY - Frankfurt)?
Feb 14, 2024, 3:47 am
#2573
Join Date: May 2019
Location: FL390 or the iron way
Programs: BA GGL
Posts: 1,665
You also have the option of boosting any transactions within the last 30 days through Balance Booster at a very reasonable 0.92p per Avios.
Feb 15, 2024, 12:42 am
#2574
Join Date: Aug 2010
Posts: 870
I should add that officially, the voucher holder must travel on the booking in all cases, but in reality it seems that there is at least some leeway here - we often see questions about what happens if e.g. plans change and the voucher holder cannot travel on the return leg, and the answer seems to be nothing, and their companion(s) complete their travel without issue. But for solo use, it's the voucher holder only, unfortunately.
Feb 15, 2024, 12:47 am
#2575
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: UK
Programs: Mucci. And BA Gold – previous awards - Gold 11, Silver 7, Bronze 4.
Posts: 4,235
Methinks that means it reverts to standard practice for all airlines that the whole itinerary is cancelled. If this is a possibility for you then I would book two separate tickets for the outbound and the return. If already booked… you may be able to get it reissued as the return leg only but of that I am even less sure. If even possible it would also probably need reward space availability, because cancelling an Avios booking does not automatically put that space back into availability.
Feb 15, 2024, 4:20 am
#2576
Join Date: Nov 2017
Programs: BA, Hilton
Posts: 2,091
If the question is regards the companion, then in theory they could also cancel their ticket under the T&Cs, although we don't see reports of that as far as I'm aware. Obviously, there is a somewhat greater risk here even if it's theoretical - when it's a return leg, by the time BA realise the voucher holder is a no-show, the companion will be checked in and ready to fly. If the voucher holder no-shows on the outbound, there's a lot more time for BA to cancel the companions return ticket under T&Cs even if, in practice, they don't seem to do this.
I suspect it's something BA are happy to let slide, they've got the Avios & the taxes, the voucher is used, I don't see how it would be in their interest to enforce the T&Cs in this particular case. It seems to me that the restriction requiring the voucher holder needing to fly is more to dissuade attempts to "sell" the voucher.
Apr 11, 2024, 12:40 am
#2577
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: UK
Programs: Mucci. And BA Gold – previous awards - Gold 11, Silver 7, Bronze 4.
Posts: 4,235
AMEX Instalment Plan
Just had an email from Amex about their new ‘Instalment Plan’. Basically allows you to put one (or more) of your purchases onto a 3,6 or 12 month plan. Now as a person who is able to pay off their balance in full every month I can’t see myself ever needing it, though I can see that some people might make use of it.
But the interesting thing is that rather than call the interest rate what it is i.e. a fixed interest rate, they call it a fee:
Interest is not charged on balances moved into an instalment plan.
Now maybe I am being thick, but that ‘fee’ is nothing but a fixed interest rate AFAIAC. How can they get away with this doublethink?
But the interesting thing is that rather than call the interest rate what it is i.e. a fixed interest rate, they call it a fee:
Interest is not charged on balances moved into an instalment plan.
Now maybe I am being thick, but that ‘fee’ is nothing but a fixed interest rate AFAIAC. How can they get away with this doublethink?
Apr 11, 2024, 12:48 am
#2578
Join Date: Sep 2007
Programs: AA, BA, Accor, Honors Diamond, IHG Diamond Elite and lots more....
Posts: 2,971
Just had an email from Amex about their new ‘Instalment Plan’. Basically allows you to put one (or more) of your purchases onto a 3,6 or 12 month plan. Now as a person who is able to pay off their balance in full every month I can’t see myself ever needing it, though I can see that some people might make use of it.
But the interesting thing is that rather than call the interest rate what it is i.e. a fixed interest rate, they call it a fee:
Interest is not charged on balances moved into an instalment plan.
Now maybe I am being thick, but that ‘fee’ is nothing but a fixed interest rate AFAIAC. How can they get away with this doublethink?
But the interesting thing is that rather than call the interest rate what it is i.e. a fixed interest rate, they call it a fee:
Interest is not charged on balances moved into an instalment plan.
Now maybe I am being thick, but that ‘fee’ is nothing but a fixed interest rate AFAIAC. How can they get away with this doublethink?
Apr 11, 2024, 12:52 am
#2579
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Jan 2002
Posts: 44,605
There is a big difference. If, say , an amount of $1000 was switched at a cost of $126 to a 12 month plan, that will give a repayment requirement of $1126
If it was an interest rate of approx 12.68% - giving a monthly interest of 1% , this would give the same repayment requirement over 12 months
If however, someone chose to pay off the remaining amount at 6 months - in case 1 the person still repays $1126 whilst in case 2 will have paid out $563 and have $484 remaining to pay for a total of $1047 - a $79 difference in repayment requirements
Calling it interest would be more misleading imo
If it was an interest rate of approx 12.68% - giving a monthly interest of 1% , this would give the same repayment requirement over 12 months
If however, someone chose to pay off the remaining amount at 6 months - in case 1 the person still repays $1126 whilst in case 2 will have paid out $563 and have $484 remaining to pay for a total of $1047 - a $79 difference in repayment requirements
Calling it interest would be more misleading imo
Apr 11, 2024, 3:05 am
#2580
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: UK (currently)
Programs: BA Gold (and many other greater and lesser distinctions)
Posts: 7,208
Just applied for a PP card this morning. Any recent experience of how long it will take to arrive (I am in London) ? I have £10k spend that I need to put through it ASAP.
I was also wondering whether there is any way I can use the card before the physical card arrives. I assume not, but maybe someone has found a way by calling up Amex, given how inventive people on here are !
A little OT, but .... I need to use the card for an AA booking on flights which are selling out. I could book and try and cancel /re-ticket when the new card arrives, but obviously might be snookered by a waitlist. Does anyone happen to know whether travel agents can see on their GDS (I assume Sabre with AA) whether or not there is a waitlist ?
I was also wondering whether there is any way I can use the card before the physical card arrives. I assume not, but maybe someone has found a way by calling up Amex, given how inventive people on here are !
A little OT, but .... I need to use the card for an AA booking on flights which are selling out. I could book and try and cancel /re-ticket when the new card arrives, but obviously might be snookered by a waitlist. Does anyone happen to know whether travel agents can see on their GDS (I assume Sabre with AA) whether or not there is a waitlist ?