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
#451
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: London, UK
Programs: BA Gold (OW Emerald) & Jet Airways - Thank goodness i never got started.......most awful FF program
Posts: 2,385
I'm almost at the 10k trigger amount for my BA Platinum AMEX card however I have until April 2015 to hit it. I'm just about to start refurbishing a house so have plenty of scope to accrue some more spend.
In terms of maximising Avios, would I be better off applying for the The Preferred Rewards Gold Card to qualify for the 20k sign up bonus (which I should easily hit).
If someone has a referral link for the above card please send it through if you want some additional points.
In terms of maximising Avios, would I be better off applying for the The Preferred Rewards Gold Card to qualify for the 20k sign up bonus (which I should easily hit).
If someone has a referral link for the above card please send it through if you want some additional points.
Amex Gold Preffered Card:
Purchase a hell of a lot vouchers from tesco
Double MR points on the purchases (£50 = 100 Avios)
£50 voucher = 150 CC points bonus = 360 Avios per £50 spent on top of 100 avios for purchase.
Every £50 spent will get you 460 Avios whereas with the BA PP will get you only 75 Avios.
#452
Join Date: Dec 2012
Location: UK
Programs: BAEC Silver, VS Red, HH Gold, IHG Gold, Marriott Gold, SPG Basic, Alitalia Status Match
Posts: 1,173
Trivial question: I've nearly decided to sign up for an Amex card (the no-fee one), but the initial page of the sign-up only gave me the title options Mr / Ms / Miss / Mrs. The only good thing that emerged from my PhD was having the title Dr and while I am absolutely not precious about it, because I never want to be one of THOSE PhDs, I like having it on my cards. Anyone know whether this is something that can be changed after going through the online process? Neither Google nor their site is helpful.
In case anyone was wondering: my title has never once gotten me an upgrade.
Also, if anyone wants to refer me, just send a PM.
In case anyone was wondering: my title has never once gotten me an upgrade.
Also, if anyone wants to refer me, just send a PM.
Can't help you regarding the title I'm afraid - I'm just a plain old mister!
#453
Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: London
Programs: BA Gold
Posts: 4,029
Mrs Lem and I both got the Gold card last month as we have a few things like train season ticket renewals and some work expenses going through so will both hit the £2k immediately (and don't worry, we did it in true FT style and waited till one had received their card who then recommended the other) - logged on to transfer some points over and saw that my total was significantly more than I was expecting.
Turns out that I'm getting triple points on everything from John Lewis as I'm getting the bonus for first year spend at a supermarket plus it's counting it, for some reason, as travel. Which is a nice result when I've just bought a new TV and sound system through them...
Turns out that I'm getting triple points on everything from John Lewis as I'm getting the bonus for first year spend at a supermarket plus it's counting it, for some reason, as travel. Which is a nice result when I've just bought a new TV and sound system through them...
#454
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: Here today, gone tomorrow
Programs: Nothing shiny :-(
Posts: 2,493
Trivial question: I've nearly decided to sign up for an Amex card (the no-fee one), but the initial page of the sign-up only gave me the title options Mr / Ms / Miss / Mrs. The only good thing that emerged from my PhD was having the title Dr and while I am absolutely not precious about it, because I never want to be one of THOSE PhDs, I like having it on my cards. Anyone know whether this is something that can be changed after going through the online process? Neither Google nor their site is helpful.
In case anyone was wondering: my title has never once gotten me an upgrade.
Also, if anyone wants to refer me, just send a PM.
In case anyone was wondering: my title has never once gotten me an upgrade.
Also, if anyone wants to refer me, just send a PM.
As I am sure you know, the main benefit of the BA cards is a 2-4-1 voucher, which you get at £10,000 annual spend for the £150 fee Premium Plus card or at £20,000 spend for the free regular one. If you are likely to hit the £20,000 spend, you would do better with the BAPP (or at least not with the free card), as Raffles explains here.
If you are not aiming for a 2-4-1 voucher with the free card, maybe you should consider the Amex Gold card instead (or maybe as well as a BAPP), if you don't already have one. This is free for the first year (cancel before year two if the fee isn't worth it for you), comes with a 22,000 MR point bonus (transferrable to Avios at 1 to 1), rather than 9,000 Avios for the BA card and gives you double points on travel, petrol, foreign and supermarket spend in the first year. You do need to spend £2,000 in the first 3 months rather than £1,000 for the BA card to get the bonus but if funds allow, that can be done by buying gift cards etc to advance spending.
I see Ankomonkey has volunteered to refer you for the BA card; I'd be happy to refer for the Gold card if that appeals more.
#455
Join Date: Sep 2008
Posts: 9
Trivial question: I've nearly decided to sign up for an Amex card (the no-fee one), but the initial page of the sign-up only gave me the title options Mr / Ms / Miss / Mrs. The only good thing that emerged from my PhD was having the title Dr and while I am absolutely not precious about it, because I never want to be one of THOSE PhDs, I like having it on my cards. Anyone know whether this is something that can be changed after going through the online process? Neither Google nor their site is helpful.
In case anyone was wondering: my title has never once gotten me an upgrade.
Also, if anyone wants to refer me, just send a PM.
In case anyone was wondering: my title has never once gotten me an upgrade.
Also, if anyone wants to refer me, just send a PM.
#456
Join Date: Dec 2012
Location: UK
Programs: BAEC Silver, VS Red, HH Gold, IHG Gold, Marriott Gold, SPG Basic, Alitalia Status Match
Posts: 1,173
#458
Join Date: Jan 2014
Location: Sheffield, UK
Programs: BA, Emirates, IHG, Accor, Marriott, Hilton
Posts: 637
#459
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Canary Wharf, London
Programs: MyWaitrose, IC Spire Ambassador, Hilton Diamond & BAEC Gold
Posts: 2,685
Amex Shop Small is back.
http://www.amexshopsmall.co.uk/
From Small Business Saturday until 21 December 2014, you’ll get a £5 statement credit when you spend £10 or more in-store at participating small businesses*.
*Terms apply. Offer available once per registered Card at each participating small business.
*Terms apply. Offer available once per registered Card at each participating small business.
#460
Join Date: Sep 2001
Location: UK. BAEC AAdvantage
Programs: Mucci Des Oeufs Brouilles et des Canards
Posts: 3,671
Quick Question - Just downgraded to the free BA Amex card from the BAPP one. (I have a 2-4-1 for 2015 and 2016 in the bank so no need to earn another for a while, especially when I get 2 points per £ with my BMI card for the time being).
When I rang to downgrade I was told it was quicker to do it online, so I did. There was the welcome bonus on the signup page, but no mention of it on the documents I received. I'm assuming I'm not eligible - I'm not expecting to be, but just want to see if others had managed to get the bonus again.
When I rang to downgrade I was told it was quicker to do it online, so I did. There was the welcome bonus on the signup page, but no mention of it on the documents I received. I'm assuming I'm not eligible - I'm not expecting to be, but just want to see if others had managed to get the bonus again.
#461
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jun 2012
Programs: BA Gold, QF WP
Posts: 12,551
#462
Join Date: Nov 2014
Location: London
Programs: BAEC
Posts: 16
Paying off BA AMEX with Tesco debit card
I'm hoping for some advice. I have the free BA AMEX and enjoy using it to earn Avios points. I have always paid it off fully each month by direct debit. I have also recently opened a Tesco current account which earns 125 Clubcard points (300 Avios points) per £1000 spent. If I cancel the direct debit on my BA AMEX can I manually pay off my credit card balance each month with the Tesco debit card? Does anybody else use a similar strategy?
#463
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jun 2012
Programs: BA Gold, QF WP
Posts: 12,551
I'm hoping for some advice. I have the free BA AMEX and enjoy using it to earn Avios points. I have always paid it off fully each month by direct debit. I have also recently opened a Tesco current account which earns 125 Clubcard points (300 Avios points) per £1000 spent. If I cancel the direct debit on my BA AMEX can I manually pay off my credit card balance each month with the Tesco debit card? Does anybody else use a similar strategy?
#464
Join Date: Jun 2012
Location: UK
Programs: BA GGL (but soon to lose the GL :-(), IHG Spire Amb, Hilton Dmnd (and pleb/pleb-plus in 1001 others)
Posts: 771
I'm hoping for some advice. I have the free BA AMEX and enjoy using it to earn Avios points. I have always paid it off fully each month by direct debit. I have also recently opened a Tesco current account which earns 125 Clubcard points (300 Avios points) per £1000 spent. If I cancel the direct debit on my BA AMEX can I manually pay off my credit card balance each month with the Tesco debit card? Does anybody else use a similar strategy?
#465
Join Date: Jul 2012
Location: UK
Programs: BAEC, IHG, LeClub, HHonors
Posts: 599
Quick Question - Just downgraded to the free BA Amex card from the BAPP one. (I have a 2-4-1 for 2015 and 2016 in the bank so no need to earn another for a while, especially when I get 2 points per £ with my BMI card for the time being).
When I rang to downgrade I was told it was quicker to do it online, so I did. There was the welcome bonus on the signup page, but no mention of it on the documents I received. I'm assuming I'm not eligible - I'm not expecting to be, but just want to see if others had managed to get the bonus again.
When I rang to downgrade I was told it was quicker to do it online, so I did. There was the welcome bonus on the signup page, but no mention of it on the documents I received. I'm assuming I'm not eligible - I'm not expecting to be, but just want to see if others had managed to get the bonus again.