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 Ł3,000 within the first three months of card membership.
British Airways American Express Credit Card:
Collect 9,000 bonus Avios when you spend Ł1,000 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 Ł10,000 (or Ł20,000) 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 Ł3,000 within the first three months of card membership.
British Airways American Express Credit Card:
Collect 9,000 bonus Avios when you spend Ł1,000 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 Ł1,000 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 Ł3,000 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 Ł1,000 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 Ł3,000 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 Ł10,000 (or Ł20,000) 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 Ł1 (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: Ł2,500
- Refund protection: Ł300 (Ł200) per item
- Flight delay / cancellation / overbooking / missed: Ł200 (Ł0)
- Baggage delay (6+ hours): Ł750 (Ł0)
- Baggage delay (48+ hours): Ł1,000 (Ł0), additional to 6 hours benefit
- Accident: Ł250,000 (Ł75,000)
- Hijack (24+ hours): Ł1,500
- Hijack (72+ hours): Ł3,000, additional to the 24h benefit
BA American Express credit card
Jan 13, 2015, 1:00 pm
#497
Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: Yorkshire
Programs: BA Gold & HH Silver
Posts: 1,465
The outbound flight has to be before the expiry date of the 241. I'll pass to the Amex experts as to whether you should actually have a 2 year voucher?
Jan 13, 2015, 1:29 pm
#498
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: London
Programs: BAEC Gold, IHG Spire Ambassador, Starbucks Gold,
Posts: 624
If you had already spent Ł10k on the blue and then upgraded to the BAPP then I'm pretty sure you would get the voucher. (Im basing this on the fact that AmEx told my friend who was on a blue with 3 days to go that they wouldnt be able to process her an upgrade to the BAPP to trigger the 241 as she had spent just over Ł10k in time before the her year end)
Jan 13, 2015, 4:50 pm
#499
Join Date: Jan 2015
Programs: BA
Posts: 71
Hi. New to the forum so apologies if my questions have previously been answered.
I am trying to maximise the number of Avios I can earn using the BAPP card. My strategy is to apply for a new card and get 35,000 introductory points (26,000 to me and 9,000 to my wife who referred me) plus 3 points for every Ł spent for the first 3 months. I will cancel my wife's card.
After 3 months I will threaten to cancel my card and get my 1.5 miles/Ł increased to 2.5/Ł for a further 3 months (this appears to be their standard offering for threatening leavers).
After this second 3 months, I will refer my wife for a new card and repeat the process above in reverse.
Therefore for 6 months of the year I will get 3miles/Ł and for the other 6 months 2.5 miles/Ł plus 70,000 bonus Avios and 2 companion vouchers. All for Ł150 as I believe you get a pro-rats refund for cancelled cards.
Am I missing anything?
In addition, I have the Shell fuel card and have applied for the Tesco masterxard which I think gives most miles per non Amex credit card. Anyone disagree and have any other good ways to accumulate points? I've also just read about the Gate 365 scheme.
On one of the other threads it seems to imply that you can use 2 companion vouchers in one booking and travel with 3 companions ie 4 passengers in total. Can anyone confirm or deny this? It seems very generous if true.
Thanks
THEPUMA
I am trying to maximise the number of Avios I can earn using the BAPP card. My strategy is to apply for a new card and get 35,000 introductory points (26,000 to me and 9,000 to my wife who referred me) plus 3 points for every Ł spent for the first 3 months. I will cancel my wife's card.
After 3 months I will threaten to cancel my card and get my 1.5 miles/Ł increased to 2.5/Ł for a further 3 months (this appears to be their standard offering for threatening leavers).
After this second 3 months, I will refer my wife for a new card and repeat the process above in reverse.
Therefore for 6 months of the year I will get 3miles/Ł and for the other 6 months 2.5 miles/Ł plus 70,000 bonus Avios and 2 companion vouchers. All for Ł150 as I believe you get a pro-rats refund for cancelled cards.
Am I missing anything?
In addition, I have the Shell fuel card and have applied for the Tesco masterxard which I think gives most miles per non Amex credit card. Anyone disagree and have any other good ways to accumulate points? I've also just read about the Gate 365 scheme.
On one of the other threads it seems to imply that you can use 2 companion vouchers in one booking and travel with 3 companions ie 4 passengers in total. Can anyone confirm or deny this? It seems very generous if true.
Thanks
THEPUMA
Jan 14, 2015, 2:16 am
#500
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jun 2012
Programs: BA Gold, QF WP
Posts: 12,551
I am trying to maximise the number of Avios I can earn using the BAPP card. My strategy is to apply for a new card and get 35,000 introductory points (26,000 to me and 9,000 to my wife who referred me) plus 3 points for every Ł spent for the first 3 months. I will cancel my wife's card.
Yes you can use 2 companion vouchers but you pay the avios for 2 passengers, so it is a 4 for 2 rather than a 2 for 1. You will find it much more difficult to find 4 award seats in premium cabins, so it may be better using it as two 2 for 1's.
Jan 14, 2015, 2:27 am
#501
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: London
Programs: BAEC Gold, IHG Spire Ambassador, Starbucks Gold,
Posts: 624
I am trying to maximise the number of Avios I can earn using the BAPP card. My strategy is to apply for a new card and get 35,000 introductory points (26,000 to me and 9,000 to my wife who referred me) plus 3 points for every Ł spent for the first 3 months. I will cancel my wife's card.
Am I missing anything?
Good luck!
MrMutton
PS: Beaten to it by nux!
Jan 14, 2015, 2:52 am
#502
Join Date: Jul 2012
Location: UK
Programs: BAEC, IHG, LeClub, HHonors
Posts: 599
Hi. New to the forum so apologies if my questions have previously been answered.
I am trying to maximise the number of Avios I can earn using the BAPP card. My strategy is to apply for a new card and get 35,000 introductory points (26,000 to me and 9,000 to my wife who referred me) plus 3 points for every Ł spent for the first 3 months. I will cancel my wife's card.
After 3 months I will threaten to cancel my card and get my 1.5 miles/Ł increased to 2.5/Ł for a further 3 months (this appears to be their standard offering for threatening leavers).
After this second 3 months, I will refer my wife for a new card and repeat the process above in reverse.
Therefore for 6 months of the year I will get 3miles/Ł and for the other 6 months 2.5 miles/Ł plus 70,000 bonus Avios and 2 companion vouchers. All for Ł150 as I believe you get a pro-rats refund for cancelled cards.
Am I missing anything?
In addition, I have the Shell fuel card and have applied for the Tesco masterxard which I think gives most miles per non Amex credit card. Anyone disagree and have any other good ways to accumulate points? I've also just read about the Gate 365 scheme.
On one of the other threads it seems to imply that you can use 2 companion vouchers in one booking and travel with 3 companions ie 4 passengers in total. Can anyone confirm or deny this? It seems very generous if true.
Thanks
THEPUMA
I am trying to maximise the number of Avios I can earn using the BAPP card. My strategy is to apply for a new card and get 35,000 introductory points (26,000 to me and 9,000 to my wife who referred me) plus 3 points for every Ł spent for the first 3 months. I will cancel my wife's card.
After 3 months I will threaten to cancel my card and get my 1.5 miles/Ł increased to 2.5/Ł for a further 3 months (this appears to be their standard offering for threatening leavers).
After this second 3 months, I will refer my wife for a new card and repeat the process above in reverse.
Therefore for 6 months of the year I will get 3miles/Ł and for the other 6 months 2.5 miles/Ł plus 70,000 bonus Avios and 2 companion vouchers. All for Ł150 as I believe you get a pro-rats refund for cancelled cards.
Am I missing anything?
In addition, I have the Shell fuel card and have applied for the Tesco masterxard which I think gives most miles per non Amex credit card. Anyone disagree and have any other good ways to accumulate points? I've also just read about the Gate 365 scheme.
On one of the other threads it seems to imply that you can use 2 companion vouchers in one booking and travel with 3 companions ie 4 passengers in total. Can anyone confirm or deny this? It seems very generous if true.
Thanks
THEPUMA
Avios for spend has been covered already
Jan 14, 2015, 4:56 am
#503
Join Date: Jan 2014
Posts: 141
Retention offers?
Hi all,
In September I took out the BA blue card but I'm now thinking that I should have gone for the Premium card instead. Obviously there is a healthy sign up bonus on the Premium card at the moment which I know I won't get if I upgrade my blue card. In the Wiki there is mention of a points boost incentive offered to upgrade to the Premium card but when I called them yesterday they apologised and said that whilst they do have incentives from time to time, there is nothing available at the moment. Has anyone had any luck with this recently? I know it's my fault for not going for the Premium card straight away but it will be a shame to have to upgrade my card to the fee-paying one knowing that I could have got a nice bonus and not getting any special incentive to do so!
Thanks.
In September I took out the BA blue card but I'm now thinking that I should have gone for the Premium card instead. Obviously there is a healthy sign up bonus on the Premium card at the moment which I know I won't get if I upgrade my blue card. In the Wiki there is mention of a points boost incentive offered to upgrade to the Premium card but when I called them yesterday they apologised and said that whilst they do have incentives from time to time, there is nothing available at the moment. Has anyone had any luck with this recently? I know it's my fault for not going for the Premium card straight away but it will be a shame to have to upgrade my card to the fee-paying one knowing that I could have got a nice bonus and not getting any special incentive to do so!
Thanks.
Jan 14, 2015, 5:08 am
#504
Join Date: Sep 2011
Location: YVR/LBA
Programs: BA Exec Club (Gold)
Posts: 329
Be careful when you cancel the card, if you cancel before using the voucher you'll lose it, if you cancel after booking with the voucher the only issue would be if you cancel your booking there is a grey area apparently as to where the voucher then goes. Easiest way is to downgrade to the blue card but i would suspect (maybe im reading too much between the lines) what you plan in doing is churning the cards every 6 months or so to get the bonuses which you wont get if you hold the blue card.
Avios for spend has been covered already
Avios for spend has been covered already
You will however need to pay for any 241 flight with an Amex card (all other options are greyed out) - so either you or your wife will need to have some kind of active Amex going.
In a worst case scenario you could find that you do not get approved for a new card after cancelling your first and would need to rely on your wife maintaining her card an active card to pay. Therefore a downgrade to blue from PP may be something worth considering.
Jan 14, 2015, 5:46 am
#505
Join Date: Jun 2008
Programs: BA Executive Club, Bronze
Posts: 438
I've recently switched from the BAP card to the Rewards Gold card to stop my 241 triggering too early. I've already earned 35k in reward points on the Gold card, how often (if at all) do conversion bonuses appear?
Jan 14, 2015, 6:02 am
#507
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jun 2012
Programs: BA Gold, QF WP
Posts: 12,551
Jan 14, 2015, 6:06 am
#508
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: London
Programs: BAEC Gold, IHG Spire Ambassador, Starbucks Gold,
Posts: 624
I think it is also worthwhile to point out that on the AmEx Gold you will have also been getting a bonus of 20k for signing up (22k if referred), double bonus points (and some people report more in glitches) on travel, supermarket and foreign spend, the 'bonus' of the waived Ł125 fee and lounge pass so you are already up on the base rate for your spend. Whilst it is good to play the system and maximise our potential rewards from doing so, I think that some of us, and I include myself in this, can get a bit greedy at times. We have it quite good...!
Enjoy your 35k Avios!
Jan 20, 2015, 9:29 am
#509
Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: Los Angeles
Programs: Qantas Gold, Virgin Australia Platinum, Hilton Gold, Marriott Gold
Posts: 90
Hi all, I was wondering whether you might be able to help. Sorry if this has already been covered but I couldn't find anything on this.
I currently have the Lloyds Duo Avios Amex/Mastercard and have decided to close this down and instead apply for the BAPP card which I think will give me better benefits overall (more Avios + companion voucher).
I want to make sure I qualify for the bonus sign up Avios. On the card info page T&C's it says:
This is fine because I think the Lloyds card is not a British Airways American Express Card. However, when I go to the sign up form, it says:
The Lloyds card does seem to be Avios enrolled. Do I have to wait 6 months?
Any thoughts on this and which of these inconsistent terms is correct would be appreciated.
Thanks!
I currently have the Lloyds Duo Avios Amex/Mastercard and have decided to close this down and instead apply for the BAPP card which I think will give me better benefits overall (more Avios + companion voucher).
I want to make sure I qualify for the bonus sign up Avios. On the card info page T&C's it says:
Introductory offers are not available if you currently hold or have held any other British Airways American Express Cards in the past 6 months.
You will not be eligible for any Welcome Bonus award if you currently hold or have held any Avios enrolled American Express Card in the past six months
Any thoughts on this and which of these inconsistent terms is correct would be appreciated.
Thanks!
Jan 20, 2015, 9:39 am
#510
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jun 2012
Programs: BA Gold, QF WP
Posts: 12,551
Hi all, I was wondering whether you might be able to help. Sorry if this has already been covered but I couldn't find anything on this.
I currently have the Lloyds Duo Avios Amex/Mastercard and have decided to close this down and instead apply for the BAPP card which I think will give me better benefits overall (more Avios + companion voucher).
I want to make sure I qualify for the bonus sign up Avios. On the card info page T&C's it says:
This is fine because I think the Lloyds card is not a British Airways American Express Card. However, when I go to the sign up form, it says:
The Lloyds card does seem to be Avios enrolled. Do I have to wait 6 months?
Any thoughts on this and which of these inconsistent terms is correct would be appreciated.
Thanks!
I currently have the Lloyds Duo Avios Amex/Mastercard and have decided to close this down and instead apply for the BAPP card which I think will give me better benefits overall (more Avios + companion voucher).
I want to make sure I qualify for the bonus sign up Avios. On the card info page T&C's it says:
This is fine because I think the Lloyds card is not a British Airways American Express Card. However, when I go to the sign up form, it says:
The Lloyds card does seem to be Avios enrolled. Do I have to wait 6 months?
Any thoughts on this and which of these inconsistent terms is correct would be appreciated.
Thanks!