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 11, 2016, 9:44 am
#842
Join Date: May 2011
Posts: 245
Here's an interesting question.
My wife and I are both a couple of months in to our membership year on the BA Amex Premium Plus (Black) Card - and we have both triggered our Companion (2-4-1) voucher (Christmas and Holiday purchase spending) . So there really isn't much incentive now to keep using the BA card other than to generate extra Avios.
What would stop us from each referring each other - for a BA Amex "Classic" Credit Card - with a 4,000 referrer bonus each - and a 10,000 avios bonus once each card has reached £1,000 of spend. And then over the next 10 months if we spend £20k (which we will as we will use for business use etc) - then we trigger another Companion Voucher each , albeit ones with only a 12 month validity. Is there anything in the Amex T&C's that would prevent us doing this??? I really believe the £10,000 trigger on the Premium card is a disincentive to use the card further - once its been breached.
Thanks!
My wife and I are both a couple of months in to our membership year on the BA Amex Premium Plus (Black) Card - and we have both triggered our Companion (2-4-1) voucher (Christmas and Holiday purchase spending) . So there really isn't much incentive now to keep using the BA card other than to generate extra Avios.
What would stop us from each referring each other - for a BA Amex "Classic" Credit Card - with a 4,000 referrer bonus each - and a 10,000 avios bonus once each card has reached £1,000 of spend. And then over the next 10 months if we spend £20k (which we will as we will use for business use etc) - then we trigger another Companion Voucher each , albeit ones with only a 12 month validity. Is there anything in the Amex T&C's that would prevent us doing this??? I really believe the £10,000 trigger on the Premium card is a disincentive to use the card further - once its been breached.
Thanks!
Jan 11, 2016, 9:49 am
#843
Join Date: Feb 2013
Location: London, UK
Programs: BAEC Silver, ITA Club Executive, Hilton Gold, Marriott Gold
Posts: 3,599
Here's an interesting question.
My wife and I are both a couple of months in to our membership year on the BA Amex Premium Plus (Black) Card - and we have both triggered our Companion (2-4-1) voucher (Christmas and Holiday purchase spending) . So there really isn't much incentive now to keep using the BA card other than to generate extra Avios.
What would stop us from each referring each other - for a BA Amex "Classic" Credit Card - with a 4,000 referrer bonus each - and a 10,000 avios bonus once each card has reached £1,000 of spend. And then over the next 10 months if we spend £20k (which we will as we will use for business use etc) - then we trigger another Companion Voucher each , albeit ones with only a 12 month validity. Is there anything in the Amex T&C's that would prevent us doing this??? I really believe the £10,000 trigger on the Premium card is a disincentive to use the card further - once its been breached.
Thanks!
My wife and I are both a couple of months in to our membership year on the BA Amex Premium Plus (Black) Card - and we have both triggered our Companion (2-4-1) voucher (Christmas and Holiday purchase spending) . So there really isn't much incentive now to keep using the BA card other than to generate extra Avios.
What would stop us from each referring each other - for a BA Amex "Classic" Credit Card - with a 4,000 referrer bonus each - and a 10,000 avios bonus once each card has reached £1,000 of spend. And then over the next 10 months if we spend £20k (which we will as we will use for business use etc) - then we trigger another Companion Voucher each , albeit ones with only a 12 month validity. Is there anything in the Amex T&C's that would prevent us doing this??? I really believe the £10,000 trigger on the Premium card is a disincentive to use the card further - once its been breached.
Thanks!
1) You wouldn't be eligible for another sign up bonus if you've held a BA card in the last 6 months
2) I don't think you could hold both cards at the same time anyway
Jan 11, 2016, 9:51 am
#844
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: GLA
Programs: BD (in memoriam), BA
Posts: 1,359
"Introductory offers are not available if you currently hold or have held any other British Airways American Express Cards in the past six months"Also, even if you're able to hold both cards simultaneously (I'm not sure), don't forget that the £20k spent on the blue card could "cost" you 10k in lost Avios for that spend vs the black card.
Jan 11, 2016, 9:59 am
#845
Join Date: May 2011
Posts: 245
I get referred on Platinum - I get 35,000 Avios (in the form of Membership rewards) when I spend £2k? (I then cancel my card within 30 days to get my membership fee refunded)
I refer her for Platinum in the meantime - I get 18,000 Avios/MR - she gets 35,000 when she spends £2k.
We get 2,000 Avios/for the £2k spend each- making a grand total of 92,000 Avios/MR for a bit of hassle filling forms in and making calls??
All that still valid??
Jan 11, 2016, 10:37 am
#846
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: North of Carlisle
Programs: BAEC Silver
Posts: 1,538
Here's an interesting question.
My wife and I are both a couple of months in to our membership year on the BA Amex Premium Plus (Black) Card - and we have both triggered our Companion (2-4-1) voucher (Christmas and Holiday purchase spending) . So there really isn't much incentive now to keep using the BA card other than to generate extra Avios.
What would stop us from each referring each other - for a BA Amex "Classic" Credit Card - with a 4,000 referrer bonus each - and a 10,000 avios bonus once each card has reached £1,000 of spend. And then over the next 10 months if we spend £20k (which we will as we will use for business use etc) - then we trigger another Companion Voucher each , albeit ones with only a 12 month validity. Is there anything in the Amex T&C's that would prevent us doing this??? I really believe the £10,000 trigger on the Premium card is a disincentive to use the card further - once its been breached.
Thanks!
My wife and I are both a couple of months in to our membership year on the BA Amex Premium Plus (Black) Card - and we have both triggered our Companion (2-4-1) voucher (Christmas and Holiday purchase spending) . So there really isn't much incentive now to keep using the BA card other than to generate extra Avios.
What would stop us from each referring each other - for a BA Amex "Classic" Credit Card - with a 4,000 referrer bonus each - and a 10,000 avios bonus once each card has reached £1,000 of spend. And then over the next 10 months if we spend £20k (which we will as we will use for business use etc) - then we trigger another Companion Voucher each , albeit ones with only a 12 month validity. Is there anything in the Amex T&C's that would prevent us doing this??? I really believe the £10,000 trigger on the Premium card is a disincentive to use the card further - once its been breached.
Thanks!
Jan 11, 2016, 11:54 am
#847
Join Date: May 2011
Posts: 245
As an alternative, have you considered the preferred gold rewards card ? (free in the first year) 20k points bonus after the qualifying spend. You then refer your wife for 9000 referral points. In total, there's a potential 49,000 rewards (avios) points to be collected in this manner. Or is the activation of another 241 your main aim ? A 12 month 241 validity is too restrictive for us and we have 4 of them available at the moment. We're happy to build up the avios to assist in utilizing the 241's
Jan 11, 2016, 12:01 pm
#848
Join Date: Apr 2006
Posts: 191
The Gold Reward card is free in the first year -- and lots of spending gets double or triple points in the first year too, things like travel and supermarket spend. Having cancelled mine last month at the end of the free year, I can vouch for being able to rack up points very quickly, and without any additional expense. The Platinum card costs £450, so you'd have to earn a lot of additional points to make it worthwhile.
Jan 11, 2016, 12:03 pm
#849
Join Date: May 2011
Posts: 245
The Gold Reward card is free in the first year -- and lots of spending gets double or triple points in the first year too, things like travel and supermarket spend. Having cancelled mine last month at the end of the free year, I can vouch for being able to rack up points very quickly, and without any additional expense. The Platinum card costs £450, so you'd have to earn a lot of additional points to make it worthwhile.
Jan 11, 2016, 12:11 pm
#850
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: North of Carlisle
Programs: BAEC Silver
Posts: 1,538
Jan 11, 2016, 12:33 pm
#851
Join Date: Oct 2007
Posts: 4,648
You may be better off looking at the long term rather than a short term gain and cheesing off Amex at the same time. Sooner or later Amex will clamp down on what they may consider abuse of the system and start blacklisting the worst offenders.
Jan 11, 2016, 4:03 pm
#852
Join Date: Aug 2008
Posts: 121
Someone wise once said "there's no such thing as a stupid question"...
Anyway, now I've distracted you with that, I can ask you a stupid question.
A friend told me that if I held a BAPP then they wouldn't charge me a credit card fee for a phone booking (I'm unsure how they'd know what card it was so I have some doubts!)...
Anyway, the agent I spoke to denied that and charged it me. So, was he right?
(PS - I know you can avoid the AMEX charge online, but I had to pay over the phone)
Anyway, now I've distracted you with that, I can ask you a stupid question.
A friend told me that if I held a BAPP then they wouldn't charge me a credit card fee for a phone booking (I'm unsure how they'd know what card it was so I have some doubts!)...
Anyway, the agent I spoke to denied that and charged it me. So, was he right?
(PS - I know you can avoid the AMEX charge online, but I had to pay over the phone)
Jan 11, 2016, 4:11 pm
#853
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: London
Programs: Mucci. Nothing else matters.
Posts: 38,644
A friend told me that if I held a BAPP then they wouldn't charge me a credit card fee for a phone booking (I'm unsure how they'd know what card it was so I have some doubts!)...
Anyway, the agent I spoke to denied that and charged it me. So, was he right?
(PS - I know you can avoid the AMEX charge online, but I had to pay over the phone)
Anyway, the agent I spoke to denied that and charged it me. So, was he right?
(PS - I know you can avoid the AMEX charge online, but I had to pay over the phone)
Even if you use it online, you're not exempted. People sometimes evade the charge by lying, but whether you're prepared to do that is a matter of personal choice.
Jan 12, 2016, 9:46 am
#855
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: North of Carlisle
Programs: BAEC Silver
Posts: 1,538
Interesting email from Amex this afternoon. An invitation from Amex to upgrade my preferred gold rewards card to the platinum card. 20,000 rewards points if I spend £1000 in 3 months, now that's interesting when the terms and conditions state "I understand I will not be eligible for any Welcome Bonus award if I hold or have held any Membership Rewards enrolled American Express Card in the past six months" Is this a shift in policy or is it just a inducement to pay them £450 instead of £140 when my rewards card is due for renewal ? It was my intention to cancel the gold card in month 11 but the 20,000 points and the benefits the platinum card provides is worth considering. Any thoughts ?