This section deals with the BA American Express Cards that are available to people in the UK. Sorry to all those US users of the BA Visa, but you never seem to generate enough questions! BA in Germany offer a
MasterCard, in France there's a
Diners Card, in the Netherlands there's also a
Diners Card and finally there’s a Diners Card in Switzerland too.
There are two types of AmEx card current available:
Basic
Premium Plus
(The ‘middle type’ called Premium is no longer offered, but still valid for existing holders).
The Basic card will earn you 1 BA mile per £1 spent, the Premium Plus 1.5 miles (and historically the Premium 1.25 miles).
If you a Premium or Premium Plus card (but not the Basic) holder and purchase something from BA which appears as ‘British Airways’ on the credit card statement, these amounts will be doubled i.e. 2.5 miles per £1 for the Premium and 3 miles per £1 for Premium Plus – this applies to flights as well as Duty Free purchases onboard. You do not earn double miles when purchasing BA Miles online as these show on your statement as points.com, not British Airways.
It’s also worth noting that on Travelocity and Expedia at least, normal BA tickets appear on your card as 2 transactions; first as BRITISH AIRWAYS for the fare itself and then a second one for the site’s booking fee. These post with triple miles automatically ^ (Note this does not apply to special/negotiated fares such as ones which appear on Expedia as ‘Expedia Special’ from time-to-time).
The 2-4-1 voucher
The primary benefit of these BA AmEx cards is the voucher you get a voucher that offers you a second free ticket when you redeem your BA Miles for a flight. You need to spend £20K on the Basic, £15K on the (no longer offered) Premium, and £10K on the Premium Plus before you can get this and all of the spend must occur
in one year (from the date of your AmEx card’s anniversary).
Even if you are spending loads on the card you can still only have one voucher every 12 months. If you’re really spending and it takes you three months to get to the £10K (for the Premium Plus), the next nine months of spend will NOT count to your next voucher (but will continue to earn miles just fine). If you do spend this much, you may want to consider getting a separate (NOT a supplementary) card for your partner so that your household can generate two vouchers per year.
The voucher is issued to you when you hit this spend threshold (i.e. not at the end of your year). It will be posted to you, usually within a week of receiving the statement that put you over the spending threshold – and will also appear online in your BA account’s homepage in a similar timeframe. The physical voucher contains a numerical code which you need to give to BA when you ring up to book your flights (if booking offline).
So, once you get the voucher, what is it? Well when you redeem your BA Miles for a ticket, it will give you a second one for free. Simple as that! You still have to pay all the airport taxes and fuel surcharges for both tickets though.
The voucher is valid for 24 months; by then you must have flown ALLoutbound segments – the old trick of flying MAN-LHR and then doing LHR-BKK six months later will no longer work.. BA/AmEx will also
not extend vouchers any more (they used to).
Stopovers are allowed but do remember the voucher
only applies to bookings solely with BA Miles. You can
NOT use the voucher for:
Flights paid for with money –
Miles ONLY
Part Cash / Part Miles – this means
no MFU’s
Partner Airlines –
BA Flights ONLY
oneworld Flights –
BA Flights ONLY
Code-shares –
BA Flights ONLY
Flights starting from outside the UK – the flight MUST
originate in the UK
In the T&Cs it says you may not use it for flights operated by franchise partners. However, people have been successful in using it for this, notably, Comair in South Africa (though this is a mistake on the part of the booking agents not a valid exception).
You can now book your voucher flights online – there will be an additional option on the miles booking engine which lets you ‘pay’ for a flight with the voucher. Simply select this, set the number of travellers to ‘2’ and book away – once you find the seats you need, it will check the validity of the voucher matches that of the journey dates and quote you the total taxes/charges for two people and the miles for one person ^ This is a great enhancement in itself. Unfortunately, however, it only works for simple bookings (i.e. out and back to/from the same airport in the same class both ways)
If you want to do something more complex (i.e. open jaw, mixed classes) you still have to call up BA. They levy a £15 per person charge on all mileage bookings made on the phone – this used to be waived
just for AmEx bookings but now you can book online (even if you can’t book what you
want online
) they will charge you it again
Two other restrictions to keep in mind – the cardholder
must be one of those travelling on the booking and your AmEx card must be valid at the time. Additionally, you cannot combine your AmEx voucher with a Gold Upgrade Voucher.
The T&C's for the Amex 2 for 1 voucher are here:
http://www.britishairways.com/travel...ntc/public/en_
The T&C's for the cards are here:
http://www10.americanexpress.com/sif...1,12707,00.asp
The Other Big Benefit – Travel Cover
Aside from miles earning and the voucher, another big benefit of the Premium Plus card is the travel cover it offers you – if you are travelling alone, it’s actually better cover than the Platinum/Centurion card. Here is a summary for the most-used issue (sadly) – lost/delayed baggage:
1. IF you booked the tickets (on any airline, not just BA) with your Premium Plus Card
2. AND your baggage is delayed by more than 6 hours (at your first/intermediate destination NOT on the way back home)
3. THEN you can spend up to 750 GBP on purchasing ‘essential’ items (e.g. clothes, suit for a meeting, toiletries).
4. FURTHERMORE if the bag still has not turned up in 48hrs you can spend an ADDITIONAL 1000 GBP too.
5. PROVIDED that ALL purchases are charged to the Premium Plus card
For holders of the Platinum/Centurion, the cover kicks in after 4 hours not 6 BUT it’s only up to 300 GBP and then a further 300 GBP after 48 hours…HOWEVER, that is per person on the booking so with several people it can work out better. Also, for these cards you do NOT have to have paid for the tickets on your Platinum/Centurion, you’re covered regardless.
Two further very important notes:
1. You MUST get the ‘Property Irregularity Report’ (PIR) from the baggage company when it first goes astray
2. You MUST get a date/stamp/confirmation from the courier/delivery person when the bag (hopefully) finally arrives with you (to prove the length of the delay)
Card Fees
There is no annual fee for the Basic card. The Premium Plus card carries a £150 fee.. The serious mileage collector will usually take the Premium Plus card regardless, as the higher level of mileage earning cancels out much of the fee – i.e. spending £20,000 pa would get you 10,000 more miles on the Premium Plus card.
However, since the fee for the Premium Plus card went up to £150 and the basic card became totally free, this decision is not as clear cut as it used to be. Here is a rough guide to help you decide which is best:
a) If you and your partner can easily spend £20,000 pa on the card and only earn enough BA Miles to use one Amex 2-4-1 per year, then you may find the Basic card is good enough for your needs. Decide if paying £150 for the additional 0.5 BA Miles per £1, plus any initial sign-up bonus, makes the Premium Plus card worth it for you.
b) If you and your partner can easily spend £20,000 pa on the card but have so many BA Miles that you could happily use TWO Amex 2-4-1 vouchers per year, consider getting the Premium Plus card for yourself and a separate Premium Plus card for your partner. You then split your £20k annual spend between the two cards.
c) If you can easily spend £10,000 pa on the card but will struggle to hit £20,000, then get the Premium Plus card – at least you can be certain of triggering the 2-4-1 voucher after £10,000
d) If you cannot spend £10,000 pa on the card, then either don’t bother (get a BMI Amex instead since the miles go further!) or get the free Basic card and simply earn BA Miles without worrying about the voucher.
Historically, holders of another AmEx card, such as a Blue credit card, Green charge card, Gold charge card, found that the annual fee for the Premium and Premium Plus was reduced to £30p.a. As of 2008, however, Amex has indicated that it will be removing this privilege and charging all Premium Plus customers £150 regardless of other Amex cards held. This has yet to be formally notified to cardholders at the time of writing (May 2008) so check FT for the latest position.
Note you can get cash back when applying for most AmEx cards, including the BA AmEx, through sites such as quidco.com and greasypalm.com. AmEx is also usually offering a sign-up bonus of a few thousand BA Miles for both the Basic and Premium Plus cards – see americanexpress.co.uk/ba for details of any current promotions.
Domicile
Your BAEC must be registered in the UK for you to hold the BA American Express card. If you move your account to a European address to benefit from the lower tier point thresholds, your card will be cancelled as soon as AmEx attempts to make the next miles transfer. However, if you simply do not use your card during your time in Europe then you can retain it as long as you don’t use it.
With some planning, it IS possible to benefit from the European tier point thresholds and the Amex 2-4-1. You would need to squeeze your £10k on Amex spending into part of the year, and then (once the voucher is issued) move your BA account to Europe so it is EU registered when your membership year comes up for renewal. If this is too complicated, you may prefer to have your partner get the BA Amex on a UK BA account and then get a supplementary BA Amex issued in your name. This allows you to use the card day-to-day whilst having your own personal BA account domiciled in Europe.
The BA Corporate AmEx
There is also a BA AmEx Corporate Card available - full details can be found at
http://corp.americanexpress.com/gcs/...oratecard.aspx. If you have your own business you may find this useful, or you may find that your employer gives you one. It earns miles at the rate of 1 mile per £1, and also accrues 50% bonus OnBusiness points for the sponsoring employer for BA flights booked using the card. Only BAEC accounts domiciled in the UK will receive miles - if you move your account to Europe you will no longer receive miles although, unlike the standard BA AmEx, your Corporate Card will not be cancelled.