Got a British Airways American Express? Are you ready for the 1st September changes?

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• Sarah says:

  26 Jul26 July 07:56

  I have BAPP and have already earned my 2-4-1 for this year and have another 2 2-4-1 so don’t need another one but would probably earn it anyway. Membership year ends on 2 Sep. Should I downgrade to blue or keep the BAPP to keep earning extra avios on spend, as needall the avios I can get otherwise will struggle to get decent value for all the vouchers anyway. Any thoughts?

  • Doug M says:

    26 Jul26 July 10:34

    You get an extra 0.5 Avios per £ on paid for card, so if you value an Avios at 1p you need to spend £50K to make it worthwhile paying £250 if nothing else about the BAPP has value to you. Of course if you spend at BA that figure comes down.
    If you just want Avios have you looked at Barclays banking offer?

    • Sarah says:

      26 Jul26 July 12:39

      Thanks for your advice. I was actually going to open the Barclays account anyway so think I’ll downgrade to blue as have enough vouchers to see me through 2023 anyway.

• BJ says:

  26 Jul26 July 08:00

  Before opening HfP I was just thinking such an article would be pertinent, and there it was and a very good one at that 🙂 However, I confess to being somewhat anxious about the whole issue. I think the analysis provided here is sound and provides for good decisions. However, what is troubling me is whether the changes announced by amex and BA are the limit of those we will see 1st September or soon after. In particular I am concerned that going forward we may lose the ability to upgrade and downgrade the cards, that we will lose the voucher if we cancel the associated card, and that we will be required to use the voucher-earning card to pay for the flights. While I think all three are unlikely to come to pass, and especially the last, it does make me wonder if we are best triggering vouchers now. Bird in the hand and all that. Play the cards we now hold according to the rules we know instead of gambling on something we don’t know for certain.

  • JDB says:

    26 Jul26 July 08:08

    Very wise words BJ! Also, the things you mention that facilitate the upgrade/downgrade dance are matters of policy/concession (rather than T&Cs) by Amex, so can be changed without notice. The ability of BA to extend the all the existing vouchers whether already used inside a booking or not suggests the IT on that front is better than one might have thought.

    • BJ says:

      26 Jul26 July 09:08

      I don’t currently have a BP but my partner is sitting £100 shy of the voucher. Despite my worries we’re gambling on September 🙂 potential extra availability and ability to start flights outside the UK is a huge carrot.

  • Doug M says:

    26 Jul26 July 10:42

    Not a lawyer. I think Amex/BA would struggle to change the practice of not claiming back the voucher on cancellation of card without notice of several years. Customary practice has determined you can cancel and retain. Suddenly forcing customers to retain the card at £500+ (assuming voucher used 2 years later) to do what has in practice been previously allowed would seem to me to be problematic for them.

    • JDB says:

      26 Jul26 July 11:01

      ‘Customary practice’ could apply as an ‘implied term’ IF you were interpreting a business to business contract, but in this case the terms are quite clear, including the requirement to be eligible for the promotion at the time of travel and use ‘the’ card to pay for the booking. If you are doing the upgrade/downgrade dance you are having these terms shown to you all the time. Amex can also stop the carry over of spend from the free card to the BAPP, only allow a cardmember a certain number of upgrades/downgrades within a time period or stop pro-rata refunds (a very generous concession, but one now heavily abused) etc. In terms of fairness, you would have zero prospect of success with the FOS as a) it isn’t unfair, b) she anyway has little interest in unfair terms in the paid/rewards card market, especially insofar as the rewards element is concerned and c) it fits with the FCA’s current regulatory focus on protecting existing customers vs new ones. Also, when the gap in benefits between the vouchers is about to be so large, Amex needs to encourage Platinum holders who previously got BAPP free to pay £250 and get as many other people to pay £250 they need to take steps to protect the better voucher for the full fee payers; this will also ensure they meet FCA principles 6 & 8. There are a lot of straws in the wind on this!

• Dave says:

  26 Jul26 July 08:06

  I have 2 BA companion vouchers which will probably expire before I will be able to use them. Am I right in thinking the best option currently is to book a cheap (domestic?) avios flight for my family using the 2 vouchers, then cancel for a FTV to extend them to 2023?

  If so, does the destination I book matter? and if I book a one-way trip to minimise the initial avios outlay, can I still use the FTV for a return trip?

  Many thanks

  • Guernsey Globetrotter says:

    26 Jul26 July 08:59

    Dave, you’re on the right track here. It can indeed be a domestic flight. The destination doesn’t necessarily matter if you are happy to cancel yourself and then wear the £35 fee. However some on here have been booking flights they have a high level of confidence that BA will cancel themselves and so you save that charge too. The only real disadvantage to the FTV extension route for your 2-4-1s (other than any cash fee you tie up in your booking) is that whomever is on your original booking that you cancel for the FTV will be ‘locked in’ so you’ll all have to travel together on any future booking – in other words, don’t get divorced 😉

    • Dave says:

      26 Jul26 July 09:16

      Ok, that sounds good, thanks. I wasn’t aware of the £35 cancellation fee when requesting a FTV, so thanks for the heads up. I’ll be travelling with my family if/when I use the vouchers, so no issue there.

      Any idea how long BA usually take to issue the FTV? Depending on flight availability, I may want to use it in about a month.

      • Paul says:

        26 Jul26 July 09:38

        There is no fee for claiming an FTV – the FTV is for the full value of your booking. The £35 per ticket is only charged if you cancel for a cash refund

        • Dave says:

          26 Jul26 July 09:41

          Ok, thank you, that makes it more appealing. Any idea how long BA normally take to issue the FTV?

        • Guernsey Globetrotter says:

          26 Jul26 July 11:15

          Yes – my bad – apologies Dave and thanks for the correction Paul

      • Rob says:

        26 Jul26 July 11:12

        5 minutes

        • Dave says:

          26 Jul26 July 12:14

          Thanks Rob.

          Is there any issue booking a one-way flight then cancelling for a FTV if I then want to use the FTV for a return trip? I’m just trying to minimise the avios tied up in the FTV in case I can’t use it.

        • Rob says:

          26 Jul26 July 12:38

          No idea. In theory it should be ok because you are just working around the existing ticket (unlike, say, a name change).

• Andrew says:

  26 Jul26 July 08:08

  And not forgetting that those of us who have been enjoying the BAPP free for over a decade as a companion card to our Platinum card will be charged the full annual fee when renewing after 1 Sept, which I won’t be.

• MisterE says:

  26 Jul26 July 08:10

  So from 1 September, I understand there will two pools of Avios availability. The bigger/more generous pool will be restricted to BAPP holders but only when utilising a Companion Voucher. So a BAPP holder travelling solo won’t be able to take advantage of the bigger pool. Have I got that right?

  Do we know yet, how Seat Spy will deal with this? Will they have two pages for BA Avios availability rather than one?

  • Andrew says:

    26 Jul26 July 08:15

    Yes that’s right – only for 2for1 use, not general use. You’ll need to do a dummy cash booking and look for I-class.

  • BJ says:

    26 Jul26 July 12:37

    You got it right in theory, who knows in practice. We are reliant on good faith from BA, they could manipulate the availability if they wish.

• Marc says:

  26 Jul26 July 08:19

  Regarding the upgrading process – there’s this page here which I’ve used last month (instead of submitting a new application): https://www.americanexpress.com/uk/benefits/upgrade/ba-premium-plus-credit-card/

  The old blue card in my Apple Wallet was replaced/updated in under 30 minutes and I had the new physical card delivered on the very next day.

  • Christian says:

    26 Jul26 July 09:45

    Ditto – I have used this process last month as well, and it was painless compared to submitting a new application. I also seem to remember calling them up a few years back and doing it over the phone.

• Anita says:

  26 Jul26 July 08:32

  We have a blue BA which we were planning to upgrade to BAPP but stupidly went over the 10000 spend! The card anniversary is mid September. I realise that if we upgrade after 1st September we will trigger the 2 4 1 immediately. My query is will it be valid for 1 or 2 years based on the fact that we hit the spend on the blue card. It says 2 years above but seem to remember people only getting one year? Thanks

  • Guernsey Globetrotter says:

    26 Jul26 July 08:55

    Anita – you are still OK to hold off on the upgrade until Sept 1st per the article. You haven’t triggered anything yet as your current spend target is 20k. On Sept 1st this drops to 12k but you still aren’t there yet. However, if you upgrade post Sept 1st then as soon as your BAPP is issued the 2-4-1 will also trigger as you’re past its 10k target. If you do this after Sept 1st you earn the new voucher which can access the new larger pool of Avios business class availability. Assuming the upgrade process in Marc’s post above still works then this should all be doable quite easily before you come to your mid September anniversary. Then you just need to consider what you do going forward which, as per all the other comments, is a little unclear in terms of downgrade/upgrade game options etc.

    • Anita says:

      26 Jul26 July 10:06

      Thanks, ok to hold off the upgrade till after 1st September. My main query was whether the voucher would be for 1 or 2 years

      • Doug M says:

        26 Jul26 July 10:46

        Probably 1 year, but you call Amex and they’ll correct it to 2 year validity.

        • Anita says:

          26 Jul26 July 11:15

          Thanks, that’s what I suspected. Just querying as the article says two year in bold if you upgrade having spent over 10,000.
          Guess I’ll have to do it in September & see what happens!

        • BJ says:

          26 Jul26 July 12:44

          I cannot see this changing, A quick call will fix it. You should get a cherry on top too in shape of an extra 6 months so 2.5y.

• Mark says:

  26 Jul26 July 08:32

  Do we know if these changes have made a lot of people cancel their cards and move elsewhere ?

  • Andrew says:

    26 Jul26 July 08:53

    Where are they going to go?

    There’s nothing else on the market that will give me the option to buy a short notice domestic flight worth £600 for, at most £9,000 spend.

    *And*

    Give me lots of enticements to spend with their partners.

  • Rob says:

    26 Jul26 July 11:15

    Simple maths says that 83% of cardholders are at least 2 months into their current spending year, which means they probably feel they should stick it out for the current voucher.

    There will also be 0% cancellations from free BA Amex cardholders who never triggered the voucher (I would guess over 50%) and – as the card is free – a lot of the others might just stick in a drawer instead of cancelling.

    However … a bit like old Boris, Amex may find that customer support for the card is slipping away without being reflected in cancellation numbers, and one day something happens which leaves them very exposed.

    • JDB says:

      26 Jul26 July 11:38

      Your last sentence is unusually cryptic, Rob! I like the BAPP but if they continue to give the voucher to some for £20, it’s going to be harder to get more people paying £250. I struggle to understand why Amex tolerates it.

    • BJ says:

      26 Jul26 July 12:47

      Chase perhaps?

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