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News: Border Force strike suspended, new targetted BA American Express spend offer

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News in brief:

Border Force strike action this week suspended

The threatend strike by Border Force officers at Heathrow this week has been suspended. The Public and Commercial Services Union has agreed to further talks with the Home Office.

Over 600 Border Force officials were planning to strike from 11th to 14th April.

Further talks on a proposed new rostering system will now take place. The union was concerned that staff with disabilities or caring responsibilities would be forced to quit their jobs over a lack of flexibility.

Border Force strikes action this week suspended

New British Airways American Express spend offer launched

A new spend offer has appeared on British Airways American Express Premium Plus cards.

My wife and I both have this although it is unclear how widespread it is. If it makes a difference, both of our cards have already triggered their 2-4-1 companion vouchers for the year and the cards are seeing little use.

We are offered 1,000 bonus Avios for spending £2,500+ on the card by 5th July. This can be done twice.

New BA Amex spend offer launched

There is one snag. There is an implication that the £2,500 must be done in one transaction. There is no mention of cumulative spend and the wording of ‘spend £2,500 or more up to two times’ also implies that it must be £2,500 in one shot.

I find it hard to believe that Amex is actually offering you a promo where you need to spend £2,500 in one go, but it isn’t clear.

You need to opt in to this offer, if you have it, via the ‘Offers’ tab of the Amex app or website.

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Category

British Airways American Express

Comments (62)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • KevMc says:
    8 Apr8 April 11:06

    I will have to check with P2 later, as she is the main cardholder on the BA PP account atm.

    I assume the offer is specific to the main cardholder and not the account?

    • Rob says:
      8 Apr8 April 11:34

      Spend by all cardholders usually counts.

      • TGLoyalty says:
        8 Apr8 April 12:18

        They do for sign up bonuses but im sure in the past they haven’t for these types of card based bonus offers.

  • RussellH says:
    8 Apr8 April 11:09

    I have the Hilton offer on my Amex Rewards card.
    I also have 7% off at Transpennine Express. The offer wording says “get a 7% statement credit when you spend any amount on a GBP transaction in participating hotel(s) or online…”. There is a downloadable list of participating hotel(s) which includes a ticket vending machine at Manchester Airport and at Scunthorpe Station.
    Does no one proof-read this stuff?

  • Gordon says:
    8 Apr8 April 11:33

    OT – But might stack with an Amex offer.
    The Wine flyer has an offer of a free bottle of our Icelandic crafted Gin with a purchase of 11 bottles of wine, or sparkling wine.

  • Mark says:
    8 Apr8 April 11:52

    Any news on whether the Amex TP offer might continue into the future? I’ve already received my first 100 TPs, and will hit the next 50 by offer end date, but was wondering whether BA/Amex might bring this offer back.

    • Rob says:
      8 Apr8 April 12:01

      We are assuming that it is made permanent next year when tier point earning is expected to move to some sort of spend-based metric.

      • Mark says:
        8 Apr8 April 12:24

        All we need now is for them to change the voucher issue rules.

      • PB2 says:
        8 Apr8 April 15:59

        As in spend targets will be an additional route to earning status, or something all members will have to comply with, in addition to (or perhaps irrespective of) current distance/cabin related tier point earning rules? I assume the former.

        • PB2 says:
          8 Apr8 April 16:00

          *latter!

        • Rob says:
          8 Apr8 April 17:02

          My best guess is that BA goes to a spend target which will be virtually impossible for a leisure traveller to hit (£10k Silver, £20k Gold of tax-exclusive spend?) but lets you shrink that target via card spend on, say, a ‘5 to 1’ basis.

          American Airlines now lets you earn status with zero flying and BA could go the same way. Giving you Gold for £100k of card spend sounds about right.

          The AA move has apparently had a big impact in New York where AA historically had few elite members because it doesn’t fly much from New York. Once you could get status via card spend it became a doddle for many NYC high earners, and the airline has been struggling with a lot of new elite members who don’t know the first thing about what they are meant to be doing or where they are meant to go when travelling.

          • PB2 says:
            8 Apr8 April 17:21

            Will be fascinating to see how far BA takes this spend element into status earning. A move like this would really rip the guts out of the loyalty scheme for the leisure traveller – and would be a big departure from the current “double-TP for a holiday” etc. landscape of today. Potentially a kick in the teeth to those well on the way to gold for life too. Many angles to consider, let’s see how it pans out!

          • Rob says:
            8 Apr8 April 17:30

            No, it would effectively be the same as ‘double TP for a holiday’, eg giving the leisure a traveller a way of earning status for fewer flights than a corporate traveller.

          • PB2 says:
            8 Apr8 April 17:48

            The days of achieving Gold for circa £3000 outlay (across all oneworld carriers not forgetting your 4 eligible flights), valid perhaps for almost 2 years followed by a year of silver if well timed, may be well and truly numbered then! Quite a contrast to spend £20k with us, or if not £100k on our branded Amex – even if many will be comfortable with that.

  • CJD says:
    8 Apr8 April 12:47

    Don’t have the offer on my BAPP, but seeing as I use it as my main card and I’m within £1,000 of triggering the voucher, I’m not surprised.

    • Peter says:
      8 Apr8 April 12:56

      I’ve been £60 away from triggering the voucher for some months and I do have the offer! Possibly to encourage me back to use the BAPP.

      We have the Hilton offer four times over our BAPP’s and their supplementary cards. Very good timing as we have an £800 spend just before 1st July.

  • Stuart says:
    8 Apr8 April 12:51

    £3K spend for 1500 Avios on mine, already triggered the voucher.

  • Ant68 says:
    8 Apr8 April 13:45

    Not on my own BAPP, and not on my supplementary card for my husband’s BAPP. I’m still collecting tier points based on spend – just got my first 100 and am hoping for at least another 50.

    Sorry, may have missed it – was there an email about it or did you just spot it on the app/website?

  • Ant68 says:
    8 Apr8 April 13:47

    to add to my post above, neither of us have triggered 2-4-1’s yet this year

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