BIG NEWS: BA Amex annual fee AND voucher qualifying spend to rise sharply

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• john M says:

  11 Apr11 April 09:45

  I’m surprised how many people say they struggle to get the 10k spend and wouldn’t be able to spend 15k/y on the card… If you only generate 15k avios / year on spending, what use is the 2-4-1 voucher?? in my mind, this BAPP card s targeted at high spender who don’t really care if they trigger the voucher at 10 or 15 or 25 k …

  • Peter K says:

    11 Apr11 April 09:56

    Imagine you have a significant avios pot from legacy spending/earning but lower income now (eg retired) and want to stretch your avois further now.

    Or you earn avios from several smaller spenders in a household account?

    Or you have other ways to earn avios (eg work flights) but don’t have discretionary £15k *amex* spend you can do easily.

    It’s easy to think why you would want the 2-4-1 but not find £15k amex spend easy to achieve.

    • Lady London says:

      12 Apr12 April 14:26

      I think the thing is that if those are now your needs then your previous spend and lomg loyalty with them does not count any more and they want you out.

  • BBbetter says:

    11 Apr11 April 10:34

    Amex seriously needs to up their income criteria for this card and the platinum. To 50k minimum.

  • CJD says:

    11 Apr11 April 22:40

    This is basically where I’m at. In the last year I’ve got sign up bonuses for the Gold and BAPP cards (the latter being the 60,000 Avios offer just before Christmas) and I’ve applied today for the Barclaycard. I’m building up a good pot of Avios and a voucher for a decent redemption in a couple of years time for a honeymoon. But day to day I don’t spend enough to make the paid card really worth it long term.

  • Kev says:

    12 Apr12 April 10:44

    I’ve had a card since 2005 and it’s only the last few years I’ve hit the 10k without getting creative. I get most of my avios from other means, but manage to get enough for a long haul business flight each year.

• Andy says:

  11 Apr11 April 10:37

  Having digested the changes, I think I would be ok with the increased fee and spend threshold and could manage to contuinue to achieve the voucher and get value from it if it started from my renewal date. However, I am not at all happy that they change the limit from 10k to15k mid year, this really stinks, I am unlikely to reach the new threshold this year now as I spend accross different cards, and the only thing that seems to be offered is cancellation with pro rata refund. So they’d rather lose valuable customers than keep them going forwards. What an own goal from Amex.

  • JDB says:

    11 Apr11 April 10:53

    @Andy – if Amex offered you a full fee refund, would you agree to forfeit the card benefits you have already received? If not, that’s why they only offer pro-rata refunds.

    • John says:

      11 Apr11 April 14:35

      Though seemingly not possible in practice, I’d agree to return 0.5 avios per £ to Amex and 2.5 avios on BA spend (being the difference versus the free card) if they refunded the fee in full

      • Lady London says:

        11 Apr11 April 18:18

        How would this compensate you for “wasted” spend towards the £10k, that you had already given Amex, that you could have spent elsewhere towards a different cardco’s benefits?

        • Will says:

          12 Apr12 April 21:56

          Exactly, they made a defined offer over a defined term and have unilaterally changed the terms after the customer entered into that offer in good faith that it would be honoured.

          It’s not ambiguous in any way as far as I can see and I’m at a miss as to why they’ve not implemented the change on the anniversary of each cardholder.

    • Ken says:

      11 Apr11 April 22:39

      The card benefit is a 241 voucher.

      The extra 1/2 Avios over free cards is a trivial bonus for almost everyone.

• Alan says:

  11 Apr11 April 10:49

  So I have just had a long online chat and asked questions. Firstly why did I have to hear about it from the excellent HfP and not from BA Directly. They said they will send emails in the next 6 weeks! I did point out that my spend target is still £10k with an end date of 31st December.
  Secondly, I found another wrinkle in the changes which is very annoying. So I either have to spend an extra £5k between 1st November and end of year (2 months) to trigger close to my current companion ticket or I trigger it early. My first thought was trigger it early but then I won’t have my companion ticket that I usually use in early December each year. They then confirmed that my card year will still run until 31st December. That means that any spend after 31st October until my card renewal date won’t go towards the new £15k target. Which results in orphaned spend.
  I am sure other people have later card renewal dates and so this will impact them even more.

• Matt says:

  11 Apr11 April 11:27

  Just out of interest I compared prices for the 2-4-1 voucher flying business on Aer Lingus as opposed to BA for return flights for two to Toronto this June.

  BA want £700 taxes and 160k Avios.

  Aer Lingus (from Dublin) on the BA site costs £461 taxes and 120k Avios. So, a saving of 40k Avios and 240 quid. Yes, there’s the added cost of getting over to Dublin but the cash price for that return flight from Bristol for two of us is just £225.

  Bizarrely, when you try to book the whole package on the BA site with the 2-4-1 voucher (flights from Bristol to Dublin, then Dublin to Toronto) the taxes shoot up to over £1,300 so in effect, you’re paying 900 quid in taxes for the economy flight when the cash price is just £225.

  • Josh B says:

    11 Apr11 April 12:07

    You could use Avios separately to fly Brs to Dublin – dunno what they want for that offhand tho.

  • Kaconym says:

    11 Apr11 April 12:11

    Although most of the £700 and £461 ‘taxes’ are just charges each airline make up where the money goes straight in their pocket, the UK government does charge about £200 per person of air passenger duty for a business class flight to Canada, Ireland charge nothing.

    Also while BA business class is by no means world leading, Aer Lingus business class is definitely a step below. Both hard and soft product generally aren’t as good on Aer Lingus. For a short flight like London/ Dublin to Toronto either is fine as both have flat beds, but you do get a better experience with BA imo.

  • NorthernLass says:

    11 Apr11 April 13:30

    Ha – have a look how much you save on a redemption in First starting in DUB!

    • PB2 says:

      11 Apr11 April 20:35

      I’m personally not sure the ex-DUB route is a no brainer in my circumstances but certainly worth considering when planning a First redemption. Below calcs is initially no vouchers, one pax, all off peak. Simple LHR JFK return in F is (max avios) £1360 “of Avios” (using 1p value) plus £850 cash. DUB in economy tagged on either end with a LHR layover sub 24h on the outbound to avoid UK APD = £1545 “of Avios” plus £450. So a saving of about £215 when figures combined (use of voucher increases saving to £307 per person if one pax saves half Avios or 2 travel and second pays no Avios) – but you do need to factor in the positioning sector to DUB and probably a night in hotel to avoid misconnect when starting the main trip the following day (notwithstanding of course you may want a short break to DUB anyway – and getting to LHR itself may require many to position down/book a hotel anyway if not in the SE, so why not position to DUB instead?). Further though, to be relaxed and rested before the F flight and to enjoy the F LHR ground experience (CCR) you may also wish to pay for another night in LHR having arrived from DUB the night before, rather than having all outbound travel on same day, being at mercy of delays etc.? I appreciate you can call to book the return terminating after the F leg back to LHR, which would save some Avios and some airport fees having dropped the last economy leg to DUB. I guess 2 pax also makes the maths better, assuming a shared hotel room in DUB etc. All food for thought! Am I missing anything else worth considering?

• Lauren says:

  11 Apr11 April 13:19

  Off topic but we’re due to fly to Tokyo from Heathrow in June in Club World. I think last year there was talk from BA about upgrading the seats and promoting the route more but I haven’t heard or seen anything since. Does anyone know if it has been updated or not? Cheers

  • PeteM says:

    11 Apr11 April 13:27

    They use an A350, a 777 and 787 on this route. So depends on what flight you’re on, but it may also change by June…

  • Gareth says:

    11 Apr11 April 13:35

    In my experience on this route the earlier BA7 & 8 tend to use the A350 with the suite, and the later BA5 & 6 tending to use the B789 with the ying and yang.

  • Rob says:

    11 Apr11 April 13:47

    Check your seat map online – they will have a decent idea now of what will run.

  • Ronster says:

    11 Apr11 April 15:19

    Good afternoon Lauren

    Hope your well.

    BA have introduced a brand new A350 on that route, with the new “updated” business seats,( New Club Suite).

    Go to Google flights. Do a dummy run of the same dates and times of your flight. Should tell you whether your flying a 787(ying yang- old Club) or the A350(New Club Suite)

    Regards

• NorthernLass says:

  11 Apr11 April 13:34

  This is turning out to be something of a damp squib – didn’t the Curve/Amex debable generate over 1000 comments? 😂

  • NorthernLass says:

    11 Apr11 April 13:34

    *That’s a cross between a debate and a debacle, by the way 🤣

    • PeteM says:

      11 Apr11 April 13:48

      That was before the Forums though…

    • Finn says:

      11 Apr11 April 13:54

      I like debable – I’ll use that 🙂

  • CT95 says:

    12 Apr12 April 18:37

    This is getting close to it!

• Peter K says:

  11 Apr11 April 14:18

  It seems to me that Amex want to get some of that new tax year pay rise (if you’ve had one) going their way.

• Ali B says:

  11 Apr11 April 14:29

  As someone who only puts about 25k on the card a year I can appreciate that the extra 5k spend could be a stretch for some, particularly if you have other cards to hit spending targets on. However, are people really suggesting that 50 quid extra on the fee is a game changer in terms of the value you can get with the companion voucher if played right. Some really getting a bit over dramatic on here!

  • Tim says:

    11 Apr11 April 15:37

    50 quid + harder to achieve + removing pro rata refunds + taxes going up + avios required going up

    • Jonathan says:

      11 Apr11 April 17:00

      And no improvements to the day to day earnings of Avios points, it was 1.5 points when the card was launched, and it’s still the same !

      • Rob says:

        11 Apr11 April 17:15

        There is no logical reason why the rate would change, unless Avios had devalued so much in the meantime.

        • NorthernLass says:

          11 Apr11 April 18:21

          Agreed – the more you spend, the more avios you get.
          Don’t forget the double avios for BA spend. If you book a £5k holiday – and two weeks somewhere in August via the likes of On The Beach could easily hit that, so point in avoiding BA – you’ll get 15k avios from the BAPP, plus whatever BA awards you for the holiday. And that’s £5k towards your next 241.

        • NorthernLass says:

          11 Apr11 April 18:22

          *No point avoiding BA!

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