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

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American Express has announced some unwelcome changes to the two British Airways American Express credit cards today.

The fee for the Premium Plus card will increase to £300. This is effective immediately for new applications.

The annual spend required to receive a 2-4-1 companion voucher will increase to £15,000 in November. This applies to both cards.

BA Amex fee AND voucher qualifying spend to rise sharply

The British Airways Premium Plus fee will rise to £300

This is the easiest change to get your head around.

The fee for the Premium Plus card will increase from the current £250 per year to £300 per year.

The fee increase will apply:

  • from today, if you are a new applicant for the card
  • for your next renewal after 1st August, if you already have the card

This means that if your renewal date is in April, May, June or July, your card will renew at the current £250. You will not pay the higher fee until your subsequent renewal in 2025.

If your next renewal date is after 1st August 2024, you will pay £300 from your next renewal.

The 2-4-1 companion voucher will require £15,000 of spending

This change is more complex because it is NOT linked to your current card year.

From 1st November, you will need to spend £15,000 to receive a 2-4-1 companion voucher. This applies to BOTH the free British Airways American Express card and the Premium Plus version.

The change will kick in on 1st November for both new and existing cardholders.

This means that you are now under pressure to hit your current membership year spend target by 31st October. If you don’t, you’ll need to spend £15,000 instead.

Here’s an example. Let’s assume that you have the Premium Plus card and that your card year runs to 1st February. You will need to either:

  • spend £10,000 by 31 October 2024, or
  • spend £15,000 by 31 January 2025

…. to earn your next voucher. From 1st February 2025, when your membership year renews, you will need to spend £15,000.

BA Amex fee AND voucher qualifying spend to rise sharply

As a reminder, this is how the companion vouchers currently work:

  • the free British Airways American Express card awards a 2-4-1 companion voucher when you spend £12,000 in your membership year. The voucher is valid for one year for an Economy flight redemption on British Airways, Aer Lingus or Iberia.

What do we think?

The increase in the annual fee is not easy to justify. American Express is pointing to improvements in card benefits (the ability for a solo traveller to use it for a 50% Avios discount, the ability to use it on Aer Lingus and Iberia) but for 90% of cardholders these changes have no impact.

(The solo traveller benefit IS valuable, but by default most existing cardholders applied when the voucher was only usable by two people and don’t need this functionality. The ‘value’ in the solo traveller discount is all for the benefit of Amex, since solo travellers are now applying for the card when they wouldn’t previously.)

It will be interesting to see how many people decide that the maths no longer stacks up.

I am more amenable to the increase in annual spend. The card is now over 20 years old and the spend target for the Premium Plus voucher was £10,000 from the start. £10,000 in 2004 is equivalent to over £17,000 in 2024, so it is hard to argue with £15,000.

What should you do if you can’t spend £15,000 per year?

We’ll look at this in a separate article later in the week.

Fundamentally:

  • there is little value in having the free British Airways American Express card if you can’t spend £15,000 per year on it – it makes more sense to have the free American Express Rewards credit card or the free Barclaycard Avios Mastercard
  • there is absolutely no value in having the Premium Plus card (beyond the first year and the big sign-up bonus) if you can’t spend £15,000 to earn the voucher. This isn’t up for discussion.

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Category

British Airways American Express, British Airways and Avios

Comments (623)

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

  • Mouse says:
    10 Apr10 April 07:02

    Last fee increase was September 2021. Cumulative inflation (CPIH) since then (up to Feb 24) is 16.4%, which would support a rise in fee to £291, so they might be squeezing an extra £9 out of us but it’s hardly more of a rip off that what we have seen from so many businesses. Stuff if just more expensive now.

    • CF Frost says:
      10 Apr10 April 07:13

      Amex has a realistic appreciation of the effects of inflation. How long has it been a10k spend? I can’t recall. But a £10k spend 10y ago is equivalent to a £15.6k spend today. For the card to remain viable, Amex could go with a gradual change each year, or a larger one at intervals.

      • Mouse says:
        10 Apr10 April 08:02

        I agree. I think round numbers are easier for the people in marketing to understand.

        • CF Frost says:
          10 Apr10 April 22:25

          It’s unremarkable news. An increase every year would be a marketing disaster. And so it’s a chunk increase after many years of no change and done without warning as one might only expect a smart company to do – and as the T&C to which people agree will permit. What else might one expect for as long as inflation is, you know, a thing? It’s a better value spending offer than when the card launched.

  • Ralph says:
    10 Apr10 April 07:03

    We have limped on through a number of hard hitting changes and significant increases in carrier charges, now this is definitely the final nail in the coffin for me, it’s just not worth it any more. My Amex has been sat in a drawer, had to spend £3k by Nov 1st, so it’s easy to bring that forward a month or more, then I’m done. Also unethical of Amex to change T&C’s for a spend threshold that one signed up to at the beginning of the year, mid year.

    • JDB says:
      10 Apr10 April 07:10

      The fact that people put the card “in a drawer” as you and others often mention is surely one of the reasons it makes sense for Amex to increase the threshold.

      • Ralph says:
        10 Apr10 April 08:22

        That’s not why they are doing this. Better to be in a drawer and then being used, year on year, than cancelled, which is what many, including myself, will do.

      • meta says:
        10 Apr10 April 10:07

        It will now just go in the drawer a bit later.

  • DaveP says:
    10 Apr10 April 07:04

    Deeply disappointing news regarding the double-whammy from Amex. I hope Barclaycard don’t follow suit off the back of this.

  • M says:
    10 Apr10 April 07:06

    Anyone used blue chain as an alternative to billhop and does the spend qualify?

  • PlaneSpeaking says:
    10 Apr10 April 07:07

    “The British Airways Premium Plus American Express card awards a 2-4-1 companion voucher when you spend £12,000 in your membership year.”

    Rob, if you’re talking about the current T&Cs, I think this should read £10k (and £12k for the free card?).

  • Mohamed says:
    10 Apr10 April 07:09

    With all these bad news they could have brought 1 good news, the voucher usable on QATAR, am not keeping my premium card, anyway must of my avios are spent with Qatar.

  • Chris R says:
    10 Apr10 April 07:13

    Can they get round to fixing using more than one voucher in a booking? Family of three bookings are so fiddly!
    That might make this increase more palatable

  • nufc83 says:
    10 Apr10 April 07:14

    Have pro-rata refunds completely gone too?

    • Rob says:
      10 Apr10 April 07:52

      Still there – and this change is the reason why. They will go later in the year.

      • Iain says:
        10 Apr10 April 07:58

        Rob, sorry for the daft question, we’ve both earned our vouchers this year. Can my partner downgrade to the free card and get a pro-rata refund? She got her card for the first time (with a SUP) in November.

        Or would it be better for me to downgrade mine? I got mine a few years ago, without a SUP (migrated from the free card)?

      • Hampshirehog says:
        10 Apr10 April 10:12

        They’d better give notice of withdrawing pro rata refunds rather than relying on the previous unannounced non implementation being reversed overnight, although I’m not holding my breath

        • Rob says:
          10 Apr10 April 10:31

          You had notice last year. You were never told they had changed their mind. Everyone who doesn’t read HfP already thinks they have gone. No more notice is required, although I have been our readers will get it.

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

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