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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.

  • M says:
    10 Apr10 April 07:15

    My wife keeps trying to get me to canx he PP card – I still see value as 2 adults and 2 kids. Not much value during covid and whilst one child has bee under 2 years but we are almost over that. The issue I have is timing as through my own mismanagement timing of the vouchers is out. So I’m going to work on the next year. Also the other issue is using 2x vouchers for a family from differ t accounts is a pain. If they wanted to do genuine enhancements it would be better if could pool vouchers in family account etc. that would make me happier and think it’s worth it.

    • Icewhite says:
      10 Apr10 April 14:04

      Isn’t the card a loss leader for Barclays? Can’t see them doing much more, especially with little to no competition.

  • Chris W says:
    10 Apr10 April 07:15

    This is a huge opportunity for Barclays to swoop in and properly disrupt the market with their Barclaycard Avios Plus product and take market share away from what is widely regarded as the best credit card benefit in the UK

    They could market it as:
    – A lower annual fee
    – Easier to earn an upgrade voucher and
    – Accepted at more places

    Than Amex.

    They just need to.improve the needlessly restrictive upgrade voucher as follows:
    – Allow you to start your journey from anywhere (not just UK)
    – Be able to upgrade cash fares with the voucher, you know because it’s called an upgrade voucher….

    • G says:
      10 Apr10 April 07:58

      And allow upgrade voucher pooling for household accounts.

    • Hampshirehog says:
      10 Apr10 April 10:14

      And allow different Avios/cash options

    • Icewhite says:
      10 Apr10 April 14:04

      Isn’t the card a loss leader for Barclays? Can’t see them doing much more, especially with little to no competition.

      • Rob says:
        10 Apr10 April 14:53

        Barclays is more likely to cut benefits to make their card sustainable, as Virgin did.

  • Kuestrian says:
    10 Apr10 April 07:20

    Hopefully this will spur Barclaycard into an improved SUB offer.

  • James says:
    10 Apr10 April 07:21

    Stock answer from Amex on chat when asking about cancelling/retention bonus:

    “ You’re right to want to close the British Airways Premium Plus card account due to the increase in fee. However, the changes are not yet confirmed, and we have not received any information on that.

    Rest assured, you will be contacted in the coming weeks with more details about changes relating to the Cards you hold.

    At that time, if you agree with the changes or you find the terms suitable, you may decide to hold or close the card account. For now, there is no such change.”

  • LiamG says:
    10 Apr10 April 07:24

    Hoping this is actually just a precursor to the card including tier point bonuses more regularly, or even part of the main offer, which would make the increased fee worth it.

    • Cats are best says:
      10 Apr10 April 15:24

      I ditched the BAPP a few months ago as the 2-4-1 never worked for me, probably have more Avios than I’ll ever use.

      If they made earning TP an option instead of 2-4-1, I might look at BAPP again.

  • Simon ConroyHargrave says:
    10 Apr10 April 07:28

    The Maths NO LONGER adds Up.
    I have used the card to get a voucher and the Avios to get 2 Club World tickets to Australia with BA, but it is no longer an option, due to taxes and limited availability.
    My last set cost me 280,000 Avios, £1530 in taxes and the voucher from a £250 membership.
    BUT last month I bought 2 Qatar Club Suites to New Zealand for 360,000 and under £1000 in taxes, no voucher.
    So it is in effect CHEAPER and easier to use Qatar to get down under to Aus/NZ with more options and better service than BA!!

    So, I doubt I will be renewing my Amex Premium anymore, as there are so few seats available on these routes.

    • Can2 says:
      10 Apr10 April 08:05

      Wouldn’t you need to spend more to accumulate that much miles? The maths SHOULD include the additional miles you can make due to BAPP

      • G says:
        10 Apr10 April 08:10

        Should it? When you can get the same avios from a cheaper (now £60 a year cheaper) mastercard variant.

        The x3 avios spend on BA is nice but not substantial enough to shift the dial.

        • Can2 says:
          10 Apr10 April 08:13

          It’s cheaper but the Barclaycard voucher is less valuable and require more
          Miles to book the same flight. It’s an upgrade voucher after all.
          In all my cases, if I book for two, BAPP 241 costs less than the same booking with Barclaycard voucher.

      • Simon ConroyHargrave says:
        10 Apr10 April 09:49

        Not really, I also use balance Boost to increase miles and get them at about 0.9p.
        As I travel lots, I can get some extra when needed, but also what is the use of an Amex Voucher when I can NOT use it???

        I have accumulated so many miles in the last few years by starting in Dublin and Madrid on many Long Haul flights and got the massive Avios rewards (sadly BA pulled this as its now £ based and not distance)
        I can fly from Dublin -LHR—Phoenix-Tucson in Club World for under £1100.
        I can Fly Dub-LHR-Dallas-San Antonio for under £1100 also (doing this route in three weeks, getting 25,000 Avios and 440TP. So have cash tickets, to Fresno, San Antonio, Spokane and Tucson, all giving me 25,000 Avios and 440TP per trip.
        (For those that do not know how to get these, look on TravelDealz web site).

        My point is the voucher is now useless on the Far East Routes and Australia due to massive Tax Increases and Avios requirements, making Qatar a much better option, with better destinations and better service.

        • can2 says:
          10 Apr10 April 10:46

          True for those who does cash Club tix with such itiniearies — which excludes 99% of the general population.
          And true for Asia and Oz.

  • RK228 says:
    10 Apr10 April 07:28

    To be honest, I can stomach the increases to both fee and voucher spend threshold if they can sort the issues when using the voucher for three people. As a young family of three, we can’t access the enhanced availability (which is a big perk of this card) unless we have two separate bookings, which I really don’t like to do.

  • Nogoingback says:
    10 Apr10 April 07:32

    I’ve just paid my membership fee for the year 😡 This is my ‘hobby’ (and OH only allows me to put a certain amount through the card a month)- sadly I looks like I won’t be able to meet the spend by November. The ski and cruise companies I use, don’t take Amex and they are my biggest outlays.

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