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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.

  • Paul says:
    10 Apr10 April 07:34

    Amex can change the rules but what is unconscionable is changing the rules on target spend in year. Many of us have aligned our behaviour with these targets and a voucher valid for two years obtained in February 2025 would be valid to February 2027. This will have been planned. Now, to do so requires 50% more spend. It might be legal but it’s not ethical and if they are happy to behave unethically over this. what else will they or are they doing.
    Again the lack of robust and effective consumer protection allows firms like Amex, mobile phone firms and broadband providers to get away with this.
    Until a few years ago I held both Platinum and BAPP, the latter being free. I cancelled mine and my wife holds the BAPP card but I won’t spend almost £1000 a year on cards. Especially not now given this and recent desperate service from Amex over a small issue with my platinum card.
    Time to look at what other options are out there

  • LittleNick says:
    10 Apr10 April 07:37

    Ah this is quite annoying as was planning to upgrade the BA free Amex to Prem. Would the current threshold then increase from £12000 to £15k after an upgrade right now? As was planning to upgrade and spend £10k to get the voucher by mid October but would the threshold now increase?

    • LittleNick says:
      10 Apr10 April 08:03

      Apologies can’t read this morning, so upgrading now means whilst I pay £300 as long as spend £10k by Oct renewal date I get the voucher

      • Nick says:
        10 Apr10 April 13:14

        Yes, same boat here. On Blue card now. Renews in July, could call and upgrade and trigger voucher immediately, then could also curiously trigger another if I can spend another 10K before Nov 1…

  • NFH says:
    10 Apr10 April 07:40

    What additional benefits will we receive for the 20% increase in the annual fee?

    • Rob says:
      10 Apr10 April 07:50

      You’ve already had them, according to Amex. Solo traveller discount, Aer Lingus and IB availability.

      • G says:
        10 Apr10 April 07:52

        Which is a technical enablement on Ba’s part, not Amex’s.

        For a relatively modest earner, £3000 after tax, who can only afford to do a 241 trip annually, time to let it go, and move to just the free Barclaycard.

        • BBbetter says:
          10 Apr10 April 08:38

          its not just a ‘technical enablement’. Its a real benefit to consumers and cost to BA / Amex as more vouchers are issued than before.

      • Hampshirehog says:
        10 Apr10 April 10:25

        So a bit like a restaurant putting their menu price up between me ordering, scoffing my dinner and getting the bill?

    • BBbetter says:
      10 Apr10 April 07:51

      More availability after the cancellations.

      • Paul says:
        10 Apr10 April 08:54

        This is not true! You will be competing either US consumers who are showered with Avios for breathing in and out. It’s myopic thinking like this that allows firms to rip people off!

        • Novice says:
          10 Apr10 April 10:38

          @Paul I agree. The first time I ever saw the signup bonuses on American credit cards I was shocked.

        • Deek says:
          10 Apr10 April 12:36

          He might be saying it’s a thinning out of UK consumers who are the only ones with access to extra J availability from the BAPP.

    • NFH says:
      10 Apr10 April 08:27

      What about removing the absurd 3% fee for non-GBP transactions? If we are all expected to spend £15,000 in a year, then we might need to switch from fee-free cards to Amex without suffering an unreasonable 3% penalty fee that is unrelated to cost.

      • executiveclubber says:
        10 Apr10 April 08:41

        Agree. It’s nuts that the Gold card has better FX than Plat or BA cards when they’re arguably more targeted at travellers

  • Sean says:
    10 Apr10 April 07:41

    Was the collection rates, 2 points per £ on the premium and 1 point per £ on the free card?

    • Gareth says:
      10 Apr10 April 07:49

      Its 1.5 per £ on the premium

      • G says:
        10 Apr10 April 07:53

        And 3 per £1 spend on British Airways.com and BA Holidays, taxes and fees on redemptions also apply when booked via BA.

        Avios.com and Avios subscriptions/purchases don’t count.

  • FlightDoctor says:
    10 Apr10 April 07:43

    I am going to have do some maths here. I have a Platinum card for the travel perks (insurance, lounges, hotel status etc), both my wife and I have BAPP cards and I also have the Barclaycard Avios Plus. That’s now going to cost us around £1400 a year. However we are a family of 5 and the companion vouchers x 2 each year plus the Barclay’s “upgrade” voucher have enabled us to travel J Long haul for substantially less Avios. Also I recently hit GFL with BA so a lot of travel perks come automatically now…..so hard to decide!

    • executiveclubber says:
      10 Apr10 April 08:02

      I’d retain both BA Amex cards – ensuring you annually ask for retention offers to offset the fee – ditch the Barclays card and seriously consider if your Platinum card gives you value now you’re GFL. Gold may provide a sweeter spot for the occasional lounge…

      • runnerbean says:
        10 Apr10 April 08:36

        I phoned last week about retention offer on the BAPP. Never asked before – a polite but flat no.

  • Graham Wilson says:
    10 Apr10 April 07:44

    Have already spent £10k on the free card and was waiting to upgrade to the premium in August to trigger 241. Presume i need to upgrade now and spend £5k if possible

    • Nick says:
      10 Apr10 April 13:18

      You don’t need to spend any more if you upgrade now. If you spend £10k in your new year before 1 Nov however you’d then have two vouchers and could downgrade to Blue

  • TravelsWithMyHP says:
    10 Apr10 April 07:47

    All we need now is an Avios devaluation to complete the circle 😢

  • Mark says:
    10 Apr10 April 07:50

    I’ve been looking for an excuse to defer to Virgin Atlantic for a while now…and here it is. Never tried their Upper class product. The time has arrived. Once I’ve hit my £10k spend on the BAPP its gone.

    • Mark says:
      10 Apr10 April 08:16

      You may be a bit disappointed…

      • Mark says:
        10 Apr10 April 08:25

        Only one way to find out. Their new product on the a350 looks fairly smart.

      • SamG says:
        10 Apr10 April 09:19

        Agree. Limited network (USA holidays are not good value IMO ) very high fees and the older hard product is really dreadful (and as Rob discovered you can be switched so late even the gate staff aren’t aware of the changed config!)

        Some good value to be had using their miles on Skyteam if you’re flexible but of course no voucher required for that!

    • CarpalTravel says:
      10 Apr10 April 08:59

      You REALLY need to check on VAA redemption fees before doing that. I have 500k VAA miles that I choose not to use as a result. Their charges are insane.

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

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