BAPP Amex sign-up bonus is PERMANENTLY increased to 30,000 Avios

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• John Caribbean says:

  3 Jul3 July 07:35

  Is there anything for upgrading from the free BA card to the premium? And it’s £300 now?

  • Rob says:

    3 Jul3 July 07:56

    £300, yes.

• BJ says:

  3 Jul3 July 07:55

  Amex and BA needs to get back to the drawing board on BAPP. It has gone from being the best card on the market to becoming increasingly niche and irrelevant. Heading East Qatar and Finnair offer comparable or better value overall than BA does even with an amex voucher. Added to that many would say they offer better products and services than BA too. Heading to the USA and Caribbean then Virgin and the Virgin Reward Plus card is more attractive due to the cost, qualification, voucher versatility and Virgin redemption promotions. BAPP still has value insofar as it opens up the extra availability, for flying First, and for those within reach of Heathrow and Gatwick who are fussy about flying direct non-stop. However, it is no longer the no-brainer it once was.

  • Ian says:

    3 Jul3 July 08:00

    Why would BAPP open extra availability flying First?

  • TGLoyalty says:

    3 Jul3 July 08:26

    Using the voucher opens up extra club availability

  • David says:

    3 Jul3 July 09:14

    This is getting somewhat dull. You may think and indeed believe what you do, but just keeping on saying it doesn’t make it true; there is plenty of value still in BAPP.

    • BJ says:

      3 Jul3 July 09:36

      I never said there was no value in BAPP, only that it was less valuable than it once was. I’ll keep saying it as different readerz may see it and think more seriously about whether it is the right fit for them.

      • JDB says:

        3 Jul3 July 10:01

        @BJ – the thing is that it isn’t necessarily an either/or. One can use BA voucher very efficiently for one trip and then consider QR/AY for another trip which essentially limits you to going east when we like to go west as well.

        I’m one of those fussy people who prefers direct flights albeit no interest in the QF ones to Australia a route where with everyone else you need to deplane somewhere so it adds little extra time to go via Doha, the break is better timed and the service incomparably better vs BA.

        Going to South America, IB via Madrid adds little extra time (or a good stopover) saves a huge amount of Avios/money and offers far more routes and frequencies than direct from London so the 241 works really well.

        Many people like the US/Caribbean routes for which the voucher will work very well.

        You also presuppose that everyone loves AY like you do. We don’t like them at all. There have been criticisms of QR, I think including by you, but we think they’re great.

        As I wrote elsewhere under this article, the BAPP is a brilliant product and not many regular premium travellers can’t extract an awful lot more than £300 of value from it.

        • BJ says:

          3 Jul3 July 10:52

          I think everybody is getting the wrong end of the stick here. Getting People to think about why, how, where and when they use the voucher is precisely what I’m getting at. Do tvey need it at all to realise value? Can it offer value in conjunction with other FF strategies? Shod it still be tve mainstay of an individuals FF strategy? It is perfectly obvious to me from comments in articles lije this and in the foroms that a not insignificant number if readers do not think as deeply about such questions as perhaps tvey should with tve result that their FF strategies may not be as good a fit to them as it could be. That is what I am trying to encourage them to consider. I am not suggesting they my view is the only value or right one but I am certain that the voucher is less valuable than it once was. I’m also fussy about nonstop direct and if I still lived in London BAPP would still be the mainstay of my FF strategy. For years this was even true whilst I lived in Edinburgh, it is only in the last few years that my views hace changed due to increasing cost of earning and using the voucher in comparison to the costs of redemptions via AY+ and QAPC.

        • Matt says:

          3 Jul3 July 11:06

          Me and my partner got the BAPP last month when the BA website targeted offer of 60k sign-up for £3k spend in 3 months was on offer. Also got the an extra 3k avios each for adding supp card after application. That’s an easy 135k avios. Picking up on BJs point though, I have no interest in the companion voucher anymore. I think Qatar J East is far better than BA offering. And it only costs 300k avios (and fewer taxes than BA) for 2 pax. I used to place loads of value on the companion voucher, but no longer. We’ll be cancelling our BAPP cards after sign-up bonus triggered for pro-rata refund.

        • Numpty says:

          3 Jul3 July 13:23

          @ Matt and BJ, the 241 voucher has lost its value for me too. Like you said Avios redemptions on Qatar are decent value even without a 241. For a booking to KL next year we are using Qatar on the way out with avios. Then coming back with BA using the 241 (2 separate bookings). But i have been checking availability for Qatar on the return flight, if it was there then i would drop the BA flight (and recover a 241 voucher).

          My BA Amex was cancelled last week, for first time in 13 years i have no Amex card – and wont for the next 2 years. Avios earning will be via HSBC, then perhaps Barclaycard.

• Ian says:

  3 Jul3 July 07:57

  £300 is getting ridiculous and with the level now at £15,000

  The offers are also weaker than they used to be.

  We will cancel one of ours. Just not sure which one yet.

  Are we looking at the start of the end for Amex as being an option for points in the UK?

  • Lumma says:

    3 Jul3 July 08:10

    For that £300 I could get 32,000 points via avios boost. My usual aim for the voucher is saving 42,500 points on a solo iberia business class ticket to Latin America, so I can save 10k points with the voucher but I have to spend £15k on the card to get it, which isn’t easy

  • NigelT says:

    3 Jul3 July 08:34

    Like Ian, I’m cancelling one of our card. I really can’t justify spending £600 a year on fees for having two cards, nor am I going to put £30,000 of spend through on them to get two Companion Vouchers.
    So, in my case, Amex will now have £300 a year in fees off me and just £15,000 of spend instead of £500 and £20,000.
    I suspect I may not be alone.

  • JDB says:

    3 Jul3 July 09:21

    @Ian – how is £300 “getting ridiculous”? This is the one Amex card with a USP and a fairly readily ascertainable value which you would struggle to calculate as being under £300.

    The voucher, even if used for a cheap trip like Club to Spain, would save you 30k + Avios for the second seat and of course if you use it on long haul it will save three to ten times that, so fee covered whatever. On top you get extra Club availability that has some value, an extra 0.5 Avios per £1 spent (and 3 Avios on BA spend). Then, this year you were offered up to 200 tier points for doing nothing.

    The fee would of course be ridiculous if you never travel by air and/or don’t spend enough to trigger the voucher.

    • TGLoyalty says:

      3 Jul3 July 09:35

      The fee would of course be ridiculous if you never travel by air and/or don’t spend enough to trigger the voucher.

      And then it would be ridiculous to have this card lol

• Lumma says:

  3 Jul3 July 07:59

  I can’t remember, have pro rata refunds ended yet?

  • Rob says:

    3 Jul3 July 08:01

    No

• NigelT says:

  3 Jul3 July 07:59

  I suspect the new spend target of £6000 in the first three months may prove too much for many potential applicants, but perhaps that’s intentional (quality over quantity)?

  • Rob says:

    3 Jul3 July 08:01

    No, I think they want quantity actually ….

    • Ian says:

      3 Jul3 July 08:04

      Can’t see how they will get quantity!

      Or are the economy and spending options different in Brighton?

    • mrd says:

      3 Jul3 July 08:14

      Think they’re going to get quality over quantity after making this change. I was eyeing the BAPP but the £6k spend in months has put me off completely.

      • Rob says:

        3 Jul3 July 08:24

        It’s weird timing with people going away and not wanting or not able to use Amex abroad. Cuts into the 3 months.

    • NigelT says:

      3 Jul3 July 08:18

      Can’t see how they’re going to get more applicants by doubling the spend requirement to £6000 in just three months -especially as that’s coupled with a 20% increase in annual fee to £300, and an annual spend requirement increase for a Companion Voucher of 50% to £15,000.
      All that triple whammy and their idea of sweetening it is by giving a modest 5000 extra Avois on sign up (worth circa £50) – and only that if you hit their newly inflated initial spend target!
      I don’t see a queue forming any time soon.

    • TGLoyalty says:

      3 Jul3 July 08:29

      Well then they are going the wrong way about it … increase the cost, increase the spend threshold for both the welcome bonus and the voucher. I wonder which pricing expert wrote this new strategy

• BJ says:

  3 Jul3 July 08:09

  I didn’t say it did, there was a , after availability.

  • BJ says:

    3 Jul3 July 08:11

    That was @Ian 08:00.

• Greg says:

  3 Jul3 July 08:57

  On Rob’s advice (yet again) I waited a few months until an offer appeared on my AMEX account.

  2 months ago I was offered 60,000 sign up bonus for spending £3000 which I achieved in 6 weeks thanks to a hefty car insurance bill. They are now safely in my account.

  Cheers Rob.

• Neil says:

  3 Jul3 July 09:05

  The heading ‘ Who qualifies for the bonus on the British Airways American Express Premium Plus card?’ should be about the standard card I think?

  Does having a Business Platinum Amex preclude you from the bonus on the personal platinum card?

  • Rob says:

    3 Jul3 July 10:01

    No

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