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

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• Aston100 says:

  3 Jul3 July 11:32

  We won’t be renewing our BAPPs.
  We don’t spend £30k pa between us.

  • Alan says:

    3 Jul3 July 15:51

    But you could spend £15k on one card with a secondary cardholder?

• Phil says:

  3 Jul3 July 11:47

  Do we think that the increase to the annual fee, the bonus period spend threshold and the companion voucher trigger spend limit is all about changing the demographic of the cardholders? We’ve heard a lot from people who’ve said they will be giving up the card, but interested in what the impact will be on new sign-ups. I’m also interested if anyone has heard anything more about the tier point experiment that ended in May, as that is a potentially decent addition to a card with new premium requirements and corresponding more premium benefits.

  • Rob says:

    3 Jul3 July 12:20

    Amex is desperate for MORE cardholders, hence the surge in promotional activity this year. The £6k spend is a mistake I think. £3k is too low, arguably, now that you need to spend £1,250 per month anyway to trigger the 241, but £6k is too high. £4k would be more reasonable.

    The other snag with high targets is that people tend to ‘build up’ spend on a new card. You need to find out which regular stores accept Amex, perhaps you only order a supp card after getting the primary one etc. Making people spend more than the run-rate for the voucher in the early months is unnecessary.

    As soon as pro-rata fee refunds are dead then potentially these limits could go entirely. Amex has your £300 which pays for the bonus so even if you don’t spend a penny and cancel after a year it’s not a huge loss.

    Anyway …. the next 6-9 months will see the biggest influx of new travel rewards cards since the interchange fee caps, so plenty of other options.

    • George K says:

      3 Jul3 July 13:31

      Curious about the 6-9 month window. Has something happened that made others want to join the party? Ever since the introduction of the cap, it’s been an orderly exit…

      • Rob says:

        3 Jul3 July 13:35

        People who packed up their toys when the old ‘licence to print money’ days ended are deciding that there are reasons other than a massive bag of money to be active in the co-brand market (one reason being a small bag of money).

        • Maples says:

          3 Jul3 July 15:20

          I really hope that there are cards that offer the flexibility like what the MR or the HSBC points offer.

        • Rob says:

          3 Jul3 July 15:45

          No

        • HampshireHog says:

          3 Jul3 July 20:19

          So Hilton or IHG then one can assume

    • The Savage Squirrel says:

      3 Jul3 July 13:35

      Oooh. That has piqued my interest! You tease 😉

    • Paul says:

      3 Jul3 July 13:49

      Another issue is card acceptance. While I try to use the card at every turn it is simply not accepted universally and often treated as a communicable disease. EBay are the latest to dump acceptance from 17th August.
      I have been wondering how to game the £6000 spend. A fully flex refundable F ticket but what happens when it is refunded?

      • Rob says:

        3 Jul3 July 14:16

        They take the bonus away.

        This game only works when triggering a BA 241 voucher.

        • TGLoyalty says:

          3 Jul3 July 15:23

          Unless you cancel after the points transfer over and before the refund hits ofcourse. But that would be morally wrong.

        • Rob says:

          3 Jul3 July 15:45

          Indeed. Wouldn’t be rushing to apply for any future Amex cards if I did that though.

      • Jonathan says:

        3 Jul3 July 18:42

        A tactic people probably use is (although never mentioned on here) is buying a fully flexible F ticket for about 11 months in advance to travel time, before that time comes, reap in the SUB and all the regular points from credit card spend, then cancel the card, after that’s done then cancel the ticket.

        Amex need to be careful that not too many people are doing things like this, as they’ve created a system that encourages SUB chasers, and don’t really offer much to people who’re loyal to them.

        There’s enough HfP readers who in the course of around 10-11 years will have had around up to 10 Amex cards within that time in their wallets

        • wally1976 says:

          3 Jul3 July 22:54

          The last paragraph of your quote led me to have a look at my applications spreadsheet…in the last 9 years, I have had 40 Amex cards and my wife has had 34 (that’s not including supp cards)! I’ve only been declined 4 times and my wife 3.

• LLLL says:

  3 Jul3 July 11:53

  Absolutely dreadful deal. £6k in 3 months is ridiculous alongside the £300 fee. Far better just getting the Barclaycard Avios Plus or switching allegiance to Virgin Atlantic. Both of those cards will take £6K of spend and give you a lot of points, as well as a large proportion of the way towards their annual voucher. Oh, and they much cheaper than £300 too.

  BA/Amex have just written a case study on how to kill the best card on the market. Which is a real shame, particularly as I’ve now completed my 24-month non-BA period and need a new card. Barclays it is.

  • Paul says:

    3 Jul3 July 13:37

    agree. They’ve killed it. VS offering far better (and sounds like it’s hopefully improving soon too).

• HampshireHog says:

  3 Jul3 July 12:01

  All in all the succession of ‘enhancements’ is very disappointing. We’ll be ditching one of our two BAPPs once a 10k voucher is in the bag in October

• HampshireHog says:

  3 Jul3 July 12:03

  Oh and I really don’t get the positive spin headline on the article, poor tbh

  • Rob says:

    3 Jul3 July 12:17

    What actually happened is that Amex didn’t make it clear in advance that the minimum spend was going up. The article was written on the basis of the bonus increasing. It was only yesterday (when I was in Venice at the Biennale) that they mentioned it so I slotted in the extra lines. Could have amended the headline but we also have character count issues.

• Sam says:

  3 Jul3 July 12:15

  6k spend in 3 months. Have Amex lost their minds?
  £50 additional fee for meagre 5,000 extra avios with a bonus spend requirement many will struggle to meet.
  I was 50/50 on this when the changes were made, but this has pretty much confirmed to be I won’t be renewing.

  • Alan says:

    5 Jul5 July 07:24

    The spend requirement for a bonus should have no impact on a renewal decision. Sure if going back to the change to £15k spend, but that’s not unachievable for most.

• NorthernLass says:

  3 Jul3 July 13:02

  This is making me look at free card in a new light. I know the companion voucher has 1-year validity and only covers economy, but can it also start outside the U.K. now? You could still get decent value on routes where flying time is 8 hours or under and cash fares are high.

  • LLLL says:

    3 Jul3 July 19:02

    Very good point here. I switched my allegiance to Virgin points and their card. Was hoping to come back to BA with the BAPP Amex. But they’ve killed it, so I’ll go Barclays instead. After that, you raise a good point about the free BA Amex card. I still think there’s a lot of value in the 1 year economy only voucher if you’re limited to school holidays. 2x refundable ticket to the US for 50-70K Avios plus £300-or-less in fees is great for school holidays (even though availability is often limited).

  • Jonathan says:

    3 Jul3 July 19:08

    There is definitely a problem that Amex clearly think too highly of this card, whilst there are benefits to it that’re great, it’s leaving more and more people worse off keeping / applying for this card…

    If they made it easy enough to obtain status with the card, (like the card in Spain where it gives the equivalent of BA Bronze after spending €9K within a year) they’d almost certainly be laughing. Although having said that, BA Bronze doesn’t really offer much that makes it really worth going for, it’s alright if you’ve got it, but not worth chasing tier points if Bronze is primary goal, knowing fill well you won’t be able to get to Silver or higher

  • Sam says:

    3 Jul3 July 19:14

    Economy works for us currently as our youngest is 2 and there’s absolutely no way I’m risking CS with him!

• Misty says:

  3 Jul3 July 14:34

  So pleased I was approved for the Barclaycard Avios Plus, and that I have a Gold Amex. I was waiting for the autumn to see if there was an enhanced bonus offer on BAPP, like the one that just finished, but don’t think I will be bothering now. It’s not just this hungry card that needs feeding it’s others as well, I would think £6000 in 3 months is a big ask for some people.

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