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BA Amex voucher spend rises to £15,000 in three weeks – what can you do?

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Back in April, American Express announced some unwelcome changes to the two British Airways American Express credit cards.

The first change, increasing the fee for the Premium Plus card to £300, is already in place. You will be charged £300 at your next renewal.

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

BA Amex fee AND voucher qualifying spend to rise sharply

Let’s be clear about something

Based on my inbox, some people are not clear about whether the increase applies to them straight away.

It does.

EVERYONE will see their voucher target spend increase to £15,000 on 1st November.

It doesn’t matter if you are only part way through your card year. If you don’t hit your existing target of £10,000 (Premium Plus) or £12,000 (free card) by 31st October, you will 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 card year renews, you will need to spend £15,000.

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.

Whilst we refer to them as ‘2-4-1’ vouchers for Avios redemptions, a solo traveller can use a voucher for a 50% Avios discount on one ticket.

BA Amex fee AND voucher qualifying spend to rise sharply

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

We’ll look at this again in separate articles over the weekend.

Fundamentally:

  • 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.

How can you bring forward spend by 31st October?

There are a number of things you can do to increase your spending over the next three weeks if you are close to your target. Here are a few ideas:

  • you can stockpile gift cards for your regular supermarket or garage, or build up some credit in your Amazon or Uber accounts. I wouldn’t usually suggest this, but if you are doing it with a retailer where you are 100% certain you will work through the credit quickly it can work.
  • you can use PayPoint in most Co-Op stores to pay your council tax or utility bills. Co-Op is the only national retailer which usually accepts American Express for PayPoint payments, although it will depend on which Co-Op grouping runs the stores in your area. It is usually fine to pre-pay the rest of your council tax for the current financial year to 31st March 2025.
  • remember that, if shopping at an online retailer that accepts PayPal but not American Express, it is often possible to use Amex via PayPal instead

What you shouldn’t do, of course, is buy something that you are not totally certain you need just to ensure you hit your spend target. The tail shouldn’t wag the dog.

If you want to know more about the cards, we did an article on the core benefits of the British Airways Premium Plus American Express card here. If you don’t want to pay an annual fee, a similar article on the benefits of the free British Airways American Express card is here.

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Category

British Airways American Express, British Airways and Avios

Comments (149)

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

  • Andrew says:
    11 Oct11 October 06:12

    If I reach the target spend for a companion voucher can I cancel my card and use the voucher or do I need an Amex card to purchase a flight using the voucher

    • Rob says:
      11 Oct11 October 07:05

      AN Amex, any sort, any name.

      • Robin says:
        11 Oct11 October 07:23

        Do I need to get a free Amex card before cancelling BA Premium to save my companion voucher.

        • Rob says:
          11 Oct11 October 08:19

          No. Your voucher cannot be removed. You just can’t use it unless you find a mate with an Amex who will pay the taxes for you.

        • TGLoyalty says:
          11 Oct11 October 09:22

          If you want to get an Amex you can keep and still get a future BAPP or Platinum bonus the Nectar is the one. It also has the highest Avios earning rate for a cheap card.

  • buchanan101 says:
    11 Oct11 October 06:19

    Prebook and prepay cancellable hotels then cancel them…

    (I recently prebooked two Manchester and one Liverpool hotel but have just cancelled two of the bookings…anyone guess why?!)

  • Tom C says:
    11 Oct11 October 06:22

    You’re missing a trick here, Rob. You could sell bespoke HfP subscriptions that get you exactly to your spending threshold.

  • Ian says:
    11 Oct11 October 06:28

    Just buy a refundable flight to the USA in 2025

    Then cancel it next year 😉

    • Tao says:
      11 Oct11 October 07:49

      Would this tactic work? When you refund at a later date, wouldn’t Amex check the original transaction date and recalculate the voucher eligibility? This sounds a great trick but I just want to be sure it works 😀

      • AJA says:
        11 Oct11 October 07:55

        It will work for the current year voucher but if you continue to hold the BA Amex card then your next year spend will increase from £15k to that plus whatever you book and cancel eg spend £2k on refundable flights and next year your spend target with Amex would be £17k.

        So only do that if you plan to cancel the card. If you can’t spend £15k in a year how on earth will you be able to spend £17k to get a 2-4-1 voucher?

      • Rob says:
        11 Oct11 October 08:14

        Amex cannot rescind vouchers once issued. Technically impossible.

  • TC says:
    11 Oct11 October 06:29

    I spoke with the Amex retention team and was offered £50 in response to the fee increase, but it requires spending £15,000 in the next card year. Apparently, this offer is set by BA and not Amex. I’ll be cancelling the card after purchasing some final BA flights—just waiting for the Avios seats to be released.

    • Lumma says:
      11 Oct11 October 10:48

      I got offered 10k extra avios for spending £3k in three months when I called to downgrade in July.

  • Erico1875 says:
    11 Oct11 October 06:39

    You can load Monzo with £1000 every 6 months via Paypoint £1 fee per transaction, so typically this will cost £4 as Paypoint limit is £300

  • Gordon says:
    11 Oct11 October 07:01

    My card reset in August, and I would have happily just let it carry on through the 15k spend target, but I needed to book a redemption flight T-355 for BKK , as it’s going to be a popular redemption booking again, judging by the interest when BA released the news they were returning there. I just paid a couple of my suppliers with my BAPP last week, instead of a BACS payment. Just have to wait 10 months now for the next reset.

    • LittleNick says:
      11 Oct11 October 07:25

      If your suppliers accept AMEX you should be doing this on a regular basis all the time and not paying via BACS which gets nothing in return. You could be generating serious amounts of avios and MR points by doing so

      • Gordon says:
        11 Oct11 October 07:37

        Yes, I am aware, but I have to keep my accountant happy, as I should pay for my company purchases through my company bank account. Also Amex don’t take kindly to putting too much business spend through a BAPP, as Rob found out!

        • Gothbe says:
          11 Oct11 October 08:00

          Sounds like your accountant just wants a simple life. Absolutely no issue using a credit card

          • Rob says:
            11 Oct11 October 08:11

            Best not to have an accountant and DIY, although admittedly it helps if you’ve done 17 years in banking before that 🙂

          • CarpalTravel says:
            11 Oct11 October 08:22

            +1 to Gothbe

          • Gordon says:
            11 Oct11 October 08:30

            I am actually looking at changing my accountant anyway, not linked to this subject though.

          • Talay says:
            12 Oct12 October 07:18

            Yeah, I have mid 6 figures going across the BAPP and the BA Accelerating Business Amex and I never have issues with an accountant (they would simply be disengaged) or Amex.

            A couple of suppliers would prefer not to have me pay by Amex but as I point out to them, they too would likely be changed should they ever not offer best terms or fail to accept Amex.

        • memesweeper says:
          11 Oct11 October 08:08

          Most company employees put expenses through on receipts, paid in whatever way they want.

          Your accountant (and accountancy software) should have no problem with this, mine certainly doesn’t.

          • Andy says:
            11 Oct11 October 09:34

            Isn’t there a slight difference between employees putting their expenses on their personal cards, and a company running purchases through a personal card?

            I prefer to keep my expenses and company purchases on the corporate card as I’m trying to keep my personal and business finances cleanly separated

          • Rob says:
            11 Oct11 October 09:44

            The whole point of being self employed is to push as many of your personal expenses as possible onto your business! You should, for a start, find the largest room in your house, put a desk in it, call it your office, work out what % of your floorspace it represents and then bung that % of your household bills onto the company 🙂

          • Andy says:
            11 Oct11 October 12:01

            Is the danger of Rob’s suggestion of charging a proportion of your household bills to your business is that the VOA decide the space is liable for business rates

            My accountant would run a mile from that suggestion

          • Rob says:
            11 Oct11 October 12:06

            You are liable for CGT on that element of the property when you sell it, but we rent our place so not an issue.

        • rk says:
          11 Oct11 October 10:04

          You can pay by your own card, the spend hits your directors loan account and then the company reimburses you for spend and then directors loan account is credited with same amount, just a bit more work remember the accountant works for you, not the other way around.

          • Talay says:
            12 Oct12 October 07:19

            Amen – finally someone who understand it is all a director loan account issue.

        • Polly says:
          11 Oct11 October 10:25

          Gordon
          How come you don’t have amex biz gold card for the free year anyway? Surely your accountant shouldn’t care how you pay??? Much easier for them if the balance of your spend is on 1 biz card? Just interested, really.

          • Gordon says:
            11 Oct11 October 10:34

            Hi Polly, hope you are well, Ive just kept with the BAPP for years now, guess I just get stuck in my ways, not really looked at any other options, I suppose I should do, to see if there’s an advantage with an alternative product.

            Maybe I could earn a lot more Avios etc, but I’m happy having a few trips a year, don’t want to get greedy!

    • Paul says:
      11 Oct11 October 14:35

      Have BA announced flights beyond feb next year? I plan to go to motogp in thailand late feb and there are no ba flights scheduled

  • Ken Rumph says:
    11 Oct11 October 07:45

    I did pay my council tax at Coop paypoint but was limited to £200 a time. And the transactions invaraiably got rejected and I had to call Amex to clear them. The coop cashier was very patient

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

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