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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.

  • Rob says:
    11 Oct11 October 09:34

    I’ve been <£100 from the target spend on the free BA card for a while due to some high bills earlier in year. Avoided triggering yet by diverting spend to another care as year ends March and I usually upgrade to the BAPP card to trigger the 2 year voucher and then downgrade.
    I’ll revert spend to the BA free card again post 1 Nov to spend the extra £3k and upgrade just before. Unless they change the t&cs of course!

  • *missgeekchic* says:
    11 Oct11 October 09:38

    How do I check how much I have spent against my target?

    • Rob says:
      11 Oct11 October 09:41

      Should show on the website or app. If it doesn’t, download your last paper statement and look at that.

    • Gordon says:
      11 Oct11 October 09:58

      On the App there is an icon that says “membership” between search and offers, it’s there.

      • Gareth says:
        11 Oct11 October 10:25

        All I see there is a travel and experience section

        • JK says:
          11 Oct11 October 11:08

          Same, I used to see spend progress in the app but it disappeared months back. Can see it on the website though.

        • Gordon says:
          11 Oct11 October 12:01

          Do you have the AMEX App? As it is definitely on there in the centre at the bottom.

          • MF176 says:
            11 Oct11 October 13:08

            It’s really buggy- it disappears for lots of people, including me. Just because you can see it, doesn’t mean everyone can.

  • Definitas says:
    11 Oct11 October 09:55

    Does spend made on the card count towards the spend requirement as soon as it is shown on the balance or does it only get credited on the statement date? My current spend so far shown in the App doesn’t seem to include all of this month’s total

  • janed9388 says:
    11 Oct11 October 09:57

    Has anyone tried live chat with amex today ? I’ve triggered the 2-4-1 and want to cancel my card but just getting the dreaded blue circle on the chat 🙁

    • No longer Entitled says:
      11 Oct11 October 10:20

      My chat has been unavailable for well over a month now. I’ve checked at various times of day. I presume I am some sort of marketing guinea pig to see if it results in more calls. Answer: it does.

  • ALISON says:
    11 Oct11 October 10:22

    I have a direct hotel booking to make for Greece for next year (hotel direct deal is much better than the avios payout on BA shopping/OTA’s) so I was thinking of making this booking just on or after my billing date which is 24th October so that it comes into next month’s statement rather than this month’s. However I’m expecting that the euro transaction will be sitting in my ‘Pending’ transactions before it clears. Anyone know if there is a hard and fast rule as to how many working days it takes for a foreign currency transaction to clear? Don’t want to miss the 011124 cut off for a voucher!

    • David says:
      11 Oct11 October 10:35

      Just to be safe, book a refundable hotel to trigger the voucher. As soon as you have it in your BAEC account then cancel hotel as your foreign spend will cover deficit when refunded.

    • Terry Langley says:
      11 Oct11 October 12:14

      Having booked a one way BA flight from Dubai to Heathrow in November, it took around 4 days to move from pending to clear. Obviously it was in AED, so not sure if its any different for euros?

      • ALISON says:
        11 Oct11 October 13:15

        thanks for this info Terry. As there’s a weekend between 25th and 31st I think I may play it safe by buying avios boosts on 25th to get me across the line. With a 30 day cancellation window it’s easy to cancel them for a full refund if not used.

  • CD says:
    11 Oct11 October 10:26

    Council Tax (CT) Hammersmith and Fulham. Anyone figured out a way to pay at Coop without using H&F bar code on CT statement which seems to not allow. In short, how to earn points paying H&F CT.

  • Lumma says:
    11 Oct11 October 10:57

    The biggest issue for me with both increases, as a solo traveller that easily spent £10k a year but requires effort to spend £15k, is that it’s a lot easier to simply buy the points required via Boost.

    For my favourite redemptions on Iberia to Latin America, the 241 saves 42,500 avios in business. I could buy the points for £391 and not have to monitor my spending to make sure I hit the target

    • Erico1875 says:
      11 Oct11 October 11:02

      Considering you would save £300 by not having a BAPP that would reduce your net cost to £91

  • Marc says:
    11 Oct11 October 10:59

    I have a 2-4-1 voucher already for the BA Premium Plus card.
    I am unlikely to spend 10k-15k anually henceforth.
    If I cancel my BAPP card is my voucher still honoured?

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

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