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Why is the Amex deal to award British Airways Club tier points still a secret?

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When details of the new British Airways Club were quietly slipped out on 30th December, one small upside was the promised opportunity to earn up to 2,500 tier points per year via the British Airways Premium Plus American Express card.

We were told that “More details of this offer will be announced closer to the launch date.”

With 10 days to go, BA is cutting it fine.

Earning British Airways tier points from American Express

Why is the announcement delayed?

The word on the street is that British Airways expects to be paid by American Express whenever tier points are earned from the Premium Plus American Express card.

If this is true (and it may not be!) you can see why American Express may not be keen, at least under certain scenarios.

Taking a blank sheet of paper, you can imagine a structure that awarded 1 tier point for every £10 spent on the British Airways Premium Plus American Express card. You would need to spend £25,000 to earn the full 2,500 tier points.

However, you are ALREADY incentivised to spend £15,000 on your Premium Plus card to trigger the 2-4-1 companion voucher. Why should American Express pay for tier points to incentivise you further to spend the first £15,000?

If I was American Express, I would want to award 1 tier point for every £10 spent AFTER the companion voucher was triggered. This would require £40,000 of spend to trigger the full 2,500 tier points.

The issues here are clear though:

  • many people cannot spend £40,000 per year on an American Express card
  • those who can will often spend £15,000 on their Premium Plus card and then swap to other American Express products – and these are likely to be more profitable for Amex than the British Airways card

There is also a more fundamental issue.

Many BA Amex cardholders spend £14,999 on their card and put it in a drawer. It doesn’t make sense to trigger the companion voucher early because you start the two year clock on having to use it.

There is a very simple way of solving this problem which we outlined here. The voucher should be changed to be valid for two years FROM THE END OF YOUR MEMBERSHIP YEAR. This means that you don’t need to stop spending as the £15,000 target approaches.

Anyone who puts their card away when they hit £14,999 of spending will be in a dilemma if they want to earn tier points. Cardholders will need to choose between triggering their voucher early or not maximising their tier point earning.

Earning British Airways tier points from American Express

There is a potential third way

What British Airways and American Express should have considered was allowing cardholders to choose between Avios and tier points.

This would be an elegant solution to a number of problems.

Let’s assume that American Express paid BA the same amount per £1 spent irrespective of whether you took Avios or tier points.

Some British Airways Club members are motivated by Avios. Others are motivated by status. Allowing people to choose which is most important to them – by selecting tier points or Avios – would allow each member to maximise the benefit they value most.

The companion voucher could still be awarded at £15,000 of spending irrespective of the option chosen.

With my accountant hat on, there would be a big upside for BA if it did this. Unused Avios sit on the IAG balance sheet as a liability. If a member chooses tier points instead of Avios, the money paid by Amex would be booked as revenue with no need for any corresponding liability.

Why are tier points being capped at 2,500 per year?

When American Airlines moved to its new model a couple of years ago, the number of status-earning points you could earn from card spend was uncapped.

You can earn American Airlines elite status purely from credit card spend.

If someone wants to put £250,000 per year through their Premium Plus American Express card to earn BA Gold status, why shouldn’t they? With HMRC now accepting Amex if you use an intermediary (article to follow, including a HfP sign-up offer) it is easier than ever to put substantial spend through your card.

‘Real’ Gold members may complain if this was allowed – but this would arguably be hypocritical given that, from 2026, 95% (a guess) of Gold members will have got it by spending their employer’s money, not their own.

BA should ignore the moans. Elite members who don’t fly much cost very little to service. They aren’t visiting many lounges. They aren’t getting many additional suitcases checked in for free. They aren’t saving much on seat selection fees, especially if they refused to pay in the first place. Flatter the ego of people who are willing to trade Avios for tier points despite not flying much and bank the American Express cash!

Earning British Airways tier points from American Express

The oneworld alliance membership agreement sets restrictions on the number of tier points that an airline can award from non-flying activity.

However, my understanding is that this is based on the total number of tier points issued. It isn’t capped by member account, so there is no reason why some members cannot earn all of their tier points from non-flying activity – as long as everyone doesn’t do it!

Qatar Airways has followed American and allows unlimited tier point earning from its US credit cards. Finnair allows members to convert Avios to cover 50% of the tier points needed to earn or retain status.

What is intriguing is that, on the US version of the new British Airways Club website, there is no published cap on the number of tier points that can be earned from credit cards.

ba.com in the US says:

In 2025, Members who hold selected credit cards will have the opportunity to earn even more Tier Points by spending on their card. More details coming soon.

It is possible that BA will allow US members of British Airways Club to earn unlimited tier points from card spend, in order to compete with cards from American Airlines and Qatar Airways. Shouldn’t UK members be given the same deal?

Conclusion

With just 10 days to go, there is still no clarity on how you will be able to earn tier points from British Airways Premium Plus American Express cards.

Given that people have been booking flights on the assumption that they will be able to earn 2,500 tier points from American Express, it is unfair that this information has not been released.

Whatever the deal eventually looks like, it is likely to be sub-optimal compared to the structure we propose above.

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How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (April 2025)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

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There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

30,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending £15,000 Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

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Category

British Airways American Express, British Airways and Avios

Comments (130)

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

  • Andrew J says:
    21 Mar21 March 07:22

    It’ll be another disappointment I’m sure.

  • MikeHi says:
    21 Mar21 March 07:32

    “With HMRC now accepting Amex if you use an intermediary” … ? Intrigued! Or is this something like Bluechain again where a lot of the ‘Amex value’ is lost in Bluechain fees…

  • No longer Entitled says:
    21 Mar21 March 07:33

    Per the article, is anyone really booking flights now on the assumption they will earn tier points from Amex? With zero details on how this would work that would be an amazingly stupid thing to do and I would have zero sympathy if the cards fail to fall their way.

  • kevin86 says:
    21 Mar21 March 07:37

    “Given that people have been booking flights on the assumption that they will be able to earn 2,500 tier points from American Express“

    How many people? Why have they done this?

    • Andrew J says:
      21 Mar21 March 08:08

      I thought that too. Surely only the ill-informed would be crediting flights to a BA Club account now that status can be obtained much more easily via other One World members.

      • kevin86 says:
        21 Mar21 March 08:50

        What if the target is £100k? Why would you do something before knowing the full parameters?

    • PH says:
      21 Mar21 March 19:12

      I read this article as a lobbying piece directed at BA/Amex…not saying that’s a bad thing BTW

  • Tom says:
    21 Mar21 March 08:05

    Would a better alternative be to pay out all 2,500 TPs once the £25,000 target has been hit – in exactly the same way it works for the Companion Voucher?

    That would incentivise people to keep spending on their Amex after achieving the CV at £15k, and also incentivise additional spend for those who might otherwise only have spent ~£20k (and would have been to just receive 2k TPs on a earn-per-£-spent basis.

    • chris w says:
      21 Mar21 March 09:18

      This is a sensible solution.

      • Rob says:
        21 Mar21 March 09:24

        No it isn’t. You’d have the same situation as BA Club has – people look at the target, decide no way Jose and don’t even bother trying.

        However, the good news is that there is a job at BAC for people with your way of thinking 🙂

        • LittleNick says:
          21 Mar21 March 10:17

          @Rob, so you’d rather have 2500nTPs at £40k card spend rather than £25k card spend? I’m sure £40k is higher than £25k

          • Rob says:
            21 Mar21 March 10:20

            Not sure you’ve read the article. I’m saying that Amex would prefer it, and if BA is making Amex pay it for issuing tier points then Amex will clearly want a deal which incentivises extra spend.

          • Tom says:
            21 Mar21 March 12:08

            Exactly. I agree that 40k would trigger the ‘no way Jose’ view – but if you’ve already put 15k through the Amex to get the CV, then the additional 10k spend to unlock 2,500 TPs doesn’t seem wildly unattainable. And for Amex, it would save them paying out on TPs until someone had spent the full 25k through them.

  • Martin says:
    21 Mar21 March 08:26

    Perhaps an article outlining just how many detrimental changes BA has introduced to BA Executive Club members in the past couple of years. Off the top of my head these include: increased fee BA premium Am Ex, increased tier points for status, Avios awarded per pound spent rather than distance flown, increase of 50% spend on BA Am Ex for 241 award, less first class availability on reward flights, no cabana or spa facilities in Concord Room. I’m sure this is not a comprehensive list but it’s hard to identify any improvements for the members. We are told BA have listened to members and that is why the changes have happened. Really do turkeys really vote for Christmas?

    • Scotsman says:
      21 Mar21 March 08:49

      Don’t disagree but you have to weigh that to some of the few positive changes like allowing single folk to benefit from the 2-4-1, ability to use 2-4-1 on Iberia and Aer Lingus, guaranteed numbers rewards seats on BA metal, Qatar and Finnair using avios as their currency opening up so many new routes. Even the Barclays upgrade voucher has been useful for a number of people.

    • Bagoly says:
      21 Mar21 March 08:52

      I managed to get to 3 upsides:
      a) 2-4-1 voucher can now be used on Iberia and Aer Lingus metal
      b) 2-4-1 voucher can now be used when starting outside UK
      c) 2-4-1 voucher can now be used as 1-4-half

    • Rob says:
      21 Mar21 March 08:55

      How old are you though? It is light and day better than it was even 5 years ago, yet alone 10 or 15.

      When HfP started we’d never seen a credit card offer a bonus higher than 20k points. There were NO guaranteed reward seats. Club World was everythere and the memory of the old cradle seat not fully extinguished. Qatar had not joined oneworld and there was no QSuite.

      Flights also cost a fraction of what they did even 20 years ago. I remember doing an ex-Budapest to Tokyo for £1750 (probably £3500 today) and considering it the best deal ever. Now you can do Sydney for under £2000 ex AMS – not BA admittedly – on a good day. Sub £250 CE returns were unheard of 10 years ago (probably £400 today) and now sub £200 is not uncommon.

      The BAPP has not risen much beyond inflation. Earning Avios from flights is passe so any loss from revenue based should be modest.

      • Roger says:
        21 Mar21 March 09:34

        Any articles on Sydney ex Amsterdam at that price level?

        • Rob says:
          21 Mar21 March 10:14

          They come and go. Best we’ve seen in the last couple of years to Sydney was £1,250 return (business) ex-Dublin on Lufthansa, with Star connections.

          I found £2900 on China Southern ex-Paris in under 60 seconds. Other deals will be out there.

          Cairo to Melbourne is £1700 return but struggling to find all legs in J.

    • Barrel for Scraping says:
      21 Mar21 March 09:14

      No cabana in the what room? I’ve never heard of a Concord Room but the cabanas are definitely there in the Concorde Room. Not the most luxurious facility but nice if you have a long connection.

      If you think BA has less first class availability you should check out airlines that have a decent first class. Air France offers first class on fewer routes than BA and the first class cabin only seats 4. BA usually seat 8 now and until recently 12 was the norm.

      • Rob says:
        21 Mar21 March 09:19

        BA is still 14 on the A380 isn’t it? Swiss is moving to 3 in F, not sure if the new AF seat is just 3.

        There is a tactical decision by BA to have a more massmarket F product because it cannot deliver the ground and inflight service required to operate like those other airlines.

        • dundj says:
          21 Mar21 March 14:48

          New AF F seat is still 4 across. The chaise is rather eclectic, and the bag drawer on the ground works rather than the overhead bins gives a feeling of more space.

      • Martin says:
        21 Mar21 March 10:02

        Thanks for scraping the barrel re Concorde. My comments were genuine and not comparative. BA do offer far fewer First Avios seats than previously regardless of what other airlines are doing.

        • JDB says:
          21 Mar21 March 10:21

          I don’t think it’s correct to say BA are offering fewer F reward seats as a proportion of the total F seats now flown and as many have suggested above, overall for Avios/redemptions the scheme has improved considerably over the years and Avios so much easier to earn. Re turkeys voting for Christmas, see GE.

          • RC says:
            21 Mar21 March 11:51

            I don’t think you can factually say they are not, either.
            Thats only data BA is privileged to see.
            If the perception is they have fewer to have then that’s what matters anyway. Period.

  • LittleNick says:
    21 Mar21 March 09:05

    “Shouldn’t UK members be given the same deal?“
    Wouldn’t be the first time UK members of a UK airline are treated less favourably than their US counterparts.

  • AJA says:
    21 Mar21 March 09:40

    “Many BA Amex cardholders spend £14,999 on their card and put it in a drawer. It doesn’t make sense to trigger the companion voucher early because you start the two year clock on having to use it.”

    This assumes that you can spend £15k early in your Amex membership year. While this may be true for some it is by no means the case for all. Some have even cancelled their card because the chances of spending £15k are slim. I still like the idea of having two years from the end of your card membership year but it still won’t stop the card going in the drawer if your OH also has a card – we put all spending on one card to get the voucher and then swap to the other card. Which for purely selfish reasons is why I dislike the idea of the TP only being earned on spend over £15k. Even at 1TP per £10 of spend we won’t ever earn the full 2500 Avios on either card as we would rather put the extra £10k of spend on the other BAPP card and get 2/3 towards a second voucher.

    I do q

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