Is there any point having the free British Airways American Express Credit Card?
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In September 2021, American Express made substantial changes to the free British Airways American Express Credit Card.
Prior to that, if you spent £20,000 per year on the free British Airways American Express credit card, you received a 2-4-1 Companion Voucher valid on any Avios flight in Economy, Premium Economy, Business or First Class.
Today, you only need to spend £15,000 per year to receive a 2-4-1 Companion Voucher but – and this is a big ‘but’ – it is only valid in Economy.
In February 2022, we saw another major change. Barclaycard introduced the free Barclaycard Avios Mastercard – details here – with a sign-up bonus of 5,000 Avios.
This has the same earning rate as the free British Airways American Express card (1 Avios per £1) but comes with an upgrade voucher or 7,000 bonus Avios instead of a 2-4-1 Companion Voucher.
Should the average HfP reader hold the free British Airways American Express card?
To be honest, probably not. If you do have the free BA Amex, let’s look at why other cards may be better suited to you.
You can read our free British Airways American Express Credit Card review here.
Do you spend under £15,000 on your free British Airways American Express Credit Card?
Whether or not the American Express 2-4-1 Companion Voucher on the free BA Amex card is worth having is, I admit, personal preference.
However, if you’re not spending £15,000 per year on the free BA Amex card, you’re not triggering the 2-4-1 Companion Voucher.
In this scenario, why are you holding the card? There are two better options open to you:
- Get the free Barclaycard Avios Mastercard – you earn the same rate (1 Avios per £1) and, as a Mastercard, it is accepted in more places than American Express. You are reducing the cards in your wallet or purse, because everyone needs a back-up Visa or Mastercard for their Amex anyway.
or
- Get the free American Express Rewards Credit Card – you earn the same rate (1 Avios per £1, if you choose to convert the Membership Rewards points into Avios) but you can also convert your points into many other airline or hotel loyalty programmes
Whilst the Barclaycard Avios Mastercard is a fairly self explanatory product, I will cover The American Express Rewards Credit Card is more detail because you are less likely to be familiar with it.
What you get with the The American Express Rewards Credit Card is flexibility.
Yes, you can use your points for Avios. You can send them over to British Airways via the Amex website and they will arrive INSTANTLY.
However, you have other options. Membership Rewards points can also be sent to Virgin Atlantic, Flying Blue, Emirates, Etihad or Delta among other airline partners. You can also send them to Hilton Honors (1:2), Marriott Bonvoy (2:3) and Radisson Rewards (1:3). You can convert them to Club Eurostar (15:1). You can even use them for shopping vouchers. You can see the airline partners here.
The American Express Rewards Credit Card gives you more choice. You can still take Avios if you want, and at the same 1 Avios per £1 earning rate. If you suddenly decide that you want hotel points, or that Virgin Points make more sense, or even that you want to abandon Avios altogether, you can. Simply move your Amex points somewhere else instead.
With the free BA Amex card, your points are sitting in Avios from Day 1 and you can’t do anything else with them. If Avios devalues its rewards, if BA stops flying your preferred route, if reward availability suddenly gets a lot harder to find, if Reward Flight Saver fees jump up, if new surcharges get added …. you’re stuck. Your only way out is via a transfer to Nectar points.
There is literally no area where the free British Airways card outperforms The American Express Rewards Credit Card if you are not triggering the 2-4-1 voucher. You don’t even get bonus Avios when paying with the free BA Amex at ba.com – this is a benefit that only comes with the British Airways American Express Premium Plus Card.
Whether you get the free Barclaycard Avios Mastercard or the free American Express Rewards Credit Card, either is a better choice than the free British Airways American Express card if you spend under £15,000 per year.
Do you spend over £15,000 per year on your free British Airways American Express Credit Card?
If you spend £15,000 per year on the free British Airways American Express Credit Card, you might think that it IS worth keeping.
After all, you are earning the annual 2-4-1 Companion Voucher, valid for travel begun within 12 months of issue. This allows you to:
- book two Avios flights in Economy for the cost of one (full taxes are due on both tickets) or
- book one Avios flight in Economy for half of the usual Avios cost (full taxes are still due)
If you are an Economy traveller, you may well see some value here. Even if you don’t travel Economy on long haul flights, you would save a handful of Avios on a short haul European trip.
However ….
Once you are spending over £15,000 per year on your free BA Amex, you have a different decision to make. Should you upgrade to the £300 per year British Airways American Express Premium Plus Card or the £20 per month Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard?
Yes, you probably should.
(If you are spending over £10,000 per year but less than £15,000 per year, you may also benefit from the Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard because the upgrade voucher triggers at £10,000. There is no point getting the paid-for BA Amex because the voucher requires £15,000 of spend.)
Reasons to swap your free BA Amex for the Premium Plus card:
- The 2-4-1 Companion Voucher on the free BA Amex is only valid on Economy tickets, whilst the voucher on the Premium Plus card is valid in ALL classes
- Holders of the British Airways American Express Premium Plus Card get access to additional Avios inventory when redeeming in long-haul Business Class, making it easier to find seats
- The 2-4-1 Companion Voucher on the free BA Amex is only valid for one year, instead of two years for the Premium Plus voucher, which is a major issue if you want to book seats 355 days in advance
- You earn an extra 0.5 Avios per £1 spent and double Avios when you spend with British Airways and British Airways Holidays, which offsets some of the £300 annual fee on the Premium Plus card
There is no official upgrade form – you simply apply for the Premium Plus card via this link. American Express will recognise that you are upgrading and will copy over your existing spend and account data. If your application is rejected for some reason, give Amex a call.
Note that you need a personal income of £35,000 to get the Premium Plus card.
Reasons to swap your free BA Amex for the Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard:
- The 2-4-1 Companion Voucher on the free BA Amex is only valid on Economy tickets, whilst the upgrade voucher on the Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard lets you travel in Business or Premium Economy, albeit not First Class (this is how the Barclaycard upgrade voucher works)
- The 2-4-1 Companion Voucher on the free BA Amex is only valid for one year, instead of two years for the Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard voucher, which is a major issue if you want to book seats 355 days in advance
- The £5,000 of ‘extra’ spending required to trigger the voucher on the free BA Amex (£15,000 compared to £10,000 on the Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard) could be directed elsewhere, helping trigger sign-up bonuses on other cards
- As it’s a Mastercard, you can use it in more places than an American Express card which makes it easier to hit the £10,000 target for the annual voucher
- If you’ve not applied for a Barclaycard Avios Mastercard before, you would qualify for a 25,000 Avios sign-up bonus – you won’t get a bonus if you swap from the free BA Amex to the British Airways American Express Premium Plus Card
Conclusion
Given that:
- the 2-4-1 Companion Voucher on the free British Airways American Express Credit Card is only valid for one year and only for Economy flights, and
- the Barclaycard Avios Mastercards are impressive products
…. there are good reasons for EVERY holder of the free British Airways American Express card to reconsider whether it remains the card for them.
If you spend under £15,000 on the free British Airways American Express card, I believe that the free Barclaycard Avios Mastercard and The American Express Rewards Credit Card offer good alternatives.
If you are spending five figures on your free BA Amex, you should consider whether there is value in swapping to either the fee-paying Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard or the British Airways American Express Premium Plus Card.
You can see full details of the main UK airline and hotel payment cards, as well as links to our reviews, on this page of HfP.
Sign-up bonus and earn rate:
- Get 25,000 Avios when you spend £3,000 in your first 90 days
- Earn 1.5 Avios per £1 spent
Other information:
- Receive an Avios upgrade voucher when you spend £10,000 in a card year
- Upgrade a return BA flight for one person or two one-way flights for a couple
- Annual fee: £240, charged at £20 per month
- T&C apply to all benefits
Representative 80.1% APR variable based on an assumed £1,200 credit limit and £20 monthly fee. Interest rate on purchases 29.9% APR variable.
You will receive 25,000 Avios as a sign-up bonus on the Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard credit card if you spend £3,000 within 90 days of signing up.
To qualify for the bonus, you must NOT, currently or in the previous six months, have held any other Barclaycard credit card. You must also have not held either of the Barclaycard Avios credit cards in the previous 24 months.
You are OK if you had a supplementary card on someone else’s Barclaycard account.
You are OK if, currently or in the previous six months, you have had a British Airways American Express credit card.
For clarity, you can still apply for the Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard even if you do not qualify for the bonus. You would still benefit from the upgrade voucher and the other card benefits.
When you spend £10,000 on the Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard, you receive a voucher entitling you to:
- book a return Avios flight for one person, paying the Avios of the next lowest cabin (ie book Club World but only pay the World Traveller Plus Avios requirement)
- book a one-way Avios flight, or one leg of a return flight, for two people, paying the Avios of the next lowest cabin
The voucher is valid for two years. Full taxes and charges need to be paid on both tickets, based on the cabin you fly.
The voucher cannot be used to fly in First Class.
The voucher can be used for anyone, as long as the booking is made from the Avios account of the cardholder.
You receive your voucher within five days of reaching the spending target.
Sign-up bonus and earn rate:
- Get 5,000 Avios when you spend £1,000 in your first 90 days
- Earn 1 Avios per £1 spent
Other information:
- Receive an Avios upgrade voucher when you spend £20,000 in a card year
- Upgrade a return BA flight for one person or two one-way flights for a couple
- Annual fee: Free
- T&C apply to all benefits
Representative 29.9% APR variable
You will receive 5,000 Avios as a sign-up bonus on the free Barclaycard Avios Mastercard credit card if you spend £1,000 within 90 days of signing up.
To qualify for the bonus, you must NOT, currently or in the previous six months, have held any other Barclaycard credit card. You must also have not held either of the Barclaycard Avios credit cards in the previous 24 months.
You are OK if you had a supplementary card on someone else’s Barclaycard account.
You are OK if, currently or in the previous six months, you have had a British Airways American Express credit card.
For clarity, you can still apply for the Barclaycard Avios Mastercard even if you do not qualify for the bonus. You would still benefit from the upgrade voucher and the other card benefits.
When you spend £20,000 on the Barclaycard Avios Mastercard, you receive a voucher entitling you to:
- book a return Avios flight for one person, paying the Avios of the next lowest cabin (ie book Club World but only pay the World Traveller Plus Avios requirement)
- book a one-way Avios flight, or one leg of a return flight, for two people, paying the Avios of the next lowest cabin
The voucher is valid for two years. Full taxes and charges need to be paid on both tickets, based on the cabin you fly.
The voucher can be used for anyone, as long as the booking is made from the Avios account of the cardholder.
The voucher cannot be used to fly in First Class.
You receive your voucher within five days of reaching the spending target.
Sign-up bonus and earn rate:
- Get 30,000 Avios when you spend £6,000 in your first three months
- Earn 1.5 Avios per £1 spent
- Earn 3 Avios per £1 spent with British Airways and British Airways Holidays
Other information:
- Receive a Companion Voucher, letting you book two flights for the Avios of one, when you spend £15,000 in a card year
- A solo traveller can use it for a 50% discount on the Avios for one ticket
- The voucher is valid in any cabin
- It can be used on British Airways, Iberia and Aer Lingus
- Annual fee: £300
- T&C apply to all benefits
Representative 137.1% APR variable based on an assumed £1,200 credit limit and £300 annual fee. Interest rate on purchases 29.7% APR variable.
You will receive 30,000 Avios as a sign-up bonus on the British Airways American Express Premium Plus Card if you spend £6,000 within three months of signing up.
To qualify for the bonus, you must not have held the British Airways American Express Premium Plus or the free British Airways American Express credit cards in the previous 24 months.
You are OK if you had a supplementary card on someone else’s British Airways American Express account.
You are OK if, currently or in the previous 24 months, you have held any other American Express card.
For clarity, you can still apply for the British Airways Premium Plus card even if you do not qualify for the bonus. You would still benefit from the Companion Voucher and all of the other card benefits.
When you spend £15,000 on the British Airways American Express Premium Plus Card, you receive a Companion Voucher entitling you to book two Avios redemption flights for the miles of one.
Alternatively, a solo traveller can use the voucher for a 50% reduction on the Avios required for one ticket.
This voucher is valid for two years. Full taxes and charges need to be paid on both tickets.
This voucher is the most valuable perk available in the UK airline and hotel credit card sector in my view. It could save you 150,000 or more Avios when used for a long-haul redemption in a premium cabin.
The Companion Voucher from the British Airways American Express Premium Plus Card is far more powerful than the voucher given with the free British Airways American Express Credit Card. You need to spend the same £15,000 to receive it. More importantly, the Premium Plus voucher is valid for two years and is valid in ALL cabins. The voucher on the free British Airways American Express Credit Card is only valid for one year and can only be used for Economy flights.
You receive your voucher within a few days of reaching the spending target. You need to fly the outbound leg of your 2-4-1 flight before the expiry date of the voucher.
The voucher can be used for flights on British Airways, Iberia and Aer Lingus.
You need a minimum personal income of £35,000 to apply for the card.
Sign-up bonus and earn rate:
- Get 5,000 Avios when you spend £2,000 in your first three months
- Earn 1 Avios per £1 spent
Other information:
- Receive a Companion Voucher, letting you book two flights for the Avios of one, when you spend £15,000 in a card year
- A solo traveller can use it for a 50% discount on the Avios for one ticket
- The companion voucher is only valid on Economy flights
- It can be used on British Airways, Iberia and Aer Lingus
- Annual fee: Free
- T&C apply to all benefits
Representative 29.7% APR variable
You will receive 5,000 Avios as a sign-up bonus on the free British Airways American Express Credit Card if you spend £2,000 within three months of signing up.
To qualify for the bonus, you must NOT, currently or in the previous 24 months, have held any other personal American Express card.
You are OK if you had a supplementary card on someone else’s British Airways American Express account.
You are OK if, currently or in the previous 24 months, you have held a Business American Express card.
For clarity, you can still apply for the British Airways American Express credit card even if you do not qualify for the bonus. You would still benefit from the companion voucher and the other card benefits.
When you spend £15,000 on the British Airways American Express Credit Card, you receive a Companion Voucher entitling you to book two Avios redemption flights for the miles of one. This voucher is valid for one year. (Full taxes and charges need to be paid on both tickets.)
The voucher on the free British Airways American Express Credit Card can only be used on Economy flights.
The voucher can be used for Avios bookings on British Airways, Iberia and Aer Lingus.
You receive your voucher within a few days of reaching the spending target. You need to fly the outbound leg of your 2-4-1 flight before the expiry date of the voucher.
If you want more flexibility, the voucher issued with the British Airways American Express Premium Plus Card is valid for two years, requires the same £15,000 of annual card spend and is valid in ALL cabins including Business and First. The Premium Plus card also has a higher earning rate of 1.5 Avios per £1 on general spend and 3 Avios per £1 on spend with British Airways and British Airways Holidays.
You need a minimum personal income of £15,000 to apply for the card.
Sign-up bonus and earn rate:
- Get 10,000 Membership Rewards points when you spend £2,000 in your first three months
- Earn 1 Membership Rewards point per £1 spent
- Points transfer at 1:1 into Avios and Virgin Points
- You can also convert to other airlines, Eurostar and hotel schemes
Other information:
- Your best choice if you want a ‘free for life’ card which earns Membership Rewards points
- A good choice if you want to close a Gold or Platinum card but keep your points intact
- Annual fee: Free
- T&C apply to all benefits
Representative 29.7% APR variable
You will receive 10,000 American Express Membership Rewards points as a sign-up bonus on The American Express Rewards Credit Card if you spend £2,000 within three months of signing up.
Membership Rewards points are hugely flexible. You can transfer them into Avios, Virgin Flying Club or other airlines (at 1:1) or into various hotels schemes, into Club Eurostar or use them for shopping vouchers.
To qualify for the bonus, you must NOT, currently or in the previous 24 months, have held any other personal American Express card.
You are OK if you had a supplementary card on someone else’s American Express account.
You are OK if, currently or in the previous 24 months, you have held a Business American Express card.
For clarity, you can still apply for The American Express Rewards Credit Card ard even if you do not qualify for the bonus. You may want to do this if you are thinking of swapping your American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card or The Platinum Card for a free alternative, and would prefer to keep your existing Membership Rewards points balance alive.
The American Express Rewards Credit Card is the only ‘free for life’ American Express card which lets you collect Membership Rewards points.
We do NOT recommend this card if you would also qualify for the sign-up bonus on American Express Preferred Rewards Gold. Preferred Rewards Gold is free for the first year, comes with four free airport lounge passes and £120 of Deliveroo credit and has a higher sign-up bonus of 20,000 points.
The best reason to get The American Express Rewards Credit Card is if you are coming to the end of your free first year with American Express Preferred Rewards Gold, or no longer want to pay the fee on The Platinum Card, but want to keep your Membership Rewards points intact.
You need a minimum personal income of £15,000 to apply for the card.
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