Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

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.

any point having the free British Airways American Express credit card?

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
any point having the free British Airways American Express credit card?

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.

any point having the free British Airways American Express credit card?

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.

any point having the free British Airways American Express credit 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

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.

Barclaycard Avios Plus card

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Bonus: 25,000 Avios

Read our full review

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.

Apply here
See if you qualify for the 25,000 Avios sign-up bonus +

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.

Learn more about the 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.

Barclaycard Avios card

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

Bonus: 5,000 Avios

Read our full review

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

Apply here
See if you qualify for the 5,000 Avios sign-up bonus +

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.

Learn more about the 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.

British Airways American Express Premium Plus Card

Bonus: 30,000 Avios

Read our full review

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.

Apply here
See if you qualify for the 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus +

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.

Learn more about the 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.

British Airways American Express Credit Card

Bonus: 5,000 Avios

Read our full review

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

Apply here
See if you qualify for the 5,000 Avios sign-up bonus +

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.

Learn more about the 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.

The American Express Rewards Credit Card

Bonus: 10,000 points

Read our full review

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

Apply here
See if you qualify for the 10,000 points sign-up bonus +

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.

Learn more about the card benefits +

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.

Category

Amex Rewards Credit Card, Barclaycard Avios Mastercard, British Airways American Express

Comments (90)

  • Lumma says:
    5 Aug5 August 06:59

    I think the free BA card is the perfect card for “normal” people. No fee invested in it. If you do hit the spend target, you get the voucher and it wouldn’t be difficult to have enough points to get a couple to an aspirational destination. With the Barclays voucher, a couple would need a minimum of 100k avios to upgrade one way to WTP.

    Collecting Membership Rewards points for more options is all well and good, but other than Virgin, how easy is it to collect enough points in the UK to get something worthwhile?

    Reply
    • masaccio says:
      5 Aug5 August 07:31

      I don’t buy the hype over MRs. I have 200k MRs and I have every expectation that I will end up dumping them into Avios. Other points collectors will scream Conrad Rangali but it’s terrible value compared a dozens of other options. Or I could spent them on a bland corporate hotel in some city somewhere I suppose.

      Reply
      • dsm83 says:
        5 Aug5 August 08:24

        Both these points are true.

        My husband has the free BA Amex and we have just used it to book a week in the canaries in November and the 241 return was more than he has earned on the card even when discounted avios in the recent reward seat sale. However, November is peak season and the value was well over 1p per avios. If he was to use the BAPP or Barclaycard Plus the value would be in Club or WTP, but the points would be coming out of what we use on excellent long haul rewards through my Barclays upgrade vouchers. We did also manage to get an economy return Madrid-Cuba on his voucher a few years ago that was one of the best value reward flights we have done and we had prebooked a 2 seat exit row for free (plus the outbound was a day flight so not much benefit from an upgrade). So there is great value in this card if you have limited points.

        I’m currently cycling back through the Amex bonuses so have the Gold card right now (50k bonus in Feb). We have just used the Membership Rewards points for some KLM flights to Denmark over the upcoming bank holiday because the cash price was pretty steep booking a month out, but the value was still only 0.7p. We have other flights/eurostar planned we could have used the points for but the value was even worse for those! So whilst we’ve used the flexibility of where we convert (we could also have flown SAS) I’m not sure the value of using MR elsewhere is ever going to beat the redemptions we do via Avios.

        Reply
      • CJD says:
        5 Aug5 August 11:03

        Ditto. As someone who doesn’t travel for work I struggle to really see the value in any hotel loyalty scheme (with the possible exception of Hyatt) or saving up tens or hundreds of thousands of MR points to get a couple of nights in an average city property. I should be eligible for the Platinum SUB this time next year but I’d probably end up dumping them into Avios because converting them into 100,000 Hilton points just isn’t attractive.

        Reply
        • Jonathan says:
          5 Aug5 August 11:09

          Not all hotel / airline loyalty programs are for everyone
          Same goes for just about all types of loyalty programs as well !

          Reply
    • Ken says:
      5 Aug5 August 08:21

      Fairly easy to collect enough for a hotel stay if you accept that you may be only getting 0.7 – 0.8p per MR point.
      I used to use almost all of mine for Marriott before they went dynamic pricing.

      Reply
    • Mark says:
      5 Aug5 August 08:36

      I appreciate this article is about Amex but if you want a 2 for 1 voucher I think Virgin is better value at £160 annual fee. I appreciate they don’t cover anywhere the same number of routes but you only need to spend £10,000 a year and the voucher is worth up to 75,000 points when redeemed – I guess it comes down to where you are likely to be flying as to which voucher is best. My wife and I flew premium economy to Boston in July for £900 in total using our voucher and 50,000 points

      Reply
    • CJD says:
      5 Aug5 August 08:45

      Agreed. If you’re based around London and can put £15k through the card, then with a companion voucher you and your partner can get return economy flights just about anywhere in Europe for your summer holiday.

      Rob loves banging his long haul business class drum but if you’re only just managing to put £15k of spend a year through the card then 22,500 Avios per year doesn’t exactly get you very far does it?

      Reply
      • Redhand says:
        5 Aug5 August 13:23

        I’m not “based around London” therefore the ability to fly business from the regions free(only pay taxes) to connect long haul at LHR makes the Amex fee card well worth it. No other card can compete IMHO.

        Reply
      • ken says:
        5 Aug5 August 13:32

        241 hence I presume a partner.

        Couple of referral bonus and SUB and that 22.5k quickly becomes closer to 100k

        Reply
  • VR says:
    5 Aug5 August 07:06

    Had the premium BA for years. Now I have a little baby and unfortunately my days of travelling business are gone for some time after they turn 2 years old.

    I can spend the £15k to trigger the voucher, but still I’ll certainly downgrade to the free card as I’ll be travelling in economy with a family of 3. I have the Barclaycard as well, but prefer the 7k avios rewards as I mainly redeem IB to South America.

    In my opinion the card still delivers a good value for this family set up (when you’re of course not keen to pay a full business class fare for a holiday!).

    Reply
    • Lumma says:
      5 Aug5 August 07:14

      Iberia to South America in economy and premium is better value in the fewest avios/most cash level

      Reply
      • VR says:
        5 Aug5 August 07:23

        Rather marginal value difference, not enough to not justify not using a voucher obtained from a “free” card!

        Reply
        • rickla says:
          5 Aug5 August 08:51

          I’m afraid that there are too many “nots” in that sentence for my small brain to understand what you are trying to say.

          Reply
          • VR says:
            5 Aug5 August 09:25

            Yep, reading it again it doesn’t make sense at all lol.

            I meant the savings from using the 241 voucher for an economy ticket on a long haul South America flight will still be higher vs selecting the fewer avios/most cash redemptions (and not using a voucher).

            With the voucher coming from the free BA card of course…

    • Martin says:
      6 Aug6 August 04:47

      We are a family of 3, now with a 9 year old.
      We haven’t changed our family flying, apart from using Europe, Turkey, Greece as our destinations until older.
      Been a good strategy, keeps costs down, flights times down, plus long haul to a minimum. and means we focus 75% holiday time to youngster with minimal avoid on CE..
      He’s 10 in jan, so we may start branching or further.
      Worked well last 9 years

      Reply
      • VR says:
        6 Aug6 August 07:51

        This is a great approach and most likely we’ll be doing that for regular holidays as well!! Thanks for the advice.

        But we’re from South America and always travel at least once per year to see family etc, so I normally use the 241 voucher for this long haul trip!

        Reply
  • Terry Butcher says:
    5 Aug5 August 07:17

    Having had issues with both cards over time, and with transactions on both cards – I must say that Amex customer service is leaps and bounds over what I have experienced from Barclays. On that basis alone I stick with the Amex.

    Reply
  • Stephen says:
    5 Aug5 August 07:18

    I downgraded to free BA AMEX because i found myself awash with 241 vouchers. Now i have used them all, i plan to upgrade to start getting them again. If only they could be used flying to the Far East with Qatar…..

    Reply
    • Gordon says:
      5 Aug5 August 07:47

      Don’t allow the dog to wag the tail! You can still fly east with QR, I was fed up with BA, IT, and when finally logged in, limited availability going east, so booked QR, 6 months out, LGW-DOHA-SGN, RTN, J, 150k Avios, £580 taxes,
      Not as cost effective as a voucher on BA, but it’s Qatar, so worth every penny!

      Reply
  • AnnaB says:
    5 Aug5 August 07:40

    While this makes logical sense I think some people don’t want to pay a fee for a credit card. My sister in law is one of those I recommend the premium card as she was always commenting on us travelling business but I recently released she has this one. She also had a companion voucher sat there due to expire in Jan she had no clue how this worked. Lucky I got her some seats in the last avios sale with her voucher so for her it seemed worth it as got two tickets for one.

    Reply
  • S says:
    5 Aug5 August 07:59

    Don’t you HAVE to pay BA with an Amex card to use the 2-4-1 voucher? If so you might need to keep the Amex card only to redeem an existing 2-4-1 voucher?

    Reply
    • Rob says:
      5 Aug5 August 08:19

      No. You never did and a couple of years ago Amex changed the printed rules to admit this.

      Reply
      • louie says:
        5 Aug5 August 08:26

        I thought you had to pay using an Amex of some sort. Not necessarily the BA Amex through which you earned it and not necessarily in your name but still some sort of Amex. Is that not right?

        Reply
      • Lumma says:
        5 Aug5 August 08:32

        You do need an AMEX to pay though (just checked a dummy booking at chose new card and it says AMEX only), but it doesn’t need to be yours

        Reply
        • kevin86 says:
          5 Aug5 August 17:19

          Can’t see it going down well if I ring by mate with an Amex at 1am asking them to book a flight for me

          Reply
          • Lumma says:
            6 Aug6 August 01:45

            If someone I know is dropping a grand on BA “fees” and wants to use my BAPP at 1am then I’ll let them wake me up!

  • Tom says:
    5 Aug5 August 08:00

    +1 on BC customer service, it is poor.

    Just to check, once I have the upgrade voucher in my BA account it’s safe to cancel the BC?

    Reply
  • a9504477 says:
    5 Aug5 August 08:31

    Of course there is a reason to have the free Amex (provided, you don’t want to play the sign-up bonus game) – it’s the offers eg. typically twice a year £50 off Hilton stays.

    Reply
    • MKB says:
      5 Aug5 August 09:10

      +1

      Reply
    • John says:
      5 Aug5 August 09:35

      But you are likely to get similar offers on the ARCC.

      There is a very minor benefit to the free BA Amex vs the ARCC, all transactions are rounded to the nearest £ so 50p earns 1 avios, while transactions earning MR are rounded down so 99p earns 0 avios.

      This may have changed as admittedly I haven’t held an MR-earning card for a number of years.

      When I did, 99% of my MR were converted to Avios and the rest were to nectar when closing cards down… I think I did virgin once in order to get enough miles to convert to Hilton before abandoning my VS account

      Reply
      • Jonathan says:
        5 Aug5 August 10:44

        I personally can’t figure why the BA cards are about the only ones on Amex’s portfolio that decides how customers earn points / cashback like this.

        It’d make economical sense to simply do it by total eligible spending in the statement month, then just round up or down from there, it makes no sense that someone’s better off by doing all transactions where possible in £0.50 chunks instead of to the nearest whole £x.

        I’m almost certain the only Amex cards (UK) that round up or down to the nearest whole £x, are the BA cards, and the Vitality cashback card (which’s nearly never mentioned here in comments or forums and never mentioned at all in articles by HfP authors, not surprising why it’s not though as it’s irrelevant to just about all readers

        Reply
      • bennymoon says:
        5 Aug5 August 11:27

        I was just looking for a comment about AMEX and how they round transactions. One of the most annoying things about MR cards. Barclays also do earning on a per-transaction basis but do still round up or down. Virgin Atlantic cards reward points on the total statement spend, which seems like it makes much more sense.

        Reply
        • Rob says:
          5 Aug5 August 11:52

          It’s not as bad as the Tesco Mastercard, which rounds down PER TRANSACTION to the nearest £8. Spend £7.99 and get nothing!

          Reply
          • Jonathan says:
            5 Aug5 August 13:27

            One of the key reasons I ditched mine years ago

            It’s not as bad as the now closed to new applicants Sainsbury’s CC, 1 nectar point per £5 spent, nectar points have a cash value of £0.00.5, so one needs to spend £10 to get £0.01 to spend in Sainsbury’s / Argos etc. whereas 1 Tesco Clubcard point is worth £0.01, so in that respect, Tesco credit card is approximately 20% better than Sainsbury’s card, depending on how one cashes out their Clubcard points, sometimes better than the base

            It would be good if Amex changed the way they award points, it’s near enough misleading with their cashback cards, as 100x transactions of say £0.90 should give £0.45 cashback on the free everyday card, instead it gives nothing

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