70k or 35k Amex BA offer

[Harrier25]

PaulP wrote:

Harrier25 wrote:

The fact that it says ‘you must be a British Airways Executive Club Member to receive the limited time welcome bonuses’ is the giveaway sentence for you to log into your account first, otherwise no 70,000 bonus points!

That’s just not correct. For a start, Amex would have no way of knowing you were logged into your BAEC account. Unless the development teams for both companies were sharing cookie data, which is incredibly unlikely (the URL is identical, logged in or not). Also because I was logged in, supplied by membership number (correct way of info sharing) during application and they have *still* only given me 35k points.

I stand corrected.

[marks7389]

Harrier25 wrote:

I didn’t say he will find out which reward he will get once he hits the spend requirement.

Everyone will find out which bonus they have signed up for when the spend tracker appears after activating the card

Pretty sure I didn’t log in when applying and my tracker shows the 70K bonus. I am sure, however, that they ask for your Exec Club number as part of the application so they know where to credit the Avios.

[NorthernLass]

They do ask for your BAEC number on the application form – and it causes a lot of issues transferring the avios if they don’t get this initially!

[VALittleRed]

So if showing 35k only, what is the advice/action recommended to be taken? Ring Amex? Asking for a friend

[NorthernLass]

I would honestly wait and see what posts. Even if Amex tells you one thing, they may be wrong, or it may not actually be possible to deliver what they promise. It’s a lot easier asking them to resolve an issue which has definitely happened than one which hasn’t yet!

[marks7389]

To be honest, if it’s showing as 35K I’d contact Amex sooner rather then later and make them aware you went through the BA link and are expecting the 70K bonus on hitting the spend requirement. I took screenshots showing the BA page, and my application with the BA site open in a separate tab.

I wonder if it may be a cookie issue. It’s possible that anyone who went to the Amex application site first without following the BA link may have had a cookie that overrode the BA referral.

[PaulP]

I have contacted Amex, @marks7389. They just flatly refuse to do anything. They say it’s BA’s problem.

[PaulP]

I just tried again with the chat. They took ages, then said I wasn’t eligible for the 70k, but couldn’t say why. Then just hung up.

[Will787]

My Dad applied for the BAPP, definitely didn’t log in to BAEC and the 70k points tracker is showing in his Amex app. Took a few days for it to appear.

[tominoz]

I’m the OP and I’ve been doing some follow up today after reading the various comments.
1. Probably for somebody with technical knowledge, but whether you are logged in or logged out of the BA site when you click apply takes you to the same landing page:
url without logging in:
https://www.americanexpress.com/en-gb/credit-cards/apply/personal/ba-premium-plus-credit?cpid=100504447

URL when logged in:
https://www.americanexpress.com/en-gb/credit-cards/apply/personal/ba-premium-plus-credit?cpid=100504447

So the response from Amex that I should have logged in and would have got a different page seems to be bogus unless anybody can explain where I am missing something?

2. The page is still live (until 21st Feb) so its quite easy to do some testing. Using details of friends of mine I filled in the application form several times. They all passed the credit check, and once past the credit check page, whether you were logged in or not on the ba.com referral page, you are requested to supply your BA exec club info.
I definitely did this…and I suspect most people reading this did as well as it is the top part of the page after the credit check. Given that none of us are ‘stupid’ and aware that this is a BA offer, we would have filled this in.
So Amex would be aware of BA exec club membership at the time of application whether you used the so called ‘correct’ link or not. This is where we get into ‘misleading marketing….if it REALLY matters that you have to use a SPECIFIED link to get the enhanced offer, then this should be pointed out CLEARLY and without confusion.

3. Refreshing the ‘BA linked’ page at any point during the application process appears to take you to the ‘normal’ Amex application page and not back to the BA page.

4. I am still working on this, but if you had your Amex account logged in when you clicked the BA ‘apply’ link on BA.com, then this may well have taken you to the default Amex application page and not the ‘specific’ link needed to get the bonus. Still trying to evidence this.

All in all, I think there is enough unpredictability in this application process to suggest that at best its outcome is unpredictable and at worst shockingly misleading. It certainly isn’t as easy as ‘click to apply’ which is very much what the online marketing seems to be suggesting and encouraging people to do.
The varied results from people on this form and the number of complaints to Amex/BA as a result of this marketing initiative seems to bear this out.

I’d be interested to hear more from others.

[JDB]

I wouldn’t get too focussed on Amex telling you that you should have logged as it is clearly incorrect since you can apply without being a BAEC member, but you are then required to join. It’s just not relevant. You do need to have the cpid number shown above on your two links above and if you manage to navigate away from that it risks comprising your SUB.

[jjoohhnn]

I talked to my mother about signing up for this. Which she sadly did without talking to me first. She did follow the correct 70,000 link but said she didn’t have a BAEC account in the process :-/ so will see what happens when she gets the card and creates an account!

[jjoohhnn]

john wrote:

I talked to my mother about signing up for this. Which she sadly did without talking to me first. She did follow the correct 70,000 link but said she didn’t have a BAEC account in the process :-/ so will see what happens when she gets the card and creates an account!

Although looking on my most recent amex statement on my BAPP it says on the last page your executive club number so I guess once she gets a statement we should be able to get the account number try and get in to the BAEC account!

[Simey]

How long did it take for you all to hear back? I got accepted over 24 hours ago, but got nothing to confirm that or anything. No mail, no text, no nothing. I am awaiting some info to see what it’ll show for me. Hopefully 70k. Do you have any ETA on how it works?

[sloth]

Simey wrote:

How long did it take for you all to hear back? I got accepted over 24 hours ago, but got nothing to confirm that or anything. No mail, no text, no nothing. I am awaiting some info to see what it’ll show for me. Hopefully 70k. Do you have any ETA on how it works?

if you got the acceptance message then it will be fine. you will most likely receive the card in the post before any welcome email from Amex tho…once received and activated/added to the app the counter should appear 24 hrs later

[marks7389]

PaulP wrote:

I just tried again with the chat. They took ages, then said I wasn’t eligible for the 70k, but couldn’t say why. Then just hung up.

If it was me I would:

1. Raise a formal complaint with Amex, stating that you applied via the BA link for the 70K bonus and providing whatever evidence you can. At the very least ensure you have a screenshot of all the information on the BA site as that is likely to disappear after the 21st Feb. Ask them to explain why, despite applying through that route and following the instructions, the bonus is only tracking at the lower rate. It might also be worth including a copy of the chat transcript (which you should be able to get if you go back into the chat facility) since that doesn’t sound like great customer service either.

2. Whilst the complaint is being investigated, hit the £3K in 3 months spend threshold so you at least get the 35K Avios.

If it still isn’t resolved to your satisfaction, you could then opt to say that if they won’t honour the bonus included in the deal you signed up for, it leaves you with no choice but to cancel the card. That would get you a prorata fee refund and restart the 2 year sign-up bonus qualification clock. However you won’t, of course, be able to earn any 2for1 vouchers in the meantime.

Alternatively you could try raising a complaint with BA, informing them of what has happened, that you applied for the card on the basis of the offer they advertised and ask them to engage with their partner to resolve it.

[Simey]

sloth wrote:

Simey wrote:

How long did it take for you all to hear back? I got accepted over 24 hours ago, but got nothing to confirm that or anything. No mail, no text, no nothing. I am awaiting some info to see what it’ll show for me. Hopefully 70k. Do you have any ETA on how it works?

if you got the acceptance message then it will be fine. you will most likely receive the card in the post before any welcome email from Amex tho…once received and activated/added to the app the counter should appear 24 hrs later

Well, I think I did. They also said it is in the decision phase and gave me a long number. But as soon as you closed the page, that was gone. So no sort of evidence, knowledge or reference number to go off by. I passed the credit check and everything and asked me to pick a PIN etc, but not really sure if I got fully accepted yet? It’s been very strange to hear nothing concrete.

[zapato1060]

About to sign up for the OH and genuinely worried itll be 35k! Or hope they have fixed the issue because I remember searching google for ba plus amex, then seeing the 70k and following from there. I was never logged in.

[JDB]

Amex is probably quite cheesed off about all this. Not only has their partner seemingly gone rogue, but Amex sent out a very expensive BAPP mailing (big envelope with cardboard wallet and pull out) last week to encourage referrals for 36k/12k for which there will presumably be minimal take up. Now they are getting lots of calls including some from who didn’t actually apply in the correct way but hope to slip through anyway.

[Pinocent]

Just for the record, I applied on Monday through this link : https://www.americanexpress.com/uk/credit-cards/compare/british-airways-avios-credit-cards/?ieep=01MC2001 (the one on HFP and TPG didn’t work for me – it didn’t let me click ‘Apply’ on the AMEX page). This one was on BA’s homepage. Card arrived today, 70,000 points showing on the tracker.

[PaulP]

@marks7389 – “Refreshing the ‘BA linked’ page at any point during the application process appears to take you to the ‘normal’ Amex application page and not back to the BA page.”

This is the only plausible explanation of what is happening. But if it does, you are never getting the 70k points. They say you applied via the wrong URL and that’s it.

I got quite excited about this, but it’s such a time and energy suck that this stuff is just not worth it.

I’ve never had an Amex card before, and I never will again.

[TooPoorToBeHere]

Amex is probably quite cheesed off about all this. Not only has their partner seemingly gone rogue

Over-complex set of offers, over-complex IT, insufficient testing.

They’re not as much of a mess as Barclays I guess – some real horror stories around in the Barclays forum for people trying to get the “card and current account” offer – but the same problem. The offers are too complex for the IT: multiple websites, multiple databases, overnight updates…mess.

FWIW I’ve got the 70k, got the voucher, and closed the account this morning. Took 4 tries to close the account as the site kept logging me out & terminating the chat session in progress.

[zapato1060]

PaulP wrote:

I’ve never had an Amex card before, and I never will again.

I would refrain from such a knee jerk reaction as your best form of payback is churning for the points.

[zapato1060]

I think I will record the screen whilst I sign up. Probably the only point blank evidence thatll suffice.

[marks7389]

PaulP wrote:

@marks7389 – “Refreshing the ‘BA linked’ page at any point during the application process appears to take you to the ‘normal’ Amex application page and not back to the BA page.”

That doesn’t seem to be the case for me. Refreshing retains the CPID number in the URL, in both Edge and Chrome.