BA Amex upgrade from free to Premium Plus

[JR1987]

Hi guys.

My companion voucher Avios collection year end is coming up on my BA amex in mid Feb and im about to take it over the threshold of 10k required, however I want to use this on a Club World flight.

Is it still possible to upgrade from the free card to premium and then when the 10k mark is met recieve a companion voucher that is able to be used in premium cabins?

Thanks.

[0 post]

Hi JR,

I certainly hope that it is possible and I expect it to happen as I’ve just upgraded a free card to PP. My wife and I, on separate BAPP cards earned 2 x 241 vouchers last year and I downgraded on the anniversary of the cards. I didn’t expect to whizz through the spending in 3 months but I’ve stopped spending on the card at £9980 so I don’t trigger just yet. The upgrade took a day, with the same account login details and card number. The card came in 3 days.

[Guernsey Globetrotter]

Hi Weeble – that’s interesting – did you complete your upgrade via Amex Chat or through their webform application? I ask because there have been a few on here recently saying that Chat told them upgrades were no longer possible…

[jayjay]

Guernsey Globetrotter wrote:

Hi Weeble – that’s interesting – did you complete your upgrade via Amex Chat or through their webform application? I ask because there have been a few on here recently saying that Chat told them upgrades were no longer possible…

Strange, I managed to do this by simply applying for the BA Premium Plus on the website. Amex detect you have the free one and upgrade it directly, although this was years ago so I’m not sure about this not being possible anymore.

[FFoxSake]

There is also an upgrade URL to go from free BA to BAPP…
https://www.americanexpress.com/uk/benefits/upgrade/ba-premium-plus-credit-card/

• This reply was modified 54 years, 11 months ago by .

[oxonboy]

I’ve just tried to upgrade to BAPP as I’m near £10k spend on my blue card (having downgraded last year) and got the ‘computer says no’ response from an Amex Customer Service agent. Followed the link provided by FFoxSake and bingo, I’ve been upgraded…. at least that’s what it said on the screen. Waiting for the confirmation email and new cards before I carry on spending on the card.

[cska]

oxonboy wrote:

I’ve just tried to upgrade to BAPP as I’m near £10k spend on my blue card (having downgraded last year) and got the ‘computer says no’ response from an Amex Customer Service agent. Followed the link provided by FFoxSake and bingo, I’ve been upgraded…. at least that’s what it said on the screen. Waiting for the confirmation email and new cards before I carry on spending on the card.

Do you have an update on this, were you able to do it successfully? Thanks

[RupyS]

oxonboy wrote:

I’ve just tried to upgrade to BAPP as I’m near £10k spend on my blue card (having downgraded last year) and got the ‘computer says no’ response from an Amex Customer Service agent. Followed the link provided by FFoxSake and bingo, I’ve been upgraded…. at least that’s what it said on the screen. Waiting for the confirmation email and new cards before I carry on spending on the card.

Grateful also for an update.

I’ve just tried to upgrade my blue to a PP and it was refused on the phone. This has never happened before, seems Amex are tightening up their policies regarding it. Although, I find it a little crazy: I held a PP for over a year and switched away from the PP due to decreased spend because of Covid. I’m now spending more, so I’m happy to pay the £250 p/a for the added benefits – but Amex won’t let me..!

[jazzyb88]

I also tried to upgrade to the BAPP from blue over the phone and was met with a no response. I have clicked the link and the upgrade went through, will let you know if I get the voucher too as my card anniversary was the end of the month.

[billywiz92]

Hi, does anyone have an upgrade on whether you keep your progress towards the companion ticket if you upgrade? TIA!

[Guernsey Globetrotter]

billywiz92 wrote:

Hi, does anyone have an upgrade on whether you keep your progress towards the companion ticket if you upgrade? TIA!

Hi – I did this back in April using the link above and my spend progress of £9k+ was retained. I went on to hit the £10k BAPP limit in May, received the premium voucher in my BA account and then cancelled via chat (could probably have downgraded again but wanted to start a 2 year break from personal Amex cards). I was refunded all but £22.61 of the £250 annual fee, which I was more than happy to pay for the superior extended voucher 🙂

[yogibear14]

Hi guys, if the card anniversary date is January 2022. Started with BA amex premium plus, got the companion voucher and we’ve downgraded it to the free one as went to platinum. If we want to upgrade it again, will the count for new companion voucher start on January 2023?

[BuildBackBetter]

yogibear14 wrote:

Hi guys, if the card anniversary date is January 2022. Started with BA amex premium plus, got the companion voucher and we’ve downgraded it to the free one as went to platinum. If we want to upgrade it again, will the count for new companion voucher start on January 2023?

Yep, anniversary date remains same as long as you haven’t cancelled.

[lawboy]

Hi all,
Please could someone confirm that this still works? I intend to build up spend on the free card and then upgrade using the link posted above to be eligible for the any cabin companion voucher.

[NorthernLass]

Reports of success have varied recently. Some people have reported that they have been turned down for either upgrading or downgrading so don’t assume you’ll be able to get the BAPP and superior voucher.

[Ant68]

I have just followed the link posted by FFoxSake (great username) and was accepted immediately.

[FFoxSake]

Ant68 wrote:

I have just followed the link posted by FFoxSake (great username) and was accepted immediately.

Thanks 🙂 Glad to hear the link is still working.

[SteveCroydon]

I’ve just done the upgrade from BA AX to BAPP AX via the upgrade link. It all worked fine in about 15 seconds. However last night, around midnight, it kept failing and saying that it was unable to complete the process. Presumably an AX server somewhere wasn’t available.
The confirmation states that the new earning rate and benefits apply immediately to the account and that you can still use the old blue card until the new one arrives within a week.
I’ve got a biggy coming up – c£20,000. So an immediate upgrade voucher to add to the BC vouchers and 30,000 Avios to help use them.
I dropped the BAPP about 4 years ago because I didn’t have anybody to take on a trip and a couple just withered and expired. I now have a couple of possible travel companions and I can use the voucher for a half-price solo journey.

[sm]

Good morning. Have the blue BA card – anniversary date end of October. If I upgrade to paid BAPP card now will I be charged pro rata fees or the full £250 and my card anniversary reset to august?
Probably a silly question but could I trigger a companion ticket before October and then another the current anniversary date? Thanks in advance!

[JDB]

sm wrote:

Good morning. Have the blue BA card – anniversary date end of October. If I upgrade to paid BAPP card now will I be charged pro rata fees or the full £250 and my card anniversary reset to august?
Probably a silly question but could I trigger a companion ticket before October and then another the current anniversary date? Thanks in advance!

Your anniversary will not change and you will be charged £250 on your next statement such that your annual fee and voucher anniversary will henceforth be out of sync. You will start earning towards a new voucher after your October anniversary.

Your new BAPP will immediately be on the new terms with no pro-rata refund officially available, but it has been indicated that pro-rata refunds will still be offered as a matter of goodwill until 1 October. Thereafter, you may in fact still get a pro-rata refund if you downgrade rather than cancel.

[sm]

Thank you so much for clarifying!
I’m going to try via the link and see if it works 🙏🏼

JDB wrote:

sm wrote:

Good morning. Have the blue BA card – anniversary date end of October. If I upgrade to paid BAPP card now will I be charged pro rata fees or the full £250 and my card anniversary reset to august?
Probably a silly question but could I trigger a companion ticket before October and then another the current anniversary date? Thanks in advance!

Your anniversary will not change and you will be charged £250 on your next statement such that your annual fee and voucher anniversary will henceforth be out of sync. You will start earning towards a new voucher after your October anniversary.

Your new BAPP will immediately be on the new terms with no pro-rata refund officially available, but it has been indicated that pro-rata refunds will still be offered as a matter of goodwill until 1 October. Thereafter, you may in fact still get a pro-rata refund if you downgrade rather than cancel.

[sm]

Data point – link works still 👏🏽 if I continue using my current blue card until my new black one arrives, will I still be spending towards the £10,000 needed for the companion ticket? Or do you think it’s safer to wait for the black card to come…

Thank you so much.

[polly]

@sm
Check online, as soon as the card colour changes to black BAPP, all spend from then is towards your new 10k spend. You don’t even have to wait for,it to,arrive, at that point.
So hold off until then. Use another card if you have to in the meantime.

[sm]

polly wrote:

@sm
Check online, as soon as the card colour changes to black BAPP, all spend from then is towards your new 10k spend. You don’t even have to wait for,it to,arrive, at that point.
So hold off until then. Use another card if you have to in the meantime.

Thank you Polly – yes the card icon top right when you login is now black 👍

[zapato1060]

I want to upgrade to BAPP from blue. My new 241 year starts in Feb. Do you think there’s more or less chance that they will accept before pro rata kicks in?! Or that thought is irrelevant?