BA removed from Amex Platinum International Airline Program

[web]

If you go to https://www.americanexpress.com/en-gb/travel/international-airline-program/, you will see it now no longer includes BA or AA.

This used to be a nice way to get a discount on cash tickets in premium long-haul cabins with BA/AA. The prices I saw on there were usually about £100-200 (in Club, return) cheaper than booking the identical flight through ba.com, including during sales. Of course, these fares were normal cash bookings so attracted the usual Tier Points and Avios earning, plus double MR points for the Amex Travel transaction.

I enquired about this on Amex chat and was told that their partnership ended last year. A bit incoherent, since Amex of course still partners with BA in other ways (MR transfers, co-branded cards), so it’s a shame they’ve decided to devalue the Platinum proposition by no longer exposing these “travel agent” fares. Only one OneWorld carrier left – Qatar – for which a £100-200 discount will never reduce to a level as affordable as BA. And only useful going south, or east from London.

[web]

Just to rub it in, the US Platinum IAP covers 23 airlines, 5 of which are OneWorld, and they also get 5x MR points per $ on their booking too. (https://www.americanexpress.com/en-us/travel/international-airline-program/)

[Matty]

I can’t get it to work for me, whatever the airline – it just throws up an error message. Time and time again.

[PeteM]

Can’t you get similar fares through various OTAs Kayak/Google/Momondo bring up? I generally find that is the case with BA, saving between £20-100pp depending on the route. All you then need to do is book direct and make a best price guarantee claim with BA – all of mine have been approved with no arguing.