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I’m approaching the one year mark on 16th Oct ( Annoyingly after the Gold to Platinum upgrade offer expiry) and trying to figure out my best options. I’m due some fairly large spending in Dec 22 and the fourth quarter of 2023.I can spend 10K in a year companion ticket voucher wise and heard of people getting decent retention Gold offers that makes the fee worthwhile. I’m curious as to what MR points would in fact make it worthwhile in your opinion?
Options are
1. BA Amex Premium
2. Amex Platinum
3. Renew with Gold ( On the basis I receive a MR points renewal offer making it worthwhile)Strangely on a side note; i’m being rejected by the Barclays Avios fee card which I do not understand why.
This is not either/or, of course.
Platinum would be stupid – you’re better off cancelling Gold and starting the 2 year clock until you can get a Plat sign up bonus, which could (as you see now) be as high as 60,000 points.
If you could trigger the 10k on the 241 then BAPP is probably the way to go – the sign-up bonus covers the fee in year 1 anyway.
Whether you keep Gold as well is a different issue – keep it for a while if you need the 4 lounge passes, and arguably wait until until you’re approved for BAPP before cancelling it just in case you get turned down for BAPP.
Have you held any personal British Airways American Express Card product in the past 24 months? If no, I’d apply for the British Airways American Express Premium Plus, spend sufficient to get the sign up bonus, consider pushing on for the companion voucher (be warned: it’s much less useful than it used to be thanks to the increase in taxes, fees and charges — you may find you never use it long haul).
Wait for your annual bonus to land on the Gold, maybe keep the Gold if Amex make you a decent offer, if not, close it. Keep spending on the BAPP for six months.
Then you’ll have choices again: Keep the BAPP for 18 months and requalify for a Platinum sign up bonus; cancel BAPP and take out a Platinum card immediately; cancel BAPP and move to a non-Avios non-MR card like Marriott (thus running the clock down on two sign up bonuses); if you can convince Barclays to give you a card, take a break from Amex completely…
A lot swings on how much benefit you’d actually get from the Platinum fee. Only you can really be the judge of that. For some people, keeping it indefinitely is the right decision, if that’s where you’re headed you may as well upgrade as soon as you have your Gold bonus in the MR bank.
Have you held any personal British Airways American Express Card product in the past 24 months? If no, I’d apply for the British Airways American Express Premium Plus, spend sufficient to get the sign up bonus, consider pushing on for the companion voucher (be warned: it’s much less useful than it used to be thanks to the increase in taxes, fees and charges — you may find you never use it long haul).
Wait for your annual bonus to land on the Gold, maybe keep the Gold if Amex make you a decent offer, if not, close it. Keep spending on the BAPP for six months.
Then you’ll have choices again: Keep the BAPP for 18 months and requalify for a Platinum sign up bonus; cancel BAPP and take out a Platinum card immediately; cancel BAPP and move to a non-Avios non-MR card like Marriott (thus running the clock down on two sign up bonuses); if you can convince Barclays to give you a card, take a break from Amex completely…
A lot swings on how much benefit you’d actually get from the Platinum fee. Only you can really be the judge of that. For some people, keeping it indefinitely is the right decision, if that’s where you’re headed you may as well upgrade as soon as you have your Gold bonus in the MR bank.
Agree with what you both say in terms of waiting until the bonus lands. What would you say is a ‘decent Gold retention offer’? No haven’t had a BAPP card before. I think i’ll go BAPP and then wait 18 months to get the Platinum sign up offer. I mainly use it to collect Avios/flight points/lounge access etc
A lot to think about… thanks for the reply.
I got 20k MR points as a gold retention offer recently, I was genuinely surprised as I was expecting something like “spend £3k in 3 months for 5k points”! I am keeping the card for a while anyway as I currently have so many hotel and other offers I’m going to use, and the change to the way the bonus points are awarded starts next month.
Good afternoon. My 19-year-old daughter ( uni student ) is coming to the end of her first year of her first Amex which is a gold card. Tried to get a good retention offer to keep the card but all they could do was offer 7000 membership reward points which we have taken. Do you think there would be ramifications for future cards if we just cancelled the card before the first year‘s fees are added? Thanks in advance
Good afternoon. My 19-year-old daughter ( uni student ) is coming to the end of her first year of her first Amex which is a gold card. Tried to get a good retention offer to keep the card but all they could do was offer 7000 membership reward points which we have taken. Do you think there would be ramifications for future cards if we just cancelled the card before the first year‘s fees are added? Thanks in advance
no ramifications, you voted with your feet essentially.
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