-
Just had an “Earn 1 additional Avios on virtually every £1 you spend for 3 months” offer added to my BA free card, via Chat on the app.
I was close to upgrading my card to the paid BAPP version, but more than happy to keep my free one for now with this temporary “2 Avios per £1” net rate!
A little unfair for those of us paying for BAPP 🤨 I am starting to adopt JDB’s worldview!
A little unfair for those of us paying for BAPP 🤨 I am starting to adopt JDB’s worldview!
@FFoxSake !!!!!!!! maybe JDB is indeed, correct!It’s absolutely crazy they give anything at all like this on the free card!
That’s the usual retention offer which for people upgrading to BAPP shortly before hitting £10k spend actually works better than upgrading to BAPP before doing the 10k spending. As usual, the Amex logic doesn’t seem to work in terms of rewarding the most ‘loyal’ customers.
That’s the usual retention offer which for people upgrading to BAPP shortly before hitting £10k spend actually works better than upgrading to BAPP before doing the 10k spending. As usual, the Amex logic doesn’t seem to work in terms of rewarding the most ‘loyal’ customers.
But it seems part and parcel of UK life. How much are Sky/car insurance firms charging to their “loyal” customers? Ive resorted to changing my car insurance on an annual basis because loyalty seems to mean paying more.
That’s the usual retention offer which for people upgrading to BAPP shortly before hitting £10k spend actually works better than upgrading to BAPP before doing the 10k spending. As usual, the Amex logic doesn’t seem to work in terms of rewarding the most ‘loyal’ customers.
But it seems part and parcel of UK life. How much are Sky/car insurance firms charging to their “loyal” customers? Ive resorted to changing my car insurance on an annual basis because loyalty seems to mean paying more.
For insurers at least, the same as they charge to new customers. The so-called loyalty penalty was banned a couple of years ago.
good for you!
don’t blame @FFoxSake, it is Amex that awarded this…A little unfair for those of us paying for BAPP 🤨 I am starting to adopt JDB’s worldview!
About a year or two ago, I phoned up Amex with every intention of cancelling my free BA Amex. I had previously had the BAPP, but with COVID and what not, I had a couple of vouchers that had gone unused, a bunch of Avios, I’d already downgraded the card before, and was now dead set on cashing out via Nectar.
When cancelling, I too was offered the double Avios, which I thought was a pretty good deal, so I decided to keep the card a bit longer (with the thought that I would cash out the double Avios through Nectar in a few months). In using the card for the double points for those three months though, I unexpectedly starting getting close to the £10,000 threshold…
Anyway, to make a long story short, Amex’s double points retention offer ultimately got me from set on cancellation to back to the BAPP, which I’ve held since, so it’s not like Amex is only losing from those scenarios and can understand why they might see value in offering these to customers at times.
That’s the usual retention offer which for people upgrading to BAPP shortly before hitting £10k spend actually works better than upgrading to BAPP before doing the 10k spending. As usual, the Amex logic doesn’t seem to work in terms of rewarding the most ‘loyal’ customers.
But it seems part and parcel of UK life. How much are Sky/car insurance firms charging to their “loyal” customers? Ive resorted to changing my car insurance on an annual basis because loyalty seems to mean paying more.
As above, the ‘loyalty penalty’ for insurance was stopped a few years ago and the FCA is looking at other products. I also don’t think you should mix Sky/mobile pricing with the pricing of regulated financial products. Insurance anyway is priced on a totally personalised basis; there’s no published pricing, so shopping around or asking the insurer to reduce their renewal quote is often very productive.
My issue with retention bonuses is that unlike insurance, each fee bearing card theoretically charges the same annual fee to everybody but by offering retention bonuses to certain people, Amex is fairly clandestinely (most cardholders have no idea they exist) discounting the fee which isn’t fair, although great for the small number of recipients.
Amex has created something of a vicious circle by sticking with the same rather tired benefits, so has to increase SUBs and retentions, then has to increase the fees to cover these which makes them even less attractive except on a short term smash and grab basis. I don’t want to churn, but I also don’t want to pay for other people’s churning. In simple terms Amex needs a redesign for the UK market such that the product range is sufficiently attractive to sell itself. It’s not really surprising that Amex continues to lose market share in the UK, although what is surprising is that they seem quite incapable of addressing the problem.
@JDB Are all these AMEX customer retentions sweeteners the norm overseas too? Or just prevalent here?
@zapato1060 – yes, Amex does offer such bonuses in the US although they are less frequent and almost always conditional on (meaningful) spend whereas here they aren’t for Plat or PRG. The US is a very different market as there are many competing Platinum type products and SUBs are maybe once every seven years or so. Here, there is not yet any competing Platinum product so Amex is competing against itself and similarly on PRG. If the UK product and the price were right, the products would sell themselves backed by Amex’s huge advertising and marketing.
The whole set up of SUBs and retentions is much more limited in other European markets.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
Popular articles this week:
