Should I upgrade to BA Premium Plus American Express?

[newsq]

I currently have the free BA amex but after reading how worthless avios is when redeeming economy flights I’m not sure whether its worth me upgrading to the premium version. I have currently spent 11k and only 1k away from getting the companion voucher. Would upgrading mean I automatically get the companion voucher as there is only a 10k requirement?

I’m also unsure whether to get the premium card or get the barclaycard avios plus card which has the added benefit of it being a Mastercard and thus more widely accepted.

More fundamentally I’m not sure if I should bother with avios as my typical annual spending is 10k and only about 70% is done on amex. I don’t know if it would be any good for me to save a year or two for one business class flight where I would see better real returns on another card?
Thanks for any help

[Whatsthepoint]

If your typical annual spending is around £10k and not all of it can be Amex, I suggest you should stay clear of Amex and focus on Barclaycard. If you’re not doing spend enough to trigger the key benefit of the card, there is little point to it for most people. Also, with an annual spend of £10k, you’re unlikely to earn enough for an Amex companion voucher so the Barclaycard voucher, which works better for single redemptions, is probably better as you can upgrade a cash flight so don’t need thousands of miles to make it worth it. An alternative worth looking at is the Virgin Atlantic card. I have a spreadsheet to work out what options are best to optimise spend and redemptions, it makes it clear to me what the best options are. If I have any of this wrong, I am sure others will correct me! Key questions for me 1. Can you trigger the bonus 2. Can you trigger the key benefit e.g. upgrade/companion voucher 3. Will I have enough miles to take advantage of the voucher 4. Are there any other card benefits which might tip the decision. Hope this helps!

[can]

as they always say, if you are asking this question, you don’t need it.

the voucher is just the first step. you need avios — a lot of it. and, as many people say, using the voucher in Club Europe is kind of a waste.

I’d read more on this blog to understand the potentials of this “hobby” so that you can figure out if it is for you.

[newsq]

Whatsthepoint wrote:

If your typical annual spending is around £10k and not all of it can be Amex, I suggest you should stay clear of Amex and focus on Barclaycard. If you’re not doing spend enough to trigger the key benefit of the card, there is little point to it for most people. Also, with an annual spend of £10k, you’re unlikely to earn enough for an Amex companion voucher so the Barclaycard voucher, which works better for single redemptions, is probably better as you can upgrade a cash flight so don’t need thousands of miles to make it worth it. An alternative worth looking at is the Virgin Atlantic card. I have a spreadsheet to work out what options are best to optimise spend and redemptions, it makes it clear to me what the best options are. If I have any of this wrong, I am sure others will correct me! Key questions for me 1. Can you trigger the bonus 2. Can you trigger the key benefit e.g. upgrade/companion voucher 3. Will I have enough miles to take advantage of the voucher 4. Are there any other card benefits which might tip the decision. Hope this helps!

Thanks for your reply, do you mind clarifying what you mean by the barclaycard being better for single redemptions? The Barclaycard website says the upgrade voucher only works on a reward flight booking – does that not mean avios only and not just upgrading a standard cash paid ticket?

For your questions, in practice I could obtain the voucher but whether I would have enough miles to make the best use of it I doubt. If I don’t have many miles to redeem towards a reward flight then the real value of my avios would probably be lower than 1p.

Would I just be better off given my low spend to just get a generic cashback card or a gold card?

[newsq]

can wrote:

as they always say, if you are asking this question, you don’t need it.

the voucher is just the first step. you need avios — a lot of it. and, as many people say, using the voucher in Club Europe is kind of a waste.

I’d read more on this blog to understand the potentials of this “hobby” so that you can figure out if it is for you.

Yeah I’ve done a fair bit of reading and the consensus I’m getting is that with an annual spend as low as mine I probably am not in a position to make the best use of the card at this point. Not that the standard BA amex is that valuable in the first place.
Would you recommend any cards that I could probably get a better use out of such as a cash back or gold amex?

[ChasP]

as noted several times on this site the Gold card is a no brainer FOR THE FIRST YEAR

the only downside is the fact that you will be limited in getting a sign up bonus with AMEX for 2 years

Yes in order to get value from a BAPP voucher you need to build up a pot of Avios – Sainsburys can help

[Guernsey Globetrotter]

The answer to your first question has to be ‘yes’ for several reasons:
1- The BAPP voucher has a 2 year expiry so you’ll have longer to accumulate avios to best utilise it
2- As you’ve already identified, the free card voucher can only be used in economy and frankly it gives little value in that scenario
3- If the annual fee is an issue you can always downgrade (or indeed cancel) after earning the voucher and get a pro-rata refund.

The answer to your second question about BAPP v Barclays is that you should stop thinking of an either/or scenario. The reasons for upgrading to BAPP I have set-out above. The Barclays could be the card you move to after you have earned the improved BAPP voucher and downgraded / cancelled. You then start earning toward the Barclays introductory avios bonus to increase your stash. Introductory bonuses are your friend when building your initial pot of points.

The answer to your third and more fundamental question of ‘is it worth it if I only spend 10k p.a.?’ depends on how much effort you want to put in. For example, you can earn up to 90,000 membership rewards a year on an Amex card with no spend whatsoever just through referrals. That’s just one of many ways you can boost your earning and, as has been said already, read up on here and you’ll pick up tips all the time for leveraging your daily spend.

Of course, you can just decide to go the cashback route but fundamentally that is a much more prosaic activity – Personally, I vote for the aspirational distant dream holiday over the penny here, pound there discount off my shopping any day!

[newsq]

Guernsey Globetrotter wrote:

The answer to your first question has to be ‘yes’ for several reasons:
1- The BAPP voucher has a 2 year expiry so you’ll have longer to accumulate avios to best utilise it
2- As you’ve already identified, the free card voucher can only be used in economy and frankly it gives little value in that scenario
3- If the annual fee is an issue you can always downgrade (or indeed cancel) after earning the voucher and get a pro-rata refund.

The answer to your second question about BAPP v Barclays is that you should stop thinking of an either/or scenario. The reasons for upgrading to BAPP I have set-out above. The Barclays could be the card you move to after you have earned the improved BAPP voucher and downgraded / cancelled. You then start earning toward the Barclays introductory avios bonus to increase your stash. Introductory bonuses are your friend when building your initial pot of points.

The answer to your third and more fundamental question of ‘is it worth it if I only spend 10k p.a.?’ depends on how much effort you want to put in. For example, you can earn up to 90,000 membership rewards a year on an Amex card with no spend whatsoever just through referrals. That’s just one of many ways you can boost your earning and, as has been said already, read up on here and you’ll pick up tips all the time for leveraging your daily spend.

Of course, you can just decide to go the cashback route but fundamentally that is a much more prosaic activity – Personally, I vote for the aspirational distant dream holiday over the penny here, pound there discount off my shopping any day!

Thanks for the reply that’s really helpful, just to confirm – would upgrading my card to a BAPP card mean the membership period is the same and as such I can obtain the companion voucher upon getting accepted?

[Teddingtonian]

I have a tweak on this question (hello by the way – my first post on here!). I have the free Amex card, have one companion voucher waiting to be used before May and just about to get a 2nd. If I were to upgrade to the premium card would I be able to use the existing vouchers in Club or would they both still be restricted to economy?

[LukeLukeLukeLuke]

I don’t agree with people saying the voucher gives little value in Eco. If you can only travel during school holidays (and primarily long haul), there is a considerable £ saving applied by using the points and voucher even in Eco. That’s particularly true with any reward saver £150 per person flights to the likes of the US too. E.g. I’m looking at a US trip for £1200-1300 economy flight. With the voucher in 50% solo traveller mode, it is 35,000 Avios and £150 fees. That’s a very healthy return for the voucher in my opinion.

It’s definitely not the most efficient way to use the voucher. But it still delivers some solid £ savings that beat the rewards for many other credit cards in my experience.

[SteveJ]

Teddingtonian wrote:

I have a tweak on this question (hello by the way – my first post on here!). I have the free Amex card, have one companion voucher waiting to be used before May and just about to get a 2nd. If I were to upgrade to the premium card would I be able to use the existing vouchers in Club or would they both still be restricted to economy?

Vouchers benefits remain as they were at the time of issue. In your scenario the old voucher doesn’t change, if you upgrade before the 2nd is issued then that new voucher will have the Club capability.

[BuildBackBetter]

newsq wrote:

Thanks for the reply that’s really helpful, just to confirm – would upgrading my card to a BAPP card mean the membership period is the same and as such I can obtain the companion voucher upon getting accepted?

Same membership year if you upgrade or downgrade. But only one voucher per membership year.

[Teddingtonian]

SteveJ wrote:

Teddingtonian wrote:

I have a tweak on this question (hello by the way – my first post on here!). I have the free Amex card, have one companion voucher waiting to be used before May and just about to get a 2nd. If I were to upgrade to the premium card would I be able to use the existing vouchers in Club or would they both still be restricted to economy?

Vouchers benefits remain as they were at the time of issue. In your scenario the old voucher doesn’t change, if you upgrade before the 2nd is issued then that new voucher will have the Club capability.

Thanks – that’s interesting. Think I can manage that ….

[sophconava]

Hello, I have a similar query – I’ve already hit my spend on the free ba amex card but this years companion voucher I believe won’t be issued until my anniversary in a few weeks time. If I were to upgrade before then to the premium card, would this change the voucher, I.e will it still be limited to economy booking only? Thanks in advance.

[NorthernLass]

sophconava wrote:

Hello, I have a similar query – I’ve already hit my spend on the free ba amex card but this years companion voucher I believe won’t be issued until my anniversary in a few weeks time. If I were to upgrade before then to the premium card, would this change the voucher, I.e will it still be limited to economy booking only? Thanks in advance.

The companion voucher is issued as soon as you hit the target spend and should appear in your BAEC account within a few days. Now you’ve triggered it, you can’t change the type of voucher it is so you might want to take this into account when timing your upgrade(you can only earn one voucher per card year.)