BA Amex voucher spend rises to £15,000 in three weeks – what can you do?

Back in April, American Express announced some unwelcome changes to the two British Airways American Express credit cards.

The first change, increasing the fee for the Premium Plus card to £300, is already in place. You will be charged £300 at your next renewal.

The second part kicks in from 1st November. The annual spend required to receive a 2-4-1 companion voucher will increase to £15,000. This applies to both cards.

Let’s be clear about something

Based on my inbox, some people are not clear about whether the increase applies to them straight away.

It does.

EVERYONE will see their voucher target spend increase to £15,000 on 1st November.

It doesn’t matter if you are only part way through your card year. If you don’t hit your existing target of £10,000 (Premium Plus) or £12,000 (free card) by 31st October, you will need to spend £15,000 instead.

Here’s an example. Let’s assume that you have the Premium Plus card and that your card year runs to 1st February. You will need to either:

• spend £10,000 by 31 October 2024, or
• spend £15,000 by 31 January 2025

…. to earn your next voucher. From 1st February 2025, when your card year renews, you will need to spend £15,000.

As a reminder, this is how the companion vouchers currently work:

• the free British Airways American Express card awards a 2-4-1 companion voucher when you spend £12,000 in your membership year. The voucher is valid for one year for an Economy flight redemption on British Airways, Aer Lingus or Iberia.

• the British Airways Premium Plus American Express card awards a 2-4-1 companion voucher when you spend £10,000 in your membership year. The voucher is valid for two years for a redemption flight in ANY cabin on British Airways, Aer Lingus or Iberia.

Whilst we refer to them as ‘2-4-1’ vouchers for Avios redemptions, a solo traveller can use a voucher for a 50% Avios discount on one ticket.

What should you do if you can’t spend £15,000 per year?

We’ll look at this again in separate articles over the weekend.

Fundamentally:

• there is little value in having the free British Airways American Express card if you can’t spend £15,000 per year on it – it makes more sense to have the free American Express Rewards credit card or the free Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

• there is absolutely no value in having the Premium Plus card (beyond the first year and the big sign-up bonus) if you can’t spend £15,000 to earn the voucher. This isn’t up for discussion.

How can you bring forward spend by 31st October?

There are a number of things you can do to increase your spending over the next three weeks if you are close to your target. Here are a few ideas:

• you can stockpile gift cards for your regular supermarket or garage, or build up some credit in your Amazon or Uber accounts. I wouldn’t usually suggest this, but if you are doing it with a retailer where you are 100% certain you will work through the credit quickly it can work.

• you can use PayPoint in most Co-Op stores to pay your council tax or utility bills. Co-Op is the only national retailer which usually accepts American Express for PayPoint payments, although it will depend on which Co-Op grouping runs the stores in your area. It is usually fine to pre-pay the rest of your council tax for the current financial year to 31st March 2025.

• remember that, if shopping at an online retailer that accepts PayPal but not American Express, it is often possible to use Amex via PayPal instead

What you shouldn’t do, of course, is buy something that you are not totally certain you need just to ensure you hit your spend target. The tail shouldn’t wag the dog.

If you want to know more about the cards, we did an article on the core benefits of the British Airways Premium Plus American Express card here. If you don’t want to pay an annual fee, a similar article on the benefits of the free British Airways American Express card is here.

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Want to earn more points from credit cards? – April 2025 update

If you are looking to apply for a new credit card, here are our top recommendations based on the current sign-up bonuses.

In 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

You can see our full directory of all UK cards which earn airline or hotel points here. Here are the best of the other deals currently available.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on the ‘free for a year’ American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card is increased from 20,000 Membership Rewards points to 30,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (30,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on American Express Platinum is increased from 50,000 Membership Rewards points to a huge 80,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (80,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

Earning miles and points from small business cards

If you are a sole trader or run a small company, you may also want to check out these offers: