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

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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.

BA Amex fee AND voucher qualifying spend to rise sharply

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.

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.

BA Amex fee AND voucher qualifying spend to rise sharply

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 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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Category

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Comments (149)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Hugh says:
    11 Oct11 October 07:47

    If your energy company takes Amex (Octopus do, not sure who else) you can always make a lump sum Payment and reduce your direct debit.

    • Martin M says:
      11 Oct11 October 08:27

      I’ve agreed with Octopus to have a DD at £50 and every month I settle the bill which has helped over the year. Worth doing to chip away at it plus yes you’re right, you can credit your account which I think I will do now to hit target

      • AJA says:
        11 Oct11 October 08:44

        How did you manage to agree the DD amount at £50? Did you call? When I try to amend my DD online it won’t let me reduce it. It only gives me the option to increase!!!

        • Hugh says:
          11 Oct11 October 08:51

          I think online it has some kind of algorithm that decides if you are far enough in credit to let you reduce your direct debit. I paid quite a lot to hit my spend target so I am massively in credit and then it was happy to let me reduce online down to £20 a month

        • SammyJ says:
          11 Oct11 October 10:01

          I had the same, but put £500 in with Amex, and the next day it let me drop it to £20. Added a bit more and I’ve got it down to £10 now. Apparently some people have it at £1!

          • Polly says:
            11 Oct11 October 10:28

            Yes it became a hilarious contest at one point to see who got to the lowest. £1 was genius!

          • Jess says:
            11 Oct11 October 10:44

            I have always had mine at £1 and just put credit on my account every few weeks. Am only ever about 6 weeks in credit so not paying them more in advance than I need to.
            The app lets you amend the amount.

      • Polly says:
        11 Oct11 October 10:12

        Make £5 like l and many others on this have done..you can do it online or call. I often have to change their suggested high monthly dd!

    • Gareth says:
      11 Oct11 October 10:51

      I have my octopus account DD at £1, I took my account to +£600 back in June (when my new year started with the BAPP) and keep it above £400 topping up every month and the £1 DD remains. It has helped me get to within £50 of the £10k spend by the end of this month which i will trigger in the coming weeks.

  • Andy says:
    11 Oct11 October 07:49

    If I’ve earned my 2-4-1 voucher on my BAPP card, can I then cancel or downgrade to the free card and still retain the 24 month validity of the 2-4-1 voucher?

  • Martin M says:
    11 Oct11 October 07:58

    Oooh thanks for this as I’m in a tough position. Got 2000 to spend before 0111 or 5000 before 110125. Can you book an AirBNB now for Feb and that counts anyone know, as that’ll be a few hundred? You can also pay gas n electric with Octopus. I think I need to try and hit target by 0111 TBH, rather than 0101, so it may be Tesco gift cards bearer deadline guess. Cheers!

    • Hugh says:
      11 Oct11 October 08:57

      When you book an airbnb you can usually choose whether to pay in full now or just pay a deposit. If you pay in full now then obviously that counts as spend. Remember to go through the BA shopping portal, and if in any doubt find an airbnb that is cancellable!

    • Scallder says:
      11 Oct11 October 09:47

      Martin – presumably it’s 2k before 1st November or 7k before 11th Jan as it’s £5k on top of what you already have? Obviously will be up to you but would say the 2k in the next month might be easier!

      Also I presume that the transactions need to clear too to hit towards the spending threshold. So in reality, you really need to hit the spend target by 28th/29th October – Rob/Rhys could you confirm please? I’ve never had pending transactions count towards the aggregate total on the counter…

      • Polly says:
        11 Oct11 October 10:14

        They actually have to clear into avios to count. Have watched this for years.. always doing our last spend at least 3 working days beforehand.

    • David says:
      11 Oct11 October 10:27

      Just do a cancellable hotel at hotels dot com. I do this when I want to get voucher early but spread out the old 10k during the year.

    • Polly says:
      11 Oct11 October 10:35

      And edf, bt, ee, affinity h2o, tv (the last 2 at a co op pay point tho)
      There are lists on here somewhere. Lots of prepay options.
      Think it’s better to go for the 2k easier option tho. Good luck!

  • Gav says:
    11 Oct11 October 07:59

    A flexi ticket purchase used to work – I remember years ago booking a flex first to
    JFK and the 3 weeks later getting a refund. The voucher stayed issued and I had a negative (positive) balance until Amex processed the money back to my bank account.

  • RobJ says:
    11 Oct11 October 08:02

    I can’t remember exactly when I can re qualify for a sign up bonus, does anyone know if I can just call Amex and ask? I don’t have any Amex account at the moment – or would they not talk to me as a non cardholder? 🙂

  • CarpalTravel says:
    11 Oct11 October 08:02

    My understanding has been that at the same time as this change, the Amex pro-rata refunds stop too?

  • Paul says:
    11 Oct11 October 08:06

    Question.
    The Avios built up on my BAPP card spend transfer to BA on the 22nd of the month. If I close the account before this date what happens to the Avios? Do they transfer or are they lost.

    • AJA says:
      11 Oct11 October 08:47

      I would assume they are lost. If the account is closed how does Amex know what to send?

      • David says:
        11 Oct11 October 10:29

        Doesn’t matter if you wait til 23rd as there’s still pro rata refunds.

  • JR says:
    11 Oct11 October 08:20

    I don’t have the issue of whether I can hit 10k by end of October.
    My issue is whether I want to trigger it then due to voucher validity & future plans.

    • Polly says:
      11 Oct11 October 10:18

      Better to earn it when it’s of most value to you. Ours is next June, so in the drawer for now at 9.5k spend. Will do the last 5.5k after Nov 1st, as we have 2x v in hand now, due to air travel cancelled for now.

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

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