NEWS: Big changes on BA Amex fees and companion voucher spend requirements and SAS join Skyteam date

55 comments

1. Yes, I dont think theres another easier than getting the companion vouchers. Ultimately it will make little real difference on spend, I would also spend more than £15k in a year on the card, but there is no real justification for it.

   1. We have two PP cards in our family at the moment. I’d tolerate the extra fee as it’s bearable, but to have to spend £30k a year for two vouchers would likely mean we’ll cancel one card and look at other loyalty schemes instead.

      1. This is my situation as well and we will be doing the same as you. Pure corporate greed.

   2. Totally agree

2. Pushing your luck Amex. I’m seriously considering giving up the BA card in favour of earning flexible points that can be used across all airlines with a different card provider.

3. It could have been worse. £15kpa is not hard to achieve if you use amex everyday. Don’t buy wine from The Society; buy it from BBR. Super markets etc. However, is this just the beginning of a move to lower Avios reward points?

4. Hi Michelle,

   It’s an increase of 50% spend for the paid card as opposed to 33%.

5. This is bad news, but I guess they’ve factored in the anticipated loss and gain of premium cardholders in their announcement? I have always attained the current required spend in the first six months of my yearly renewal, and then switch to another card. It now looks like I will have to stall that to attain the new £15k, but the rise in the annual fee takes the biscuit. Is it still worth it, I’m now not sure. I’m going to enjoy and savour my jolly to Washington DC next week in First on a CV, but with all these rises I’ll certainly be doing my maths when factoring in the carrot at the end of the stick!

   1. How are they gaining premium cardholders? To me they are simply loosing members who currently spend £10k. but can’t stretch to (or are aren’t certain they will reach) £15k and members who no longer see the value in the card). This means the average member spends more, but there will be a lot fewer members.

      1. Absolutely. I agree 100%. I am mid-earner. I can spend £12k a year on the free AMEX but with £15k it means another £3k in the year that i will not be able to really spend. For me expenses a month are around £800 but i am pushing to £1000/mth across the year when i book flights etc.

         Like everything else in life the new generation like me (30rs old) we cant have nice things. They are sucking the fun out of life. Some older people became easier silver and gol members, have had companion vouchers for a long time etc. Now look around us, UK gvmt halfing each year CGT, Dividends, Interest Allowance… We cant have nice things anymore.

6. I have had the free Amex card for many years and have long given up on the companion voucher, a free seat in economy is of no use for me. I basically now use the card for BA expenditure only and everything else goes on my Virgin Atlantic card.

   1. Agreed. In addition it is easier to spend Virgin points on booking a flight with Virgin.

7. Yeah BA ,

   Thanks but no thanks.

   I’ll be closing my account before my June renewal date.

   Another nail in the coffin for BA.

   1. I agree & I will be cancelling mine too. Don & daughter also said they will do same. Trying to get flights is a time consuming nightmare often ending in NO Seats available to Asia. Defo not worth the £300.

8. The Amex PP has been the best value rewards card for many years in my view due to the 2-4-1 voucher. However, increasing both the annual cost of the card and the annual spend requirement by such a margin may make me reconsider come my Jan 25 renewal.

   1. I think the increase cost for the card is a joke really when you look at other airline credit cards.
      It’s if Amex are looking to stop customers using the card unless you are a high value customer

9. I was going to apply again to upgrade from the free to the Premium Plus card, but these changes are making me think again.
   At £300 the fee is probably still worth the savings on Avios for Business/Reward flights, but not sure if I’ll hit the £15,000 spend requirement.

   1. Agreed. I was in the exact same spot until the increased the spending limit. I would happily pay £300/yr, to get added avios and have a lower theshold for a companion voucher £10k vs £12k in a year.

      And not everywhere they accept AMEX. I did my car service and repairs £1000 i coulnt pay with AMEX.

10. It’s no longer worth the paid BA Amex card, especially considering the high fees charged by the airlines, always supposing you can get a seat.

    1. I think the high fees is a good point as once you factor in the £300 annual fee you are not far off what you could paying cash particularly on an ex Europe fare.

    2. BA have gone to far & will suffer as a consequence.

11. This is a pain. But it’s still easily worth £300 a year if travelling long haul in Business or First.
    What you’re paying for is the ability to find more avios availability in the aircraft and cutting your avios usage by 50% whether you travel solo or as a couple.
    This is a no brainer.

    The £15k per year doesn’t really affect me, as i have a high annual spend. It just means I don’t switch to my barclays avios plus card so early in the year to avoid an unnecessary early triggering of the voucher.

12. I will be cancelling my card once I have it the spend requirement in this period. Switching to Virgin for a credit card AND USA travel.

13. Bad customer service Amex to treat your loyal BA/Amex customer’s. I have been with this card for many years but will now do my research and find an alternative card/airline.

14. Definitely nolonger worth the higher fee for the premium plus card Will be looking at swapping

15. A rise in line with inflation is expected, but these rises are obscene. 50% increase in spend will be difficult. I will cancel AmEx and use a Barclaycard for an upgrade voucher and a Virgin card.

16. It’s been pointed out elsewhere that the card is 20 years old now and the PP spend increase is the 1st since it began & adjusting for inflation it ‘should’ be £17k but that still doesn’t make it less of a pill to swallow when combined with a, very, inflation busting fee increase.

    Both at once is an unusually ‘bad look’ move from Amex who are known for managing customer experience, especially the negative kind.

    Thinking aloud I wonder if the increase wasn’t deemed more palatable due to client numbers hitting a £15k spend for the tier point bonus & it having done XYZ better than projected when the mid-point numbers were run? Doubtful it was thee main driver but I do wonder how much it may have been.

    I guess maybe it will relieve the

    1. That’s a good point about the £15k TP spend. It will be interesting to see if they repeat that as I think that would soften the blow.

17. Sad, after all these years with Amex/BA, my premium plus card will be getting cancelled before renewal.

    They are having a laugh, and I believe many loyal, fee-paying customers will think exactly the same.

    1. An increase of 20% is outrageous enough but to then increase the spending threshold at the same time will make me think twice about renewing.
       I struggle to get reward flights to the far east and even with 50% discount on avios it’s 115k points £300 would buy 30k avios and I can book Qatar reward flights with great choice and availability for 150k so struggling to see the justification for keeping the paid card

18. Is there any change to the validity of vouchers already earned if you cancel the card?

    1. No but you have to pay for any vouchers you redeem with some sort of Amex. Doesn’t have to be a BA one.

19. Beginning to think Premium Plus card not worth it when coupled with the seemingly extra YQ which seems to be applied to business/first class flights, which are becoming more and more difficult to find anyway, the latter due to newer aircraft without F.
    As a retiree £15k will be a stretch for me as well
    Will stick to balance boost, move to free card(even though it’s less Avios productive) and Barclaycard, and use Avios gained to get flights on QR I think

20. Would be a little more palatable if they gave something back at the same time e.g. allow people to choose when to select the CV rather than get it immediately upon hitting the spend threshhold. And extend the TP’s earned offer.

21. We’ll be binning our Amex PP cards once we’ve both made the £10k spend by October and won’t be getting the standard card.
    We’ve always used CV for Business or First flights so the economy only voucher doesn’t interest me.
    I have a Virgin card so will be using that until I check out other cards. Sounds like Barclays is worth looking at.

22. Afraid I’ll just have to “suck it up”! With LHR-CPT each year in Club Suite at 190k avios+£900 = £1400pp (valuing Avios at 1p) for a £4k+ fare, I’m saving £4.9k (after new fee). Can’t see how that’s not still great value! Despite also having Virgin CC and gained their vouchers, I haven’t been able to make that work nearly as well due to sky high fees/taxes added to their “Reward” flights, so we’ll be maintaining our two BA PP cards & ensuring we spend £30k pa on them!

    1. This is the thing – if you fly long-haul J & F and can plan ahead it’s still tremendous value and no other card comes close, but for short haul & popular routes where you have no flexibility it’s just about dead in the water. I manage to get F to JNB almost every year as a solo traveller (with some judicious use of seatspy) so it’s still fantastic value, but I am a very niche traveller and I symapthise with everyone else on here!

23. I will struggle to reach a limit of £15,000 now that my local pub no longer accept AMEX. Therefore, no point in paying £300 a year any longer. I will drop down to the free card. Thank you for the heads up!

24. I’m finding that less smaller shops are taking Amex now. (e.g. my hairdresser has stopped)….it might be time to go back to Virgin via Mastercard.

    1. I have noticed that there are a few less now as well that previously took Amex.

25. Luckily my renewal is end September, therefore I presume both fee and spend required wil be at old rate.

    so I will see how it goes September 24 to September 25. Normally easily make 15000 by multiples, but most of this is holiday and switched to cruise line that doesn’t take Amex

    1. Likewise.
       Assuming no change on my September renewal I’ll continue for another year.
       This should leave me with 2 CVs valid to mid 2026 and 2027 for winter long haul trips to warmer climes.

26. I am also sad about these changes. I’ve just changed my amex premium to the free one for my current period … But no longer I will go back to premium as I think the £300 fee does not worth it. Reward tickets can be difficult to come by to destinations where the 2for1 voucher would make sense to use. Not in Europe BC for sure… The £15k spend limit is still a achievable as life got more expensive in the recent years due to inflation, so you can hit that limit in a year!

27. So a 20% hike in fee to £300 and 50% increase spend increase to £15k get a CV! My Amex proudly states Member since 1989 – but maybe my last year.

28. Hmmm, I likely will suck it up for a year and see how I get on. In the short term it makes me reconsider my Barclays Avios Plus card which I use while waiting to trigger an Amex Voucher.
    That will take 50% longer now, so paying £240 per year for the Barclays seems the bigger waste.

29. Yeah that’s the end of Amex for me unfortunately. I’ll probably move to the another card. The £300 a year plus 15k spend is no longer worth it to have this card.

30. I agree earning tier points would be a nice offset to the increase. Also, the opportunity to earn multiple vouchers…e.g. spend £30k and get 2 companion vouchers rather than having to wait until the next year.

31. I got rid of mine a while back when they hiked the fees to £250. Given I usually travel alone, it wasn’t worth it in the first place not to mention that BA itself is sub par.

32. I can cope with the increase in the spending limit but the £300 annual fee is a joke.

33. While it’s their prerogative ultimately, they should have given 12 months notice rather than 6, as many people are part-way through their collection year and this feels like moving the goalposts.

34. As a pensioner I will not achieve the £15000 a year as so many of my local businesses no longer accept Amex. I will definitely go back to the basic free card now

35. Time to look for other cards. Two Amex cards to cancel on renewal.

36. They could help soften the blow by giving 2-4-1 vouchers for every £15k spent i.e., spend £30k in a year and get 2 companion vouchers.

37. Combined with the various double Avios and double tier point schemes BA have run since Covid, we have managed three CV flights, all in business, over the years. We are planning a paid for holiday next year that should get us enough Amex spend for another CV but I think we’ll make that the last. Annual fee hike combined with the additional spend requirement just tips the balance for us. We only put travel related spend on the Amex card and keep everyday spend for store cards. We may not get Amex Avios going forward, but our Tesco beans will be subsidized! It also means we will broaden our travel searches going forward so as to include other airlines and not just focus on BA destinations.

    I think Amex/BA missed a trick slipping these changes in as they have. If they’d been accompanied by a “but you will get something else of value” statement (maybe tier points) it would have made it a more difficult choice for many.

38. I’m struggling with the fee and increased spend for reasons of AMEX and BA. Even before the increase we were looking for alternatives to the AMEX because of BA.

    BA quality has really dropped over the years, they’ve removed many direct flights, I don’t bother with their lounges, and they seem to be releasing Business Class tickets later and later.
    We flew to Buenos Aires, it has a stop over in Rio. I had held on to our companion voucher for this trip and to upgrade. We booked the flight 11 months in advanced, there were no open Business class flights options. It wasn’t until we were at the desk checking in did magically business class seats were available and of course I couldn’t just pay the taxes like I intended to, it would have been an increase of 3200 to upgrade. Apparently this had to do with BA wasn’t sure how this route was going to work, blah, blah. Maybe if I had booked later I would have hit the business opening but who wants to risk booking later.

    We hit the threshold every year fairly quickly, and I am positive we will hit the new threshold but due to BA’s quality and nonsense, I feel like I’m paying for an almost lottery like experience. Here is 350 for the opportunity to get a companion voucher, for the potential you can use it the way you expected to. I of course loathe having to ask “do you take American Express?” I think I can get better value (maybe not the same thing) with someone else.

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