HUGE NEWS: BA Amex Fee AND 2-4-1 Voucher Spending Requirements To Rise Significantly!

American Express has today announced two unwelcome changes to the BA Amex cards. The annual fee is increasing again on the BA Premium Plus Amex to £300 (it doesn’t seem too long ago that is was £195 then £250) and increasing the spend target on BOTH BA Amex cards to £15,000 to trigger a 2-4-1 voucher.

What’s changing?

Annual fee increase for the BA Premium Plus Amex

The annual fee is increasing £50 from £250 to £300. This is effective immediately for new applications. If you already hold the card and your membership renews BEFORE the 1st August you will get another year at £250 but if your membership renews ON or AFTER this date you will pay the increased £300 annual fee.

2-4-1 voucher spending requirements rising

On both the BA Amex cards the spending requirement to trigger a 2-4-1 voucher is increasing to £15,000. This is an increase of £3,000 on the FREE BA Amex card and an increase of £5,000 on the PAID BA Amex.

This change takes effect 1st November for both new and existing cardholders. This means if you don’t hit your current target of 10k spend by the 31st October you will now need to find an extra 5k spend before the end of your membership year!

Ouch?

We can understand the 2-4-1 voucher spending requirement rising (although obviously we aren’t a fan.) When the card first launched over 20 years ago the spend requirement was £10,000 and hasn’t increased since. Adjusting for inflation £10,000 the Bank of England inflation calculator shows that £10,000 in 2001 would be almost £18,000 today… so perhaps £15,000 isn’t so bad.

On the other hand the rise in annual fee is a lot harder to stomach, it’s not like the card has great new benefits, yes you can now redeem on Iberia/Aer Lingus and their is the option for solo travelers to use the voucher for a 50% Avios discount but realistically what % of customer use them? It’s a personal card so most people will be travelling for leisure as a couple or similar and Iberia/Aer Lingus doesn’t exactly add a ton of routing options without a positioning flight…

What are my options?

Unfortunately the UK market doesn’t have a ton options (so you may have to grin and bare it!) but if you are a solo traveler OR a couple who travel long-haul bi-annually you may find better value in the Barclaycard Avios Mastercards.

This is my experience using the points system and is not a recommendation of any financial product. There are other credit cards which can earn you travel points including Tesco Credit Cards (by exchanging Clubcard points for Virgin points) & the Virgin Atlantic credit cards.

BA Premium Plus Amex v Barclaycard Avios Plus

Whilst the annual fee on the Barclaycard Avios Plus is £60 cheaper than the BA Premium Plus Amex the Upgrade Voucher isn’t as good as the 2-4-1 voucher (albeit it’s accessible at 10k spend rather than 15k.) That being said if you are a solo traveler or a couple that only look to make a major long-haul trip bi-annually you may find increased valued in the Barclaycard Avios Plus with the lower annual fee and spend requirement.

With the Upgrade Voucher

You can use the voucher to upgrade Economy > Premium Economy or Premium Economy > Business. There needs to be Avios availability in the class you want to upgrade into.

You can upgrade ONE return trip or TWO one-way flights (on the same booking e.g. for two passengers.) Your booking MUST START IN THE UK & be with British Airways.

With the 2-4-1 Voucher

The voucher can potentially have better availability than the Barclaycard Avios Upgrade voucher due to booking into I-class (discounted cash Business Class) as well as standard Avios availability.

There are no restrictions on the cabin class you can book into. You can book into Economy, Premium Economy, Business or First Class (depending on Avios availability of course!)

You get 50% off the Avios cost of either a return or a single trip OR a second passenger flies for no added Avios (additional taxes + fees are due.) Your booking can start anywhere but must be with British Airways. (Useful if you are trying to avoid BA’s excessive ‘taxes & fees’ from the UK.)

On day-to-day spend the cards are pretty much equal earning 1.5 Avios per £1 on general spend, the key differences to consider on this point is if you spend a lot with BA the Amex card earns 3 Avios per £1 whereas the Barclaycard (being a Mastercard) is generally accepted in more places.

Conclusion

It will be interesting to see how many people feel the maths no longer adds up and cancels their card or make the switch to one of the Barclaycard Avios Mastercards. Both Amex cards are now fundamentally worthless unless you can spend £15,000 on them per membership year (if you can’t you’d be better off with a free card or one with transferable points to give you flexibility.) What do you make of these latest changes?