British Airways AMEX card

eagle

What are peoples' opinion of this card? I have read a few threads here that briefly mention it.

Is it really that easy to acrue points for a flight (or upgrade) to Europe, for example? I spent >£10k on mhy Blue card last year and have just got the Platinum (credit) card. I make about 2 or 3 trips abroad every year. I don't always fly BA, but they do fly to all the places I go to.

Would anyone recommend or see a potential pitfall here? Can I get more flights with it than I can with the cashback I'll earn from the Platinum card? What are the advantages/disadvantages over the other? Is it good to have both?

Oops, too many questions! But I hope someone can help. Thanks in advance.

Rafter

Because retailers have to pay American Express more fees (which is why less of them accept it) the rewards schemes are usually more generous.

You can probably beat the rewards short term with things like the Morgan Stanley card, but the long term cashback on these cards is likely to work out less.

Personally I have a Virgin Atlantic visa card which accrues 2 miles per £ spent in return for an £80 fee per year (which my company pays!) Prefer flying virgin and the amount of miles I can earn in a year = free companion tickets or upgrades to premium so well worth it for me.

The link is buried somewhere on the virgin atlantic/ virgin money site here....

http://uk.virginmoney.com/vaa-credit-card/pages/about.html


R.

eagle

Because retailers have to pay American Express more fees (which is why less of them accept it) the rewards schemes are usually more generous.

OK. But I have had no problems using it!

You can probably beat the rewards short term with things like the Morgan Stanley card, but the long term cashback on these cards is likely to work out less.

I have just got one as a backup to AmEx. If I find I am not spending enough to have it I will cancel it.

Personally I have a Virgin Atlantic visa card which accrues 2 miles per £ spent in return for an £80 fee per year (which my company pays!) Prefer flying virgin and the amount of miles I can earn in a year = free companion tickets or upgrades to premium so well worth it for me.

Thanks for the link, but as I don't fly anywhere Virgin Atlantic goes, I can't justify the need to get one!

The purpose of my post was to justify getting the BA card over a standard (AmEx) cashback card such as Blue or Platinum or getting both.

Interesting that your employer pays your annual fee. Who do you work for?

johnny5a

Also I would like to add that spending on the BA AMEX every now and then keeps your existing BA Miles from expirying in the Exec Club scheme.

eagle

Thanks for your very useful reply, Mark.

mark_jones13 wrote:

I'll try and explain it as best as I can.

There are 3 BA AMEX cards

These are: BA AMEX credit card £0 pa as long as you spend over £3000
BA AMEX premium card £60 pa
BA AMEX premium plus card £120 pa

If you have AMEX blue you should keep it and apply for either the premium or premium plus card. As long as you have another AMEX card the cost for the premium and premium plus cards are £0 pa and £30 pa respectively.

I have a Blue account open (the card went through the shredder). I am using a Platinum credit card - will that count so I get the reduced membership fee?

You need to koin the BA Executive Club and link the BA AMEX card with your Executive club account. To be eligible to join the Executive club you must take a full fare economy flight or above.

I already am a member of the Exec Club but have hardly acrued any points. I usually have the option to fly with many airlines.

You get things called companion vouchers with the BA AMEX as well. You need to spend £20,000 with the credit card, £17,500 with the premium card or £15,000 with the premium plus card to get one of these vouchers. You are not limited in the time you have to accrue this spend so you could take 5 years to reach the £15,000 and you'd still get it.

A companion vouchet doubles the miles you have in effect.

For example I used my last one for a return trip from London to Moscow in Club. This was 100,000 miles for two people. With the companion voucher it was only 50,000 miles. If we paid for this fare it would have been around £1600 per person.

That certainly should come in handy in future.

Another good thing about the executive club is miles for upgrade.

If you pay for a flight in World Traveller + London to New York which is around £700 you can upgrade this to Club World for 25,000 miles.

I may be getting off-topic here, but what's the difference between World Traveller Plus and Club?

If you use the miles for redemption in economy you won't get the best value for money.

Oh, I see. This is now making a little more sense. So it's only good in that I can exchange the points for upgrades or buying club class flights?

Basically, I am hoping to get either free flights or the odd upgrade here and there. Otherwise, I may just stick with my Platinum credit card which gives me money back.

One more question that pops up: the Platinum/Blue cards give you money back on your card anniversary (i.e. annually). Is this the case with BA miles too or do they appear (almost) instantly in your Exec Club account?

Thanks again!

Lopo

Hiya...

I've had a little say about this card previously some time ago in another post...

Just a little more info & reading if you like: Here >>>

Hope it helps, Lopo

Lopo

Didnt realise, but I've ranted on about this card also: Here >>>

In short, sign up for the exec club, the higher amex card to collect miles quicker, and any air miles boosting offers you see anywhere! Easy as that!

Lopo

eagle

Thanks for your posts Lopo (I've thanked you individually for each linked post).

I'm personally not too bothered for long haul flights, but would be interested in seeing how many miles I need for a trip to Europe. I wouldn't mind upgrading some of my BA flights either. How many points do I need to purchase an economy, club and upgrade fare? The BA site is difficult to find this info on.

Also, you don't mention if point come in as you spend them - so if I bought something expensive now, would the point appear in my Executive Club account immediately or do I have to wait until my card anniversary as with other AmEx credit cards.

eagle

johnny5a wrote:

Also I would like to add that spending on the BA AMEX every now and then keeps your existing BA Miles from expirying in the Exec Club scheme.

Thanks for that johnny. I was going to ask about that. My Exec Club membership "expires" on July 8th, according to the web site (after I log in it shows my membership year ends on July 8th, 2005).

How many months/years do the miles last for, before they expire?

Also, if you have no miles left, as they've all expired, does that mean you lose membership?

pin

eagle wrote:

Thanks for your posts Lopo (I've thanked you individually for each linked post).

I'm personally not too bothered for long haul flights, but would be interested in seeing how many miles I need for a trip to Europe. I wouldn't mind upgrading some of my BA flights either. How many points do I need to purchase an economy, club and upgrade fare? The BA site is difficult to find this info on.

Also, you don't mention if point come in as you spend them - so if I bought something expensive now, would the point appear in my Executive Club account immediately or do I have to wait until my card anniversary as with other AmEx credit cards.

You might find the miles required to collect for the short haul europe flights are probably not good value. Also remember you will still have to pay taxes and other charges on any miles you use for flights.

Also one other thing. When redeeming the companion fare you have to call BA up, and this automatically attacts a £15 booking fee.

eagle

pin wrote:

You might find the miles required to collect for the short haul europe flights are probably not good value. Also remember you will still have to pay taxes and other charges on any miles you use for flights.

Thanks for your very helpful post, pin.
What exactly do you mean by the short haul european flights being not good value? Does this apply to economy or club class flights or both? I can see your point though in that I won't be getting enough value for my points (i.e. taking me only to Europe as opposed to the US or far east). Not sure if that's what you meant though.

Also one other thing. When redeeming the companion fare you have to call BA up, and this automatically attacts a £15 booking fee.

Yikes. That sounds quite a stealth catch.