Credit Card for Air Miles/Air Travel Rewards

Adamc

We are currently looking at booking a trip to Japan and the tickets for premium economy will cost around £2000 each for two of us. We have a choice of flying BA or other company. I have a back problem so would love to fly business sometime in the future. Are any of the air travel rewards-based credit cards worth considering for booking the trip? Would we accrue lots of airmiles for spending £4000 on flight and then continuing to use the card for all personal spending? I find travel reward schemes a little difficult to assess the worth of. 

On-the-coast

If you’re going to be able to put £12k of annual spend on an Amex credit card,
and if you truly value BA’s free companion tickets then by far the most valuable travel perk is the BA Amex premium card. 

It costs £300 per year though so make sure you can make use of the companion passes. 

Adamc

On-the-coast said:

If you’re going to be able to put £12k of annual spend on an Amex credit card,
and if you truly value BA’s free companion tickets then by far the most valuable travel perk is the BA Amex premium card. 

It costs £300 per year though so make sure you can make use of the companion passes. 

There are two of us so for sure. Would we get a complimentary business class ticket if we spend 12K and purchased one business class ticket?

On-the-coast

Simply… yes

lr1277

I am not an expert on this but do follow the site Head for Points. The BA Premium Plus (BAPP) has certain restrictions and bonuses.

If you can spend £10k before November then you get the companion voucher this year. If you have not spent £10k by November, the target increases to 15k. I do not know if the counter resets  on your spend in November.

I believe the minimum annual salary required for the BAPP is £35k but am not confident about that.

More details here:

https://www.americanexpress.com/en-gb/credit-cards/ba-premium-plus-credit-card/?linknav=en-gb-amex-cardshop-allcards-text-BritAirwaysPremiumPlusCC-fc 

You could also look through the HeadforPoints site and perhaps ask any questions on their forum.

DullGreyGuy

Adamc said:

On-the-coast said:

If you’re going to be able to put £12k of annual spend on an Amex credit card,
and if you truly value BA’s free companion tickets then by far the most valuable travel perk is the BA Amex premium card. 

It costs £300 per year though so make sure you can make use of the companion passes. 

There are two of us so for sure. Would we get a complimentary business class ticket if we spend 12K and purchased one business class ticket?

No, the Companion Ticket is alongside a reward booking not a cash booking and you still have to pay the taxes and fees on the companion 

Whilst there is more availability for cardholders it's still a flight that books out quickly... right now the first London to Tokyo flight available in Business outbound is May 2025 and return July 2025. So you will need 210,000 avios and £1,150 to get 2 business class seats (on average, there is a small difference if its peak or non-peak).