In this post:
Good and bad news for BA Amex holders
According to Head for Points, American Express are changing the terms and conditions of their British Airways branded cards. The changes come into effect from 1 September 2021.
The negative changes
The free BA Amex
- Any new 2-4-1 vouchers issued from 1 September can only be used for economy flights
The Premium Plus BA Amex
- The fee rises to £250 a year from 1 September 2021
The positive changes
The free BA Amex
- For the free Amex you can use the vouchers to depart from any country. Currently, it’s only valid ex UK. This only applies to new vouchers issued from 1 September.
- You only need to hit £12,000 spend to get the voucher
The 2-4-1 voucher is of little use for economy as the fees and charges are so high for long haul that to buy a cash ticket is only marginally more at best unless it’s last minute. The only advantage is that at the moment the extra flexibility of an Avios ticket is useful.
The Premium Plus BA Amex
- you can use the vouchers to depart from any country. Currently, it’s only valid ex UK. This only applies to new vouchers issued from 1 September
- You can still use the companion vouchers for any class of travel. The good news is that there should be more availability to redeem the vouchers in Club World which has traditionally been very difficult on some routes. This will be achieved by BA opening up one of their lowest price fare bucket seats to BA Premium Amex holders to redeem as Avios tickets. This should be from 1 September and is in addition to the extra availability they have already announced.
If you have the free BA Amex, you could of course upgrade to the paid BA one. If you have spent £10,000 or will before 1 September and want to use it for First and Club then it may be worth it. You can also then downgrade or cancel it and receive a partial refund of the fee. However, I suspect if lots of people do that they could change the rules about pro-rata refunds, so I wouldn’t rely on that.
BA trials the IATA covid passport – Travel Pass
BA have been using VeriFly as a way to verify Covid tests and vaccines for travel. I used this on the way back from Portugal (article coming in next 24 hours) and it’s not what I call easy to use but it does do the job. It’s being used on routes to the US, France, Ireland, Barbados, Bahamas and Canada, as well as all inbound international flights.
British Airways will now begin trialling digital travel solution, IATA Travel Pass, on flights from Heathrow to Geneva and Zurich in Switzerland from today, June 1. I think using the same pass as most other airlines is a better idea personally. The more uniformity we have the better. I only hope that borders, in particular the UK’s, will start using these too. I fail to see why it’s necessary to check each individual test result etc when something that is internationally recognised could be used in a matter of seconds instead.
The app can be downloaded onto a mobile device directly from the app store. Once downloaded, customers will create a secure account and will be presented with the entry requirements for their destination. British Airways’ customers can then book a Covid-19 test with an approved provider and the results will be automatically uploaded into the app by the laboratory. The only approved provider is currently Screen4 which is a major drawback although they will be adding others. Verifly will accept any valid test as far as I could tell although it does have to be approved. Presumably by linking to providers this gives automatic approval of test results.
The app then checks that a customer meets the entry requirements for their destination and will then notify the customer to let them know that they are ready to travel. The airline’s parent company, International Airlines Group (IAG), has been working closely with IATA to co-develop the app that is now being successfully piloted by other global airlines, including British Airways’ sister airline Iberia.
Sean Doyle, British Airways’ Chairman and CEO, said “We are committed to exploring ways to ensure that the customer journey is as frictionless as possible and sharing our learnings to help the travel industry take off again.
“We know that digital travel passes are part of the solution and they will also play a key role in offering those travelling the reassurance they need before they arrive at the airport. We hope to be able to offer a customer-friendly digital option for every British Airways international route that requires proof of government mandated Covid status documentation.”
The airline’s customers travelling to Cyprus, Germany, Greece, Italy, Spain and Portugal can now also upload their negative Covid-19 test result and other documentation directly into ba.com for verification before travel. (see my article here)
10 comments
Slightly unclear. Under the heading “The Premium Plus BA Amex” you begin:
“For the free Amex you can use the vouchers…….” Ambiguity.
Likewise, I believe the withdrawal of First and Business only applies to the FREE BA Amex; the Premium Plus, although costing more, still allows bookings in the front cabins.
I have amended to make it clearer.
I welcome the availability afforded to Premium plus, but it does have a significant annual price hike to sober things up! Flights in Club to JNB next year, for example, are now available but very limited. The chances of First with the 241 voucher, however appear to be non existent. If I have my First rtn to Boston cancelled in August with the companion voucher, then as before, the only option will be to rebook Club and a partial avios refund. I’m not looking forward to being stung by the £35 pp canx fee either!
@Mark if BA canx your Boston trip there won’t be any cancelation fee. Then there’s the Book with Confidence policy ( although I concede there were a few weeks here and there in the last 12 months where it wasn’t in place). I’d be shocked if US-UK flights weren’t happening again by August, even if only for fully ‘vaccinated’ pax. Think all bases covered so hopefully you’ll get your trip.
Idk when you were looking at JNB but taking the next 12 months there a J flights very nearly every day between Dec 21 and May 22 in both directions. I’d say at a cursory look in excess of 90% of dates ( both ways) between those dates with the obvious Xmas/ New Years exception dates.
Can anyone help me understand the difference between a 2-4-1 and a Companion voucher please ?
They are the same thing.
Soooo what you’re telling us is that they’re killing off the free card.
That is a big jump in yearly fees but we can offset that very quickly with an F booking that doesn’t have UKAPD on it so I can live with that aspect. We both have both cards but the free one seems a little pointless now. About the only thing that would make it worthwhile was if we were allowed to gift the Econ 2-4-1 to a family member / nominated person. I’d say this is something maybe Amex should’ve thought about, but it’s Amex so i’m sure they did and sure that’s why it’s not an option. That said “Economy 2-4-1” It’s not exactly on-brand for Amex is it.
I agree. I can’t see why you would want the free one unless you don’t care about the 2-4-1. Some people may just want to earn Avios.
We have two free cards and will hit £10k spending on them within the next few months – the year anniversary on them is around October. I am aiming to wait until after 1st September to hit the 10k and then upgrade – will this allow me to earn the new BAPP voucher? Is this a valid strategy or do I need to upgrade the card from free to BAPP before the 1st of September and then trigger the voucher by hitting 10k? Thanks for your help.
You are best to wait to upgrade and then hit 10k just after the 1 September for both cards once you’ve upgraded. The new vouchers from that date on the premium card will be able to access more Club availability. The new and old vouchers can’t be used on the same booking so you are best getting them both on the new ones if you were planning to use on one booking.
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