[ASK1945]

Polly wrote: “…………… why not refer your OH for a free gold Amex and convert those to avios also?”

My “OH” is my wife and she has the same black card as me (for free) and we do all our spending with Amex where Amex is accepted. The online transactions are marked as her expenditure as it occurs, and the statement shows her expenditure separately from mine. This is not just because of the Avios, but also the ease of challenge of charges that we don’t accept, or have a problem with (eg Avis, on a regular basis). However, it should be noted that Amex is a charge card, not a credit card, so different refund rules apply.

[mkcol74]

@ASK1945 Both of the BA AMEX cards are credit cards, not charge cards.

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Polly

[ASK1945]

[postquote quote=1010662][/postquote]

mkcol74 – you are absolutely correct and my choice of words was clumsy, and an attempt to describe the difference from ordinry credit cards briefly.

To explain the difference from ordinary credit cards I have now cut and pasted the following (abbreviated) explanation from Martin’s Moneysaving site:

“American Express cards are different from normal credit cards in the way that they operate.

Most of our normal monetary exchanges happen through our banks, however the banks don’t control each part of the process. There are a number of companies that link your banks to payments that you make on your debit or credit cards. These companies are normally payment networks such as Visa and Mastercard, who don’t give you a card themselves but instead just help to manage the transaction between the shops and the banks. American Express on the other hand distribute their own cards, fund the transactions that you make and manage the transfer of the money. This service incurs charges from American Express that come in the form of interest or one off fees. They also receive a fee from shops to process their payments”.

So, American Express charge companies for the payments that they process. This is because they have their own payment network and don’t rely on Visa and Mastercard.

To continue, American Express cards don’t have to be paid off every month. Most allow you to carry a balance from month to month, requiring only a monthly minimum payment. On the other hand, you do have to pay Amex charge cards (including the Platinum) in full every month.

Finally, Amex cards are not covered under section 75 of the (UK’s) Consumer Credit Act. However, my experience is that Amex chooses to voluntarily match Section 75 protection, although it is not legally obliged to.

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Polly, mkcol74, Jacob

[FormerBA]

Value of BA Amex – companion voucher.

I have generally been able to generate 1 and sometimes 2 of these vouchers per year and and often churned my wife’s card to benefit from bonus sign up offers. 10 years ago getting 4 F seats was generally not a problem to the US with a bit of flexibility, but over that period it has become harder and harder. My last 2 vouchers have been used for short haul flight to Frankfurt and Vienna which is frankly a waste.

The issue for me is that I changed my own travel policy (am premium leisure) to seek best fare rather than chase status. This opened up more options and frankly so much better travel experiences.

I retain my BAPP card because I hold a platinum card and the BAPP is free on grandfathered rights from 2006. I couldn’t justify paying for both and if that changed and I would retain the platinum card before anything else as the insurance cover is simply outstanding.

Avios flight availability has improved but in 2019, levels of availability were simply awful and the costs of BA fees mean I was and remain better off booking J ex the EU with QR or CX or star alliance.

Last year 4 of us flew to Bali on TK. The fare originated in Egypt and allowed unlimited stopovers in IST. An Easter break in Jordan meant that rather than flying dircetly home I flew via Cairo and started the summer vacation flight. I had a couple of days in IST and then flew home. In the August I then went back to IST and picked up the IST DPS flight which for 4 adults cost less £4,000. TK offer family pooling of miles and status matched me to BA gold. The upshot was a massive financial saving, great trips, a superb J product and enough miles for 2 one way JFK-LHR flights in J at $48 each in fees.

This is a real world experience but I am fortunate and circuitous routes in comfort don’t phase me or my family. I fly when I want, to where I want and don’t need book 355 days out at 1am to secure the seats.

So for me the value has almost entirely evaporated

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Polly, ASK1945

[Polly]

Former BA

We also have got best use out of our 241, get 1-2 every year, but mainly only use 1 n F to Asia annually. Plus we usually do an ex eu QR J to Asia from Scandinavia somewhere, and love those little mini winter breaks in either Oslo, Stockholm, or `Helsinki on our way out and back.
Atm, we hold a QR J to KUL, ex eu, that needs to be a FTV possibly, or if Phuket opens up end of OCT, worth trying to get there.
Then F to hkg on a 241 in Feb, 1 leg already cancelled by BA. Plus a J/F to SYD via SIN using another 241, all to be cancelled anyway. So, if all those trips had gone ahead, def good value both spending on a 241,x 2, good avios earning, and retaining BA Silver for 2 more years.
But, it certainly takes some planning and plotting.

[ASK1945]

I just thought that the following email I received yesterday from Amex might be interesting to some on the Forum:

• “From your next fee renewal after 1 August 2024, your annual card membership fee will increase from £250 to £300. The new fee will take effect on the statement following your card anniversary and will be charged to your card account annually as normal. If your next fee renewal is before 1 August 2024, you will be charged the current annual fee of £250 until the following year’s fee renewal.

• From 1 November 2024, required spend to qualify for a Companion Voucher will increase from £10,000 to £15,000 within your membership year. This change will be relevant to the membership year applicable on 1 November 2024 and thereafter. Details of your membership year can be found on your card statement”.

Obviously this fee increase is accompanied by several other paragraphs of explanation, terms and conditions.

The first item above is a bit of an irritation, nothing more. The second, in relation to the Companion Voucher is not really any problem for me, also, as it only takes a few weeks each year to gain the voucher, so it will be a little longer – that’s all. But it could be a problem for many customers.

[stevescoots]

I have never been able to use any of the vouchers, had maybe 10 over the years gone to waste. maybe its me being a bit thick but I read it as can only be used if booking with Avios, and as such I have never been able to get an Avios seat on routes I want. I tend to use my points to book hotels where I find I easily get back my annual fee.

[ASK1945]

stevescoots wrote: “I read it as can only be used if booking with Avios, and as such I have never been able to get an Avios seat on routes I want.”

This is such a shame. However, it’s probably not the routes that are your problem, – it may be the timing of your attempts to book. As I have written previously on the Forum, I have now received and used 22 consecutive annual Companion Vouchers (the ones issued during Covid had longer validity, so I used them at more than one a year afterwards). I used all of them for long distance Business or First Class flights, including the Caribbean (at least 6 times), Australia, South Africa, India, the Far East (all twice), South America, and numerous flights to the USA and Canada.

The art is to book 350 days in advance of your outward flight, when the seats are released at midnight. For the popular routes, by 12.05 am they are gone. Sometimes this means booking for the outward leg only and then phoning BA (ie not online) when the return flight is released – they will allow the additional use of the voucher for that booking.

The availability of flights to the USA, with so many BA flights going there, means that booking nearer the time you want to go is often much better – except for NYC and LAX/SFO.

I do know that during the 21 years since my first one (issued on January 2nd 2003), I have saved about £40,000 (at today’s prices) using the Companion Vouchers for my other half. My next Companion Voucher booking is for early January 2025, to the Caribbean in Business Class – booked in January 2024. I had a choice of flights on a range of dates.

[mkcol74]

Don’t forget to use SeatSpy to get notifications of when availability opens up for somewhere specific that you may have been unable to book when seats are initially released.

This is what I have to do as my annual leave is only released in 6 monthly blocks.

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ASK1945

[Nick Pike]

I’ve never had a problem using my vouchers either and I’ve not even had to resort to calling at midnight 350 days before. However, I’m Gold on BA so get extra Avios seat availability and also look to see where I can go when, as opposed to a particular route. Over the past 20 odd years I’ve been to South Africa, Kenya, Brazil, Japan, many cities in the US and Canada and I’m pretty certain I used a voucher on Concorde in 2002, the best Avios redemption, ever…

[ASK1945]

Nick – it could well be that your Gold Tier helps you get more availability. However, if you did use a Companion Voucher on Concorde it must have been after 2002 as I was issued the very first CV on January 2nd 2003. There is a story (another time) about how I came about knowing that.

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Nick Pike

[esselle]

Redemption availability in F has become nigh on impossible compared with the late 90’s/early 00’s.

We had multiple trips to JFK, CPT, DXB, BOM, LAX, during these years, and many in R during early 2022/2023.

The companion voucher in those years was a real bonus. These days it seems only to be a plus when booking in C.

At £300, it is becoming marginal.

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DerekVH

[Nick Pike]

ASK1945- I did wonder about whether I did in fact use the companion voucher for my Concorde flight. It was just after the return to service after the Paris crash and there was a lot of Avios (or Air/BA Miles, as it was then) availability- so I may have simply booked two seats. It does however remain my best redemption ever!

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ASK1945

[esselle]

Oops.

I of course meant 2002/2003!

[FormerBA]

I have just booked tickets to South America and there is an extraordinary difference in both Avios and cash required when using BA rather than IB. Indeed so make is the difference in cash on some routes that the 241 is almost redundant. Montevideo for example. There BA fees are £200 higher than IB for the same flight. A fee you cannot avoid as you must book on BA.com to use the 241.. Flying MVD to SCL see you pay £50 more on BA than IB.
SCL to EZE was the only route I found where the avios and cash on BA and IB was the same. KLM however for business class, required more points but less cash that either IB or BA.
In the end I booked via Delta as they were the only carrier that should clearly what the cash element was for and at just $50 was for 2 was half BA and IB.

The tickets issued by BA had a cash element of £509 for MAD MVD EZE MAD LHR but the break down, ie what this was for was not shown and each box stated £0.

It does feel like a scam but I appreciate it is more cock up than conspiracy

[Author]

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