British Airways American Express Premium Plus: boosted 60,000 Avios welcome bonus

Watch out though for an increased annual fee

The BA Amex Premium Plus credit card is a decent way to earn Avios points, especially when the welcome offer is boosted. And until mid June you can get a huge 60,000 points – but only if you apply via British Airways itself.

Here’s everything you need to know, plus how much those points could be worth as Nectar points.

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What is the British Airways American Express Premium Plus credit card?

This credit card (for short we’ll call it the BA Amex Premium Plus) lets you earn Avios points as you spend. You’ll get 1.5 points for every £1.

To get an idea of what that means, you can convert the Avios to Nectar points, and it effectively means you’ll get a rate of 0.75% back (one point is worth 0.5%). That’s up there with the best cashback or reward cards out there, but can be beaten.

That’s especially the case when you factor in the annual fee. This now stands at £300 for the year (up from £250 last month), and American Express is set to remove the option to get a pro-rata refund if you cancel or downgrade the card during the year. So, unless you can get one of the other perks from this card, it’s not going to be the best way to earn.

The biggest of those extras is for those new to the card. If so you might be able to get the welcome bonus on top. This can offset the fee, particularly when it’s boosted, as we detail in the rest of the article.

And there’s another perk with the BA Amex Premium Plus. If you spend £10,000 on the card in a year (starting from when you open it), you will get a 2-4-1 voucher to spend on BA flights, including in business and first class – though that’s increasing to £15,000 from November.

Are BA Amex Companion Vouchers worth it?

To use the companion voucher you will need enough Avios points to cover the whole flight in order to use the voucher, and there’s often limited availability on popular routes. Both of these issues can make it hard to redeem your voucher on longer journeys or in non-economy seats.

And there are fees and taxes added on top which can make it just as expensive as finding a flight on offer from a different airline.

So I’m not saying these aren’t worth it (they absolutely can be), but they just aren’t as amazing as they first seem.

And the increased annual spend to trigger one also reduced their value.

What are the standard BA Amex welcome offers?

The standard offer for the British Airways American Express Premium Plus is 25,000 points when you spend £3,000 in three months. For the free card it’s 6,000 points when you spend £1,000 in three months.

What are the latest BA Amex welcome offers?

These deals are usually increased a couple of times a year, and have been as high as 80,000 points.

Here are the latest deals, with more details on both below:

BA Amex Premium Plus: 60,000 Avios points

From 1 May to 11 June 2024 the welcome bonus is increased on the BA Amex Premium Plus card to a huge 60,000 if you spend £3,000 in the first three months. This is more than double the usual offer of 25,000 points.

You’ll also earn points on your spending, which in total will mean you have at least 64,500 Avios from this card if you meet the spending requirements.

If you don’t want to use the points on flights you can covert them to £322.50 in Nectar points (more on this below), giving you a profit of £22.50 after the fee.

However you won’t find this offer if you go via the American Express website, which means you can’t enhance it with refer-a-friend links or cashback sites. You must apply instead via the free British Airways Executive Club scheme. We’ve more on this in a bit.

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BA Amex: 7,000 Avios points

Also part of this promotion is an increase to the free card bonus to 7,000 Avios points. To get this you only need to spend £1,000 in three months. These points covert to £42.50 in Nectar points.

I’m not going into detail on this offer in this article, however it’s worth noting you cannot get this free BA card bonus if you’ve had any Amex in the last two years.

Again you have to go via the BA Executive Club for this offer.

How to get the boosted deal

Are you eligible for the offer

First up, you need to be eligible for the welcome deal. Unlike with most other American Express cards you can get it on the BA Premium Plus Amex even if you already have an Amex.

The only cards that rule you out are the two BA Amex cards. So if you’ve had either of these in the last 24 months in your name (supplementary cards added to someone else’s card don’t count) then it’s bad news.

But if it’s been more than two years, or you’ve never had either card, then you’re good to move on to the application stage.

You also need to have a salary of at least £35,000 a year and live in the UK.

Apply the right way

If you want to check your changes of getting the card first (which I’d strongly encourage), you can check your eligibility via the Amex website. Once this is done, do not then apply for the card. Close the tab down. That’s because this route will only get you the standard 25,000 welcome bonus.

To get this increased offer you need to apply via the British Airways Executive Club. This is BA’s loyalty programme and it’s free to join. You’ll need one anyway with this card as it’s where you’ll access your Avios.

Once you’ve signed in, scroll down. You’ll see the offer listed in a “Suggested for you” section. Check it says 60,000 points.

You must click the link there in order for the offer to track. You’ll be taken to an offer landing page with more details, and from there you can apply for the card. This will however take you straight to the application process.

Minimum spend

Once you’ve been accepted for the card you need to spend £3,000 in three months. This will earn you another 4,500 points and earn you a total of 64,500 points.

Swapping your points for £322 in Nectar points

If you don’t want to use them towards flights, you can instead swap them to Nectar points. I think this is the best usage, and those 64,500 points will convert to the same number of Nectar points – which is worth £322.50.

Sadly, this is less than it used to be, after Avios revalued the conversion rate to Nectar points earlier in 2024.

Of course, you do need to factor in that £300 annual fee, so your profit is only going to be £22.50. Overall that’s not amazing, so it’s probably not worth the bother.