Hotel Motel Holiday Ian

UK card terms checked 29 September 2026. American Express is changing some British Airways Premium Plus earning rates on 7 October 2026, so this guide separates the current position from the announced future rate.

Referral disclosure: This guide contains my American Express referral link. If you apply through it and are approved, I may receive a referral reward. This does not change the card fee or terms available to you.

The British Airways American Express Premium Plus Card is the personal BA Amex I use when the Companion Voucher matters more to me than simply earning Avios on everyday spend. The £300 annual fee is substantial, so I do not think the card makes sense purely because it earns slightly more Avios than the free BA Amex. The real differentiator is the stronger Companion Voucher: it can be used in any cabin, lasts for 24 months and can unlock additional Club World reward-seat availability.

Apply for the British Airways American Express Premium Plus Card →

BA Amex Premium Plus at a glance

Feature	Position at 29 September 2026
Annual fee	£300
General spend until 6 October 2026	1.5 Avios per eligible £1
BA / BA Holidays spend until 6 October 2026	3 Avios per eligible £1
Earn rate from 7 October 2026	1.25 Avios per eligible £1, including eligible BA and BA Holidays spend
Companion Voucher threshold	£15,000 eligible spend in a Cardmembership year
Voucher cabins	Any cabin, including Business and First
Voucher validity	24 months from issue
Solo use	50% reduction in the Avios required for an eligible Reward Flight
Foreign-currency fee	2.99%
Minimum income currently shown by Amex	£35,000

The Companion Voucher is the main reason to hold the card

Both the free British Airways American Express Credit Card and Premium Plus require £15,000 of eligible spend in a Cardmembership year to earn a Companion Voucher. The important difference is what the voucher can do.

A Premium Plus Companion Voucher can be used on eligible British Airways, Iberia or Aer Lingus Reward Flights in any cabin. If two people travel together, the voucher can provide the second eligible seat for no additional Avios. Taxes, fees and carrier charges still apply for both passengers.

If travelling alone, the same voucher can instead reduce the Avios required for an eligible Reward Flight by 50%.

For example, if an eligible reward seat would normally require 100,000 Avios, using a Premium Plus Companion Voucher as a solo traveller could reduce the Avios requirement to 50,000. With two travellers, the voucher can effectively cover the Avios for the second eligible seat. The cash taxes and charges do not disappear.

Premium Plus vouchers have two important advantages over the free BA Amex voucher

Feature	BA Amex Premium Plus	Free BA Amex
Annual fee	£300	£0
Spend needed for voucher	£15,000 per Cardmembership year	£15,000 per Cardmembership year
Cabins	Any cabin	Economy only
Voucher validity	24 months	12 months
Enhanced Club World availability	Yes, subject to availability	No equivalent benefit
General earn rate from 7 October 2026	1.25 Avios/£	1 Avios/£

That makes the comparison quite different from simply asking whether 1.25 Avios per £1 is better than 1 Avios per £1. If I intend to use a Companion Voucher for a premium-cabin redemption, the Premium Plus version is a materially different product.

Enhanced Club World Reward Flight availability

One of the less obvious Premium Plus benefits is access to additional Club World Reward Flight inventory when using the Companion Voucher. American Express says Premium Plus vouchers can give access to extra long-haul Business Class reward seats that are not necessarily visible to someone booking a normal Avios redemption.

That does not guarantee availability on a particular route or date, but it can matter when the value of the card depends on finding two Business Class reward seats together.

British Airways normally releases reward seats 355 days before departure. For important school-holiday or peak-date bookings, I prefer to start looking as soon as the booking window opens rather than assume availability will still be there later.

The earn rate changes on 7 October 2026

Until 6 October 2026, Premium Plus earns 1.5 Avios per eligible £1 on general purchases and 3 Avios per £1 on eligible spending with British Airways and British Airways Holidays.

From 7 October 2026, American Express says the card will earn 1.25 Avios per eligible £1. The separate enhanced BA / BA Holidays rate also ends, so I would judge the card on 1.25 Avios per £1 for future spending rather than on the older 1.5/3 Avios rates.

This makes the Companion Voucher even more central to the value proposition. The extra 0.25 Avios per £1 over the free BA Amex is useful, but on its own it would take a very large amount of annual spending to offset a £300 fee.

Current welcome offer: 60,000 Avios until 6 October 2026

At the time this guide was checked, American Express was advertising an enhanced welcome offer of 60,000 Avios for eligible new Cardmembers who spend £6,000 in their first three months. The offer is due to end on 6 October 2026.

The current eligibility wording says the welcome offer is for people who do not currently hold a personal British Airways American Express Card and have not held one in the previous 24 months. Welcome-bonus rules and promotional amounts can change, so the offer shown during the application journey is the one that matters.

Check the current Premium Plus application offer →

British Airways Tier Points are becoming part of the card too

There is also a separate Tier Point development. American Express currently advertises a limited-time opportunity for eligible Premium Plus Cardmembers to earn British Airways Tier Points from spending after enrolment, with thresholds running into early 2027.

More importantly for the longer term, Amex says that from 1 April 2027 Premium Plus Cardmembers will earn 1 British Airways Tier Point for every £10 of eligible spend, up to 3,000 Tier Points per British Airways Club collection year.

That is separate from Avios and from the Companion Voucher. It may become meaningful for anyone already using the card heavily and working towards British Airways status, but I would not spend extra purely to manufacture Tier Points.

Supplementary Cards can help reach the voucher threshold

Premium Plus allows complimentary Additional Cards. Spend made by an Additional Cardmember is charged to the main account, earns Avios for the main Cardmember and counts towards the £15,000 Companion Voucher threshold.

Amex currently advertises a bonus for adding the first approved Additional Card, but promotional amounts can change. The more durable benefit is that household spending can be consolidated towards the voucher threshold rather than requiring all purchases to be made physically by the main Cardmember.

Why I would not use Premium Plus as my default card abroad

The card charges a 2.99% non-sterling transaction fee. That makes it a poor default choice for ordinary foreign-currency spending when I have access to cards or accounts with no FX fee.

I therefore separate two questions: which card gives me the travel benefit I want, and which card is cheapest to use overseas. Premium Plus can be valuable for the Companion Voucher while another card can still be better for day-to-day foreign-currency spending.

See my Travel Tools page for the other cards and services I use, including Capital on Tap and IHG One Rewards x Revolut.

Travel protection is not the same as comprehensive travel insurance

Premium Plus includes travel accident and travel inconvenience benefits under the policy terms, as well as purchase and refund protection. I would not treat that as a substitute for reading the cover carefully or for maintaining appropriate standalone travel insurance where needed.

Some protections depend on using the card for the relevant purchase, and exclusions and limits apply.

Who I think gets the most value from Premium Plus

The card makes the most sense to me when most of the following are true:

• you can naturally put at least £15,000 of eligible annual spend through the card without spending extra just to trigger the voucher;
• you collect enough Avios to make meaningful Reward Flight bookings;
• you want to use the Companion Voucher in Premium Economy, Business or First rather than Economy only;
• you value the 24-month voucher life;
• you can make use of enhanced Club World availability; and
• you pay the balance in full rather than carrying expensive credit-card debt.

If the main goal is simply to collect a modest number of Avios from everyday spending, the free BA Amex is much easier to justify because there is no annual fee.

How I use the Companion Voucher in practice

For me, the strongest use is not simply “two-for-one flights”. I look at the Avios I would otherwise have needed for the exact route and cabin, the taxes and fees that still have to be paid, and whether I could have achieved better value using cash or another airline programme.

The voucher is especially useful on expensive premium-cabin redemptions where the Avios saving is substantial. It can also be used by a solo traveller for a 50% Avios reduction, which means it does not become useless if plans change and there is no companion travelling.

I have used British Airways Companion Vouchers as part of real family flight redemptions rather than collecting them as an end in themselves. See my flight redemptions with Avios and Companion Vouchers page for the broader examples.

Premium Plus versus flexible Membership Rewards

The trade-off with a BA-branded Amex is that the rewards are committed directly to Avios. With an American Express Membership Rewards card, points can be held until I decide which transfer partner I want to use.

That flexibility can be useful if I am not certain that Avios will be the best currency for the next trip. Premium Plus is different: I accept less flexibility because I specifically want the BA Companion Voucher.

For the business-card alternatives, see my American Express Business Platinum guide, Business Gold guide and BA Accelerating Business guide.

Card costs and eligibility

At the time checked, the published annual fee is £300. The representative purchase rate is 29.1% p.a. variable, with a representative APR of 135.7% APR variable based on Amex’s representative example. Actual credit limits and rates depend on individual assessment.

American Express currently states that applicants should be at least 18, have a permanent UK home address, a current UK bank or building society account, no history of bad debt and an annual income of at least £35,000.

As with any rewards credit card, I would only consider the rewards meaningful if the balance is paid in full. Interest can wipe out the value of Avios very quickly.

Is the British Airways Amex Premium Plus worth it?

I would not justify Premium Plus from the Avios earn rate alone, especially once the rate becomes 1.25 Avios per £1 from 7 October 2026. The £300 fee is really buying access to the stronger Companion Voucher proposition.

If I can reach £15,000 through normal spending and use the voucher for a redemption I genuinely want – particularly in Business or First – the potential Avios saving can be far larger than the fee. If I am unlikely to reach the threshold or would only use an Economy voucher, the free BA Amex becomes much more compelling.

The decision therefore comes down to how I expect to use the voucher, not simply which card has the higher headline earn rate.