Which new credit card?

[GT03ROB]

Tim330 said:

GT03ROB said:

Tim330 said:

The free BA amex card is now a bit rubbish as the companion voucher can only be used for economy seats. They are increasing the fee on the paid card from £195 to £250 from September.

...and I understand changing the seats you can use it against in Club, meaning availability may increase.....

Yes, more reward seats available in club world if using the vouchers issued after September 2021. Also BA recently increased the no of reward seats from 2 to 4 club seats and 4 to 8 economy per flight for regular avios bookings. I just booked 3 club europe seats for Crete next May (hopefully it be on the green list by then!)

I got Club to Antigua the Saturday before Christmas Day...thought that was a great result.

[anonymous-user]

Roman Rhodes said:

https://about.americanexpress.com/all-news/news-de...

Well that’s bloody annoying, I spent £37 on mine at B&Q (didn’t know they had only just started accepting it!) at the weekend…

[GCH]

Tim330 said:

The free BA amex card is now a bit rubbish as the companion voucher can only be used for economy seats. They are increasing the fee on the paid card from £195 to £250 from September.

Or in my case (and some others who have had it for a very long time) £0 to £250

[Tim330]

GCH said:

Tim330 said:

The free BA amex card is now a bit rubbish as the companion voucher can only be used for economy seats. They are increasing the fee on the paid card from £195 to £250 from September.

Or in my case (and some others who have had it for a very long time) £0 to £250

They might negotiate on the fee if you call up and threaten to take your business elsewhere. I assume from your username you have a BA gold card so this would probably be a bluff.

[NickCQ]

GT03ROB said:

I got Club to Antigua the Saturday before Christmas Day...thought that was a great result.

That's a very good result. I have just downgraded my BA AMEX from Black to Blue as I have not been able to find anything worthwhile to do with the last five companion vouchers.

[GT03ROB]

NickCQ said:

GT03ROB said:

I got Club to Antigua the Saturday before Christmas Day...thought that was a great result.

That's a very good result. I have just downgraded my BA AMEX from Black to Blue as I have not been able to find anything worthwhile to do with the last five companion vouchers.

They hadn’t been there 2 weeks back but was on checking fare flights last weekend for others around same time & just checked redemption flights, there they were! It’s worth remembering redemption flights constantly change.

[Louis Balfour]

PF62 said:

Evanivitch said:

PF62 said:

Whoever told you that is talking nonsense. Sure you come across the odd place which doesn't accept it, but that is the rare occasion.

Just don't ask if they accept it as they will default to "no" and instead present it as a contactless payment on Apple Pay or the Android equivalent so they can't see what sort of card it is.

It's no nonsense in my experience, but it is getting better. Only a couple of years ago Lidl accepted AMEX. Screwfix don't.

But you can link into PayPal instead.

Sorry but it is nonsense that Amex isn't widely accepted.

Sure there is the odd place like Screwfix/B&Q but can you name any other major UK retailer who doesn't accept Amex.

I've just got an Amex and I'd say that about 40-50% of places I try to use it won't accept it.

[NickCQ]

GT03ROB said:

They hadn’t been there 2 weeks back but was on checking fare flights last weekend for others around same time & just checked redemption flights, there they were! It’s worth remembering redemption flights constantly change.

There is a hardcore crowd that take all this stuff quite seriously and will log on 364 days before they want to travel to snap up the reward flights. I generally book things last minute so it doesn't fit my approach!

[PF62]

Louis Balfour said:

PF62 said:

Evanivitch said:

PF62 said:

Whoever told you that is talking nonsense. Sure you come across the odd place which doesn't accept it, but that is the rare occasion.

Just don't ask if they accept it as they will default to "no" and instead present it as a contactless payment on Apple Pay or the Android equivalent so they can't see what sort of card it is.

It's no nonsense in my experience, but it is getting better. Only a couple of years ago Lidl accepted AMEX. Screwfix don't.

But you can link into PayPal instead.

Sorry but it is nonsense that Amex isn't widely accepted.

Sure there is the odd place like Screwfix/B&Q but can you name any other major UK retailer who doesn't accept Amex.

I've just got an Amex and I'd say that about 40-50% of places I try to use it won't accept it.

As before, add your Amex card to Apple Pay or the Google equivalent and pay contactless without asking "do you accept Amex".

Lots of places *say* they don't accept Amex or tell the staff they don't accept Amex, but magically nine times out of ten the handheld contactless machine is perfectly happy to accept Amex when you present the card on a phone and they can't see you are paying by Amex. And the one time in ten the machine rejects it, then flick over to the VISA/Mastercard also on the phone.

[GT03ROB]

NickCQ said:

GT03ROB said:

They hadn’t been there 2 weeks back but was on checking fare flights last weekend for others around same time & just checked redemption flights, there they were! It’s worth remembering redemption flights constantly change.

There is a hardcore crowd that take all this stuff quite seriously and will log on 364 days before they want to travel to snap up the reward flights. I generally book things last minute so it doesn't fit my approach!

The flip side is if they are running low loads, they will release redemption flights very late. I’ve booked 1st as late as 2 days before. I’ve got 2 seats to the Caribbean in 1st 2 weeks out… ended up just the 2 of us in 1st

[S17Thumper]

Morning all,

Have had the AmEx gold card for a few years and it’ll no longer be free from next month (end of a perk of sorts through work). Being a Yorkshireman I’d rather not pay £140pa.

Currently have something like 120k points which keep slowly accruing, we’ll probably continue until travel is slightly more open in the coming years

Sounds like the BA card would be the right ‘downgrade’, only other free options are Platinum Cashback and the Boggo card.



Am I missing anything? Any disappointments with the BA card?

Cheers

[bad company]

S17Thumper said:

Morning all,

Have had the AmEx gold card for a few years and it’ll no longer be free from next month (end of a perk of sorts through work). Being a Yorkshireman I’d rather not pay £140pa.

Currently have something like 120k points which keep slowly accruing, we’ll probably continue until travel is slightly more open in the coming years

Sounds like the BA card would be the right ‘downgrade’, only other free options are Platinum Cashback and the Boggo card.

Am I missing anything? Any disappointments with the BA card?

Cheers

Mrs BC and I use the BA Amex Black card. Worthwhile for us for the extra points and companion voucher.

[anotherbigspender]

S17Thumper said:

Morning all,

Have had the AmEx gold card for a few years and it’ll no longer be free from next month (end of a perk of sorts through work). Being a Yorkshireman I’d rather not pay £140pa.

Currently have something like 120k points which keep slowly accruing, we’ll probably continue until travel is slightly more open in the coming years

Sounds like the BA card would be the right ‘downgrade’, only other free options are Platinum Cashback and the Boggo card.



Am I missing anything? Any disappointments with the BA card?

Cheers

Have you spent £15k on it during this 'card' year? If so, hold on to it until month 1 of the new card year and you'll get 10k bonus points. Then ring Amex and tell them you want to cancel - say with reduced travel opportunities you're not getting the benefits - or similar. You may be offered an incentive to stay, more often than not some bonus points. You can then cancel via the online chat facility a few days later and you'll get a pro rata refund on the £140 card fee, i.e. £140 - one month fee. Don't forget you need to move your MR points out of Amex before you cancel or they are lost. Alternatively sign up for a free Amex Rewards Card to keep your MR points balance alive and retained within Amex

[romeogolf]

S17Thumper said:

Morning all,

Have had the AmEx gold card for a few years and it’ll no longer be free from next month (end of a perk of sorts through work). Being a Yorkshireman I’d rather not pay £140pa.

Currently have something like 120k points which keep slowly accruing, we’ll probably continue until travel is slightly more open in the coming years

Sounds like the BA card would be the right ‘downgrade’, only other free options are Platinum Cashback and the Boggo card.



Am I missing anything? Any disappointments with the BA card?

Cheers

Keep your current points with the free Amex card (Ihttps://www.americanexpress.com/uk/credit-cards/rewards-credit-card/) - Open it before you close your gold one and you don't lose any of the points you've got.

[S17Thumper]

Thanks all, will read in detail and digest.

anonymous said:

[redacted]

It isn’t usually, was a business / staff perk, per OP

[Ridealong]

I've had a Amex card for over 20 years and have been using it in Sainsburys (my local and largest supermarket) since I got it. The only main high street shop I had a problem using it was Boots and that was over 10 years ago.

OP best place to find which card to have for Avios is https://www.headforpoints.com/best-uk-avios-airlin...