Amex downgrading its premium card: lower earn rate, no BA bonus

More bad news from American Express

It feels like Amex is in trouble. I’ve never witnessed a company downgrade its experience so regularly, and at the same time increase its fees. It will no longer have the highest points-earning rate on a UK credit card, and now the only useful feature of its BA cards is the companion voucher.

What has been announced

American Express is reducing the earn rate on its premium (£300) credit card from 1.5 Avios per £ to 1.25 Avios. That makes the Barclaycard Avios Plus the highest-earning Avios-specific card. They are also removing the “BA bonus” where you would get 3 points per £ spent at BA.

These changes will take place in October 2026. That’s less than three months away.

Amex are making one positive change: the ability to earn tier points on the card is being baked in as a default feature. You will no longer have to opt in, and hit certain (high) spend levels to earn tier points. The earn rate is now 1 tier point per £10 spent. The cap on tier points you can earn each year has also been increased from 2,500 to 3,000. That is 500 below the lowest bronze tier, so it makes that more achievable. I wrote a long article on BA tier points if you want to understand the mechanics.

This may be useful for some travellers, but we have no need or purpose for tier points right now. It is not a comparable swap in terms of perks.

All of this takes place during Amex’s “Year of Rewards” that was announced earlier in 2026. So far, that has been a limited-time, capped points boost, a members-only BA flight to New York that was, by all measures, a debacle, and a downgrade in the earn rate on its most popular card. What no one realised was that the “year of rewards” was for Amex itself to be rewarded, and not us.

What is going on at Amex?

I used to hold up their customer service team as an example of how it should be done. Over the course of the last year, I’ve seen a steady decline. Twice in the last six months we’ve had different business cards suspended due to a not-fit-for-purpose KYC process. Across the KYC challenges and other issues, I have been promised callbacks that simply never happen. Not once, or twice, but continually. I have zero faith in anything that Amex says.

On top of that, I raised a complaint with them by post, sending a letter by registered post, and it went missing after it was delivered. When Amex can fumble, they more often than not will.

Their top-tier BA card is now £300 a year. Their Business Platinum and Gold cards had their bonuses removed, with new “perks” that include piecemeal savings on a business insurance provider and a car rental company. The value offered from these is next to nothing for most people.

It’s been a sad decline for what was the market leader.

What are the alternatives?

Barclays offers a viable alternative with its Barclaycard Avios cards. They are not a like-for-like swap. Amex has the upper hand with its companion voucher, which is simply better than the Barclays Cabin Upgrade voucher.

The Barclaycard Avios Plus card will earn you 1.5 Avios per £ you spend, and costs £240 a year, a £60 saving on the Amex. You earn the Cabin Upgrade voucher if you spend over £10,000 in twelve months, and there is an airport lounge membership perk which has minimal value. The card is better in some ways, and worse in others.

There are also debit card alternatives, although the earn rate won’t match the 1.5/£. I wrote an article recently on all the credit and debit cards that earn airline miles in the UK. This includes other airlines, as well as British Airways.