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What will British Airways do about expiring BA American Express 2-4-1 companion vouchers?

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One of our other articles today looks at the new Virgin Atlantic policy for extending your Virgin Flying Club status and vouchers due to coronavirus – read here.

We have, unsurprisingly, had a lof of emails and discussion in our comments section about what is happening with British Airways Executive Club status years and British Airways American Express 2-4-1 vouchers.

There is no official publicly-stated policy as yet.  However, I wouldn’t be too concerned.  British Airways is going to need every bit of customer goodwill it can get when flying starts to return to normal.  It would be foolish to remove status from good customers and give them an excuse to run off to Virgin Atlantic, Star Alliance or SkyTeam.

British Airways BA American Express Amex credit cards

Will British Airways extend your American Express 241 voucher?

I have been told, unofficially, that there is a policy in place to extend 2-4-1 vouchers by six months on request.

There is a specific email address to get this done.  I am NOT sharing the email address because, frankly, you should be ashamed of yourself if you are planning to waste the time of BA Customer Services today with a query over a 241 voucher which isn’t going to expire for months.

There are literally thousands of people who desperately need to contact BA at the moment and 99% of them have a more pressing need than the extension of a 241 voucher.

In any event, I fully expect that, at some point, British Airways will automatically extend all unused 241 vouchers by six months.  As well as being the right thing to do, it will take the pressure off the call centre.  Like Virgin Atlantic, I imagine that an email will pop up out of the blue at some point.

You can learn more about how the British Airways American Express 2-4-1 voucher works in this ‘Avios Redemption University’ article.

Will British Airways extend your Executive Club status?

Will British Airways extend your Executive Club Gold, Silver or Bronze status?

This is a little trickier, although it should not be a hugely difficult IT task to extend all current membership years by a few months.

If you are at risk of dropping at the end of March, remember British Airways has a soft landing policy.  A Gold will only drop to Silver and a Silver will only drop to Bronze.

Again, please do not call British Airways to discuss this.  Frankly, it doesn’t matter if your status drops at the end of March because you are unlikely to be doing much flying in April anyway.

I fully expect British Airways to make a formal announcement soon.  For now, don’t worry about it and don’t block the telephone lines with questions about it.  Rest assured that British Airways will need your custom more than ever once things return to normal.

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Category

British Airways American Express, British Airways and Avios

Comments (133)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • TGLoyalty says:
    16 Mar16 March 08:03

    that’s disgraceful what need did that person have to contact BA for an extra 6 months on a voucher that expires in 11/21 at a time when people are waiting hours to speak to someone to sort out issues with flights taking place in the next 24 – 72 hours.

    Some people are unbelievable

    • Alan says:
      16 Mar16 March 08:23

      Totally agree……….and I bet he did it right after getting back from Sainsburys with a shed load of toilet roll too 🙄

    • Charlieface says:
      16 Mar16 March 09:27

      But if there is no rule against it and no-one to embarass them, anyone would do it, and rightly so in an atheistic society, it’s called self-preservation.

  • John G says:
    16 Mar16 March 08:09

    I would hope that any status extension is voluntary rather than compulsory! My year ends in August and have travel booked in September to get me to Silver (currently bronze). As it stands my silver status would be valid for almost 2 years but if my year shifted by 6 months, I’d lose a year of silver status!

    • TGLoyalty says:
      16 Mar16 March 08:41

      Really depends what they are offering

      A 6 month extension to you TP year or 6 months to the expiry of your card (which is already 7 weeks or so after the end of your TP year) I suspect it would be the latter.

      I also wouldn’t rule out BA from doing it on a case by case basis so that they save costs on lots of status perks while they rebuild their business.

  • Phil Gollings says:
    16 Mar16 March 08:24

    Most people who use BA have at one time or another been shafted by them, so expect to be shafted again.
    It is not our job to regulate the flow of traffic to the call centres. If BA was better at communicating then the flood of calls wouldn’t happen as everyone would know what was happening to their impending flights.
    What may seem unimportant reasons for calling to one person are crucial to another.

    • Jeff says:
      16 Mar16 March 08:35

      If this is “crucial” to the person in question, he/she is an utter moron

      • Phil Gollings says:
        16 Mar16 March 08:55

        Historically it took BA at least a week to respond so this enquiry would have been before the majority of travel bans were even thought about.

  • Tracy says:
    16 Mar16 March 08:44

    O/T as no bits, my son has booked a 6th year holiday with friends for July. It’s a group booking and they have individually been paying money towards it with cash and some debit card payments. Should I go in and make a part payment on a credit card? If so, how much? Thanks

    • stevenhp1987 says:
      16 Mar16 March 08:56

      If you’re referring to Section 75, then that only applies if it’s in the “cardholders benefit”.

      Section 75 in this instance might cover your son, but no-one else, so long as their portion is > £100 and < £30k then paying 1p is fine for said protection.

      Not that the protection will do much good though. If the flights are cancelled, they'll get a refund.

      • Shoestring says:
        16 Mar16 March 09:23

        plenty of time to get a supplementary card in the son’s name and make a £100 payment (ie no quibbles) – I think many credit card cos allow this, ie supps under 18YO

        • Tracy says:
          16 Mar16 March 10:08

          Ok, supplementary card applications today then 🙂 He has just turned 18 so hopefully it’ll be accepted…

        • jc says:
          16 Mar16 March 11:07

          The advice here about getting a supplementary card is not true. Must benefit the main cardholder for s75.

          You could argue that your young son going on holiday is in your benefit 😀 but otherwise, since you say your son just turned 18, should get credit card in his own name, a supp is fruitless.

          There’s conflicting advice above about the amount, too: pay as little as a penny on it for s75 as long as the item is >100, which it is.

          • BJ says:
            16 Mar16 March 11:22

            Tracy could quietly add herself to the booking and do the sun, sex, and suspicious parents thing, there is currently an amex offer at sunglass hut that would help with her disguise.

    • Rob says:
      16 Mar16 March 09:01

      £100 on a credit card gives you full Section 75 coverage for the total amount, I believe. Ensure it is a credit card and not an Amex Plat, an old-style Amex Gold, a Lufthansa M&M card etc.

      • Lumma says:
        16 Mar16 March 09:18

        You just need to pay any amount on a credit card and what you’re buying needs to be worth over £100 in total (and under £30,000) per item

        An easyJet return consisting of 2 £80 one-way flights wouldn’t be covered I believe.

        • Trscy says:
          16 Mar16 March 09:28

          It’s a travel agent booking for £450 for each of them. 6 people in total so about £2700 for the full booking. So would my son be covered if I go in and pay £10 or does it need to be at least £100? Should they all continue to make their instalments when due? Thanks

        • Lady London says:
          16 Mar16 March 13:43

          MSE is the best source I’ve found on this and u think they said that case would be covered.

    • Charlieface says:
      16 Mar16 March 15:16

      Travel agent booking will NOT get S75 cover against the airline failing, only against the travel agent failing or not ticketing correctly.

  • Mike Webb says:
    16 Mar16 March 08:53

    Good morning & thank you for all your continued up to the minute news & reports during these difficult times. I read with interest you piece on BA exec club extension on status & 241 vouchers. I totally agree with your comments regarding the person who was chasing a very long valid voucher but the person clearly has found an email address for a “real person” who replies. Are you prepared to share this address – I have no reason to use it a the moment but have never been able to find a usable reply email address for BA.
    On another point, my wife is Polish with her mother living there. Are we right in saying that it is impossible to fly into Poland at the moment?
    With thanks in anticipation, Mike Webb

    • Lumma says:
      16 Mar16 March 09:10

      Unless you’re Polish or live there, you can’t enter Poland at the minute

    • Bagoly says:
      16 Mar16 March 22:49

      All flights to Poland cancelled except LOT rescue charters.

      Like most countries with bans on foreigners entering, citizens and those with permanent residence permits are allowed in.
      But all who come in must self-isolate for 14 days.

      There were problems at the German-Polish border today with Lithuanian minibuses and passengers trying to get home via Poland. I hope the various governments sort out something reasonable.

      Then there is the question of frontier workers – those who live in Czechia/Poland but work in Austria/Germany. So far they have an exemption to cross back and forth so that they don’t all lose their jobs, but some on the eastern side of the border are complaining that that weakens the protection – a tricky balancing act.

  • Luke says:
    16 Mar16 March 09:03

    I’ve got flights booked using a Lloyds upgrade voucher, if I re-book my flights would that remain in place for the rebooking? trying to get hold of anyone is proving tricky!

    • Paul H says:
      16 Mar16 March 09:21

      Yes I’m curious on this too, and the window available to rebook.

      My flight is only mid-May…….during the strike in September I was just moved when I called to another flight 2 days before, with the voucher intact etc .

      • Luke says:
        16 Mar16 March 12:24

        Hello Paul,
        were you able to move your flight previously keeping the voucher intact?

        • Paul H says:
          16 Mar16 March 21:09

          This was during the strike where my original flight- booked in Club World with the upgrade voucher- was cancelled.

          Called up Avios hotline, they just moved me to flight 2 days earlier which had availability (seat availability, not necessarily Avios availability that is).

          What Id like to do now is move my May flight to next year…..Im guessing that may be problematic.

  • Anna Wadd says:
    16 Mar16 March 09:11

    On the subject of BA needing to keep their customers happy….I’m a gold card holder and yesterday flew through Gatwick. Went to the gold lounge asked if they wouldn’t mind letting in my husband and 11 year old with me – answer no – only one guest. The lounge was empty.

    I completely understand their policy in ‘normal’ situations but you would have thought they would think of these small things that make people think – well done BA good decision…..

    So we went down to the No1 lounge with our dragon passes and paid £15 for our daughter to come in and questioned what BAs retention strategy was for their gold+ customers….

    • ChrisC says:
      16 Mar16 March 09:24

      Well done BA good decision indeed NOT to let you take an extra guest into the lounge.

      That’s kept this customer happy.

      • Ian says:
        16 Mar16 March 10:16

        +1. And well done Rob for encouraging a more reasonable and less selfish approach to overloading BA’s call centres. But it seems to me that BA could encourage at least short-haul traffic by reducing their prices. I am ready to spend money and was looking at a couple of routes next month but the prices are ridiculous. If they are planning to drastically reduce capacity on those routes then maybe their algorithms are already programmed to take this into account, though at the moment they’re showing a full flight schedule.

        Incidentally I wanted to change the date of a booking I had next month. Although BA’s announcement clearly states this can be done free of charge (plus fare difference) if I go online it tries to charge me the £60 fee???

      • bazza says:
        16 Mar16 March 10:22

        what a cheek this woman has!!

        Then admits she has Dragon passes!

        • Anna Wadd says:
          16 Mar16 March 14:00

          Why is it cheeky? I didn’t complain to them, I just asked, they said no so we went to another lounge and paid for a 3rd person. I completely understand their policy, I have no issue with it.

          All I was saying was at this point BA has no customers and so my observation was that they COULD flex their policy for a short period of time to keep their high volume customers happy.

      • Lady London says:
        16 Mar16 March 13:48

        +1
        Sorry.
        BA has made a very recent habit of allowing 4 or 5 people in as a family in peak summer holidays period in at least two recent years though to the Business Lounges (not the Gold ones even if you do have higher status than Silver) instead of the normal 1 or 2 that all lounges strictly police. I consider that exceptionally nice to families from BA when it really counts.

  • BJ says:
    16 Mar16 March 09:13

    OT @LadyLondon: chaos theory is essentially simple maths with very complicated solution, it characterises the (apparent) randomness in natural systens and provides numerical solutions for the underlying order. In short, how and why natural systems can and do ‘go crazy’ but return to their original, or a new, orderly state. If you want to know more then see the seminal popular science work by James Gleick, Chaos: Making a New Science. Possibly something @Cat had a passing interest in so she might want to add something.

    • Lady London says:
      16 Mar16 March 13:50

      So there’s always logic? Sounds interesting.

      • Lady London says:
        16 Mar16 March 13:53

        must be why it’s so difficult to come up with a truly random number.

        I would love to do casinos with a team and understand enough to win. I know we would get chucked out and worse, but would be great to be such a mathematician.

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