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New British Airways American Express 2-4-1 Avios vouchers are NOT being extended

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On Monday we were the first to highlight the six-month extension given to all outstanding British Airways American Express 2-4-1 vouchers.

Whilst not unexpected, this was still a welcome move and one which allows voucher holders to plan ahead for trips later this year and in 2021.

It is important to note, however, that this does not appear to be a blanket extension.  On Flyertalk yesterday, someone posted a screenshot of a voucher which had just been issued.  It only had the standard two-year validity.

New British Airways American Express 2-4-1 vouchers are NOT being extended

It looks like British Airways did a one-off bit of IT jiggery pokery to extend all existing vouchers (and, for clarity, this includes used vouchers which will now be refunded).  This is not, it seems, a permanent change of strategy.

You should assume that any voucher which is close to being issued will come with the standard two-year validity.

This creates the odd possibility that your next upcoming voucher could expire before your previous voucher.  My previous voucher is now extended to May 2022, so if I spent £10,000 quickly on the card this year – which isn’t going to happen in the current circumstances – I could have my new voucher only running to March or April 2022.

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

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (April 2024)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus card

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios card

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending £15,000 Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital on Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 12th May 2024, the Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa card is offering a bonus of 30,000 points, convertible into 30,000 Avios. You must have a Limited Company to apply. Click here to learn more and click here to apply.

Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa

Huge 30,000 points bonus until 12th May 2024 Read our full review

You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus.

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

There are also generous bonuses on the two American Express Business cards, with the points converting at 1:1 into Avios. These cards are open to sole traders as well as limited companies.

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points sign-up bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and FREE for a year Read our full review

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.

Category

British Airways American Express

Comments (68)

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

  • Jason says:
    25 Mar25 March 07:56

    I got my voucher posted on March 16 and it has been extended, so must have just been within the cut-off

  • David says:
    25 Mar25 March 08:11

    ON M&S offer it says online only for the £5 so cannot be used in food halls?

  • Will says:
    25 Mar25 March 08:14

    Lloyds avios upgrade vouchers also extended 6 months if you call the 0344 Lloyd’s avios line. Only extending those expiring up to end April at present but expect to go further next month. The bigger news is that apparently they are still issuing new vouchers. Anyone had one recently?

    • Matt says:
      25 Mar25 March 08:42

      People who held the Lloyds joint Amex & Mastercard Avios cards when they were replaced by the single Avios Mastercard last year were given a date by which they could earn a final upgrade voucher. I reached the required spend of £7000 to trigger the voucher in January, but I had to ring Lloyds to get it issued, because it didn’t happen automatically for some reason.

      • Kevin says:
        25 Mar25 March 19:55

        Matt, did u call Lloyd’s CS to get the upgrade voucher issue?

        It already a month since I achieve the threshold spent but nothing happened yet and they asked me to contact BA instead.

    • Alan says:
      25 Mar25 March 08:46

      Oh that’s promising! Had one issued a couple of months ago so not eligible for extension yet, but hopefully they’ll soon offer it to all of them.

  • Joan says:
    25 Mar25 March 08:42

    I’ve followed the helpful advice to cancel my 241 flights turning on and off JavaScript etc . I end with a page saying we are refunding your ticket which may take 2 mins , but then it just freezes and nothing happens . I’ve tried that twice now .
    Any advice please ? ☹️
    Thank you

    • Anna says:
      25 Mar25 March 09:44

      Think you have to reenable Java at some point – see the original article.

    • meta says:
      25 Mar25 March 10:22

      Before clicking submit (before that page), you need to enable Javascript

    • Doug M says:
      25 Mar25 March 10:50

      Yes, you only have Java Script disabled to bypass the point at which it would divert you to the voucher option.

  • LaserBeams says:
    25 Mar25 March 08:55

    Would BA switch out one voucher for another? I have a trip booked in Jan 2021 that I couldn’t use my older voucher for as it would have expired by that time so I booked using a newer voucher. However the extension of my older voucher would now allow me to use it and keep the newer voucher for another trip. Is switching the vouchers used on a booking possible?
    Thanks!

  • Aliks says:
    25 Mar25 March 09:25

    I just got my first “refund” voucher from BA – just an email with a couple of 10 digit numbers in it.
    No indication of what they are worth.

    Is there somewhere on your BA account that shows the actual value of the voucher? I cant see anything on the eVouchers page of my account.

    • Ed says:
      25 Mar25 March 09:40

      Yeah, I have the same problem, and when I tried to ‘test’ my new voucher against purchasing a new flight the voucher numbers didn’t match – BA.com says the voucher should be 125-82**** but my voucher is 125-87****

      • Lady London says:
        25 Mar25 March 10:13

        If you can’t spend the voucher BA has just given you for a BA flight, with the system saying you have to have a much older-looking number on the voucher otherwise the system wont accept it….

        Is this another sneaky trick by BA so they don’t have to honour these vouchers they’re also pulling a sneak truck to make you take instead of the refund you’re entitled to due to them cancelling the flights you paid for?

        At least this sneaky block would have only required them to put in a field edit. Would have taken about 10 seconds compared to putting in extra JavaScript code so as take away customers’ access to the refund screen that they did already.

        • Lady London says:
          25 Mar25 March 10:15

          Has anyone managed to spend their BA voucher on a new flight that they got since BA’s website removed access to the refund screen in Manage My Booking?

          • Andy says:
            25 Mar25 March 15:43

            Maybe they can only be spent by calling up. The email doesn’t state they can be spent online, although I would have assumed they’d work.

      • Charlieface says:
        25 Mar25 March 16:12

        Could be wrong but I have a feeling based on the fact they start with 125 they are airline credit notes issued by BA, which can be used via the GDS, so you could use them with a travel agent who knows what they’re doing.

  • mark says:
    25 Mar25 March 09:30

    Hi Rob
    Just had a look at the M&S terms and it says its for online purchases only.

    • Rob says:
      25 Mar25 March 09:46

      Didn’t say that two days ago …. perhaps they changed it due to most shops closing?

      • mark says:
        25 Mar25 March 10:53

        If they have a food hall, which this offer appears to be targeted at…they are still open.

      • TGLoyalty says:
        25 Mar25 March 19:23

        Yup it was deffo instore and online before

        strange unless they realised all instore locations were now food stores only

  • Alan Greenslade says:
    25 Mar25 March 09:38

    Hi Rob,
    On the M&S offer, it doesn’t seem to exclude gift cards ( unless I am missing something)

    • Rob says:
      25 Mar25 March 09:44

      No, but you still need to buy the giftcard in a mainstream store before using it at a Simply Food.

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

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