Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Check the expiry date of any new British Airways American Express 2-4-1 vouchers

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The Avios IT migration is 95% complete and you should now be able to log in to your account (unless your password includes an ‘&’ sign) and complete most tasks. Just don’t try anything radical such as booking a redemption on American Airlines or moving your Avios from Iberia to BA.

There is a bug with newly issued British Airways American Express 2-4-1 companion vouchers.

Until 31st December 2021, all new companion vouchers come with an additional six months of validity. Vouchers on the free British Airways American Express come with 18 months validity which those from the Premium Plus American Express come with 30 months.

(You may want to bring forward your next voucher to trigger it before 31st December to maximise its validity, but this is a discussion for another day.)

Unfortunately, someone forget to tell the computer about this.

Here is a ba.com screenshot showing a newly issued companion voucher:

British Airways companion voucher

As you can see, the latest voucher has only been issued for 24 months and not 30 months. I know at least two other HfP readers are in the same boat.

Hopefully BA pick this up after reading the above and make the necessary adjustments before people feel the need to start calling up.

Earn Avios with Midpoint

Our Midpoint competition winners revealed

We recently ran a special bonus Avios promotion with foreign currency transfer specialist Midpoint.

As well as getting bonus Avios for making a transfer during the promotion, five lucky new Midpoint customers were chosen at random and given 10,000 bonus Avios.

(When I say ‘given’, they will turn up whenever the Avios IT migration sort itself out.)

The winners were:

  • Yuval L
  • Jonathan S
  • Scott S
  • Irene F-S
  • Daniel T

Congratulations to the five of you.

If you want to earn Avios on your next foreign currency transfer – as well as paying tiny fees and getting the interbank FX rate – take a look at what Midpoint can offer you by reading this 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.

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.

Comments (92)

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

  • Gtellez says:

    At least they received their 241 vouchers, I should have received it by the 17th (as per Amex app) and still not showing. Neither my avios from this month (that usually arrive on the 20th)… I guess I should call them.

    • Ross says:

      Was thinking the same!
      I achieved my voucher on the 14th November. Spoke to Brighton who said it is not showing up on BAEC due to “an ongoing outage issue on BA website” and that I should contact BA to find out more.
      Would prefer to not waste hours waiting to speak to someone on the Bronze line though

      • E says:

        I got my 241 today (also just 24 month validity) after it was delayed from during the outage. Haven’t got my avios that should have come across so guess I also need to call.

      • AmandaB says:

        Ditto .
        I don’t plan to use until February so waiting a while to see if it appears. I really don’t want to have to call BA

    • ChrisC says:

      Same. Mine was earned on 16 Nov and hasn’t showed up in my BA account yet 🙁 Will wait another week or so in the hope situation resolves itself.

    • Nick B says:

      Hi there. No sign of my voucher earned 2 weeks ago. Not sure how to resolve this.

    • Linda says:

      My app simply says cannot update recent transactions so the 45,000+ avois that have been transferred from Amex appear to be lost in the ether! At what point should I be trying to chase this up?

    • Tazzy says:

      I’m exactly the same. Achieve on 16th and not showing

  • Jo says:

    Congratulations Rhys!
    Can someone please remind me where to find my companion vouchers in my executive club account? Thanks

    • AJA says:

      Only visible on desktop. Had hoped it would be an enhancement of the BAEC upgrade and made visible on the app. Sadly not to be.

      Click on the 2nd “Manage My Account” sub-menu and then scroll down to “e-vouchers” sub-menu.

      Also if still valid ie not yet used usually shows on the landing page as well, before IT upgrade, just below the banner where you get the message “did you know you have enough Avios for a flight to Abuja”*

      * insert own choice of destination 😀

  • Linda P says:

    I seem to have escaped this issue just checked and my voucher achieved in October has an expiry of April 2024.

    The only problem is the BA site does not seem to like Safari and the only way I have been able to access any information is through chrome.

  • Cheryl D says:

    Can you qualify for more than one companion voucher a year.?

    • Cheryl D says:

      Congratulations to Rhys

    • AmandaB says:

      No

      • AmandaB says:

        At least not on the same card

        • Cheryl D says:

          My understanding too but Interesting that the statement is stowing two vouchers issued only a couple of months apart

          • AJA says:

            The dates probably straddle Amex year ends. You can only earn one voucher per your Amex membership year.

            My Amex year to earn a 2-4-1 ends mid April so it is perfectly possible to earn a voucher in March and then spend £10k by September and get a 2nd voucher.

    • Rich says:

      Yes that’s what I was more excited about, seeing two vouchers in the one account for the same year. But I am guessing that Rob’s wife probably has a separate British Airways Premium AMEX card but allocates the voucher to Rob’s BA account. For the purposes of easily booking a family of four in the same booking?

      • Rob says:

        It’s not my account, but I suspect one was earned at the year end – probably deliberately due to covid to maximise expiry – and the 2nd very quickly in the 2nd year.

        • Rich says:

          Yes could be. I only mention the above because a few years back when my wife applied for the ba premium Amex (I already had one) my wife gave my BA executive club number to Amex. So I had my exec number assigned to both AMEX accounts. We paid the appropriate fee (£195 back then). Then when we went past the threshold both vouchers for apply to my BA account. We don’t have two of the same account anymore but I wonder whether that loophole still exists?

  • Will in SFO says:

    Top work Rhys. Congrats.

  • AJA says:

    Well done Rhys! You deserve the recognition. 👏 👏

    Keep up the good work!

  • Susan says:

    Congrats Rhys, well-deserved recognition.

  • Polly says:

    Rhys,
    Really enjoying your articles, great writing, well done and congrats…thought the last spread in the Times was really impressive. Was half way through it before l noticed your name, sorry!

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

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