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GAME OVER: You can no longer extend 2-4-1 vouchers by claiming a Future Travel Voucher

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In October 2021, British Airways started expiring American Express 2-4-1 companion vouchers again, after a number of pandemic extensions.

Luckily for Head for Points readers, we found a way to stop them expiring. You could book a random short haul flight using your voucher and immediately cancel it for a Future Travel Voucher.

This had the effect of ‘freezing’ your 2-4-1 voucher, allowing you to rebook for your choice of route at any point to 30th September 2023.

No more.

You can no longer get a Future Travel Voucher for an Avios booking

British Airways has, with no notice, made two changes to Future Travel Vouchers.

The key one is that you can no longer get a Future Travel Voucher on an Avios booking. Your booking will be automatically refunded instead.

If you have a 2-4-1 coming up to expiry, use it or lose it

This change of policy means that there is now no way of protecting a companion voucher which is approaching expiry.

You need to start looking for somewhere to fly to, or accept that it is going to be lost.

On the upside, online Avios cancellations are now possible

There is some upside here, of course.

For the first time in almost two years, you can now cancel an Avios booking online without having to speak to the BA call centre.

This only applies to travel up to 30th September 2023, however.

‘Book With Confidence’ is extended to 30th September 2023

There is some other good news.

British Airways has extended its ‘Book With Confidence’ deadline to 30th September 2022.

The previous deadline was 31st August 2022. If you book any British Airways travel for completion by 30th September 2022, you can cancel it at any point for a Future Travel Voucher.

The voucher will act as credit against a new booking which must be made for travel by 30th September 2023. Your Future Travel Voucher will be sent as an eVoucher, as there won’t be any Avios element, meaning that you can use it online at ba.com without having to call.

Summary

To summarise these changes:

  • If you have a 2-4-1 companion voucher coming up for expiry, it now appears to be too late to artificially extend it by turning it into a Future Travel Voucher. This game is over.
  • There is good news for everyone else – you can now cancel Avios redemption bookings online again, at least for travel before 30th September 2023, and the ‘Book With Confidence’ guarantee has been pushed out to 30th September, allowing you to book cash tickets for travel in September with no worries.

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Category

British Airways and Avios

Comments (206)

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

  • FlyingDr says:
    2 Mar2 March 07:30

    Needed 48 hr extension on 2 4 1 – but BA refused bc point blankly

  • Andy says:
    2 Mar2 March 07:37

    So I have a CW flight to Japan in May using a companion voucher that is now expired (I’ve already had to move the flight once).

    I’m assuming the flight will be cancelled by BA with borders still being closed. Does that mean I just lose the voucher? Will there be any way I can rebook later in the year or somewhere else? It would be really really annoying if I lose my companion voucher through no fault of my own

    • joecobb22 says:
      2 Mar2 March 07:53

      If it’s cancelled you should be able to rebook.

      • Andy says:
        2 Mar2 March 07:54

        Great although before didn’t they have something about not being able to rebook greater than one year from the original booking date (I made it back in May/June 2021 as soon as seats became available)..

        Not that it looks like Japan will open any time soon anyway 😢

        • NorthernLass says:
          2 Mar2 March 08:04

          Full UK261 re-routing rights would apply – do plenty of research (including on here) before agreeing to anything.

        • Kaysi says:
          2 Mar2 March 08:24

          We have a similar situation with a flight to SIN cancelled for June. Spoke to BA who said we can rebook for a flight up to a year from the original flight date (not booking date). Told us to do nothing until we are sure about our new dates then phone to rebook. Reward availability shouldn’t be required.

          • Andy says:
            2 Mar2 March 08:27

            That would be good! I’ll wait and see what develops, flight hasn’t been cancelled yet but assume it will be closer to the time…

          • Andy says:
            2 Mar2 March 10:53

            Thinking about it, if they cancelled our flights, Would we be able to change our Japan flight to another destination?

        • Terry S says:
          2 Mar2 March 14:09

          I think there was an article by Rob that said the 12 month restriction had been removed. I got caught by that last year and then thought just typical when they removed the restriction shortly after. Not sure about changing destination.

    • Beardysuhz says:
      2 Mar2 March 14:47

      I’m in a similar position i had a 241 voucher that expired on 23 August 2021 but rebooked flights to Japan for July 2022 using the FTV.

      If BA cancel the flights (if Japan doesn’t open its borders by then) I am assuming I can rebook to any future flight regardless of Avios availability.

      Is this up to 1 year from the date of issue of the ticket? Or 1 year from the date of cancellation?

      If the flight is cancelled by BA would BA automatically refund the avios and then me lose out on the voucher or give the option to rebook?

  • Mike says:
    2 Mar2 March 07:44

    I had hoped that there would be a BA or HFP announcement giving a date by which BA would stop allowing 241 ‘s to be incorporated into FTVs – it would appear that BA have just arbitrarily stopped. I feel that BA has not given maximum opportunities to members of the BA Executive Club.

    • Rob says:
      2 Mar2 March 08:46

      Why? You were never meant to do this – it was a bug, not a feature.

    • Benilyn says:
      2 Mar2 March 09:44

      “ I feel that BA has not given maximum opportunities to members of the BA Executive Club.” – bit unfair re 2-4-1s

  • JRC says:
    2 Mar2 March 07:45

    Was waiting to last minute of expiry to do the book and cancel trick per original advice on here but hey ho life happens. Can I use 2-4-1 to book some flights for my parents or do I have to be one of the passengers?

    • joecobb22 says:
      2 Mar2 March 07:53

      You have to be one of them.

    • BuildBackBetter says:
      2 Mar2 March 09:07

      Why last minute? Whether you had done it yesterday or a month back wouldve made no difference. You snooze, you lose.

  • illuminatus says:
    2 Mar2 March 08:05

    Just booked yesterday with a view of cancelling later today for FTV… well, one can’t ‘win’ every time, that means this one, as well as another 2 vouchers will expire shortly. Should treat them as ‘easy come, easy go’ I suppose.

    Is this confirmed as affecting all previously made bookings now?

    On the other hand, if the cancellation is made after 24h of the booking, is it now free?

  • Stuart says:
    2 Mar2 March 08:07

    What happens with 2-4-1s that were already cancelled into a FTV and rebooked. If I need to change / cancel these flights does it go back into the FTV it came from or get broken up causing the 2-4-1 to automatically expire

    • Rob says:
      2 Mar2 March 08:43

      A change should be ok but there is a risk that the BA systems won’t let you do it.

  • NorthernLass says:
    2 Mar2 March 08:07

    Posted earlier but it’s disappeared into the previous comments now.

    I have just cancelled an award booking for December. I got one message saying I was getting a voucher, then an email stating y booking wasn’t eligible for a voucher (due to the travel date, I assume.

    So online cancellations appear not to be possible yet.

    • NorthernLass says:
      2 Mar2 March 08:09

      Rob & Rhys – there’s still no option to ask for a refund.

      • Rob says:
        2 Mar2 March 08:43

        The link, as per my screenshot, says that Avios bookings (up to 30/9) can be refunded via the form.

    • Gavin454 says:
      2 Mar2 March 09:36

      It’s only bookings within the remit of the book with confidence guarantee (up to 30/9) which can be refunded via the online form. They haven’t yet bought back the pre-pandemic refund functionality which would calculate your refund online and process it automatically.

  • Konstantin says:
    2 Mar2 March 08:11

    What about Gold Upgrade Vouchers on cash bookings? Can their expiration date get extended if I request a Future Travel Voucher for an existing booking?

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

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