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BIG NEWS: the BA Amex 2-4-1 companion voucher has been improved (Part 1)

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There is some exciting news today for anyone who has a British Airways American Express 2-4-1 companion voucher.

BA and American Express have unveiled two important changes to how the companion vouchers work.

One of these is a genuine improvement (I’m less sure about the 2nd one!) and, even better, the changes are already reflected when you try to book at ba.com.

You can see the new list of card features in our British Airways Premium Plus American Express review here and our free British Airways American Express review here.

British Airyways American Express 2-4-1 companion voucher has been improved

Here are the two changes:

  • BA Amex change #1: The companion voucher can now be used by a solo traveller to get a 50% discount on the cost of an Avios redemption
  • BA Amex change #2: You can now mix the percentage of Avios and cash used

Let’s get the key bit of small print out of the way first.

These changes only apply to 2-4-1 companion vouchers issued after 1st September 2021. These vouchers are different to older vouchers because:

If you only have ‘old style’ vouchers on your account, nothing you are about to read will apply to you. You will need to wait until your next voucher is issued.

British Airyways American Express 2-4-1 companion voucher has been improved

Your 2-4-1 companion voucher can now be used by solo travellers for a 50% Avios discount

This is the big one. It is, without a doubt, a response to the new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard which we covered here and which has a 25,000 Avios sign-up bonus.

In our view, the Barclaycard Avios Mastercard is the ideal card for people who liked to travel solo. This is because it comes with an annual BA Avios upgrade voucher which can be used by either a couple (to upgrade one leg of their flight) or a solo traveller (to upgrade a return flight).

I can imagine that American Express was starting to see a drift to the new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard from this group. This change means that solo travellers now have a good reason to stick with, or return to, American Express.

How does this work in practice?

It is as simple as you would expect:

  • Go to the Avios booking page on ba.com
  • Tick the box to say that you want to use your companion voucher (which we may now need to rename!)
  • Search for availability for one person

This is what you will see:

British Airyways American Express 2-4-1 companion voucher has been improved

There is now a message saying that you have activated the solo traveller 50% discount.

Whilst the message references the Premium Plus card, the 50% discount also applies to Economy bookings made using a new-style free British Airways American Express 2-4-1 voucher.

I did a dummy booking for a return flight to New York for one person on an off peak date. This would usually cost 100,000 Avios + £844 in taxes and charges.

Instead, you now see this:

British Airyways American Express 2-4-1 companion voucher has been improved

You are charged 100% of the taxes and charges but only 50% of the Avios.

One benefit of this change vs the Barclaycard Avios Mastercard upgrade voucher is that it is valid for First Class travel. The Barclaycard voucher can only be used to upgrade an Avios booking from Economy to Premium Economy, or from Premium Economy to Business Class.

PS. There is one loophole which BA seems to have missed. You cannot use 2 x new-style BA Amex vouchers at once to book for three people, only one of which is the cardholder. You can do this if four people are travelling, but not three. I think it is worth the BA IT team having a look at this because, after all, there are plenty of families of three out there.

Conclusion

There’s nothing bad to say about this!

It is a 100% genuine improvement which offers a lot of value to some people without taking anything away from those who won’t benefit.

In Part 2 ….

There is another interesting feature in the screenshot above.

As you can see, you are offered ‘More pricing options’.

In Part 2 of this article on the British Airways American Express 2-4-1 companion voucher changes, we’ll look at what these options are.

Learn more about the American Express and Barclaycard Avios-earning credit cards:

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

30,000 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

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

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

Comments (147)

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

  • HH says:

    Will other BA vouchers like GUF2 and Barclays also get points & cash flexibility, or is this an Amex-only feature for now?

    • Rob says:

      Only Amex.

      • stevenhp1987 says:

        When can we expect it for the Barclaycard voucher?

        It prices off the highest Avios + £1 for Short Haul which makes it completely useless.

  • points_worrier says:

    Great news! Genuine improvement. Helps to make up for some of the ridiculous airline surcharges

  • BuildBackBetter says:

    Does it restrict the usage to the person in whose name the voucher was issued?

  • BlueThroughCrimp says:

    As a solo traveller, I’m delighted at this change, however I often take my parents on long haul, so I wonder if using two new style vouchers to get 2-4-1 and 50% off on the same booking would work similarly to using two 2-4-1s on the same booking when four people are travelling?

    I haven’t triggered my second new voucher yet, so can’t make a dummy booking.

  • George K says:

    Does this effectively make discounted solo First class redemptions possible for the first time?

    • Rob says:

      Yes – good point actually.

      • G says:

        Good luck getting F availability though….

        • Rob says:

          Was a lot about last week – we ran extra articles on it.

          • G says:

            But I’m more interested in First Class beyond travelling to the USA or Canada.

          • Rob says:

            BA isn’t really flying to many places long haul beyond North America at the moment, at least not with aircraft with F cabins!

          • G says:

            Yes! I’m hearing that most long haul First Class will be back by Q3 2023….

  • Jonathan says:

    Would this work on ex-UK starting point departures, DUB for instance ?

    This (among other airports) is always a good starting point in order to avoid paying APD

  • Jordan D says:

    Some good news announced …. just in time for strike news to be announced. The good Lord giveth and he taketh away.

  • Paul says:

    A improvement certainly but I cannot help but gulp at the £844 of rip off fees that BA add to the Avios cost. This is my area of concern

    • Rob says:

      Virgin is £994. For some reason an extra £150 which BA added to cash tickets isn’t carrying through to redemptions.

    • G says:

      This is amazing news. As a solo-traveller (and occasionally with my partner), this is a great response from Amex.

    • ChrisC says:

      Around £300 of that is proper taxes and fees that you’d be paying anyway.

      It’s the £544 you are really complaining about.

      • Chrisasaurus says:

        No, not really.

        Name another example of an industry that splits taxes and their costs of providing their service out separately l like this – and that they then charge when supposedly using an alternative payment method to purchase.

        Of course BA never say you can earn ‘free’ flights but they do say you can ‘redeem Avios for flights’ and actually you cannot – under any circumstance I’m aware of – redeem only avios for a (BA) flight.

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

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