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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

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

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

Category

British Airways American Express, British Airways and Avios

Comments (148)

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

  • Nicholas Hart says:
    13 Jun13 June 19:27

    I have the economy only voucher. Previously when I have gone to use it, redemptions have not brought RFS taxes.

    Looking now, RFS taxes are able to be achieved with economy only 2-4-1 voucher. 50k and £200 tax for 2 to New York isn’t bad. All of a sudden that voucher is useable.

    • NorthernLass says:
      13 Jun13 June 21:13

      They could be used for RFS on short haul. It seems to be a glitch with the new-style BAPP voucher that they won’t price up the new RFS long haul routes (though they can probably be booked on the phone).

  • lumma says:
    13 Jun13 June 20:05

    Does this work with the economy Long Haul rfs option? So you could do say a return to New York for 25,000 avios and £100?

  • Paul says:
    13 Jun13 June 22:11

    @NorthernLass, How does the 2-4-1 work with UK connections? are you charged for the domestic leg or is it free like a normal avios reception?

    • NorthernLass says:
      14 Jun14 June 00:54

      It’s never been entirely free, on long haul you pay the RFS fee and on short haul you pay that plus the avios. This is the same if you use a 241.

  • Roger Burgess says:
    14 Jun14 June 05:10

    Quick thought (selfish but could be good for some who have/working towards BA Gold).

    Will this work alongside a forced Gold redemption?

    Use case:

    Long haul Avios First/Club World not available
    Force Gold (double Avios) redemption
    50% off 2 for 1 takes it back down to ‘normal’ Avios level plus fees/taxes etc but you get to travel at time/flight you wish and maximise value by getting on a potentially full/very expensive full fare flight.

    I imagine this needs a call rather than online unless someone can try – I only have a pre September voucher so can’t give it a go unfortunately.

    • qrfan says:
      14 Jun14 June 08:41

      You couldn’t previously use a gold priority rewards with 241 vouchers and nothing has indicated that has changed, so I don’t see any reason to think this is possible.

  • K Walker says:
    14 Jun14 June 05:15

    Quite enjoying these seemingly random-announced improvements coming out of BA recently – companion vouchers for use on QR metal anyone? One can dream 😂

    My number one request for a BA IT change though, would have to be the ability to book open-jaw redemptions online! Never really had an issue booking over the phone pre-pandemic – but I cannot seem to find a number that is willing to accept sales calls currently and I keep missing out on availability that is presumably being snapped up by point-to-point travellers.

    • Rob says:
      14 Jun14 June 08:25

      QR told me that they are keen to accept 241 vouchers if BA would agree.

  • SteveR says:
    14 Jun14 June 07:35

    Not sure this is totally good news for those who book multiple tickets. There is nothing more frustrating than searching through apps like Seat Spy and seeing lots of single tickets on the system. Although perhaps those single tickets will now be snapped up by solo travellers.

  • mxo says:
    14 Jun14 June 07:40

    Barclays BA card is still arguably more competitive, £180 fee if you have a current account with the avios rewards vs. Amex £250, and easier to hit the £10k spend target with a Mastercard.

    • qrfan says:
      14 Jun14 June 08:44

      You’re not taking account of the significantly improved J availability with the amex vouchers OR that amex 241 allows redemption into first. Huge benefit from both of those. We’ve had truly memorable experiences doing buddy dining in first over the Nordics on the way to Japan that no amount of Mastercard spend is going to get you. Recent redemptions to Canada when there was no regular avios availability too.

  • Howie says:
    14 Jun14 June 08:32

    Does anyone know if seat spy et al take account of that extra seat availability in their searches?

    • Rob says:
      14 Jun14 June 08:48

      No, it’s not possible because there isn’t a simple algorithm for checking, unless BA chooses to give them access to a dedicated feed.

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

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