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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

Category

British Airways American Express, British Airways and Avios

Comments (147)

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

  • Billy Nicholson says:
    14 Jun14 June 08:42

    I too would like to see the IT update allowing me to use 2x vouchers for my family of 3! Here’s hoping….

  • laughingplace says:
    14 Jun14 June 09:09

    they need to sort out their ludicrous ‘taxes & fees’ on these tickets. Even at 50% off Avios most routes do not make sense.

  • Paul says:
    14 Jun14 June 09:30

    Awesome news! Suddenly very interested in these vouchers. What’s the deal for getting more than 1 in a year (assuming you can make the requisite spend)? I assume there’s nothing more forthcoming after the initial 10k spend. But if the voucher posts straight away can you cancel and reapply hoping to earn a second?

    • Rob says:
      14 Jun14 June 09:52

      I would assume this was possible but, oddly, I don’t remember anyone ever telling me that they’d done it.

      • CarpalTravel says:
        14 Jun14 June 10:21

        Be a pretty niche circumstance I’d of thought where you would choose/need to do that rather than say, refer a second person for a card and then both collect the bonus miles. Or just wait until renewal to then quickly earn the next one then cancel and start the 24months.

        Of course there are many variables; PAX count, age, Amex eligibility etc.. but still, feels like an unnecessarily risky route where Amex may decide they don’t want your custom.

      • Sussex bantam says:
        14 Jun14 June 12:42

        I have with the old vouchers – I presume it would work with the new ones too

    • Yuff says:
      14 Jun14 June 10:31

      I remember reading that some had done that pre covid.

  • points_worrier says:
    14 Jun14 June 10:30

    I’ve realised it lowers the value of the voucher. Use it as a 2-4-1, and it is worth 100% of the avios of one ticket. Use it as a 50% off and it is worth 50% of the avios of the ticket. Still, flexibility is useful.

    • Rob says:
      14 Jun14 June 10:45

      That’s a bit glass half empty.

      The other way of looking at it is that it’s increased the value of the voucher from nil to quite a lot for solo travellers.

      • Jonathan says:
        14 Jun14 June 12:26

        They still could take a leap out of Virgin Atlantic’s book and go and make it better still, by giving making it useable on cash tickets, or giving the opportunity to get access to the 1st Class lounge / Concorde Room.

        Another option is by granting say BA Bronze or Silver status for one year in return for the voucher, I know there was a bit of discussion here a little ago about a credit card that offers status (or the chance to earn it) not being much too of a cost for the host airline, since these types of people usually don’t fly too much anyway. It’d also stop many from wanting to do Tier Point runs !

  • points_worrier says:
    14 Jun14 June 10:31

    Are there still ‘Jokers’ for the GGL members? Could this now be used for that?

  • Geoff says:
    14 Jun14 June 13:27

    So not quite ”exciting news today for ANYONE who has a […] companion voucher” as it only applies to those with post Sep 21 vouchers.

    • Jonathan says:
      14 Jun14 June 13:50

      Any vouchers issued before then would already be well into borrowed time

      • NorthernLass says:
        14 Jun14 June 16:39

        Quite a few will be valid until Sep ’23 now!

      • Geoff says:
        15 Jun15 June 07:26

        Hardly – an Aug 21 voucher would be valid until Aug 23 even without any extension.

  • Tim P says:
    14 Jun14 June 14:50

    Whilst as a solo traveler I certainly welcome this change, but with a blue economy only voucher I still struggle to find value. Having to pay high carrier charges for long haul economy is still unappealing against a choice of carriers on a cash ticket.

    I am now using an Avios Barclaycard and will ditch the Amex. I’m still looking for value for my Avios stash but seriously looking at cashing out to Sainsbury’s.

  • Mark says:
    14 Jun14 June 15:17

    Have the ‘old’ voucher which is very useless for a single traveler + finding J availability is pretty hard for 2 pax as well.

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

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