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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.

  • A says:
    14 Jun14 June 15:28

    Interestingly, the BA Chase Visa in the US has now quietly also updated this yesterday…. with that companion voucher, and it is also now usable for 50% off redemptions for a solo traveller.
    Given there is currently a 100k bonus for taking out the card with $5k spend, the fee is $95, and that the grandfathered £0 fee for platinum card holders is shortly gone for good, I think it’s time closed the BA PP and switched my BA account to US (because you can only hold one of the cards) and took out the chase card. It’s been emotional.

    • A says:
      14 Jun14 June 15:28

      *its. Stupid autocorrect

    • Jonathan says:
      14 Jun14 June 18:48

      When were you able to hold a US bank account / credit card without an address there (assuming you don’t have one) ?

  • Patrick says:
    14 Jun14 June 18:20

    This really blows the Barclays Avios upgrade voucher out the water if travelling solo…..I recently used my Barclays voucher for a LHR Washington business return (all flights off peak). Paying 26k Avios (PE price) x2 = 52k Avios. With the amex voucher you could go out in First, back in CW (taxes and fees almost if not identical) for 50k + 68k = 118/2 = 59,000. So essentially a First upgrade, CCR access etc. for just £70 extra worth of Avios. Of course on the Barclays Premier scheme the voucher is very easier to achieve, whereas the Amex requires annual fee and minimum spend, and the Amex still saves the most when used for a companion return, but for solo travellers quite an improvement.

    • Reney says:
      15 Jun15 June 09:41

      The Barclays Premier also has a fee right? But I think they give you some avios monthly to counter it.

      Also you need to pay and wait the whole year with the Barclays current account. If you can achieve the spend, you can earn the amex voucher quite quickly.

      • Patrick says:
        15 Jun15 June 17:37

        Yep that’s right, £12pm for 1500 Avios pm. So kind of a “free” net result.

  • JC says:
    14 Jun14 June 18:41

    Anyone else not getting any extra award availability with a recently issued premium plus’s award voucher. .? I did last year. Also not getting the message ( you have extra award availability ) when searching.

  • NXJ says:
    14 Jun14 June 19:52

    Can this ‘Solo traveller discount’ be used by a family member, and not the card holder?

    Currently the card holder must be the primary passenger when using the Companion Voucher, which is a bit limiting.

    • Rob says:
      14 Jun14 June 22:10

      No. The Barclays vouchers are transferable as long as you make the booking.

      • Jennifer says:
        15 Jun15 June 15:50

        Apols – I’m not sure I fully understand the ‘Barclays vouchers are transferable as long as you make the booking’. What happens if I make a voucher booking to help a friend to get upgraded- i.e someone who has enough avios to cover the 50% in their own account and would be intending to repay me the taxes etc. at some later point. I’m assuming the avios would come out of my account but how can the friend repay me that from his account without incurring some pretty excessive transfer charge? If I add them to my household account, the avios will be deducted proportionately, so we’d still not likely to be ‘even’ – what we ‘d both be to achieve by doing it this way – using a freebie for someone who can make better use of it than we can…

        • Rob says:
          15 Jun15 June 17:00

          You can’t do that, because the BA Amex voucher can only be used by you for a flight in your name.

          • Jennifer says:
            17 Jun17 June 15:52

            Sorry for any ambiguity,,Rob – I was referring to using the Barclays upgrade voucher for a friend, who would be travelling solo, i.e not with us…

          • Rob says:
            17 Jun17 June 16:02

            This can be done, as long as you book the ticket via your account.

  • Will says:
    15 Jun15 June 13:48

    This is an amazing upgrade. Frustratingly, last week I booked return reward flights to Santiago, Chile for December. Out in World Traveller Plus, returning in First class for 185,000 avios. Do you think it would be possible to cancel this flight, then immediately rebook it to save the 92,500 avios by using a voucher? The World traveller plus seats are still available, but First is not available. Would First become available on the same flight again by me cancelling it?

  • Mo says:
    15 Jun15 June 17:03

    Kind of off topic and I suspect I already know the answer but is there any way of extending my 241 voucher? It is due to expire 23rd June and I (foolishly) didn’t do the FTV trick and now I’m done for. BA have refused to extend it any further

  • Jennifer says:
    18 Jun18 June 10:23

    Being very stupid here, Rob (the same Jennifer as just above), but how can I book, using my Barclaycard upgrade voucher, through my BA account, without the avios component being charged against my household account. Has anybody out there used one for someone else yet?

    • Rob says:
      18 Jun18 June 10:30

      You can’t. Your Avios will be used, but you can put the ticket into anyones name. This is not possible with a BA Amex voucher.

  • Rob W says:
    18 Jun18 June 10:47

    Are you awarded tier points when using an new version AMEX 2-4-1 voucher as a solo traveller as an avios-cash flight or do the old rules of no tier points for vouchers still apply?

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